Caregiver's Survival Guide

Caregiver's Survival Guide is based on Dr. Robert Yonover's personal experiences. While struggling to become a successful scientist and inventor, he also was primary caregiver for his paralyzed wife for more than twenty years and raised their two children. Yonover takes you into the throes of his life as a caregiver, husband, and father, offering guidance and hope through his story. He provides advice on:

Dealing with heavy news

Handling day-to-day challenges

Holding on to the foundation of your relationship

Taking stock of finances

Adapting and enjoying life

Staying sane

Maintaining a social life

Fighting for your rights

Through Caregiver's Survival Guide, Dr. Yonover will equip other caregivers who face similar physical, mental, social, and financial challenges with tips and guidelines from his own experiences and other experts to help make their situation survivable.

"An informative gem that can only inspire admiration for Dr. Rob Yonover's decades of full-time work keeping a loved one alive and a family together. Hard-won practical tips included." —Ethan Podet, M.D.



"Caregiving is hard work under any circumstance, particularly so when the recipient is in a condition which declines. Just when you think you've reached your limit, care taking demands increase. Beyond the incredible personal story of Rob Yonover's unexpected challenge, care taking of his wife with MS, and raising his two young children, is the psychological process of finding one's resilient core. His story is a guide to all about redefining one's identity and values in an authentically, sustainable way with everything at stake. Sustainable, because often the person saving another gets drowned themselves. I recommend the book as a highly readable, informative guide, a story of love and personal struggle filled with support, practical day-by-day tips, but most importantly a path to discovering one's own core resiliency." —Wayne Giancaterino, PhD, clinical psychologist



"Based on research and 19 years of experience, this family caregiving narrative provides an honest, compassionate, and humor-filled guide that will appeal to those involved in any kind of long-term care partnering. From how to source expert help and services, deal with extended family and visitors, to self-care, carving out a niche for joy, and managing grief, the Caregiver's Survival Guide illustrates how love, in very tricky times, can both sustain and enhance relationships." —Cathie Borrie, author of The Long Hello



"Caregiving is one of life's most brutal, yet fulfilling experiences. This honest, unflinching, yet humorous guide is sure to help others who are about to start their own journeys." —Noriko Wada, active caregiver



"Rob's wry sense of humor, combined with his unflinching observations, are a refreshing departure from the usual literature. As a fellow caregiver, it's reassuring to see there are universal truths—I just wish I had this guide before starting on my own journey!" —W.N., caregiver for parents suffering from dementia



"Even for someone as supremely accomplished as scientist, inventor, and waterman Dr. Rob Yonover, 19 years devoted to caring for his wife's MS, seemed at the outset an outsized challenge. Where do you start? How do you endure? How do you create the best life for the one you love and will eventually lose, as they can no longer live the life the two of you had planned? The Caregiver's Survival Guide is the hard-won, easy and entertaining to read, step-by-step how-to/memoir of the Yonovers’ intimate journey, wrapped up in a love-letter to his late wife, Cindy. It’s packed with practical advice and deep personal insights—all designed to provide focus and equilibrium in the face of the overwhelming. This is what you have to know as a caregiver to care not only for your loved one, but to also care for yourself." —David Rensin, co-author of American hero Louis Zamperini’s best-selling autobiography Devil at My Heels, and All for a Few Perfect Waves