Starting over.  There is a certain amount of emotion that is involved in the phrase “starting over.”  It can make you feel like some time has been lost, maybe even wasted. 

Don’t allow yourself to feel that way.  Realize that everything you have learned in your journey towards “starting over,” has helped you.  Recognize that without your first attempt, or second or maybe third, you continue to learn and certainly will not repeat the same process. 

Believe that your experience matters.  Understand that without your frustration and your motivation, another person would have dropped out long ago.

But that isn’t you.  You accept the fact that things didn’t work out and that is not going to stop you from picking yourself up and moving forward.

Moving forward is the only way to go.  You do have what it takes to make your goal work.  There is no reason to drop out now.  Stay in the game.  You’re not actually “starting over,” you’re having a “new beginning.”

                                                                                                                              “Now, let’s get going!”  xo Sally

Caring for a family member or friend can be a challenge, whether it is your home or theirs. It often turns into a full time job and it is difficult to find enough time to do things well. In our current healthcare maze, it is often asked whether or not Medicare pays for help in the home. The answer is “no.” That leaves many families on their own when it comes to choosing an agency to provide caregivers that they can trust.

In my practice I most frequently turn to Visiting Angels. They are a national network of franchised, non-medical, senior homecare agencies providing up to 24 hour care in the comfort of the home where the patient is staying. There is no better example of a great Visiting Angel’s Agency than the local agency in Punta Gorda, Florida. Sunny Cavanaugh is the owner of the agency.

When writing this, I want you know that I have entrusted many of my patients, past and current, to Sunny. As most of you know I am a huge advocate of excellent patient care. I am grateful that I have been able to entrust the provision of caregiver services of my patients to Sunny. She is involved in each case that is taken on by her agency, and she knows each client and caregiver personally. The backgrounds of the caregivers that she hires are thoroughly screened, and she matches her caregivers’ strengths and specific knowledge base, with a client’s needs. The client and family always have the final say regarding which caregiver seems to work best with their loved one. Sunny often says “the client is in complete control, from start to finish.”

The Visiting Angels’ caregivers are non-medical, in that they provide supportive one on one care to the client. Many of the caregivers have been nursing assistants or home health aides, so they are well equipped to assist with a client’s bathing, dressing and self-care needs. The best part of having a great working relationship with Sunny’s agency is that I can depend on her knowledge of her caregivers’ skills, and she is able to match the right caregivers to the client’s needs very successfully. The caregivers are able to help with a client’s daily care, light household activities, grocery shopping, meal preparation and transporting the patient to medical visits.

Why is Sunny so great? She is a great team builder and maintains good staff. She also has a passion for the business of caregiving, because she has had a long history of being a caregiver for her own family members. She cared for her father who passed away in 1961, her grandfather, who passed away in 1989, and her mother who passed away in 2006. While being a caregiver, Sunny was working in real estate, banking and finance. She knows what it takes to balance it all. Her compassion for the caregiver is insightful and critical to the success of the client’s care. Sunny is amazing. She and her staff are the best!

Note: we will be adding questions and comments about hiring a caregiver agency this month, and will be providing helpful tips and questions to ask when interviewing an agency. Let us know your questions! Leave them here or send us an email through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sunny Cavanaugh's Contact Information:  (941) 347-8288, Charlotte County, (239) 368-0888 Lee County, (863) 993-4444, DeSoto County: www.visitingangels.com/swgulfcoast

There are new and exciting treatments available for Multiple Sclerosis, and March is the month dedicated to recognizing this disease. There is a need to further educate people about Multiple Sclerosis and we will start with a few statistics.

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease affecting the brain and spinal cord (also known as the central nervous system), the causes of which are still unknown. The disease can be relatively mild or severely debilitating, and is the leading cause of disability among young adults ages 20 to 40. There are four main types of multiple sclerosis: relapsing-remitting, primary-progressive, secondary-progressive, and progressive-relapsing.

The cause of Multiple Sclerosis is still not known. For some reason the covering of the nerve fibers (myelin) becomes damaged in random areas. The areas of damage are known as plaques. The job of myelin is to insulate nerve fibers. It helps nerve messages to be quickly and properly conducted to and from the brain. The symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis depend on where these plaques occur in the central nervous system.

Multiple Sclerosis(MS) statistics show that approximately 250,000 to 350,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with this disease. The life expectancy for people with Multiple Sclerosis is nearly the same as for those without MS. Because of this, multiple sclerosis statistics place the annual cost of MS in the United States in the billions of dollars.

Familiarize yourself with the new medications that are on the market to treat Multiple Sclerosis. We will be sharing more information regarding those medications this month.

For more information visit:

The Multiple Sclerosis Foundation
http://www.msfocus.org/national-ms-awareness-month.aspx

http://multiple-sclerosis.emedtv.com/multiple-sclerosis/multiple-sclerosis-statistics.html

Your Questions mean everything to me and finding Answers for you is why we are here. Here are some recent questions that we have been asked.

If you have something you would like to add, please send in your thoughts through email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or leave your comments below:

Q: My husband was told that he has Parkinsons Disease by his neurologist. When we go to a local Parkinson’s Support Group and I meet the other patients and caregivers, it does not seem like my husband’s symptoms are the same as the others. How can I be sure that he has Parkinsons Disease?

Unfortunately, there is not a clinical test that can accurately diagnose Parkinsons Disease. There are more advanced imaging studies that can be done, but the most helpful thing to do is to go to a Neurologist that is familiar with Parkinsons Disease and Movement Disorders. A general neurologist may not be as helpful, because there are diseases that look like Parkinsons Disease, but may not be true Parkinsons Disease. There are many names for the other diseases; PSP (Progressive Supra-Nuclear Palsy), Lewy Body Disease (LBD), and others. The most important thing to consider is whether or not the medications that are being taken to treat the Parkinsons Disease symptoms are actually helping. If the patient is taking Carbidopa/Levodopa and not recognizing improvement in their walking, balance or general function, that is an issue.

I have heard some patients say that they can skip a dose of medication, and cannot even tell, because the medication is not helping them. Before you jump to conclusions, you have to be sure that you are looking at specific symptoms and you have to monitor any improvement that may felt, even if it is for a short time period. In other words there are some cases where a patient may not experience a strong response to their medication, because the dose is not sufficient enough to provide a longer lasting response.

It is a challenging situation, but it is well worth the effort to question whether or not the dose of Levodopa is working. Remember that you can have side effects from Levodopa too. The most common side effects: constipation, sleepiness, lethargy and others. Many times, when it is determined that a person does not have actual Parkinsons Disease and the medication is reduced, the patient feels better. They can be less constipated and more alert.

You may be right. Your husband may not have “idiopathic” or actual Parkinsons Disease. You need to seek further medical advice.

Q: My wife has dementia and has started to develop problems staying asleep at night. I am afraid that she may leave the house when I am asleep. What should I do?

It is not uncommon for advanced Alzheimer’s patients and people with dementia, to have increased confusion at night. Vivid dreams and hallucinations may also occur and affect a person’s sleeping pattern. When people are startled from a dream and appear to wake up, they may still have REM sleep disturbances.

The most critical thing to do is secure your home safely. If you need to add dead bolt locks or other safety equipment, do that right away. People are known to leave their home at night, due to confusion and that is a huge safety hazard.

Once you have secured your home, make sure that you are reporting these problems to your Primary Care Physician and/or your Neurologist. There are a number of ways to treat these sleep disturbances, and you need to seek out the proper type of specialist to improve the patient’s sleep pattern, so you can get some sleep too. The Caregiver needs to make sure that they are able to sleep as well. That is critical and most important!

Send your questions to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Sally looks forward to answering your questions!

Try not to let yourself feel that your future is limited. Regardless of your situation today and what you feel it looks like tomorrow; believe that you have what it takes to create your Future.

We all have made mistakes and your experiences are no different than anyone else’s. You may have financial problems due to poor choices, or you may feel that one of your children’s problems with drugs or the choice of an unhealthy lifestyle is your fault….and guess what? That may be true. But that does not have to be your reality now.

Part of living is learning and the best part of learning is that you can learn ways to change. You may need to change your thinking, your attitude, your life. It is all possible, if you start small and work toward the bigger picture.

You can’t give up on you. Each day you have to realize that there is a better way. You just have to find it, embrace it, believe it and do it. You really can change your situation. You are amazing. You have to believe that you are worth it…because you are! Create your Future. Start today. “Now, let’s get going!”  xo Sally

Our experiences in life form what lies behind us. Our goals and dreams lie ahead of us. But what lies within us, determines how we will reach our goals and dreams.

If you do not dream anymore, you need to start. Start by asking for hope in your heart. Learn that you will not be able to find hope until you find peace with the situation you are in.

We can make our situation better in many ways. First we have to change our attitude towards what is happening to us and look at how we can do things differently. Every one of us has a different situation, but how we look at managing it, can make all the difference.

Don’t give up or give in. Refuse to settle for the status quo. No matter how hopeless or helpless things may appear, you are learning something new each and every day, and those lessons will come back to empower you. Use the tools you have within you. If you think you don’t have the right tools, let’s figure out what you need.

Always feel that you can write to us and ask questions. Sallycares.com was developed for you to become better and stronger. We all need something. We are all caring for someone or something.

We are starting a new question and answer section in Sally’s Spotlight-on the web site, so we can all learn together, and that is when learning happens! No matter what your age or situation, remember that you are not alone. Email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. “Now, let’s get going!”  xo Sally

You were put on this Earth for a reason. You may not feel like you know what it is yet, regardless of your age, but you have a purpose.

If you find yourself waking up each day and feeling like your life is a routine and you are getting nowhere…it may be due to not having decided where you want to go or what you would like to do. If you haven’t defined what you want to do or have no goal, it is easier to feel unhappy, depressed and disillusioned.

Start out by making a goal for the rest of this week, to do something you haven’t done in ages. Call or visit a friend, go to a movie, make a dinner and invite people over or whatever you feel would lift your mood. Once you do that; visualize yourself doing some kind of work that you feel you would enjoy. Look into volunteering, if you are out of the work force at this time.

You are needed and necessary. Don’t shy away from doing something you have wanted to do. If it is important to you, it will make a difference in your life and the lives of others…and that is what we are all here for. Let us know your goals!  We want you to be successful! “Now, let’s get going!”  xo Sally

There are plenty of people who will choose how to treat a person based on what clothes a person wears, what kind of car they drive, how much money they have or who they know. For those people, it is clear that they perceive their own status will climb, just by associating themselves with a certain kind of person.

What does that tell you about the person who is making choices like that? It usually means that their choices are driven by what will help them. They are the most important consideration. It’s all about their success in the end, regardless of who they use to get to their destination.

Instead of being like that, choose more wisely and for better reasons. When we treat someone well, regardless of their looks, social status or financial success, it says a lot. We all need to be aware of the value of each person we meet. We owe our best effort to each situation we come across.

When we treat people well, regardless of the circumstances, those actions will hopefully teach others to act the same way. Each day we watch how other people handle situations. Believe that we are all the same, because we are. Some people choose different paths. Some people desire to work harder than others. We are the choices that we make, each and every day. Make good choices today. Treat each other well. “Now, let’s get going!”  xo Sally

I am sure you know people who love talking about themselves. If they are not talking about what they are doing, have done or are going to do, it seems like every time you talk about an experience you have had, they come up with something that will seem to “top” your experience.

It is normal for people to share information about themselves with their friends and colleagues. What is interesting is why some people tend to focus a conversation on themselves and what they are doing, rather than ask others about what is happening with them.

One of the best communication skills you can develop is the art of listening. Challenge yourself when you are in a conversation with a friend or co-worker, and make a point of listening more. Ask more questions about them and their opinions, and watch how things evolve. See if you are able to modify any of your normal conversational habits and take note of what you may want to change related to developing better listening skills.

Confident people do not talk about themselves very often. They do not have to brag or boast about what they have done or will do. They stay focused and work towards their goals.

Make your goals your priority.  Visualize yourself reaching those goals. Don’t talk about it. Do it. You can make it happen!

                                                                                                                                         “Now, let’s get going!”  xo Sally

Living your life with integrity should be something we all embrace.  But in today’s society we do not need to look very far to see people who do not appear to follow that mindset.

To have the courage to face the truth is a tall order.  The main struggle with “the truth,” is that people may define what the actual “truth” is to be different from each other.  People view things differently.  What we have to agree on is that although it is fine to disagree, we should give each other the chance to discuss a point or an opinion.

The truth should be centered upon actual reality, and go from there…not what something thinks is actual reality.  The truth is what is happening right now.

How we respond to the truth is what makes us who we are.  It is our reputation.  It is what other people see and behaviors don’t lie. 

If you find yourself in a relationship or a job that “forces” you to behave differently than what you know is right, move on.  Your reputation is all you have.  You have one life and you need to make it count.  Don’t waste your time and energy in a situation that does not allow you to live with integrity.

Be the person you can be.  Develop goals that head you in that direction, regardless of your situation today.  You can do the right thing.  Start making a difference today!    “Now, let’s get going!”  xo Sally