Int'l Assn. of Hospice & Palliative Care Book of the Month
Fri/May/10 07:32 AM
The International Association
of Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) has just named "Be the
Noodle: 50 Ways to Be a Compassionate, Courageous, Crazy-Good
Caregiver" book of the month. IAHPC is a superb source of books on
palliative care, each book carefully reviewed by editor Roger
Woodruff. Here is Roger's review of Noodle:
"Bette Kelly was a strong swimmer and regarded the use of swimming noodles (the strap-on Styrofoam buoyancy devices) as ‘ridiculous’. But when she was diagnosed with lung cancer metastatic to her brain, she realised that she would need a lot of help and support in her endeavour to stay at home and avoid being hospitalised. The task of being her noodle fell to her daughter, Lois, a marketing consultant who admits she had no training whatsoever for a job she never wanted.
" This wonderful book is a collection of 50 short anecdotes from the time she was looking after her mother, each ending with a caregiver lesson. Written from both the heart and the head, I think this book would provide great support and comfort to anyone who found themselves being the caregiver to a relative or friend who is dying. My favourites? I think ‘Tea but no sympathy’, which is about the ridiculous things friends and relatives say to someone who is dying, and ‘Five things that really piss-off caregivers’, which speaks for itself. "
"Bette Kelly was a strong swimmer and regarded the use of swimming noodles (the strap-on Styrofoam buoyancy devices) as ‘ridiculous’. But when she was diagnosed with lung cancer metastatic to her brain, she realised that she would need a lot of help and support in her endeavour to stay at home and avoid being hospitalised. The task of being her noodle fell to her daughter, Lois, a marketing consultant who admits she had no training whatsoever for a job she never wanted.
" This wonderful book is a collection of 50 short anecdotes from the time she was looking after her mother, each ending with a caregiver lesson. Written from both the heart and the head, I think this book would provide great support and comfort to anyone who found themselves being the caregiver to a relative or friend who is dying. My favourites? I think ‘Tea but no sympathy’, which is about the ridiculous things friends and relatives say to someone who is dying, and ‘Five things that really piss-off caregivers’, which speaks for itself. "
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Mothers giving unusual wisdom
Tue/May/10 05:27 PM
A mother half jokingly commented on a
Be the Noodle book review today that maybe she
should give the book to her children as a gift. Interestingly, I
received notes from a handful of mothers recently who said they are
giving the book to their children for Mother's Day.
That's right. Mothers giving a gift to their children about caregiving -- even though these mothers are not yet in the position of needing care. They are, however, in the position of planning for their futures, and teaching their children about resilience and strength
"Be the Noodle is so inspiring and empowering. I want my children to know that they can do this for me when the time comes," wrote one mother.
So while we "kids" -- who are often middle age -- fret and worry about how to broach the topic of end of life with our parents, they may be ahead of us, thinking through what they want. Rather than worrying alone, maybe the more meaningful approach is to sit down and talk about what our parents would like -- long before crisis time when rational decisions get sucked away by emotional meltdowns.
That's right. Mothers giving a gift to their children about caregiving -- even though these mothers are not yet in the position of needing care. They are, however, in the position of planning for their futures, and teaching their children about resilience and strength
"Be the Noodle is so inspiring and empowering. I want my children to know that they can do this for me when the time comes," wrote one mother.
So while we "kids" -- who are often middle age -- fret and worry about how to broach the topic of end of life with our parents, they may be ahead of us, thinking through what they want. Rather than worrying alone, maybe the more meaningful approach is to sit down and talk about what our parents would like -- long before crisis time when rational decisions get sucked away by emotional meltdowns.
