"Don't Leave Momma Home With The Dog" - A Caregiving Book Based on a True Story

"Don't Leave Momma Home With The Dog" is a caregiving book that is part memoir, part motivational manual. In this book, Jo Huey chronicles her experiences caring for her mother, including how she made the tough decision to move her to a long-term care facility.

Jo Huey isn't afraid to share the most difficult details of her experience caring for her mother, including initial denial of her mother's condition, and subsequent feelings of desperation and despair. Huey's book is honest and heartfelt as she tries to translate her experiences into a list of 10 "absolutes" of caregiver decision making.

As Huey details her mother's development of vascular dementia and her gradual decline, she reveals insights on why caregivers do what they do and provides suggestions for how to make good decisions throughout the caregiving journey.

Huey's list of 10 absolutes include recommendations such as "never assume; instead, examine," "never walk alone; instead, accept help," and "never endure; instead, cry." If you've read Huey's first book, Alzheimer's Disease: Help and Hope, you know that the author included 10 absolutes in that book as well, although they were tips about communication and behavior management instead of coping strategies. The list of absolutes in the first book seemed to work better than the list in this book. The absolutes in this book are well-meaning, but they are a bit redundant and center so much around the author's own experiences that it might be hard for caregivers to apply the recommendations to their own unique circumstances.

That being said, Huey obviously cares about caregivers and wants them to learn from her own mistakes. It was honorable of her to write this book for that purpose. And, on a lighter note, I would have loved to have heard more about Cezar, Huey's 125-pound dog!