How a Caregiver Protects Her Mom During Cold and Flu Season
Key takeaways:
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, many caregivers have been vigilant about protecting loved ones from the spread of germs.
Deitra Redd keeps hand sanitizer, antibacterial spray, and masks on hand to help keep her mom healthy.
Taking extra precautions gives Deitra peace of mind during cold and flu season.
Deitra Redd is extra careful about protecting her mom since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2020, Deitra has put in place several methods to keep germs out of her mother’s house. But now that her mom, Viola Redd, is more homebound than ever, ensuring that visitors do their part to maintain as germ-free of an environment as possible is important, Deitra says. And as cold and flu season approaches, she will increase her precautions.
During the pandemic, Viola was confined inside her house, Dietra says, a situation that hampered her ability to get exercise. With two bad knees, her mother wasn’t able to get around as well as she did before.
“Because she sat for so long (during the pandemic lockdowns) it just made everything worse on her,” Deitra says. “Her arthritis got worse. Her mental capacity got worse. Everything got worse because people stopped coming around and things like that.”
Deitra, who is 52, lives in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania with her mother about 80% of the time. She spends evenings at her own home with her twin sister. While at her mother’s, she makes her meals, helps with chores, and oversees appointments with a physical therapist.
Keeping germs out of the house
To keep her mother healthy, Deitra has a table near the front door with antibacterial spray, face masks, and hand sanitizer. It’s a level of vigilance that sprang up after the COVID-19 pandemic, she says.
“Two people in my family got COVID again last week. So I said, ‘Uh-oh, here we go again,’” she explains. “I have N95 masks. Some people don’t like them because they’re tight. So I have regular masks, and then I have the N95 masks at the door.”
But now, she says, she will be upping her protection efforts.
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“The dog days of summer are ending, and I am preparing now for cold and flu season by scheduling her flu shot from our local drug store retailer, as well as having the house cleaned thoroughly,” Deitra says. “As the season gets closer, I will add cough drops and vitamin C tablets [to the entranceway table]. With an elderly person who is homebound, having small precautions available for visitors is essential to their and my mom’s health during cold and flu season.”
Because her mother has challenges getting up and down the steps in her house, a nurse will come to her mother to administer the flu shot, Deitra says. While Deitra won’t get one because she is immunocompromised, her twin sister, who works at a hospital, will get one to prevent spreading anything to their mother.
Out of an abundance of caution, Deitra says she is particularly wary of germs others may bring in from outside. With therapists and nurses coming into the house, Deitra sometimes takes extra steps, like spraying antibacterial spray.
“When somebody comes into the house that I’m not that familiar with, like the therapist, I generally spray because I know they go to other people’s homes and they don’t have to wear a mask now,” she says. “I usually spray before the therapist comes, and I spray right after the therapist leaves. I will have my mom go to the bathroom and wash her hands, and then I’ll spray where the therapist was at, up the front door, down the hallway in her bedroom, and in her bathroom. I usually spray about twice a day, anyway.”
Deitra says she’ll also use antibacterial wipes to clean off the front door handles.
During the pandemic, Deitra says, anyone coming into the house was asked to leave their shoes downstairs near the entrance door, as well as their coats.
“We used to have a basket near the front door next to my table and I used to buy little socks off Amazon,” she says. “I used to have people put on the clean socks that I bought and then when they left, they could take the socks with them. I may need to start that again.”
Reminding people to wash their hands
Additionally, Deitra puts signs on the outside of the house asking people to wash their hands and to not enter the house if they are coughing.
“It’s just a sign that I put up out of love and cautiousness that says: ‘We ask that you wash your hands. And if you have a cough, please do not enter the home,’” she says. “It also says you can call my mom on the phone. That is generally up all winter. Even in the bathroom at my mom's house, there is a little sign that says, ‘Please thank God and wash your hands.’ I try to reiterate, just keep washing your hands.”
For Deitra, it may be more work, and it may mean doing things differently. But for her, it’s worth it.
“I’m just trying to protect my mom at all costs,” she says.
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