Tag Archive for: Salt Lake City home health care

Worried wife supporting sick husband taking drugs for hypertension

Understand and Manage Senior Medications for Heart Disease with These Tips

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Worried wife supporting sick husband taking drugs for hypertension

These tips for senior medications can help prevent problems.

If you have heart disease, you know it’s vital to take your heart disease meds exactly as prescribed. But what specifically does that mean? Here are a few helpful recommendations for senior medications from Harmony Home Health & Hospice which can help you get the most from your meds:

  • Be aware of which meds you’re taking. Find out their generic and brand names and make sure you fully comprehend what each one does. Go over the patient information so you’re familiar with potential side effects.
  • Take your meds at the same time each day. When you partner with Harmony Home Health & Hospice, your home health aide can assist with medication management. Never stop or modify any medication without first speaking to the doctor.
  • Create a list of all your medications. Include the daily dose of each one. Maintain a copy at home and one in your wallet or purse.
  • If you’re having difficulty paying for your medications, ask your doctor for recommendations. Don’t skimp on dosages to try to save money. Doing so could be harmful to your health.
  • Speak with your doctor before taking any over-the-counter drugs or herbal remedies. Some could exacerbate heart failure symptoms. These include antihistamines (such as Benadryl), antacids and NSAIDS (such as Motrin or Advil).
  • Refill your prescription before running out of medicine.
  • Take your medicines with you when you travel and continue to take them on your normal routine. If you’ll be away from home for an extended time, take an extra week’s supply. Keep a copy of your prescriptions with you in case you need a refill.
  • Sometimes ACE inhibitors may cause you to cough. If you are coughing excessively and are not able to sleep or take care of your daily activities, call the physician.
  • If you take diuretics (often called water pills), you’ll probably have to visit the restroom more frequently. If you’re advised to take one dose of a diuretic each day, take it in the morning. If you take two doses, be sure to take the second dose by late afternoon to prevent extra trips to the restroom during the night.
  • Watch for signs of dehydration when taking diuretics. These might include intense thirst, dry mouth, dark-colored urine or less urine output, constipation and lightheadedness. If any of these red flags occur, check with your doctor prior to making any changes to medication or fluid intake.

The home health care experts at Harmony Home Health & Hospice can make life with heart disease much easier to manage through a wide range of customized services including support for hospice in Ogden and nearby areas. Contact us at 1-877-I-NEED-CARE (1-877-463-3322) to learn more.

woman with grandmother assisting with mask

The Best Tips for Alzheimer’s Care During the Pandemic

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woman with grandmother assisting with mask

Caring for a loved one with dementia is difficult, but especially trying now.

Providing home care services for an aging parent with Alzheimer’s disease is often stressful under the best of conditions; mix in a worldwide pandemic, one that calls for social distancing, masks, and thorough sanitation of both us and the environment, and the challenge might seem insurmountable.

Harmony Home Health & Hospice’s Alzheimer’s care team provides the following ideas to help minimize anxiety and frustration for those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, while keeping both them and their caregivers safe:

  • Make self-care a priority. Now more than ever, it is important to determine your own personal level of stress, and take steps to make sure you’re in good health – both emotionally and physically. You can only give the best care for a senior loved one if your own needs are met. This could mean decreasing time spent watching the news, as well as on social media, maintaining connections with friends and family, and making time for comforting, enjoyable hobbies.
  • Take care of personal hygiene. Proper hand washing techniques are critical for all of us, but could be difficult for those with dementia to manage. Depending on the person’s stage of the disease, it might help to wash your hands with each other, showing the steps to your loved one; or, position signs next to the sink in the bathroom and kitchen with a message to wash for 20 seconds. And keep in mind that repetition, a common behavior in dementia, could work to your advantage in this situation.
  • Choose your words carefully. When speaking with the senior about changes connected with COVID-19, it’s important to keep it simple, utilizing a calm and reassuring tone. Beth Kallmyer, Vice President of Care and Support at the Alzheimer’s Association, suggests statements such as, “We have to stay inside because that’s most safe for us, but we’ll do it together. I’ll be with you and we’ll be okay.”
  • Be sure to have a backup plan. If you happened to be diagnosed with COVID-19 yourself, or another medical condition which could prevent you from safely providing homecare help for a loved one with dementia, it is critical to have a plan in place for who could take over to execute your care responsibilities. A skilled home health care agency, like Harmony Home Health & Hospice, is the perfect choice, with at home caregivers serving Salt Lake City and surrounding areas who are skilled in specialized dementia care and management of medical needs.

Let Harmony Home Health & Hospice help. Our professional dementia caregivers are fully trained and experienced in both following proper protocol pertaining to minimizing the risk for contracting coronavirus, and in the specialized type of care that is most effective for all those with Alzheimer’s disease. Reach out to us at 1-877-I-NEED-CARE (1-877-463-3322) for a consultation if you are seeking care from an at home caregiver in Salt Lake City or throughout Utah and New Mexico.