In this episode, Mar & Jenn are joined by Speech-Language Pathologist and Life Coach Tsgoyna Tanzman. She's helped thousands of people transition after stroke and brain injury to the next stages of their lives. Tsgoyna is an expert at helping people find their inner and outer resources using her unique approach that combines traditional and holistic speech therapy along with the life coaching practices. She is best known for her down-to-earth practicality, enthusiasm, and sense of humor while compassionately guiding caregivers and survivors through recovery.

One size does not fit all when it comes to recovery or caregiving, and in this show, we discuss Tsgoyna's 5-part 'secret sauce' of recovering: faith, curiosity, persistence, humor, and gratitude. We also talk about the importance of HOPE, why you should have, why your care recipient needs it, and why the best medical providers share it! 

Check our her book Hope After Stroke for Caregivers and Survivors: The Holistic Guide to Getting Your Life Back. Tsgoyna’s humor and poignant life stories appear in 15  differentiations anthologies of Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has also been featured by Huffington Post, CNBC News, USA Today, Glamour Magazine, Woman's Day Magazine, the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Connect with Tsgoyna Tanzman online: https://www.facebook.com/Tsgoyna and https://hope-stroke.com, or email [email protected]. Find resources for stroke and aphasia by visiting aphasia.org and https://enableme.org (which also has a simplified version for stroke sufferers). 

Thanks for listening! Find us on social media: twitter.com/thiscaregiver, facebook.com/thiscaregiverlife, and instagram.com/thiscaregiverlife. We’d love to receive your thoughts and request, so send us an email or even a voice memo to [email protected].

…until next time!

In this episode, Mar and Jenn are joined by Raquel Derrick, Founder of Family Operating Base in the last of our 4-part collaboration.  We discuss the complex issues of caregiving we've explored in this series and the takeaways we hope listeners can use in their lives. 

We're still working from home. We're still experiencing the COVID-19. Stay at home, don't stay at home, take a million precautions. You can go here but not there. We're still in the midst of that. So life is still complicated. Just like this caregiver life. Whether it's during this time of COVID, or in the future, this caregiver life is all about making connections and communicating with one another, and that's what this series with Family Operating Base has been all about. 

Thanks for listening! Find us on social media: twitter.com/thiscaregiver, facebook.com/thiscaregiverlife, and instagram.com/thiscaregiverlife. We’d love to receive your thoughts and request, so send us an email or even a voice memo to [email protected].

…until next time!

In this episode, Mar and Jenn are joined by Shawn Moore, LMSW, Executive Director and Founder of Caregivers on the Homefront and Raquel Derrick, Founder of Family Operating Base.   We discuss the challenges of caring for yourself while caring for a loved one, and ways we can show ourselves the grace we show others. 

What is grace? The definition tells us that it's simple elegance or refinement of movement, courteous goodwill, or do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one's presence. Showing one's self grace can be challenging, so we discuss ways to make internal grace a reality. 

Thanks for listening! Find us on social media: twitter.com/thiscaregiver, facebook.com/thiscaregiverlife, and instagram.com/thiscaregiverlife. We’d love to receive your thoughts and request, so send us an email or even a voice memo to [email protected].

…until next time!

Mar and Jenn are joined by Larry Niesenson, Genworth Financial Chief Commercial Officer, the parent company of CareScout® Caregiver Support Services.  A caregiver for his father who was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Larry is passionate about solving the problems caregivers and employers face in the workforce.  In this episode, we explore those challenges for caregivers and employers. Larry is an expert and wants to connect. Feel free to email him at [email protected]. 

Caregivers and the workforce:

Click through to AARP for more information about caregiving & employment and to read Jennifer's employment case study.

We also discuss long-term care insurance. Did you know by the time you reach 65, there's a 50% chance that you’ll require paid long-term care (LTC) someday? Paying out-of-pocket averages $140,000! Only 7.2 million or so Americans have planned for this expense by purchasing LTC insurance, which covers many of the costs of a nursing home, assisted living or in-home care expenses that aren’t covered by Medicare.

Thanks for listening! Find us on social media: twitter.com/thiscaregiver, facebook.com/thiscaregiverlife, and instagram.com/thiscaregiverlife. We’d love to receive your thoughts and request, so send us an email or even a voice memo to [email protected].

…until next time!

Mar's guest today, Michael Bullen, was a caregiver to his spouse, Lisa, who had an aggressive form of ALS. They were married for twenty-five years. In the last fourteen months of their marriage, they battled an aggressive form of ALS together. Michael is committed to a lifelong ALS awareness campaign that includes the need for treatments, a cure, and kindness to those who have ALS and the people who care for them

The form of ALS Lisa had is bulbar ALS. To find out more about ALS please visit this site: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/centers_clinics/als/conditions/als_amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis.html

To view the ALS PSA video at the beginning of this podcast please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L03JETqtS3k

Visit us on social media:

facebook.com/thiscaregiverlife

twitter.com/thiscaregiver

www.thiscaregiverlife.com

#ThisCaregiverLife #Caregivers #ALS #EndALS 

Mar and Jenn are joined by Dan Miller, Wounded Warrior Project Warriors Speak spokesperson, and Raquel Derrick, Founder of Family Operating Base.  In this episode, we explore the complexities of grief and talk about the differences between ambiguous and anticipatory grief. 

Some facts about grief:

Grief is a natural reaction to loss. It's both a universal and personal experience. Talking about our grief can be therapeutic and we hope listening to this podcast helps inspire you to find a peer network, a tribe, of support.  We all have tribes, and we hope you find yours. 

Read Sebastian Junger's book TRIBE: https://amzn.to/2CalXcx 

Find us on social media: twitter.com/thiscaregiver, facebook.com/thiscaregiverlife, and instagram.com/thiscaregiverlife. We’d love to receive your thoughts and request, so send us an email or even a voice memo to [email protected].

…until next time!

More links:

Jenn’s pro tip is to learn to say NO! Read her article about this underused strategy, https://www.hopeforthewarriors.org/newsroom/the-art-of-saying-no-as-caregiver/

Mar’s Blog has a plethora of pro tips, https://www.maryhahnward.com

Join the Family Operating Base FOB Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/familyoperatingbasecommunity/

This  Caregiver Life is excited to collaborate with Family Operating Base to produce a 4-episode special highlighting caregiver best practices that anyone can learn from. Each episode will feature Family Operating Base  Founder Raquel Derrick along with a special guest who will share their  ‘Pro Tips’ for overcoming challenges.

Mar and Jen review recent #caregiverchaos, doing deep work on self-care, and giving yourself permission to course correct. Show us how you take time for YOU. Post a pic or share a story on social media, tag us, and use the hashtag #selfkindness. You may just win a surprise from This Caregiver Life. Mar recently received a surprise gift box from Bitty & Beau's Coffee: more than just a place to grab a cup of coffee – it’s an experience. The shop is run by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities-check them out! https://www.bittyandbeauscoffee.com/ 

The National Alliance on Caregiving 2020 survey results are in. Read the results here: https://www.caregiving.org/caregiving-in-the-us-2020/ 

Want to be one of the coolest 11,000 people on the planet? Follow Mar's blog: http://www.maryhahnward.com/ 

Have an idea for our podcast? Want to share your thoughts with our listeners LIVE? We'd love to hear from you! Send us an email, a voice message, or a link to your favorite resource. [email protected] Love our show? Please leave us a 5-star rating and don't forget to share our show on your social media. Follow us on Facebook & Instagram @thiscaregiverlife and Twitter @thiscaregiver ...until next time...

Raquel Derrick, Ph.D., of Family Operating Base, joined Mary to share with our listeners how we are partnering in a four-part series.  Family Operating Base, FOB – Community, is an effort created by Raquel: When I first envisioned the FOB, it was to be a brick-and-mortar place of community support for military-connected families. Recent times have called me to revisit and revamp my idea. After all, brick and mortar are irrelevant at this time and we could all use a little community connection, military affiliation or not! Please join the FOB Facebook group for daily posts to promote a little sanity and hope during these strange times! New members are welcome.

As caregivers, we have much to offer non-caregivers in this post-COVID pandemic life. We are versatile, flexible, understanding, and compassion that runs deep. In a cooperative effort, TCL and FOB are creating the following four podcasts with caregivers as subject matter experts in pandemic life before there was a pandemic. The topics we will explore are:

1. Adapting to a Virtual Life

2. Adjusting to a New Normal

3. Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

4. Resilience

Visit us on social media:

facebook.com/thiscaregiverlife

twitter.com/thiscaregiver

www.thiscaregiverlife.com