About Carol

Reviewed on 11/8/2023

Carol is amazing! Carol took care of my mother, Iris, from 2019 to 2023. During that time Iris's dementia went from needing some help preparing meals to help with just about all her ADLs. Carol was able to keep Iris engaged and maintained her quality of life. One example of Carol adapting to Iris's changing needs is the use of puzzles to help occupy Iris's time. At first Iris was able to complete 250 piece puzzles. Later we'd get 100 and then 50 piece puzzles. When that became too hard, Carol would complete the border of the puzzle. Eventually, Carol would complete the puzzle and then pick out half the pieces. All this served to give my mom something should could take pride in. Carol also kept the house clean - this became harder as Iris became incontinent. (Iris refused depends for the longest time - eventually Carol did get her to use them.) Carol also acted as Iris's medical advocate. If Carol felt that a doctor was "blowing mom off" because of her age - she would be persistent until there was a diagnosis and treatment. In this example, Iris had taken a "cognitive nose-dive". In a mater of a couple of days, Iris went from being able to communicate relatively well to not being able to not speaking or saying things in gibberish. Her doctor dismissed this as advancing of Iris's dementia. Carol did not accept this diagnosis and discovered on her own that Iris had a hernia! When the hernia bulged it caused Iris to have a cognitive nose-dive when it was in - Iris was "normal" self. The solution was to keep Iris regular - something that Carol became expert at. Carol did so much more than just baby-sit my Mom. She really took care of her and kept my mother engaged and maintained her quality of life.