- Take a few minutes to wash, dust & spiff up their wheelchairs.
- Little by little as the budget allows, switch out their current medical supply containers with fancier, or on the other side, less visible, storage totes.
- Create a really honoring and safe place for wedding rings to rest, when our partners are doing treatments that result in swelling. You wearing them on a chain is a nice gesture too.
- Be intentional about keeping things up off the floor for easier movement and safety.
- Place refillable water bottles in the fridge or within view/reach with lines drawn on them as reminders that certain number or ounces should be gone by specific hours of the day. Hydration is such a key factor in everyone’s overall health, and a leading culprit when daily things go awry.
- Laughter really is the best medicine, (Unless breathing difficulties are at play, or they have the dirty squirties…) Keep a running list of jokes to pull out on those days when your partner’s smile could use a refreshing.
- Take a few minutes and make sure everything in the house, to the best of your abilities, is within accessible reach. Sometimes things just gravitate away from that, not on purpose. Be purposeful about restoring it back. Set an alarm on your calendar to remind you weekly.
- A LOT of time ticks away doing the simple necessary task of waiting on hold to talk to the clinic, pharmacist, social workers, benefits office etc. What can you do to help tick those off with them at the time (A quick shoulder massage? Tic Tac Toe? Paint their nails? Fix a snack? Force them to really focus on the conversation on the phone while you kiss, lick, nibble or fondle them?) What can you do to help restore a few of those minutes back to their schedule if that would be most helpful?
- Drop off a candy jar for the doctors and medical office staff. Nothing with nuts. Keep it refreshed when your next appointment rolls around. YES, this is an act of kindness for your partner, because it will circle back around as you show up for those medical appointments.
- Did you know that the website Etsy.com has individual artists who create handmade cards, including ones that can be special ordered in Braille? True story…
- How goes the “emotional health” household supply list?
- Cool henna temporary tattoos.
- Spiked collars (Heck yeah!)
- A crazy bright sock collection, to encourage the eyes to look down
- Ty-dye those plain colored diabetic socks
- Vintage TV character lids
- Long sleeved weather conducive local sport team shirts
- Do your best to provide as colorful, nice looking and soft pillowcases as possible for hospital beds. They are the bling when it comes to bedding. Especially when the bedsheets are so eh.
- Can you offer a TAKE A BREAK box with a sleep mask, noise reduction head phones or ear buds to connect to phone or MP3 player, and a small protein based treat?
- Have a small candy dish with intense mints, super sour hard candies, or hot cinnamon suck-ons. Why? Because in a moment where emotions can start to overwhelm us, and it’s not our first choice timing wise, these are a gift. They shock the senses in the mouth, those nerves then carry a message to the brain, which often times, provides a split second to refocus. And sometimes, that little spot of help is all we need to collect ourselves.
- Birthdays
- Anniversaries
- Notable days they would WANT to remember in order to send a note of encouragement or to cheer from the sidelines for them…(Heading off to college, first day of kindergarten, someone’s opening play night, your first date, etc.)
- Harder anniversaries they wouldn’t want to forget in order to reach out to someone
- Holiday count downs if there’s arrangements they’ll want to address ahead of time
- Every so often, leave a new voicemail on your partners cell phone with their permission, and while keeping it short, tell the caller they’ve reached the phone of your favorite person in the world and why they are.
- A new med schedule or meds periods
- Time to shift in their chair or stand up and move
- Take a moment to walk for a few minutes
- Get some level of hydration on board
- Eat something with protein or Glucose boost
- Do a finger prick
- Tag in to say they’re safe
- What are your options? Budget what you can to invest in scented aids to help your partner’s self-esteem stay as intact as possible.
- Clothing and bedding laundry add ins
- On the surface water treatments for bowel movements, like Poo-PourriTM or other similar products
- Travel with a small bag of wipes, deodorant and a clean shirt
- Do they gag easily? Require medicines that burp back up with an odor? Carry toothpaste & dollar store disposable toothbrushes, mints, mouthwash strips
- Room refreshers come in no small number of products that don’t have to involve aerosols. (ScentsyTM has some great options for portable scent options)
- Laundry fabric sheets to rub on a small section of a Service animal who’ve been rained on and can’t avoid the wet fur smell (Only use where they can’t lick it off later.)
- Pick up a bag of Life-Saver candies, and place them out for your partner in random spots. Or keep them close by to hand to them as they flow from situation to situation with you. Let them carry the message, that they’re daily efforts aren’t lost on you ever.
- On their bad pain days, make it your goal to keep the kids and pets occupied, so they’re not jostling or bumping the one trying to recover or focus through. If you’re the one at the receiving end of that courtesy, do your best to return the favor later so your partner gets a small window of time to themselves as a thank you.
- Sign up for magazines or catalogues from companies whose sole focus is bettering the lifestyle of people who live out your daily details. It’s amazing how many products are out there you’ve never thought were available. Both sides need to know that finding nifty adaptive devises matters to the other.
Are you loaded up with the softest tissues?
Is there a fresh package of makeup towelette wipes in case mascara runs?
Please fill the “In case of emergency,” chocolate candy stash up.
What about batteries for the remote, gaming system, adult novelty/intimacy aid, or that one toy that always keeps the kids focused so your partner can catch a few minutes break in the moment?
Is keeping a comfort food/healthy as possible, round of frozen meals available for those days when the cook or cooks just need a break?
Give them something to redirect people’s line of vision or point of conversation to rather than their new chest port, or evidence of where they’ve self-cut, treatment hair loss, bruising, open sores etc. Feel free to do these together as a couple and twin, which only adds to the distraction.
On the same focus, pay as much attention as possible to bedding in general when a partner spending more time in bed, is necessary. Think soft, clean, nice smelling (or NON scented) and nice to look at. If bedding stands to need more frequent changes, being able to rotate those sheets out for something just as pretty can be a mood lifter.
Take the time to create a calendar for your loved one with yearly important dates marked. Consider making not only make a hard copy one, but also place them on an app for phone or computer. Do your best to add to it when NEW things come up. Those mental refreshers are pretty dear for those who traditionally want to remember these type of things. Do it annually, leave yourself a calendar note to make sure you remember to. Add:
Would it be wisdom to help them place timers on their phones or other device, as well as yours which go off when they’re supposed to be remembering something important? Do they need it to go off twice? Would you reaching out to them with a short text reminder be more productive and keep you from using mental minutes wondering if it got done? Think about it this way… Would they have given their support to either or both of these ideas the day you exchanges vows? Then trust they’d want you to do it, even if it irks them now. And it’s perfectly ok to enlist someone else helping with this that they’d get less flustered by.:
https://www.healthproductsforyou.com
https://www.manageathome.co.uk NOTE: UK website
www.Pinterest.com Just look up Adaptive Devices and loads of ideas will come up