Elder Rage or, Take My Father... Please! How To Survive Caring For Aging Parents
by Jacqueline Marcell
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Book Reviews of Elder Rage or, Take My Father... Please! How To Survive Caring For Aging Parents
Book Review: A+
Summary: 5 Stars
What an awesome book--nonfiction meets "can't put it down". If you want to laugh, cry, have your frustrations and feelings validated, learn to cope with caregiving stress, PLUS receive lots of helpful info, this book is for you. A must-read for anyone caring for any type patient, demetia or not!Book Review: My copy is worn out from passing it around
Summary: 5 Stars
I showed this book to my walking buddy, my hairstylist, well, just about anyone who ever vented about their frustrating world of elder care. I even sent a copy to my middle-born son in D.C. We need someone who understands and can guide us through the maze. This author does that, and with humor!Book Review: Wish I'd read this sooner.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was recommended to me about 7 months after my Father's sudden physical collapse. On the third day of hospitalization, he was in full blown dementia with psychotic episodes. This was a man who had been handling their investments and reading the Wall Street Journal just the previous week. Every day brought a new horror and on the fifth day we were told he had last then 6 months to live and we needed to move him from the hospital to a nursing home.
After 7 months of dealing with my brilliant but fading Father in the nursing home and my 85 year old Mother in an independent senior apartment, I found the book gave me a real perspective on just how BAD a situation can be. That eased some of my anxiety since I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Jacqueline Marcell managed to survive and care for her aging parents under a hail storm of dropping shoes.
The story, told quite humorously, really shows how dementia and its effects are under diagnosed in the early stages, how difficult it is for the doctors to get a real feel for the actual patient behavior between visits, and how heartbreakingly difficult it is for a child to wrest control from a parent with dementia, for their own good. It's emotionally and physically exhausting trying to "do the right thing" at every step of the decline, since the play book keeps changing daily.
The last part of the book sums up what she's learned through her experiences and should certainly help others avoid some of the tribulations that she went through trying to get appropriate care for her folks. The information section written by a doctor also spells out the issues of dementia and how to pursue diagnosis and care.
I laughed over her habit of using lyrics and film dialogue to make the little hell she was in more bearable. Since I frequently find my thoughts find homes in lyrics, that was perfectly understandable to me.
The book is reasuring, educational, and helps bring caring for parents with dementia down to a less stormy and more enjoyable voyage for both caregiver and parents.
I liked the book so much, I bought a second one for my girl friend who's Father is in the early stages of Alzheimers. No point in flying blind when you can have a funny, caring copilot like Jacqueline Marcell.
Book Review: Thank God for Jacqueline Marcell!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't even find the words to thank this author for writing about my own trials and missteps. I was feeling every emotion, guilt, anger, love, sadness, and couldn't wrap my head around the issues I was encountering. More importantly, I thought I was alone. I was ashamed of the negative feelings I had towards my parents; parents that I love--parents that I now have to take care of on a daily basis because they no longer can care for themselves. I was angry with them when I needed to redirect my anger towards the disease that was killing them and changing their very being. Jacqueline is an Angel with a message. Read this book. Laugh with her, cry with her, learn from her.Book Review: Learn with Humor & Incite about Caring for Aging Parents
Summary: 5 Stars
With delight I would like to recommend Jacqueline Marcell's book on dementia, entitled "Elder Rage." It is with sensitivity and wonderful humor that she explains her experiences coping with her aging parents and their crises of physical and mental health.
Her humor is wonderful in the book; as facing the mental confusion of loving parents is not something that we can easily smile about. She ends the book with valuable resources, information, and practical solutions to try when we might be faced with such concerns from our own families. This is a troubling topic, growing daily in our aging society...How should we face it; and what should we prepared ourselves for?
This is a great disclosure of interest to the medical society that deals with older patients with fading memories and personality changes, both physicians, family, and the practical staff that care for our elders. Become enlightened about this dark issue that faces so many families as our population ages. This Book-of-the-Month-Book-Club selection,will also let folks know--- that they aren't alone and that there are answers available to help, such as the Alzheimer's Association and local Senior Centers.