Gentle Shepherd Blog
Our team at Gentle Shepherd Hospice wants you to have the practical information you need to make the most of every day. Check out these helpful articles and devotionals written by Kim Eckenroth our co-founder and VP of patient care.
Signs of osteoporosis
Does the person you care for seem to have shrunk a bit? Pants are too long? Can't reach items on their regular shelf? You can see the top of their head? It could be that their bones have become more porous with age. This is called "osteoporosis." With osteoporosis,...
When broccoli is bad for you
"Kale smoothie, anyone?" Maybe not…. Good nutrition has always been a mainstay of good health. Indeed, there is growing awareness of the power of food to support healing for a wide variety of conditions. What is less well known is the fact that even very healthy foods...
Avoiding regret
Family caregivers are often thrust into the role of making decisions for a loved one. Some decisions are relatively small: Purchase a walker with wheels or one without? Others are large and may have life-changing ramifications. Approve that surgery? Initiate a move to...
Common misconceptions about hospice
Many families caring for a seriously ill loved one struggle alone unnecessarily. They miss out on vital support services because they don't understand what hospice can provide. Home visits by a nurse to manage pain and other difficult symptoms. Home visits by a...
Harnessing stress
Stress has gained a dirty name during the past decades. It's something we talk about needing to getting rid of, as if it were wholly bad. While chronic stress can be damaging to our health, recent research demonstrates that stress isn't always a threat to our...
Supporting Deaf Children and Orphans in Uganda
While we have all had to make sacrifices during the COVID-19 crisis, the situation is far worse countries like Uganda. Gentle Shepherd is in partnership there with the International Centers for the Deaf (ICCD), a locally based organization serving deaf children aroudn...
Return to a good night’s sleep
If your older loved one snores loudly, he or she likely has sleep apnea: A collapsing of the airways while sleeping that results in mini-suffocations 5–30 times an hour. And, left untreated, this serious condition is a strong contributor to heart-related deaths, type...
Hallucinations in later life
"I don't like that bear on my bed!" A visual hallucination such as this can occur in the later stages of dementia or near the end of life. Some people also have auditory hallucinations—hearing things that others don't—or feel things that aren't there, such as string...
Doctors and advance directives
If your loved one and family have had the conversation about end-of-life wishes, kudos to you! In addition to writing down those wishes in an advance directive, your relative should also share them with his or her health care team. Even if your family member is in...
In Our Words: The Freedom to Question
by Brian Whited, our Chaplain GSH Staff, on this Good Friday, here is a devotion for you. Love you all. Keep up the good work. God is in control. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He knows each hair on our head. But the world we live in is also chaotic and...
Are you pushing against reality?
We all quarrel with reality from time to time and wish things were different than they are. Especially now, when life seems unfair. All flights have been cancelled due to the coronavirus and you won’t be able to be with your Dad on his 80th birthday…. Your mom is in...
In Our Own Words: Our Souls are fed by Needle & Thread
by Carey Frost-Perdue, Executive Administrator of Administration When our way of life becomes unstable, we can tend to panic and close ourselves off and away until the danger has passed. That is just human nature. It's not necessarily a bad thing because when...