Hands - photo by Hamed Saber (flickr.com/photos/hamed)

Caring for the elderly

For elderly parents who are already weak or sickly, it is hard for their children and relatives to see them in pain. I’m sure most family members particularly the children would do anything they can to help ease their parents’ suffering and provide for their comfort and medical needs, from blood pressure monitors and other medical gadgets, to providing them with natural pain relievers or purchasing their prescription medicines.

Nowadays, a wide range of medical products cater to those elderly patients being cared for at their own homes or in nursing homes and institutions. Modern medical devices offer convenience and automation – a big help to those who are new to care-giving and providing assistance to the elderly.

For instance, some elderly patients can get bored with being bed-ridden and sometimes they would like to “rebel” against their doctor’s advice regarding bed rest. Installing bed alarms would be one of the tricks for those patients who plan on sneaking out of their beds. A bed alarm package consists of a bed sensor pad connected to an alarm monitor which has an auto reset feature. The pad acts as a sensor, once the patient tries to get out of bed, it detects lesser weight and immediately sends an alarm. This will give time for anybody to come in the room before the patient can sneak out. Such a cool medical device, right? 🙂

I’m thankful that both my parents, now past their 60s, are still physically active. Dad continues to be our “family driver” and busies himself with his favorite hobbies at home, such as gardening, carpentry, tinkering with the van and especially playing his favorite tunes on the keyboards. Mom is super-active in our prayer community, oftentimes she is miles away from us, attending an anniversary event for one of our provincial chapters. Thank God for the blessings of good health in the family.