Take Your Oxygen First: Protecting Your Health and Happiness While Caring for a Loved One with Memory Loss

Overwhelmed family caregivers will find Gibbons's book immensely and immediately useful. Even though Gibbons's family had the financial resources to weather the nine years her mother, Jean, lived with Alzheimer's, the feelings of pain and helplessness were unavoidable. Gibbons and her father, siblings and children share what they learned in dealing with Jean's decline and eventual placement in the dementia unit of a nursing home. While memory loss is the focus of the book's first section, the rest offers excellent advice for family caregivers on how to take care of themselves both physically and emotionally, from exercises to keep one strong enough to aid the patient to dealing with guilt and denial around a loved one's memory loss. Photos. (May)