Adele Anahory, who is the Director of Nursing at the nursing home where our dad stayed, told us the number one thing families should do is educate themselves about their parent’s illness.  Such knowledge will help you identify symptoms, anticipate the course of the disease, understand the treatment options and ask pertinent questions.  You might even ask a question that opens the door to new thinking by the medical team.  Check out our Illness Guide for more information about common senior conditions.

Also, try to keep track of all tests and procedures and their various outcomes - this information is invaluable whenever a new doctor comes into the picture.  And you might even come upon a trend just by looking back through your notes, which happened to us.  We traced a certain odd behavior pattern that our dad was exhibiting back to a particular sleeping pill he was given in the hospital.  As a result, we were able to clear up the problem.