CINDY 'N CHRISTINA HARDIN WEISS: Adaptive Equipment Gurus Making Caregiving Safe and Sound

📣 New Love Conquers Alz Episode #87!

Don Priess and I were so excited to talk to Christina ‘n Cindy Hardin-Weiss WEISS (https://adaptiveequipmentcorner.com), the founders of Adaptive Equipment and Caregiving Corner, IMHO - THE best place to go for educational and instructional videos and home medical equipment product reviews for professional caregivers, families caring for a loved one, and older adults who want to age in place. 

We are such HUGE fans of these ladies. Cindy and Christina bring years of expert knowledge and hands on experience to their educational videos and adaptive equipment reviews. If they endorse it - you know it's good! They literally put each and every product to the test! Even adult diapers! Come on! They are the real deal! They are the Ralph Nader for Caregivers.

Cindy Hardin-Weiss is a Physical Therapist and has spent the majority of her career in home healthcare. Her passion is to assist people in maintaining their independence, especially when it makes a difference in their ability to remain in their homes.

Christina Hardin-Weiss is a Speech/Language/Dysphagia Therapist. She has spent most of her career treating patients in skilled nursing facilities. She enjoys working with individuals who have dementia and their families, as well as those that have difficulty eating, chewing, and swallowing due to illness or disease.

Their mission is to help you maintain yours or your loved one's dignity and independence while remaining safely in the comfort and familiarity of your home. It is a noble cause indeed and we can’t wait for you tto get to know Cindy and Christina Hardin-Weiss.

Please listen on your favorite platform (https://linktr.ee/LCALZ) and/or watch us on our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRgcPBktXGd5ubfJf4xmJRA). 

And share, share, share! 💜

Remember:
Love is Powerful
Love is Contagious
and Love Conquers Alz!
Love,
Susie

Christina 'N Cindy on LinkedIn

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

When the world has gotcha down, and Alzheimer's sucks.

Don Priess: 0:05

It's an equal opportunity disease that chips away at everything we hold dear. And to date, there's no cure. So until there is we continue to fight with the most powerful tool in our arsenal. Love. This is love conquers all is a real and really positive podcast that takes a deep dive into everything. Alzheimer's, The Good, the Bad, and everything in between. And now, here are your hosts Susie singer, Carter, and me, Don Priess

Susie Singer Carter: 0:40

Hello, everybody, I'm Susie singer Carter.

Don Priess: 0:43

And I'm Don Priess. And this is love conquers all calls. Hello, Susan.

Susie Singer Carter: 0:47

Good morning, Donald. How are you doing?

Don Priess: 0:51

bit sleepy?

Susie Singer Carter: 0:53

Yeah,

Don Priess: 0:53

yeah. Last night was a lot or should I say this morning was a long night. At the edit at the edit. Yes, till 7am to 7am this morning. Got an A lovely two and a half hours asleep. And now I am raring to

Susie Singer Carter: 1:09

go. That's right. That's enough for you. That's enough. It's after that.

Don Priess: 1:16

It's more than you actually let me usually Yeah.

Susie Singer Carter: 1:21

You know, I'm, I am. I'm small but mighty.

Don Priess: 1:26

A taskmaster, a tiny taskmaster? That's me.

Susie Singer Carter: 1:31

That's me.

Don Priess: 1:32

Well, what's happening? Well,

Susie Singer Carter: 1:33

we're talking about editing, No Country for Old people. And we we really feel good. This is why we're up so late last night, because we feel like we've we finally got a cut. That is we're hoping the cut. Now what now we now we bear our, our, we bear our babies, we present our babies to our most dearest trusted colleagues, you and then they and then they will rip it apart.

Don Priess: 2:05

We'll start over. Damn, the last 11 months of editing, let's start over.

Susie Singer Carter: 2:11

So really, really the you know, I think all the polishing is so that we don't embarrass ourselves in front of our colleagues. Right? Because they're, they're gonna, they're gonna be the most, they're gonna scrutinize us the most, which is good, because we do the same to them. So it's fair play. Yeah, absolutely done. And everyone needs it. But we're not looking forward to it. So but but you know, in the least bit, no, no, but we've been we've gotten this far, folks. And we're and it's going to be powerful. And you're, and we'll definitely, as always keep you posted. And what else don't have we follow up? Surprise. We're still raising money. What

Don Priess: 2:51

we are. We are I mean, it's it's a never ending saga. But we do we are still looking for finishing funds. Yeah. Which are the things that we need to finish, hence the name finishing funds. We still have, let's see how many things we have. We have color, you know, our final color. We have audio mixing, we have a composer who's working on music even as we speak all your things. Yes, we have a whole legal team that has declared each and every moment of the three hours and 11 minutes. And they pull our pocket strings. Absolutely. All things that cost a lot of money. We've done very well. Susan, spearheaded by Suzy we've raised, you know, got us to this point. We need that push over the line. So if if anyone you know, has a spare change, or a lot of spare change, they're

Susie Singer Carter: 3:45

getting older and your future you know, yeah, and, and our and fixing our terrible, terrible, sad nursing home long term care system and get everybody either in a really good long term care facility that is actually doing what it's supposed to do, or, you know, aging beautifully at home, which really is a great segue into our next into our guests today. Right? Yes,

Don Priess: 4:11

yeah, absolutely. It does lead exactly because they are they are champions cheerleaders, like more than cheerleader mascot, their leaders, their leaders the more than mascots except I do like the heads that they were those funny heads. Those are really fun, but they're they're amazing people and I think perhaps should I shall I tell our audience who they are. Okay, when I do that, Cindy Hardy Weiss is a physical therapist and has spent the majority of her career in home health care. Her passion is to assist people in maintaining their independence, especially when it comes to making a difference in their ability to remain in their homes. Christina Hardin Weiss is a speech language dysphasia therapist, she spent most of her career are treating patients in skilled nursing facilities. She also enjoys working with individuals who have dementia and their families as well as those who have difficulty eating, chewing, swallowing due to illness or disease. Together, they are founders of adaptive equipment and caregiving toerner Out of which they produce educational and instructional videos and home medical equipment, product reviews for professional caregivers, families caring for a loved one and older adults who want to age in place. Their mission is to help you maintain your dignity and independence while remaining safely in the comfort and familiarity of your home. It is a noble cause indeed, and we cannot wait to hear more. So let's say hello to Cindy and Christina Hardin Weiss. Hello, Cindy and Christina. Hello,

Susie Singer Carter: 5:46

guys. Hello. Well, thank you, you know, we are great and tired. feeling really good. Yeah, yeah. But it's, this is all about you guys today. And I have been, you know, literally, I, you know, quietly seeing you win in all your shenanigans. And, and I say that with the, you know, respect to because it's it, I love how you, I love what you guys are doing. And I love the kinds of, you know, resource that you become, and the way that you deliver it is just delightful and authentic. And, and and you know, I'm not surprised about some offline stuff that we just talked about. Because the I knew that would be you, I knew that you guys are authentic and the and the real deal because I'm telling you, the the caregiving community and you know, it's a huge, it's a huge community. But you know, there's also 53 million caregivers and growing and, you know, where there's where there's that many numbers there, you know, you need to, there's a lot of money to be made. And you know, people don't people in that position, when you're a caregiver and you're in the throes of it, you're very vulnerable, you're tired, and you really don't know where to turn and you really need to find a resource that you can trust. And honestly, listeners do. You can trust these ladies, I'm telling you, I I really really endorsed them so much. And i i That is That is my my I would say that's my secret sauce. That's my secret power is is sussing out that authenticity. And that's you guys,

Unknown: 7:30

thank you. That's very, that's probably one of the best compliments we ever receive it to be called authentic and genuine. It really means so much to us. Because that's, that's really, that's really what we want to be, we want to be that trusted resource. And if people see us as authentic and genuine, then bonus for us. That's right. That's exactly right. Yeah.

Susie Singer Carter: 7:51

I mean, honestly, I am so excited to talk to you. Because you, you're everything that I wish I knew and had when I was, you know, going through my journey with my mom, and who had Alzheimer's for 16 years. And, you know, every stage of it, and especially the last, you know, the last, the last trek is, is very challenging. And boy, if I knew you guys, like two years ago, I would have been, I would have been all over you, you'd be sick of me. I'm telling you, I'm looking at your credits and everything that you've been doing, you're you're, it's, you know, SLP Where were you? I needed you.

Unknown: 8:32

Yeah, we hear that. We hear that quite a bit. And that's like a dagger to the heart. Because we, you know, it's just, it's, you know, you go to school, because you want to help people, right. And so it's just, and that never changes throughout your career. And so when we started doing this, you know, and getting out there more and sit in seeing more people and caregivers and individuals that were wanting to age safely in place. You know, we hear that all the time, if I would have only known, you know, it's just, it's, we're trying, we're trying,

Susie Singer Carter: 9:03

you're more than trying, you're doing you're doing you and and, you know, I want to I want to hear your background, but I just want to say you know that, you know, if whoever's listening, all of all of the things that Cindy and Christina bring to the table, all of their gifts and knowledge and expertise and experience is is so needed, because, you know, I never knew what DeFazio was, I didn't know dysphasia I didn't know what you know, aspiration was I didn't know what literally what NPO was, I mean, all these things are things that that suddenly when someone has your loved one is, you know has turned a corner and is getting you know, is have you played whack a mole for one thing, and there's acuities everywhere and you don't know what to address and all you can do is believe the people that are in charge, and oftentimes they and often more than often, which is why we're doing our documentary. They don't have your best interests right Right. And so you really need to find a source that you can trust. Because everybody has a different opinion. And everybody's motivations are different. So thank you so much for being a resource out there and being like, true blue. And pleasure.

Unknown: 10:19

Yeah, it

Susie Singer Carter: 10:20

is a pleasure. Monterde Yeah,

Unknown: 10:22

it is our pleasure. So,

Susie Singer Carter: 10:23

so, ah, thank you. So, alright, so let's start with with Christina, tell us how you got involved, what you do, what your expertise is, and why you stay in this. This this crazy industry?

Unknown: 10:36

Yeah. So, so I'm a speech therapist. Most of my career has been spent in long term care. So I know exactly what you're talking about Susie, I, I loved working in long term care. I've worked like Cindy, I've worked for a short stint in home health, but I just the team, especially in therapy, and nursing together always felt like such a team. And we always benefit it, it was everything that we would do would be to benefit our clients or our patients. And I just for me, I enjoyed, I enjoyed, especially working with the memory care, the residents on memory care are the community members in memory care. It was, it was I learned something new every day. And I you know, people are communicative human beings, we are communicative. We like to communicate, even whether you whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, you still have something to say, and you want to be validated. And so in that makes no difference, regardless of what stage you're at, if you're living with dementia, I have, you know, I had patients that, you know, could no longer communicate. But that didn't mean we couldn't sit down with a book, we couldn't sit down with some pictures, or we couldn't sit down with some kind of something, some kind of food or some kind of magazine, and go through that together. And point and look at and acknowledge even if, even if they have one word, if they per separate on one word, it's it means something the tone, the way they say, mean something. And so it was it was truly my pleasure to be able to work with with those with the clients and stuff with the patients and stuff. And then with this fascia is one, that one is my second favorite. And usually when you're a person living with dementia, swallowing troubles or dysphasia is usually becomes a major issue near the end, you know, in finding out what somebody enjoys eating so that they can still get the pleasure of eating. And sometimes tastes change as as we progress as we get older. And as we progress through dementia, and trying to find out what was that one special thing that they loved so that we can get the most calories in them, and they would have the best quality of life. That to me was a challenge. But man, was it fun when we would figure that out? You know, figuring out that they liked this particular food with that particular food, maybe I wouldn't have chose it. But I but it's something that you know, it's something that they liked. And guess what? I want you to eat it then you know if that's going to keep weight on you if you're going to be able to swallow it safely. Let's you know let's let's do it. You know let's let's do it. If you're if your mom wants to eat with your with her fingers out of a bowl, who cares? She if she's not using silverware is she getting? Is she getting nutrition in her? You know what she used to be a really good cook and that's how she ate she never sat down with the family. She just ate out of the pot whenever she was cooking. Who cares? She's getting food in her mouth, you know? So right there

Susie Singer Carter: 13:37

she happy? Is she?

Unknown: 13:39

Absolutely, absolutely.

Susie Singer Carter: 13:41

Oh my God, everything you're saying everything. You're saying Christie that resonates? I could sit down and talk to you for two hours. Because this my whole thing with my mom, they put her on NPO for no reason. And she could swallow and they wouldn't let her they wouldn't do it because they didn't want to you know, assign the ability to help to do it. Yeah. And so I got went in there every day. And they'd only let me give her liquids on a sponge on the on the oral juices and she would suck them dry. She would suck them dry because she was so thirsty and I had to pull stuff out of her mouth every day. And I was I she was being It was torture because she wanted to eat. Yep, yeah, yeah. And they put her on a G Tube when the hospital and there's anyway that's it's a whole nother thing but but honestly, you know, and when you talked about communication oh my god for sure. I mean, I had one of the chaplains came in and told me my Mom, don't you don't have to worry about your mom. She has holes in her brain and she doesn't you know she's not really there. She's demented. And I said Are you kidding me? Like she just told me she loved me. You know full. i We talk with when I talk non stop. I talk enough for both of us. She She laughed and nod the entire time. You know, she was hearing everything I was saying and communicating like you do with with a baby that doesn't talk, they communicate with them. My mom, not a baby had, you know, a lot of her cognitive was there. She just couldn't speak it. Yep. Right. Yeah. And so you're so right, there's, there's so much education that needs to be had about that stage of will all stages of progressive diseases. So thank you for thank you for being a champion for people without voices. Because, you know, there's so much ableism in our in our healthcare system, because people don't understand. So that takes us to Cindy, yes. Tell us about you.

Unknown: 15:42

I'm a physical therapist, and I have been in mainly in home health for the duration of my career, which is about 30 years now. And I love the home health setting, I love being in other people's spaces, it's it's different, not faces, but space. It's different. It's different, you know, when you're in their home, and it's it's kind of their territory, and you get to spend a little bit more time with them and really understand and, and learn about them. And then really working with him as far as helping them figure out, you know, hey, if I want to stay here, what do I need to do to try to do that? Along with them and their their caregivers and really trying to educate? Especially the caregivers on, you know, how am I going to handle this now, because I'm a, I'm a caregiver, and a lot of people don't even realize that that is happening, or that they are truly a caregiver. And in, you know, the longevity of that can be at risk if the caregiver is not taking care of themselves, both, you know, physically, emotionally, the whole nine yards. So that's that education of trying to work with both the loved one and the caregiver, you know, what needs to be done, what are some things that can make things more efficient and safe for both parties. You know, whether it's using verbal cues, maybe you need verbal cues now, or tactile cues to help your loved one get through that process of maybe it's just sitting to standing. And there's so many times that I've treated individuals, I'll go into a house and the clients and the family is frustrated. And they're like, you know, we have to fully lift mom out of the chair, now she just can't do it. And I'll go over and I'll talk to mom, and we'll go through some visual or visual cues or tactile cues, and mom can do it. But it's just that that teaching and that education of allowing the caregiver to be okay with letting their loved one do as much as they can. Because it's going to be a matter of saving their dignity, their independence, as well as saving the caregiver. You know, as far as what they're doing, physically.

Susie Singer Carter: 17:57

I love that that's so that, you know, that, that reminds me of what they that we we interviewed several SLPs and our documentary I wished I would have know that you are an SLP more because I love I love what you're saying. But you know one of the I don't know if you know ENSO Humbert but Humboldt, but she's amazing. And she, she's a professor as well. And she said, you know, if you don't, if you don't swallow, then you're, then you don't you forget, you're gonna, you're not gonna be able to remember how to swallow, you're going to lose that skill. So you have, it's like, if you hurt your leg, you have to walk so that you can rehabilitate your leg, otherwise, you'll end up never walking. So it's the same thing. If you don't exercise those muscles, you know, you will lose it, and especially people with Alzheimer's and dementia, you know, you have to keep it consistent, right. And with the documentary, I've been doing a lot of posts and talking about, you know, and just share any that I really, that really opened my eyes, my mother, you know, suffered, and I was there every day. And some of the responses that are very painful will be from on on social media will be well, why did you leave your mom there? Why didn't Why did you let her suffer for six months? What you know, I would have taken my mama home, I would have done this. I took care of my mom for seven years at home and you know it all these things without understanding the acuity. And then at some point, I would I'm wondering, you know, do you do you help with those assessments in terms of family members? I mean, we all want to keep our family member at home. Oftentimes accessibility doesn't work, you know, in terms of just the the layout of the home financially, and then the level of their acuity, right. So my mother ended up with a stage four wound that wasn't being attended to. If I had, you know, I was I was, you know, I wasn't, I was in between a rock and a hard place because I had to go every day and advocate for her Her Yep. Right. But if I took her home, it would have been worse. Right? Because that right? There that point where we're, we're stuck, right?

Unknown: 20:08

Yeah, that's and that's yeah, that's what we always that's what we always tell our caregivers. First of all, you know, it's not an easy job, it's hard on you physically, it's hard on you mentally, it's hard on you financially, you know. And so we try to, it's, it's hard on your relationship with your loved one as a caregiver, you know, and so not everybody is able to, for whatever reason to keep their loved one at home, if you think of it this way, if you if you take your loved one to a healthcare facility to a long term care facility, and let the professionals who do that on a daily basis, that opens you up to be able to be their advocate. So now you can go in every day, and you can advocate for them, you could go there every day for lunch and have lunch with them, you can be you can you can maintain that really that that mother daughter relationship that, you know, that familial relationship that you have with them. Whereas if you're caregiving at home, it really made me and it's really set you up to, to kind of take those roles get reversed. And it just kind of takes that that love out of it in burnout. And now that adds guilt to you. Because, you know, this is my mom, this is my dad, this is my grandparents, I feel bad for feeling this way. Well, guess what you're, you're you're human, it happens. So if you shouldn't feel bad if you have to take your loved one to a facility, to provide to provide them with the skilled care that they need, which will allow you to provide them with the loving care that they still need, and that you need from your parent or from your loved one, and

Don Priess: 21:45

that they can better for their dignity also better for their dignity also, as you know, because they don't necessarily want their daughter or son doing some of the things that need to be done. So you know, it puts them in an uncooked and so you know, people have to say, Oh, well, you know, I don't want a stranger doing that. Well, some cases you do. Yeah, absolutely.

Susie Singer Carter: 22:06

Yeah. And also people say, well, they raised you and they did. And it's like I've raised two daughters. I understand what that means. But when my daughter needed to be diapered and I and carried from chair to chair, she weighed 20 pounds, right? And so I you know, I'm strong, and mighty, but come on, let's let's face it, it's it's not easy. And if you don't have a huge, you know, group of family, if you don't have a lot of family members, like, you know, I didn't have a brother that was accessed that was, you know, involved. So then it's really on you, and to do all have it. And then of course, you know, which goes back to what we're talking about in our film is that, you know, our insurances, you know, and our federal insurance, you know, Medicare and Medicaid, don't offer don't take, they don't cover home care, right? only under certain circumstances and for very limited amounts of time.

Unknown: 23:02

Right. Right. Yeah. No,

Susie Singer Carter: 23:03

that's,

Unknown: 23:04

that's interesting that you say that, because we have so many people that get confused about Medicare, and they hear this Oh, boy, you'll get skilled care when you go home from the hospital. Well, skilled care is is me as a PT is her as an S T is a nursing visit. It is not 24 hours a day skilled care. And it's very confusing for people. And it's very misleading, because it is far and few between as far as the visits go. Yeah, yeah. That's unfortunate. It's very unfortunate.

Susie Singer Carter: 23:34

Yeah, it is unfortunate. We need to go on I'm sorry.

Unknown: 23:38

I was just gonna say and, you know, unfortunately, you get let's say you're in, you know, your loved ones in the hospital, they're in a nursing home and you get the opportunity to bring them back home, that level of skilled care they're getting in that facility. Now that falls on your shoulders. And if you don't know how to do that, because you've not been trained. No, that's I mean, there's another situation that compounds the whole caregiver situation, the whole dynamic, so, yeah.

Don Priess: 24:05

Oh, you put them in danger. You put them in? You put absolutely there.

Unknown: 24:09

Yeah. Everybody in the situation is in danger, the recipient as well as the caregiver. Right.

Susie Singer Carter: 24:16

Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, so it's a very complicated situation. And you're right, we do address Medicare and Medicaid, because I didn't know anything about it here in California to medical but, you know, we didn't know anything about it was like, Why is it you know, they threw my mom in hospice way before she needed to be in hospice, you know, and, and so it which is, which is the thing they do in nursing homes, because they can make the most money out of off of Medicare and do the least work. So they, they'll, they'll just, you know, give them like pain medication and let everything else go. Basically, and so, you know, and these are all the things that that you know, We have to deal with this caregivers. We don't really know. So. So as far as Yeah. And so it's going back to what you guys do as therapists. Yeah. I mean, and in a nursing home situation, you get paid through Medicare. Right, right. And so as the care giver, to somebody who is in a long term, facility, you need to know that, you know, if it's a good facility, they're gonna say, Absolutely. And they're going to call in therapists. If it's not, they're going to say, they're going to they're not going to do it, because it's going to cut out of their budget cut off from their bottom line. Yeah. So you need to push on that. And so, so tell us about what so you have a, let's go back to you. And talk about all the all the amazing resources that you have on YouTube on your YouTube channel, because you have, like, what 1000s of videos we have. Yeah, we have hundreds.

Unknown: 26:00

Yeah, we have hundreds of videos and products. Yeah. So Cindy, and I started our YouTube channel in 2015. We were coming home from my house for Christmas. And we thought you know, wouldn't it we were both in home health at the time. Wouldn't it be interesting if we made you get the same questions frequently, especially when it comes to physical therapy? Would it be helpful if we could make these little short videos, we had just started taking laptops into the patient's homes? Would it be cool if we could set them up with a video to show them answer their question counted as caregiver education, patient education, and then we could do our paperwork. So we wouldn't have to take it home with this, we can actually get it done in the patient's house, and it'd be cool. So we started making these videos in one of our spare bedrooms in our house in Southern Illinois. And we put them out on YouTube. And we started getting some traction in 2018. And so we thought, You know what, let's make these let's make these How to videos, let's put them on a website. And let's make a platform to kind of house them in. And that'll be our business. You know, we'll do that we'll do that for a living. And that'll be it'll be a subscription model. So we did that in 2020, January 2020, we went live. And in March of 2020, Illinois was shut down for quarantine because of COVID. Right? So never started business during a quarantine. So already a pandemic is my first piece of advice. So, so we started getting we started, you know, spending most of 2021 trying to figure out if was it our business was it COVID Was it both. And so we so we took all those videos that we had on YouTube and put those there, how to videos, we call them or the caregiver resource video behind that subscription wall. And so our YouTube channel, we started getting companies that were sending us their products. And so we started making product review videos, I was telling Don early before we all hopped on here that, you know, you could buy any of this stuff online, but just because you combine online doesn't mean you know how to use it safely. And as a matter of fact, it could increase your risk for injury of yourself or your loved one if you don't know how to use it safely. So I always like to tell our viewers that we don't sell the product, we just show you how to use it safely. So that's kind of what our YouTube channel turned into was this product review channel. And now, you know, we get these companies usually they're small businesses that you know, like us and they just say, Hey, I was a caregiver once and I found this device helped me and I tweaked it a little bit. And now I am entrepreneur, I'm an entrepreneur, isn't that cool? And so then we make these videos for them and put it on our YouTube channel, we put it on all our social media, Susie, Cindy and I are on Tik Tok too. So I always tell our viewers were too old ladies on everywhere. So we just send them we put those out there and we just show people how to use it, we just raise people's awareness that these products are out there. And that you know, it can help it can help your caregiving journey. It can help you age safely and place it can help you be in your own home safely though, even though all the products aren't for everybody. Everybody at least deserves options. Right? And so you don't know what you don't know. And that's where we come in. That's right. That's right. I

Don Priess: 29:10

and they love you know, they like my I was just telling my mother is in now in assisted living. And there's things she cannot stand up on her own. You know, she can't do you know, there's incontinence, all that stuff. But anytime, you know, Susie will say oh, you should get her this. And she's like, now, it's too expensive. I don't want to do that. So this can help. Not only the person who will you know, the caregiver, but to show it to the person who who would be using it and say, Look how easy this is, right? And if you guys give it a if you guys give it two thumbs up or whatever your ratings, you know, instills confidence that it's that it's a good and safe thing. So it really is helpful to the caregiver to bridge that communication gap and hopefully get them to use these. I

Susie Singer Carter: 29:58

think so too. I think that's A great eye. Great point, like Don's mom, like he was saying, was having difficulty getting up off the chair. And so for her, somehow, by the grace of God or a call, somebody was moving out and just left one of those lift chairs that makes you a brand new, brand new. And they said, Nikki, do you want it? And she got it?

Don Priess: 30:23

Please do that. Yes, that's

Susie Singer Carter: 30:24

awesome. She loves it. Yeah.

Unknown: 30:28

Because it might not be the way she used to stand up. But she's still that chair helps her in it helps her maintain her functional independence. We all can't just hop out of bed like we did when we were 20. No, but it doesn't mean we're not independent anymore. It just looks a little bit different. Independence looks a little bit different. There's nothing wrong with that. Right?

Don Priess: 30:47

You know, so much safer for her to Yeah, go ahead.

Unknown: 30:50

Oh, I was just gonna say you had you had mentioned incontinence. And I just want to make sure that the viewers know also, you know, we don't just pick up a product, look at it and say, oh, yeah, you know, this, we like this or whatever. We trial everything every weekend. And when I say we trial it I am including the Cine products, we carry incontinence products we do. We did try all those. We try our best during exercise, you know, we're not gonna we're not going to put out something with our seal of approval that we haven't actually tried yet. And so that's

Susie Singer Carter: 31:26

my next question. How do you test everything? How do you test the functionality and the quality? And then this? Yeah, and how do you determine the necessity of something? Like, how do you do you? Like, you know, I'm wondering about that, right?

Unknown: 31:39

I think that all goes back to what Christina said is, not every product is for everyone, but everyone needs to at least gets needs to have a choice. Yeah, and or an option. And you know, a lot of these, we're really assessing these chromotherapy point of view, from our history of seeing all types of people with all types of diagnoses. You know, we can't drill down to every little specific thing, but what we're trying to do is bring out the general qualities of each product is in how and who it might work for. In you know, and again, it may not work for everybody. But there's so many things out there. And there's so many things that people don't know if there's so many things that we don't know about. Yeah, and when people bring situations up, we do research all the time on different products. And in, there are so many brilliant people, and a lot of the brilliant people are caregivers that have been thrown into the situation, and have had to come up with some resolution for themselves and their loved one to make things easier. Yeah, yeah. So we try to keep our videos nice and short. And is just kind of the general idea. This is what it is, this is what it was meant for. Here's some things that we could see here are some diagnosis that might benefit from that. And then just keep it short. And then we just put it out there. And we get so many so many comments that people say, Oh, I used to for this or that or the other. I'm just like, brilliant. That is brilliant. It's just Yeah, it's more about a community. Yeah, about a community kind of sharing ideas. You know, we do get a lot of great ideas from our from our followers. So

Don Priess: 33:15

that's so great. And also review the reviews from the people that you know, they saw it, they you know, based on your recommendation, now they've tried it, and they are also coming and say yes, this absolutely does work, or maybe not so much. And you then, you know, it's a learning for like you say for a whole community.

Unknown: 33:33

Yeah, absolutely. We get, you know, Suzy, we get trolls on our staff as well. You know it because what we do? Oh, yeah, well, and you know, what we do what we all do here, it's not sexy. I mean, it's not like, you know, we're not gonna get go viral, because, you know, it's talking about, it's talking about things that people don't like to talk about sometimes, you know, and so we're never going to go viral, but it's the right thing to do. You know, so we get people that come out there and the troll show up. And they, you know, I'm here for the comments. And so they throw their stuff in. And I usually put on my little mom voice and we'll say, you know, I don't think your mom would find that very, you know, very new, you know, Didn't your mom teach you better than that? So sorry, yeah, yeah.

Susie Singer Carter: 34:15

Yeah, I love that. I love that. I've had people say shame on you. And I go shame on you. Yeah, I know my story.

Unknown: 34:22

Exactly. Right. Exactly. Right. Trolls are

Susie Singer Carter: 34:26

very judgy. It's like, you know, I call it like the you know, that the angry driver is very brave behind their closed window. Right, right. Yeah, that's ever say it say those things if you weren't in your car, but there's

Don Priess: 34:41

a very another Oh, there's an important aspect because I know. My mom often says, I can't afford that. I don't want to spend the money on that. Yeah, there's options for that isn't there? There

Unknown: 34:52

are Yeah, on our website@corner.com on our resource page, we have three resources that every caregiver needs to know about One of them is a national directory for a lending closet. So a linen closet is usually not for profit organization that collects gently used equipment. They refurbish it, and they give it out, they either loan it out for for a small fee or no fee to residents in their community. And then when they're done with it, they bring it back. That so those are called lending closets. And then there's the other one we recommend is every state has an Assistive Technology Program. Ours in Illinois, Cindy, and I work part time for our Assistive Technology program. It's in the capital, it's in Springfield, Illinois. And what they do come they have a reuse program as well. They also have a demonstration center where we're Illinois residents can come in, they can touch the stuff, they can look at the equipment, they can ask questions about it. And then they have a device long program where they can actually borrow it for six weeks, and use it for free. See if it fits in with their lifestyle. With speech therapy, I use that a lot because we would I might have a patient that was recovering from a stroke. And so I would get one of those augmentative and alternative communication boards, which is just a computer with symbols on it. And it might speak for them. Well, they might not want to learn that or maybe it was too difficult. And so I would borrow it, see if it fit their situation if the if it what didn't fit their lifestyle, and then we sent it back and they were out no money. Sometimes those things are expensive, right? So the 80 program, we have a directory on our website for that. And then also for your area agency on aging. To find out who your local area agency on aging is. If you don't know who your AAA is, you need to find out and go to the eldercare locator, which is an area agency on aging locator. Find out who yours is, if you have an aging loved one, get them involved in your AAA, because there are lots of programs that they might qualify for. Or maybe they don't qualify for it financially. But maybe there are community community programs that they might qualify for that they could they could come, you know, help combat social isolation. So I would highly recommend everybody find out those three, find out who your three local organizations are, and get involved with them, right?

Susie Singer Carter: 37:05

I mean, you have you you have on your website, a thing that you can a resource called the home safety quickstart guide your path to safer caregiving, they can download that. Can you can you talk about that, like what is your what's the nuts, you know, the the Reader's Digest of that? Yes.

Unknown: 37:23

So one thing that we really like to promote is, is being prepared as far as especially when you have a loved one in a hospital or a skilled nursing facility, and they are getting ready to come home, because you want your house to be prepared. So we with that quickstart guide we want you to look at especially if it's a rushed situation, which a lot of times it is, we want you to look at the top three areas that usually cause problems, that is the toilet height, usually the toilet height is too low or there's not a good push off area, you know, grabbing a hold of the toilet paper roll is not a good place to push off up with our hands or that or the towel bar. We also are looking at the bed height, looking at the bed height. And nowadays, the beds are too high, people can't get into them. And you know, it's miserable when you get home and you can't get into your own bed. And then your comfy chair, you know, everybody's got their comfy chair with their command central around the comfy chair. A lot of times, that's going to be too low. If they've been in the hospital and they're a little bit weak, it's going to be too low. So those quickstart guide kind of shows you or tells you a little bit about how are we going to work with those three areas to make sure those are okay, for those first couple of nights back home to make that transition a little bit easier. Yeah. And then we have videos attached to him as well. Yeah. And then inside our subscription. On our website, we have a full on home safety assessment that people can use. It's a downloadable PDF, and you can watch the videos and walk through your home and find out different areas of your home that that may need some help as far as home safety goes.

Susie Singer Carter: 38:57

Incredible. It's so great. So I'm so amazed by you guys. And in terms of what done just jumping up and what you said about you know, the cost is it aren't some of these kinds of rehabilitated tait of like instruments or equipment, are they not covered by Medicare for a certain amount certain amount of time or? Yeah,

Unknown: 39:19

some of the things some of the larger items are covered by Medicare. So you're talking about a walker, a hospital bed or wheelchair. But again, it's it's all in the fine print, you've got to you know, if you've had a walker and you need you can't have and you can't purchase another one within five years. You know, a Hoss sometimes they will not pay for a walker in a wheelchair at the same time. So you need to pick the lesser of two evils is when you're trying to purchase ones or borrowing one. So there's a lot of different fine print bedside commode. You have to be what they consider a room bound. And if the doctor can't write that you are room bound then they won't cover a bedside commode. Uh, and unfortunately you guys Yeah, yeah, but you know who has your area your linen closet has one that you could borrow usually has some bedside commode. Oh

Susie Singer Carter: 40:11

my God, that's such a great resource. Hey, what do you guys think of the wick? I'm talking about that because we're trying to get Don's a mom to my my mom might say, well explain it. I'm going to just tell the listeners that when my mom came out of the hospital, and they kept her on, on a internal Foley catheter for way too long, and I kept, I kept bitching about it and saying, Are you sure? I don't think this is healthy. This can't be healthy. Long story short, I, I was told about the WIC. And then I actually saw commercials on it. My mom ended up in in the hospital hemorrhaging from a horrible infection from the Foley catheter, and that that hospitalist, the doctor from the hospital said, Yeah, we need to take that out. They had to flush her bladder like five times, and then give and get her onto a WIC Well, I don't know. You know, the they were very resistant, resistant to doing that at the nursing home. I don't know why whether it was the expense or whatever it was. But it seems like such a great solution. Because it's like it's non invasive. does the job. I'd like to Yeah,

Don Priess: 41:20

they wouldn't. They said no, they absolutely said no, we will not do that. Yeah,

Unknown: 41:25

I'm wondering if it has to do with the reoccurring expense of the the replacements. Yeah, I would bet that's the reason. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz it can be kind of expensive. Yeah, I would bet that's the reason. It is an amazing, it is amazing.

Don Priess: 41:39

To cover that. Yeah.

Susie Singer Carter: 41:42

Yeah. Just so you guys know it. It's basically like it's so non invasive, if someone has incontinent, especially if they're trying to heal a wound. So you want to keep them dry. Or even anybody like Dan's mom, who, you know, at night, it's Bambinos. Her incontinence is bad at night. And so, you know, and it was waking her up, and and we were and I was telling her about this thing that just as the name is Wix, though, the, the, you know, moisture away, here, just wicks it away. And it's just and it's benign. It seems like such an amazing product. Right?

Unknown: 42:17

Right. Well, we need to get one of those. I know, that'd be we need to do another trial of great things about him. But yeah, wick if you're listening, send us a sample.

Susie Singer Carter: 42:30

I will Yes, wick you need to do this. I can't. Yeah, you guys need to do this. And when you do it, I will. I will. I will post it all over the place because it is a saver, and like my mum wouldn't have been in so much pain and really, nobody wants to have a catheter in them in this. They were like, in a coma. You know, you don't need that. There's, am I right? There's all Oh, yes. Well,

Unknown: 42:54

I mean, you know, stop and think about we were just talking about, you know, forgetting how to swallow. You know, now, you know, if you've got a catheter in which just automatically pulls the urine out, you know, what's the point in having any of that musky the pelvic floor muscular musculature then? I mean, forget. Yeah, it forgets what it's supposed to do to which does which just adds insult to injury. Right, right.

Susie Singer Carter: 43:17

Thank you. Thank you. Oh, my God. Well, did we miss anything? I just love you guys so much. I want to just cheerlead, you know, I really do. I mean, that like your what you're doing for the community is just one of the most it's it's so it's so valuable. You what you're doing is such a valuable service in Cuba. You know, I want to see you on the view needs to have you on I love it, like Good Morning America, and all these places, because you You are the real deal. Like I said before you and you are not stopping anytime soon. No. And you're actually in the trenches working with people, you get it, you know, what people need, you're not just the you know, you're not, you're not just the liaison between the people that are, you know, making these products and the people that are buying these products, you're actually using them. That's right. So so that you can't you can't get better, you know, testimony than that.

Unknown: 44:22

Thank you. Thank you. We will Yeah, we really appreciate honestly.

Susie Singer Carter: 44:27

Yeah, I'm just I just love you. So anything we left out that you'd like to say?

Unknown: 44:34

Just you know, just one more time Killen about our website, a corner.com. That's where our Caregiver Resource Library you could find you could join it. It's, you know, over 200 videos in the in the subscription library itself. It's $10 a month you can cancel it anytime when your caregiving journey in your journey ends or you're tired of learning so we would encourage

Susie Singer Carter: 44:58

people to have dollars is now thing $10 In terms of your time, and everything else, it's like it's that's a bargain. Yeah. And I'm not just saying that it is a bargain, like I would have paid for that tenfold, like I would have, I would have paid, you know, much more than that for that. Thank you service. So that's incredible. Sign up, you sign up if you haven't done it, because you will need it, I promise you, you will need this. And I And can people write you and email you and Tim or whatever, and just say, hey, there's a product out there that I'm they want my mom or dad to use? Or my husband? What do you think? Would you check it out? Are those things that they can do? Yeah,

Unknown: 45:36

absolutely. Yeah, we get that a lot on our social media channels. People will say they'll mention the mentioned us in it, and they'll say, you know, Hey, check this out kind of thing, which is a great resource for us to be able to, then we could reach out to that company, and they will send us a sample. Yeah. Yeah, that's

Susie Singer Carter: 45:53

so fabulous. Oh, that's wonderful. So take advantage of that, too. Because where else can you get that done? You know, like, there was so many times that I wanted to ask somebody was this right? Is this good? You know, and, yeah, and, and you really need some a source that you can trust that I can tell you that that is the truth. And you Thank you. It's far and few between. So thank you. We appreciate it. I love you. And I know that you know, which always harkens us back to the title of this podcast. Don, why

Don Priess: 46:27

it does. Well, that's because love is powerful. Love is contagious, and love conquers all. So we thank everybody for watching and listening today. Please like, subscribe, do all those things that get the word out.

Susie Singer Carter: 46:41

And you can find all the information of these great ladies as Christina and Cindy show notes, and the show notes and all where you can find them and badger them and stop them like I do. And and and Share, share, share share them with everybody. You'll be doing a mitzvah as they say in French. So yeah, I just give his friend you'll be doing a blessing for everybody. All right, well take care and, and yeah, follow us.

Don Priess: 47:20

See you next time. We

Susie Singer Carter: 47:21

love you. Bye. Take care.