Episodes

I love looking at pictures! I can sit and look through photo albums and photo feeds all day.  When we take pictures it's usually to record a happy moment, a beautiful landscape or something weird someone is doing. We don't usually take pictures...

Holidays are hard when you aren't a caregiver! Adding on the additional stress of going through a time you feel pressure to be happy when someone you care for is seriously ill is a difficult task to take on.  The hardest part is being available...

When you feel sad is it also followed by shame? When being sad around someone have they told you that there is nothing to be sad about because you aren't the one who is sick? Were you the one that told yourself that? No one should tell you if you...

Listen to Kyle Woody, Executive Director of Jack’s Caregiver Coalition, and Charlotte Bayala talk about what it means to be a male caregiver on the Caregiver Connection Podcast Episode 36. Kyle explains what Jack’s Caregiver Coalition is, as well...

You're too tired to care about decorating for the holidays let alone celebrate them. So many reasons not to celebrate this year and if you are in the thick of caregiving maybe lack energy is one of them. I completely get it. But celebrating doesn't...

Did you know you can have a mentor that will walk beside you on this caregiving path?Someone who has also been a cancer caregiver? Listen to Jackie Herigodt, Direction of Programs and Outreach, and Charlotte Bayala on Episode 34 of the Caregiver...

We all go through life living a story we have either created for us, by others or a combination of both. Sometimes we feel we are living in harmony with who we believe we should be and other times we are actually not following the story at all. When...

Today’s episode is a conversation with Janet Salo, a family support specialist for Lutheran Social Service’s Kinship Family Support Service. Kinship caregivers are people who are caring for children of other family members or friends who’s...

Does Caregiving wear you out? Do you dream of naps, not having to worry or needing to cook? I’m with ya! Listen to this weeks podcast and if you have some napping tips please share on the podcast FB group page or directly with me. Find the info at...

As if life weren’t difficult enough for us caregivers now we are doing it with the additional stress of living in a pandemic.     It’s as life was like - nope things aren’t difficult enough for you - let’s through another roadblock...

Caring Bridge is the perfect way to let everyone know how things are going for your loved one. It helps take the burden off you, the caregiver, because the last thing you have energy for is re-telling updates all day.  But doesn’t a part of you...

Do you remember the moment you felt like running away? That second where you had that brief pause and it all hit you that this was it, at least for now. You know that thought that made you feel the heaviness of the situation and sucked the breath out...

What would happen if you didn’t hold back the tears when someone asks you if you are ok?  Maybe I cry because I know how lonely it makes us feel to keep all of these things inside. I feel sad because I get the chance to say things out loud that...

Think back to a time when you learned something profound from and encounter from a complete stranger. Does anything come to mind?  Maybe it was something they did that made you rethink the way you do something. Or possibly it was the way...

It took a lot to keep this one clean. Hearing people say that Thyroid cancer is th good one makes me angry. So many people suffer from this disease. Yes some are able to live with it but living with this cancer takes it’s toll on the life of the...

On our way to meet with a surgeon something happened that made me realize that I have the ability to do something to create a bright or dark moments in someone’s day. Helping my husband through cancer sometimes makes me short sighted but I know that...

“When life become complicated the last thing you even think of doing is checking in with how you feel and - let’s face it. Not a lot of people will ask you that question” I feel that as a caregiver there is always the potential that big things...

“You are not the person you were at the beginning of this caregiver experience and you don’t like whoever it is you are now. “   This is when you become bitter.  You look around and you don’t recognize who you are anymore. The...

I find myself coming back to the caregiver vs loved one role often. How can you be a caregiver but still enjoy your loved one at the same time? How do you take on the responsibility to care for them but still find the energy to connect with them? In...

What would be the perfect setting to come home to after being in the hospital with your loved one as they recovered from surgery? Imagine the first step into the house, what do you see? Who is there?  I find that when I get back home with my...

This week's episode is about the LID diet and Radioactive Iodine Treatment. When you have to have injest a pill that is radioactive but have to starve your body of iodine before you do it you can find yourself in a three week struggle of helping...

My husband has his six month check up this week? How do you feel in the days leading up to these appointments? What do you do to cope? There is always so much anxiety coming into the week of an appointment. Listen to today’s episode to find out what...

I am not a nurse! Yet I still had to do things I consider better suited for a trained health professional to do. I had to flip the caregiver switch in order to stomach having to strip drains and help take care of wound sites. Listen today to hear how...

Once you get your loved one back home from the hospital you realize life is very different. You begin to navigate through the days to figure out what your are normal is. One of the important things while doing this is to never lose sight of your why....