A Few Tips on Caring for the Elderly

I am Sonja Burns, LPN, founder of Air Companions. I have also taken care of people, mostly the elderly, since I was a teenager. Over the years I've picked up picked up a few tricks of the trade and thought I would pass a few along. I know there are many people out there caring for their loved ones and perhaps will benefit from some of the things I have learned working as a caregiver for over 30 years. Since this is a blog for Air Companions I thought it would be appropriate to start off with tips on traveling with the elderly.

By the way, the photo below is a picture of my husband's grandmother, Beatrice. She was 100 years old at the time. She lived with my husband and I for a couple of years at the end of her life. She passed away in September 2009 at the age of 101. She was quite a character!

1. Make absolutely sure your loved one has a picture ID. I have discovered that older people who no longer drive and need care often do not have a picture ID. If you do not have one when you enter the airport you will not be able to fly.

2. If a person is wheelchair bound and cannot walk through the metal detectors at the airport they will be required to be patted down. So, if you are flying with a loved one who cannot walk please give them a heads up about going through security. They will be patted down.

3. Airports offer escort services in the airport. I have discovered that airports often contract with a company that provides those services within the airport. I have also found the escorts to be very helpful and courteous. They can help you get checked in, take you to your gate, and assist a wheelchair bound person on and off the plane. I honestly don't know what I would of done without their help when I have been accompanying very disabled people from one destination to another. Another good tip is to remember these people enjoy a good tip, money that is. :)

4. I always carry a small package of wet wipes in my purse. When you are traveling with someone who needs assistance with their care wet wipes are invaluable for numerous reasons!

5. Always bring along extra supplies for your loved one. If they are incontinent bring extra incontinent pads/underwear. If they have an ostomy bring extra ostomy supplies. And so on ans so forth......

6. Make sure your loved one dresses comfortably. I would suggest a fleece outfit as it is warm and roomy.

7. When purchasing a ticket the best solution is to go first class. But, not everyone can afford that. If you have to fly in coach ask for seats by the bulkhead. There is more leg room by the bulkhead. Tell the agent you are flying with someone disabled. The ticket agents really do try to help you out.

8. If your loved one hasn't flown in a long time it might be a good idea to tell their doctor about the upcoming flight. If you think the flight might stressful to your loved one perhaps you could ask the M.D. for a mild sedative to help them get through the trip.

9. Make sure your luggage has wheels! When you are pushing a wheelchair it is very difficult to carry bags on your shoulders. A small carry on bag on wheels is a very good investment!

10. If all this sounds like too much work contact Air Companions! We would love to accompany your loved one in air travel! Or, any kind of travel for that matter. We would love to hear from you.

I hope these tips have been helpful. Next time I will give some tips on general care of the elderly.

A Recent Testimonial

How are you doing? Gee, it's interesting how connected I feel to the people who helped me out with the folks and the move!

The above statement was written to me in a recent email from a satisfied customer. I blogged about the trip. Check out "From Freeport to Freeport".

How To Mess Up a Referral

I am so upset by this I have to blog about it! Last week while driving in the car I received a call for Air Companions. Let me back this up just a little....Last week while driving in the car and answering a call and trying to placate a confused elderly gentleman I was caring for a call that I did not recognize came in on the other line. I answered. To my delight the lady calling was inquiring about Air Companions accompanying her mother from Syracuse, N.Y. to Long Beach, California on December 23rd. She also wanted Air Companions to accompany her mom home from Long Beach on January 3rd. The lady, who told me her first name but I have forgotten it, said that her mother was 80 years old and in good health. The very nice lady went onto say that her mother was some what fearful of flying and would just feel better if she had an escort. I told the lady that Air Companions would love to accompany her mother. The lady then asked what I charged. At that point I told her I was in the car. I told her I would be home in a half hour and at that time would call her back so we could discuss the details. She was agreeable. I told her I did not have access to pen and paper but I knew her number was on my phone so there was no need to write it down. We said our goodbyes. Little did I know that it would be forever!

Once I got home, got everything and everyone settled I made a couple of calls to help me accurately price out the potential trip to Long Beach, California. Feeling fairly confident I picked up my cell phone to retrieve the number to call the lady back. To my horror I could not find the number! I looked everywhere I could in the phone. (Mind you I am 53 years old.) In desparation I called my 33 year old daughter and told her, almost hysterically, what had happened. I could see her rolling her eyes even though we were talking on the phone. She said in an exasperated way, "Mom, the number has to be on the phone. Are you looking under Missed Calls?" I told her I had looked everywhere that I usually look to retrieve a number and the number wasn't there. At the time Rachael was caring for three children; her son 1.5 years old and her niece at 4 years old and her nephew at 10 months old. Needless to say, she was very preoccupied. I know I had to go another avenue so I sarcastically thanked her for her help and told I would call the phone company.

I called the cell phone company and told them my terrible plight. I asked them to please rertrieve the number for me so I could call this lady and at least explain why it had been over an hour since I had last spoken with her. I was put on hold for a few minutes. Finally the customer service lady came back on the line. She asked if the call from the lady had been a call waiting call. I told her it was. She then told me that there was no way to retrieve the call due to the fact it had come in as call waiting. I was stunned! I couldn't believe my ears! I am a big fan of Law and Order and CSI. They seem to be able to retrieve cell phone numbers from anywhere and everywhere! Now the cell phone company is telling me what I am asking is impossible! I felt like throwing up. The customer service woman was very apologetic and very sad that she could not help me. I thanked her for what she did do. Defeated I said goodbye and hung up the phone.

I could feel myself getting more and more stressed but then I said a prayer and told God that the only person who could fix this was Him. I was hopeful the lady would call me back wondering what had happened. It's been a week and she hasn't called. Despite all this I have learned a BIG lesson. No matter what if you have to get back to someone write down their name and number. Do not trust the cell phone!

If by some miracle the lady who called me is reading this blog I would very much like to talk to you about accompanying your mother to Long Beach, California for the holidays. I am so sorry this happened. Believe me, it will not happen again!

Diabetes and Family Caregivers

Did you know that November is National Diabetes Month and National Family Caregivers Month. Check out the links posted below to learn more about these very important subjects.


http://www.nfcacares.org/

http://www.diabetes.org/

Ten Reasons You Should Consider Using Air Companions

1. Your disabled elderly parent needs to fly across country and you are too busy with the husband, kids, job and other commitments to do it. Air Companions with treat your parent as if he or she was their parents.

2. You are divorced and your developmentally disabled grown child visits his/her other parent out of state. You and your ex need someone you can trust to accompany your special needs child throughout the trip.

3. You live alone and are struggling with a chronic illness and need to travel back and forth to a hospital for regular treatments. The treatments are exhausting and you are unable to drive yourself back and forth.

4. You or a loved one winters in the south each year. You need someone to accompany you/your loved one to your destination, drive the car, help get settled and fly home. That is one of Air Companions specialties!

5. You have always wanted to take a train across country but feel very vulnerable doing it alone. You would prefer to have someone with some medical training accompany you. Air Companions loves trains.

6. You have always wanted to go overseas but you are physically disabled in some way and your are afraid of flying and navigating the airports alone. Air Companions would love to accompany you.

7. You are getting married next year and are planning a huge wedding. Many people will need to fly to the island in Maine where your wedding is being held. It's the breath taking setting that you have been dreaming of your whole life. You so want your dear grandmother to be there. But she is wheelchair bound and suffers from mild dementia. She needs someone to help her get dressed every day and to make sure she takes her medications. She hasn't flown in years. But, it just wont be the same if Grammy isn't at your wedding. Air Companions to the rescue!

8. You would love to send your aging parents on a 2 week cruise somewhere warm in January after the holidays. But, they need someone to go along to help them out to make things easier and more fun. Air Companions has been on cruises and seen that many elderly people would have a better time if they had a travel companion with some limited medical skills.

9. You or a loved one struggles with mental illness and find that you need to travel for whatever reason. You have difficulty navigating your way through airports and feel afraid in big crowds of people. Air Companions can cut your stress level in half!

10. You have an elderly disabled loved on in a nursing home in another state and you want to bring that loved one to your state to live in a nursing home closer to you. Air Companions has done this sort of trip several times and it has always been a success.

So the next time one of these scenarios comes up I hope you will think of Air Companions. Remember we are not just "your guardian angels in the air" We are "your guardian angels everywhere!"

From Freeport to Freeport

Hi All. It's been a while and I apologize. Summer is so busy. Time just flies by. Before you know it it's almost fall and you haven't been on the computer for weeks! I guess I'm grateful I have such a busy life. I could be sitting at home wringing my hands and wondering what to do. So far this has not happened to me. In fact, quite the opposite and I'm happy about that.

Let's see.....where did I leave off? Oh yes, a lovely couple from Freeport, Maine hired Air Companions to go to Freeport, Illinois to accompany the Mrs.' elderly parents from a nursing home there to a nursing home in Maine. Since both the elderly man and woman were very compromised and in wheelchairs I decided to ask my husband to go along to assist me. I was very excited to have another adventure! Plus I was happily anticipating seeing some of the state of Illinois. I really had never been there. I have landed in O'Hare a few times, but that doesn't count.

We flew out of the Portland Jet Port on Monday evening, July 26. The weather was perfect as it has been all summer in Maine. However, our flight was delayed because of mechanical problems with several of the planes. We landed in O'Hare about an hour later than originally scheduled. I said a silent prayer that there would be no delays on our flight back to Maine the next day.

As you can see I snapped a picture of my dozing husband on our flight out to Illinois. I hope he really got some rest on the plane because we surely didn't once we got into the rental car at 9:30pm and started the second leg of our trip from Chicago to Freeport! Once we left the city it was quite dark out so we didn't have much of a chance to enjoy the scenery. One cool thing we did notice was that the city didn't just gradually fade out to a suburb to a town to country. We were in the city and all of a sudden we were driving through miles and miles of corn fields. Just like that! City....corn fields.

Finally, after what seemed hours of driving we arrived in Freeport, Illinois only to find that the main roads were blocked. There was no detour and no reason posted as to why the roads were closed! For the next hour or so we drove around in corn field and prayed until we found an open road into the heart of the town. At 1am we drove into our hotel parking lot. Needless to say we were exhausted. We asked the friendly clerk why all the roads were closed. He told us that the town was flooded from heavy rainfall over the weekend. We told the clerk there were no detours mapped out and it was only by the grace of God that we found the hotel. He was as perplexed by that as we were. We got our room keys, found the room and collapsed into bed!

Next morning we got up, got ready, ate breakfast called our contact person and headed for the nursing home. When we arrived we met the elderly couple, their son and daughter in law and the staff of the nursing home. All were very nice and helpful. I will call the elderly couple "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". Mrs. Smith is a small woman who suffers from dementia. She also walks with a walker. Mr. Smith was in the end stages of Parkinson's Disease. He could no longer walk and he was very stiff from the Parkinson's. He also suffered with dementia. I could see that the trip home was going to be a challenge and I was so glad my husband had come along. I could of not done it without him! Once we got all the instruction we needed and all the necessary things were packed we got our new friends into the rental car and set out for Chicago. It was another beautiful day and we really enjoyed viewing the scenery. Even Mrs. Smith commented several times about the beauty of the state of Illinois.

When we got to O'Hare Airport we were greeted by wonderful people who immediately came to our aid. All airports contract with companies who provide in house escorts. I think we were assigned the nicest escorts ever. They helped us in every way possibe and and made our time at O'Hare easy and pleasant. I took a picture of the two young ladies who assisted us. They were awesome! I truly do not know what we would have done without them. O'Hare is like a city unto itself!

Once we got to our gate we had to wait for about an hour before we could board. Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith were cooperative and patient and even seemed to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the airport. We all ate a light lunch and soon we were on our way on non-stop flight to Portland, Maine.

The flight went amazingly well. We had first class seats which was a big help because the seats are bigger and there is more space to move around. The Smiths sat beside eachother. Mrs. Smith held and patted her husband's hand thoughout the trip. It was very sweet.

When we landed in Maine a very nice group of young men employed by the escort company assisted us all the way to the sidewalk and waited with us until my husband came around with the car. The young men even helped get the Smiths into the car! I was so grateful. From Portland we started the last leg of our trip. We took the Smiths to a nursing home nearby their daughter's home. At the nursing home we met up with our employers, the Freeport, Maine couple. We assisted the Smiths into the nursing home, gave instructions, said our good byes and left for home. Another Air Companions job well done!

July 24 is Amelia Earhart Day

In commemoration of the first woman pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, July 24 has been named Amelia Earhart Day. Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 and disappeared after July 2, 1937. Below I have pasted a few words written about Amelia from her official web site. To learn more click on the link below.

"Amelia Earhart was a strong, successful woman and really a pioneer for women. She never allowed anyone to tell her she could not accomplish what she had put her mind to.
As most everyone knows Amelia is known for her dedication to flying and her final flight. The last flight she ever took was attempting to fly around the world. She knew that no one had ever successfully done it, but she just figured she'd be the first.
She disappeared during her trip never to be heard from again, but that single attempt made her a role model for young girls for years to come.
In 1932, she was the first woman to ever fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, she was the first female to ever receive the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross. Only a few women proceeding her have been able to receive the same honor."



The Official Website of Amelia Earhart