How to Manage Care Needs When You Are Suffering an Illness

In your role as a caregiver you may feel like there is no such thing as “time off”. You are always ready to help your aging parent with whatever needs they may have and may push yourself further than you should in an effort to give them the happiest, healthiest, safest, and most comfortable life possible as they age in place. While it is admirable for you to devote yourself so fully and completely to your role as a caregiver and to your parent’s wellbeing, there are times when it is necessary for you to step back and turn your attention to yourself to ensure that you are protected and can continue to be the highest quality caregiver possible for your elderly loved one. One of these times is when you are ill.

Sickness happens to virtually everyone. At least once a year you are likely to catch some sort of bug that will leave you not feeling your best and struggling with your tasks. When this happens, it is critical that you make changes within your care efforts to ensure that you can give your parent all of the care that they need and still take care of yourself.

Use these tips to help you manage your care needs when you are suffering from an illness: 

• Identify it. Do you have a cold or is it allergies? Do you have an infection or is it just the change of weather? Knowing exactly what you are dealing with is crucial to getting the proper care and getting through your recovery in the best way possible. This also helps with recognizing if you have unknowingly passed the illness or infection on to your parent so that they can get the necessary treatment as soon as possible. As soon as you start feeling sick, visit your doctor to get a proper diagnosis and start your treatment.

• Get care help. If you are ill, you do not want to be around your aging parent. Seniors have lower immune systems than younger people and are therefore much more vulnerable to illness and infection. This means that what is just a mild bug to you could end up being something very serious for your aging parent. Hiring respite home care while you are sick ensures that you keep your germs away from your parent and are able to get the rest that you need to recover, while they get the care and assistance that they need at home. Do not rush your recovery. Keep the respite in-home senior care services provider in the home with your parent as long as necessary for you to get back to health before returning to your care duties.

• Practice germ control. It can be difficult to determine when a person is contagious and for many illnesses it is possible for you to continue spreading germs even if you do not have any symptoms. Practice aggressive germ control with your loved one so that you can help prevent them from contracting the illness, or from spreading it back to you if they have already caught it.