Planner chat and tips

Organizes and holds information for the family to use. Set up, maintain, and fine-tune your system here.
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Harriet
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Planner chat and tips

Postby Harriet » Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:54 pm

How do you use planners? Do you have some for specialized uses? Do you carry them along or leave them opened upon your desk as calendars? Any tips, hints? Do tell! :idea:

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Harriet
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Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Harriet » Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:57 pm

Planner dedicated to caregiving responsibilities:

This was a response to Harmony in PWYC.

I use a "Mom's Plan it" 17-month calendar (at several bookstores near us right now in the new edition, it starts with Aug), about 6x8 inches, to note everything related to my parents' care, Harmony, carrying along in tote. Back of mine says $15 but I don't think I paid full price. I know Amazon has it cheap. All appts, with address and phone upon first appt date, plus pertinent phone numbers in its phone pages, etc. It has stickers and I have used a few but they are mostly not very helpful for this situation. It has perforated tear-offs 2 inches wide on each page for menu/shopping, which I use for general needs. There is a pocket in the front in which I can stick prescriptions, business cards, pamphlets about how to care for things like dental surgery stitches, etc. I keep a post-it page-sticker thing in red going and it has restuck about a dozen times so far, keeping my place by date, so that's a good use of a penny, lol.

This has helped a lot, for instance the Rad Onc will ask, when were you given that prescrip by the dentist, and I can turn right to it. Or someone will need to know a previous blood pressure and I can quote it.

Indiana

Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Indiana » Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:26 am

Caregiving information tracking.

I do things similar to Harriet.

I use a planner for everything in my life. It is an 8x5 – Day Runner Pro-Business System. It has a pocket on the outside and zips closed. It has a few pockets on the inside front cover for business/appointment cards. A zip pocket and two larger pockets. On the back cover inside is a slot for the cardboard side of a tablet so a tablet is available. The front and back covers have a place for a pen. I have a calendar, phone numbers/addresses, and sections for anything and everything. I have had it for about 15 years. I love it.

Before that, I used an 8x5 binder my Dad used in college. It was ancient but in excellent condition.

I have used my planner to track 3 different caregiving responsibilities. I didn’t use if for my aunt because I only had responsibility for about 3 days before she passed away.

Dstepdad –

My dstepdad was nursing home caregiving shared with my dmom. I had a section labeled with his name. Although my steps had their information in my address section, I kept their information on a page in his section so all the information was on one page in case I needed to get them. I used it to call to tell them if they wanted to see their dad before he passed away to come now. I also had a meds (name of med, dosage, times per day, doctor and when he started taking it) page. I had a page with personal information (soc sec #, insurance #s, date of birth, and discharge date from service. I had a sheet on how he was eating. I also had a sheet on medical history. Finally one for notes.

I used the note page for things I observed. He had a bad reaction to meds and was having vivid dreams at night that he was working in the post office and it was at the end of the floor. He never told the nurses. It was so vivid and real he didn’t believe me that he wasn’t working at the post office at night. It took a long time to straighten it out so that he could understand. Changing his meds and turning off TV when he was ready to go to sleep solved the dreams. I had notes on what he said so I could talk to the floor supervisor about it.

The notes also helped that the aides weren’t giving him his inhaler properly. I again documented and presented it to the floor supervisor that she may want to have another in-service for her aides on how to use an inhaler with a patient. She was very receptive because I had the information and wasn’t making accusations and said it in a non-threatening way.

My dmom already had a sheet for tracking insurance and nursing home payments.

She was with my stepdad all day and would give me information when I got there for his evening meal. I also spent Saturday and Sunday breakfast and lunch feeding him and dmom came for dinner on both those days. So we had two sets of eyes checking on him and observing.

I’ll add how I tracked dmom and now dh.

Background –

I hope no one is offended with some of my wording in the beginning and comments.

God had a plan for me. I didn’t know it when it began but the learning has been building so my caregiving although a little different from daunt, dstepdad and dmom can be handled easily for dh.

When my grandfather had his stroke. I was the one that had to admit him and sign for everything. I went to the hospital every morning before work. My daunt (a different one) was legally blind and they wouldn’t allow her to sign even though I read her all the information. I had to sign since I could see and was a grandchild. It was the first DNR I had to sign.

Then I was the business manager in a convalescent home. Although the business manager I worked on the floors in an emergency, (snowstorms) and the administrator taught me different things. I also was the representative for several of the residents. I was assigned by the Depart of Welfare.

The next one was getting a call from my daunt (that I was a caregiver for for 3 days) that my daunt (blind) had died and to come to the house to wait for the coroner. When I got there she left for some reason. She had covered my daunt with a bedspread where she died. I had to keep stepping over her. I learned dead bodies don’t bite. (I am very comfortable with dead bodies and death).

Next I worked at the hospital and knew how that worked so when I admitted my daunt it went smoothly.

My dstepdad had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He went into remission and then it returned.

My dmom had Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and I was her caregiver for 2 years in my home.

Now there is dh with metastasized bone cancer.

I will add what information I keep for dmom and dh.

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Harmony
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Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Harmony » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:54 pm

Thank you Harriet and Indiana for all your information. Life is hard sometimes, but it is what it is and we have to accept the good with the bad. You are both angels to your families and invaluable to those who need you.

Like I said in PWYC, I was hugely disappointed with my choices when I went hunting for planners. I was in the closest store to the dentist, running out of time too. When I didn't find what I wanted I wanted to get a 5x8 looseleaf notebook, add my own indexes, papers, pocket pages, self adhesive pockets on insides of covers...but they even had none of that.

What I've ended up with is adequate but not ideal. I must open a zippered case and remove either the calendar or the book. I have added some tabs to the book for name/address; medicines/ a master page with MiL policy numbers, etc., and the balance for writing notes, etc. Going into two seperate books I've discovered is not convenient. None of the things I found even had a slot to keep a pen.

I've started a regular size looseleaf nb for information I've received and will keep menus, food eaten, weight chart in there. That means I will have another thing to carry.

This is good for a start. I do not have much $ in it. If I find the DayRunner or calendar similar to Harriets, I will switch. First I must switch my purse to a tote instead, my case does not fit well in my purse. Sigh..this is learning curve for me.

I took care of my first husband, at times there was much care-giving. And back and forth to dialysis, rehab, dr. office. I don't know why that seemed simpler than this. Maybe because I only had 1 doctor. As a result of this time, I am not afraid to be a caregiver. I am not afraid of someone dying in my home. I am not terribly squeemish.

My heart goes out to both of you.

timid

Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby timid » Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:38 pm

I use a dayplanner. go to ataglance.com. Susi of thebusywoman.com is very helpful. Most of her planner stuff is now downloadable. She has restructured so I am not sure exactly what she is doing in the way of binders now. She had some of hte most adaptabe sturdy ones I have seen. When I am out I like to have the ability to store a file folder. But agree that a huge purse is a problem. Must have my shoulder strap.
Last edited by timid on Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Harmony
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Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Harmony » Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:09 pm

Thanks Timid. I will look at those links.

Today I discovered just how hard it is to use my makeshift system. DSiL did not have necessary phone numbers or an appointment book. I had to dig out one book to get phone numbers, another book to write down an appointment. Nowhere really to put the prescriptions I was given.

I stopped at 3 places on the way home. I liked several of the mid sized organizers I saw. But one of my problems is that I carry a purse with mid-length handles. I can put the purse over my shoulder, leaving my hands free. If I was carrying an organizer too, that wouldn't leave my hands free to push a wheelchair. And a mid-size organizer will not fit in my purse.

Wondering, those of you who do caregiving, how do you manage all that stuff? I must carry my wallet with $, license, cards, and I have 2 checkbooks, cell phone, and I really don't want a bigger purse cause this one's already heavy enough.

Especially when someone gives me a packet of papers, my purse becomes stuffed. At one point I gave up because I couldn't get my book out. And I couldn't see/read the tabs because they were too small.

If I switch from a purse to just an organizer, I guess I'd need one with enough pockets/slots to hold all my wallet stuff. And those don't usually have straps long enough to put on my shoulder. Ack! This shouldn't be that hard.

Harriet, how do you carry your calendar? Indiana, do you carry a purse? Ok, Harriet, I see you carry yours in a tote. Do you have any problems with that as far as tieing up one hand? How big is your tote? Expandable? Heavy?

Indiana

Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Indiana » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:14 pm

Harmony I carried a large nylon bag like one you can take to a gym. The straps were perfect to slip over the handles of the wheel chair. I put my purse and day planner in it along with a bottle of water and a snack for dmom just in case.

I'm not sure if you have 8 1/2 x 11 or 5 x 8 pages for what you are working with now.

Here are some that are all styles and sizes and prices:

http://www.officedepot.com/a/browse/day ... /N=5+2871/

They are calling my day runner by a different name now but here is mine:

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/4 ... ganizer-7/

Here is the purse I carry:

http://www.verabradley.com/Site/Store/P ... sku=152:30

but mine is in a retired color.

By the size and shape of the purse you can tell I can't fit my day runner in it. I can put a book in it. It has a small open pocket on the outside on one side. Inside there are 6 pockets. 3 on each side. On one side I have at each end my glasses. The pockets are just the perfect size for an eye glass case. I have my regular and sun glasses at each end. The middle pocket I keep my keys. On the other side I have my cell phone in one end pocket and the other end is the perfect size for 3x5 cards and a pen. The middle one is used for recipts, scripts, appointment cards, etc. I use the index cards for notes at the doctors and just general things I think of while waiting.

The purse part itself I only have my wallet and a small cosmetic bag. It is easy to slip in a book or bottle of water.

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Nancy
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Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Nancy » Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:25 pm

I have a purse combo. planner for notes;
names addresses etc.
and use a sm. note book for food diary & carb counting info.
I keep these in a purse.

Indiana

Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Indiana » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:56 pm

Harmony I don't remember paying that much for either one of them. Both were pricey but not that much.

Both are very old.

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Harriet
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Re: Planner chat and tips

Postby Harriet » Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:27 am

timid it is wonderful to see you - thanks for the link! So glad you are checking up on us.

My tote is about 10" wide, 12" high, 4" deep made out of a tapestry-type upholstery fabric. It stands up by itself with a sturdy flat bottom. On either side are relatively sturdy full pockets. One is zippered. This gives me two-sided "filing cabinet" space for paperwork even if I don't want to fold it. I appreciate the little interior pocket, although it's not necessary - it works well for easy access to my mom's electronic card for signing in at daily radiation. I got this tote at a closeout store, so I couldn't suggest where to find one, but that type of store might surprise someone and have similar things. Mine was cheap. I think it is a "second" because after months of use I see a flaw in part of the tapestry.

We no longer carry my mother's purse. It used to make her feel like she was "dressed" and more normal, but now she needs to take my arm and have less to think about. And I no longer carry a purse when with a parent/going to appts. I switch my wallet from tote to purse as needed. In my wallet (which is one of those multi-pocketed, two-sided ones that holds checkbook) are both my parents' insurance cards, btw. There have been times when I wished for incidentals from my purse and didn't have them, but it wasn't enough to make me change my system - I just can't carry it all every time.

My problem is that I get home tired and don't re-file the paperwork for a while, so later go back out and don't look as neat as I could.
If you don't believe in miracles, you're not being realistic.


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