1. Traditional Medicare has parts A (hospital), B (outpatient) and D (pharmacy benefits). Medicare Advantage, which is run through a managed care ordganization and referred to as Part C, combines the benefits of parts A, B, D and sometimes additiaonl benefits (like vision and dental) that are not typically covered by Traditional Medicare.   Medicare part A is free, but the premiums for Traditional Medicare part B can run as high as $250/month and you have to pay 20% of the costs of outpatient services like Doctors visits.
  2. "At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are family caregivers of someone age 65 and older who has significant impairment." So says a recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.  Their report, Families Caring for an Aging America, "provides an overview of the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults as well as its personal impact on caregivers' health, economic security, and overall well-being.
  3. When I was in my 20s my grandmother moved in with my parents.  My mom was the first "caregiver" I ever knew.  This was in the late 70s and early 80s, which was way before I had ever heard or used the term "adult caregiver."  Although the lexicon has changed, not a lot in the caregiver's world has changed in the last 30 years or so.  My mother still struggled with picking my grandmother up after falls, developed aching knees from running up and down the stairs so often and did as many loads of laundry, if not more, than when my brothers and I were just out of diapers.
  4. We correspond with a  lot of caregivers and hear the same question from caregivers time and again.  This question is especially sensitive and there is no simple answer.  One of the questions that caregivers wrestle most with is "When is it time to introduce a senior to adult diapers?"  And we are convinced  more and more that caregivers who pose this question are already convinced it's past time to start using protective underwear. Their real question is, "How do you get a senior to swallow their dignity and start wearing incontinence products?"
    We understand that being a full-time or part-time caregiver is no easy task and assuming janitorial tasks for a patient who refuses to take steps to lighten the caregiver's burden is a huge problem for caregivers who may or may not have accepted their role with some degree of consternation.
  5. We realize that many of our customers are caregivers to loved ones who may be living with them or still living on their own.  If you act as caregiver for a family member you know that among some of your most arduous tasks have to do with urinary or fecal incontinence and ambulation.  In some ways these issues can be related, but we'll save that discussion for a later blog post.  Here at The Incontinence Store, we are always looking for ways to help reduce some of the stress on caregivers.