Table of Contents
Introduction 8
Chapter 1 What Is a Caregiver Anyway? 19
Chapter 2 Navigating Past the Freak-Out 32
Chapter 3 Making Emergency Room Visits and Insanity Mutually Exclusive 49
Chapter 4 Doctors-Can't Live with 'Em, Can't Live Without 'Em 60
Chapter 5 How to Turn Even the Crankiest Nurses/Aides/Medical Personnel into Buddies 71
Chapter 6 When Loved Ones Take on a Different Personality and You Start Wishing They'd Disappear 80
Chapter 7 How to Wait Out Waiting Rooms 92
Chapter 8 The Hospital Room Etiquette Miss Manners Never Told Us About 97
Chapter 9 Who's the Boss of Me? 101
Chapter 10 Getting on the Same Page as that Sister Who Drives You Nuts (and Other Family Matters) 108
Chapter 11 Who Knew Friends Could Be So… Unfriendly? 117
Chapter 12 Does Working Mean You Don't Care or Does Caring Mean You Don't Work? 125
Chapter 13 The Home Health-Care Invasion 131
Chapter 14 Using the FWord, as in Facility 142
Chapter 15 Finding a Shoulder-or Ten-to Lean On 155
Chapter 16 "Caregiver Sleep" Doesn't Have to Be an Oxymoron 161
Chapter 17 The Great Escape-Taking a Mental Vacation 166
Chapter 18 Being a Crybaby Isn't Necessarily a Bad Thing 173
Chapter 19 Sometimes Laughter Isn't the Best Medicine-It's the Only Medicine 177
Chapter 20 Just Breathe. Or Meditate. Or Both 187
Chapter 21 Who Has Time to Cook a Healthy Meal? We Do 197
Chapter 22 The Exercise Conundrum 208
Chapter 23 Sex? Romance? Is Anybody Getting Any? 216
Chapter 24 When to See a Shrink 225
Chapter 25 "Spiritual Care" Isn't Necessarily Just for the Spiritual 234
Chapter 26 Getting Through the Goodbye 241
Chapter 27 Yes, There Are Silver Linings 257
Chapter 28 When Caregiver Becomes Caregivee 269
Chapter 29 Famous Last Words 281
Acknowledgments 288
