Here on this website, we have learned much more than all the professionals combined could give us. I really think you should write a book. It occurred to me this morning. If people were willing, and names were changed, I would even support your giving examples of the posts. I don't know if that would inhibit anyone from posting, but there has to be a way to get this stuff out there to the unaware. Many older people are not computer literate. How much valuable information we have come across, just comparing notes.
I know if you gave this some thought, you could do it, one way or the other. In some form or the other. It is too much information not to be shared with others like us. Aso, since I order from Amazon quite frequently, do you get credit just for the Alzheimer's books, or can I order anything & you get credit?
I can't believe this discussion was started tonight, because this was the exact subject Patrick (Caregiver Cruises) and I were discussing last night - how I can put all of my Special Education background, knowledge, and writing to work to make a living. Yes, for sure, a real income is needed around here.
The book idea has been in the works for 6 months, but I have been so busy, that it hasn't gotten past the "idea" stage. Thank you for encouraging me. I will be talking with Teena Cahill ( The Cahill Factor- check it out on my Amazon store) next week. She has offered to advise me. And yes, I do get a tiny - emphasis on the word "tiny" commission on everything you buy from Amazon through my site, not just books. And the Alzheimer Store.
We had a great time with Patrick last night, but he is a bit "hyper", and he was coming up with ideas for me faster than I could process them. My head was spinning. I'm hosting a big party at my house on Saturday for him and our Alzheimer's group. After everyone goes home, and I have a chance to sleep for 24 hours, I will take all of the information, organize it, and decide what I am most comfortable with, and what will work for me.
I definitely will be doing workshops for family and professional caregivers on Communication and the Alzheimer Patient. And the book. I will have to mull over the rest of his ideas, because if I did all of them, I'd never get any sleep.
But I AM going on the Caregiver Cruise to the Caribbean in February. If anyone else is coming, don't even think about waking me up for breakfast. I'll be perfectly happy to wake up for lunch. :)
Joan, That is GREAT! I know you will do it. I have edited books, and any assistance I can give you, I will do. You probably don't know where to start. But I am confident you will do this. Keep it simple & build from there. Write down any ideas you have & one will come to the forefront. Read "The Secret." You have a message & information that is unique & unavailable to the most in need. I support you wholeheartedly. No such things as coincidence. Think big. There are so many who could benefit. The information has come to you for a reason. Start focusing.
Sunshine, we'll get back to you. There is an answer sweetie.
Now, of course Joan will continue the site. But she has a bigger calling. There are thousands of us out there that have no idea about this site. They are alone & miserable. If necessary, Joan will find help with the site to do what she has to do. And all she has to do is ask, and that help will come. I believe that. Just like she built the site, and they came. "Build it and they will come." Write it, and it will do well. And help thousands, if not millions.
Wow! With encouragement like that, how can I not succeed?
Thank you.
Val, you must be on Patrick's wave length. Just today he told me I had to stop apologizing for asking for help, and just ask for what I need. (He and a friend of his drove me from my house to the conference 50 miles away, drove me home, and then drove back to where he is staying for the rest of the week, which is another at least 50 miles, and I felt really bad about it, but it's in his nature to be helpful like that.)
I have to agree, I am reading the 36 hour day... it has information. But it is dull and lacks anything personal. I just don't think I can get through it! LOL... Now HERE I could read and read, and learn SO MUCH!!
Yes, I can feel Patrick's energy. There is such a thing as "soul groups." Don't want to get into it here & now, but just go with the flow. Ask Patrick if he believes in soul groups. Think he may surprise you. I don't know. Yes, just ask for what you need. Better yet, just state what it is that you need. You will succeed. I believe in you. How could you not?
I own the 36 hour day. I'm not sure I ever actually read all of it. Frankly the information here is better, more current and more useful.
I also read the free book the Alzheimer's Association gives you if you ask (and even if you don't ask since I now have a second copy still shrink wrapped so I can't read the title). It was the place where I first saw the reality of what my life was going to be like. It is short, blunt and kind.
I also have purchased IF ONLY I'D HAD THIS CAREGIVING BOOK. I haven't read it. It is all about making a network of people to help you, and I didn't have a network, and the whole thing depressed me. The funny thing is that I realized yesterday that I've been building that network. I've got this forum. I'm now in therapy. And the local "helping" group has decided to make me one of their projects. They were the people who helped my next door neighbor when she needed help desperately and I was so jealous about that although I was also blessing them in my thoughts for helping her. And it looks like they and a few neighbors are going to help me too. Guess what, a support network is being built after all.
I guess I'm going to be able to read the book afterall and find out what else I need to do.
Sunshyne, didn't you say you had a book keeping background? There are so many personalities here now, it is more & more difficult to keep everything straight. If so, if it interested you, you could train to do tax returns.
Another thought. If I couldn't have found a job, I was going to be a personal life coach. (Master's in Counseling, but anyone can do it.) There are all sorts of books at Amazon, & I purchased 4. Since many AD spouses are homebound, and since you know so much about it, you could offer to go to their homes. You could go to meetings & also put your cards out at your local AZ ASSO. if permitted. There must be so many spouses out there who would really be relieved to talk to someone who understands.
Val, nope, no bookkeeping background, I'm a scientist. I've had to do some accounting work, to straighten out the company's books in accordance with Government guidelines for contractors when my husband's AD got everything into a mess. Yech.
Funny, when Starling mentioned "scanners" I looked up Barbara Sher. Ms. Sher has TOTALLY offended me. :-) She says scientists are, by definition, "Divers", and that science and technology is "the realm of specialists". I gather she doesn't know many scientists. We've got every type of personality imaginable, and while we certainly do have specialists, I'd have said that if you're a scanner, science is THE place to be. So many different fields, so many different toys, everything fascinating ... and lots of us hop from one thing to another. Plus there is apparently a very strong correlation between science and the arts, with many of the world's greatest scientists being accomplished artists on the side, and many of the world's greatest artists being accomplished scientists on the side.
Me, I'm much more in the scanner category than the diver. I like to dream up and manage multi-disciplinary programs that involve integrating really diverse technologies. I've been quite happy in what we call "contract research", because that involves writing proposals to "pitch" my ideas, to get them funded, and then writing progress reports (which can really take a lot of creativity to make problems look like progress!), and I like the writing aspect. I also like the fact that the resulting grants/contracts have goals, schedules, and budgets, and we have to try to reach specific goals within time and budget ... without knowing at first whether the original ideas are actually going to work. I like the added complexity of that. Sometimes, it takes some real creativity to work around unforeseen problems and come up with new solutions to get where we ultimately want to be. I couldn't ever be one of those scientists in academia who devote their entire lives to delving deeply into a single concept without ever even considering if there's any practical application ... ugh. I've also enjoyed developing business plans (...but NOT pitching them to venture capitalists. Those are definitely birds of a different feather.)
Being a scanner isn't about creativity, although you can be creative. It is about not having a single great interest that you love and want to spend the rest of your life doing. It is about taking those "what career" tests and testing out perfectly FLAT. Which I did multiple times with different tests over and over again with the same results. The one time something did actually poke its head up just a tiny bit it just wouldn't work. I can't be a MALE Vet like they suggested. FEMALE Vet was at the bottom of the list.
Still, it sounds to me that you really are a scanner. You've just found the perfect Umbrella Career that allowed you to do lots of different things. You sound like a Plate Spinner to me. I am basically a Sybil with Plate Spinner tendencies (at jobs mostly). I recognize Plate Spinning when I see it. And loved it when I was doing it. <grin>
I've always recognized that her books were useful, but I just plain could not decide what I wanted. And now, I know why.
Starling, you remind me of the time the company I was working for decided to give us management "training." What the trainer did was have us take a test, to see what management "style" we had. I don't remember the styles, now, but there were four of them. I was the only woman manager in the company. The men all had very strong scores in one of the four quadrants, little or nothing in the other three. I was flat as a pancake, equally distributed in all quadrants. I assumed this meant I had a very flexible approach, and could adopt the style needed to suit the situation. The tester told me I hadn't "matured" yet. (Idiot.)
I'd be willing to bet I'd be equally flat at career testing.
So, now I've gotta look up Plate Spinners ...
(I have downloaded Wishcraft, but haven't had a chance to look at it yet.)
I found WISHCRAFT when it was new. It taught me how to decide what I wanted and then go after it. The problem was the deciding. I never figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up, but there were things that it turned out I wanted. I wanted to work for decent human beings. I wanted interesting work. And when I finally figured out that I needed to have some authority to go along with the responsibilities, I got that too, pretty easily. It took me into my late 50s to figure all of that out. And most of all I had to be in a job where I could learn things and preferably teach them as well. I needed to grow.
But it was interesting. The bosses stopped being abusive personalities. At the very least they were respectful. At the best they were amazing. The work started out being mildly interesting, and went on to be very interesting. Even if I couldn't figure out what career I really wanted, it turned out that I had minimum standards, and I got what I figured out were my minimums.