Has cooking always been a passion for your elderly loved one? Maybe she was a talented chef who provided meals for people from all walks of life. Or perhaps she was just the best home cook in town who loved to show her care for others by providing delicious meals. It could even be a new-found passion that she discovered after retirement.
Arthritis Can Make Passions Painful
If your loved one has now developed arthritis and it’s making her passion for cooking painful, it can be heartbreaking to see the results of that. Arthritis is a blanket term for a wide variety of conditions that affect the joints and cause pain when those joints are used. If your loved one has arthritis in her fingers, wrists, elbows, or shoulders, it can make meal prep and enjoyment nearly impossible. Arthritis not only reduces the range of motion a joint has, it can create pain, tenderness, and swelling that can make your loved one miserable all day long. Since no one wants to endure pain, oftentimes passions that were once enjoyed are now avoided.
At Home Arthritis Care Can Bring Back the Joy of Cooking
While some aspects of preparing and serving meals may need to change for your loved one, she doesn’t need to forsake this activity completely. There are techniques that she can use to reduce the stress that food prep causes, tools she can purchase to help complete specific tasks she’s no longer able to do, and there are skilled arthritis care providers who can come to the home to help her with some of the steps.
Three techniques to reduce arthritis pain while meal prepping:
- Pain medication. If your loved one knows she’s going to be peeling potatoes for a large family gathering, she should take any medication she uses to manage pain at least 20 minutes before she begins.
- Pace it out. For some larger gatherings like at holiday time, some meal prep can be done days in advance. If she can, she should prep in small bursts so that her hands and arms have plenty of time to rest between each session. Maybe it’s chopping up vegetables on one day, slicing meat on another, and kneading dough on another.
- Change tasks frequently. Peel a few potatoes, chop a few onions, wipe the counters, and repeat. Switching between chores will change the tendons and joints being used and provide them breaks.
Tools to use to help with meal prep:
There are lots of tools that can be purchased. Determine which actions cause your loved one the most discomfort to decide which tools will be the most helpful.
- Gripping pads and tools can help open jars and bottles.
- Cutting tools such as electronic choppers can help as well as an ergonomic knife.
Having a provider for arthritis care come to the home to help your loved one during meal preparation is a great way to make sure she has the help she needs when she needs it. Arthritis care at home providers are trained to help your loved one not only perform tasks she cannot, but also help her discover new techniques and tools that’ll help her when they’re not there.
