Hopes & Dreams: A Critical Ingredient In The Lives Of Caregivers And Their Loved Ones Family Articles | October 2 Cheap Shirts , 2006
It?s human nature to hang onto two basic hopes ? the hope of overcoming illness and the hope of delaying death. Hope is the magical salve for the suffering of caregivers and their loved ones. No matter how desperate the situation, there is still hope for the dream.

It?s human nature to hang onto two basic hopes ? the hope of overcoming illness and the hope of delaying death. However, in many cases the reality is that your loved one faces a steady medical decline, a life-threatening illness or impending death.

Hope is like the vase that contains your sweet-smelling colorful dreams.

Dreams Cheap Jerseys , like flowers, change over the seasons of life and the stages of caregiving. Yet, no matter how desperate the situation, there is always room for hope and dreams. It is the magical salve for the suffering of caregivers and their loved ones. Hope is the optimistic belief that you can expect a better tomorrow.

Sometimes that better tomorrow happens as a result of something that changes in the outside world ? such as a new drug or unexpected help.

Sometimes the better tomorrow arrives because you see things from a new perspective.

Hopes and dreams become the guiding light for the tough choices that you and your loved ones face. Here are 7 tips for hanging onto hope:

1. Give a voice to your secret longings Wholesale NCAA Hats , wishes and dreams.

If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for? Maybe it?s turning back the sands of time and taking away the car keys from your father instead of sitting at his hospital bedside where he is recovering from the car accident he caused.

Maybe it?s imagining that you?ll turn on the news and learn of a new miracle cure for the cancer that?s taking over your mother?s body or for the dementia that?s erasing your grandmother?s memories.

Hope might be something simple like a good night?s sleep for you and your loved one. Say it out loud, ?We could use a good night?s sleep.?

2. Define the reality.

In the course of taking care of tens of thousands of patients, I?ve seen miracles happen.

However Wholesale NCAA Hoodies , most people experience likely events. Grasp an understanding of your current reality based on what?s most likely to happen naturally.

When you define the most likely outcome, it helps you decide where to place your hopes. For example, a friend of mine who is a family doctor told me of a conversation between him and a loving mother whose 6-year-old child had a relapse of leukemia after a bone marrow transplant.

There was an experimental treatment offered halfway across the country.

The mother wanted to know where to take her child: to a new hospital across the country for lots of ?pokeys? as her son called them, or Disneyland to enjoy the final days of his life.

Does she hope for a cure Wholesale NCAA Shirts , or for the fullest remaining days of her child?s life? 3.

Recognize your loved one?s hopes may be different than your own.

The mother of the 6-year-old made the medical choices for her son.

What if the person with the leukemia is your father, who is competent to make his own medical choices? Maybe you cannot bear the thought of losing him and hope that a new treatment will cure him.

Maybe your father shares that per