AI for Caregiving: How I Used Tech to Manage My Mom’s Medical Maze

How tools like ChatGPT and Otter.ai make caregiving clearer, calmer, and more human.

AI simplifies medical jargon, helping caregivers better understand lab results and talk confidently with doctors.

Continuing my series on unconventional AI adventures, today, I’m tackling a completely different yet equally challenging topic - caregiving.

Caregiving is tough. Over the past few years, I’ve been navigating the challenges of caring for my elderly mom, spending hours in waiting rooms, deciphering medical jargon, and wrangling with Medicare. I even took a year off work to focus on her full-time. It’s rewarding but exhausting.

As the designated family “tech geek,” I pride myself on solving problems, but caregiving? It’s a whole new ballgame. So, I turned to an unlikely ally: AI.

Could AI help me tackle the chaos? Spoiler alert - it did, and it’s been a game-changer in the world of AI in caregiving and elder care solutions. From decoding medical jargon to folding an uncooperative wheelchair (yes, really), here’s how AI became my secret weapon in one of life’s toughest roles. It hasn’t replaced doctors (we’ve all been down that Google rabbit hole), but it’s helped me stay informed and advocate with confidence.

Making Sense of Medical Tests

Understanding my mom’s medical tests is one of the biggest challenges in her care. When her doctor ordered extensive bloodwork, I was overwhelmed by the complex terminology.

Enter ChatGPT. I fed it my mom’s health details - age, medications, symptoms, and pasted the test results directly from the provider’s app and asked it to:

• “Explain what each medical test measures in simple terms, as if you were explaining to a high school student with no medical background.”

• “Which results should we be most concerned about?”

• “What disease could she have?”

• “What questions should I ask the doctor?”

• “How can I explain this to my 89-year-old mother in a simple and not scary way?”

ChatGPT provided easy-to-understand explanations, helping me focus on what actually matters. Having this information in advance gave me time to process it, prepare thoughtful questions, and feel more confident when discussing her care.

ChatGPT turns medical jargon into clear, simple terms, helping caregivers focus on what really matters.

Pro tip: I copied ChatGPT's advice into my iPhone's Notes app, making it easier to refer to during our discussions. Mom now thinks I'm a medical expert. AI and I know better.

Simplifying Doctor Appointments with Otter.ai

Doctor appointments often leave me feeling like a court stenographer, furiously scribbling notes, missing half of what’s said, and wondering if I’ve asked the right questions.

Now, I let Otter.ai do the heavy lifting. Before each appointment, I ask AI to help me generate a list of key questions based on my mom’s health concerns. I record the conversation (with the doctor’s blessing) during the visit using Otter.ai. Later, I review the AI-generated summaries and transcription to make sure I don’t miss anything important.

Instead of furiously scribbling notes, I can stay present, ask smarter questions, and most importantly, ensure I don't forget anything crucial.

Bonus: I get to focus on the conversation instead of playing catch-up with my notes.

Understanding Palliative Care

When the doctor mentioned "palliative care," I panicked. Was it time to worry? Google left me spiraling, but AI provided clear, reassuring explanations that made all the difference.

I asked:

• “What does palliative care involve for her condition?”

• “How is it different from hospice care?”

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AI helps me understand that palliative care isn’t about giving up, but about improving quality of life. Knowing this made discussing options with my mom easier without feeling like I was walking on eggshells.

Navigating Medicare and Medical Equipment

If you've ever dealt with Medicare, you know it's like trying to solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded. When my mom needed a portable oxygen concentrator, I turned to AI to avoid drowning in paperwork.

I asked AI:

• “How do I get approval for a portable oxygen concentrator?”

• “What does Medicare cover for durable medical equipment?”

AI walked me through the entire process, from working with her doctor to dealing with suppliers. Everyone warned me it would be a nightmare, but I got it approved on the first try. Take that, bureaucracy.

Organizing Medications

AI-generated medication chart organizes prescriptions by time and dosage—less stress, fewer mistakes.

Managing my mom’s medications feels like living in an episode of Severance - two completely different worlds of morning and evening pills, cryptic instructions that I can never quite piece together, and the constant fear that one wrong move will send me straight to the Break Room.

I copied and pasted her prescription list from the pharmacy app and asked AI to:

• Format a chart with medication names, dosages, and instructions.

• Include photos of each pill for easy identification.

The result? A large font chart is taped to her bathroom mirror, and I no longer have to play pharmacist every morning.

Best part? When doctors ask, "What medications is she taking?" I can confidently hand over the chart instead of scrolling through my phone like a madwoman.

Troubleshooting Tech Issues

As the family “tech geek,” I thought I had everything under control to help my mom with her hearing issues. I’d turned on closed captions on Zoom, the TV, and anything else that might help, but it wasn’t enough. That’s when AI clued me into something I hadn't even realized was possible: connecting her hearing aids directly to the TV. With step-by-step guidance, I set everything up and fine-tuned the settings for better sound quality.

And then there was the wheelchair incident. Picture me standing outside my car, staring at her new wheelchair like an IKEA project - no instructions in sight, just a maze of levers and hinges that all looked important.

From test results to tech support—AI even helped me fold the wheelchair.

Chat GBT provided instructions on hold to fold this wheelchair

Despite my fix-it pride, I’m often completely stumped and more than a little embarrassed. AI swooped in with a quick search, helping me fold the damn thing and squeeze it into my trunk (dignity mostly intact).

What once seemed like an overwhelming series of tech hurdles is now just another part of my caregiving routine. This proves that even the most daunting tasks can be managed with the right tools (and a little patience).

Final Thoughts

As a marketer who loves problem-solving, this caregiving journey continues to show me how versatile AI can be beyond business use cases. It’s not perfect, but it’s an invaluable tool when I feel overwhelmed.

So, why am I sharing this?

I use AI daily in my marketing work to analyze campaign data, optimize content, and improve messaging. However, I’m always looking for new ways to use it in my personal life.

By sharing my experience, I hope to inspire others to think beyond traditional AI applications. And if you’re looking for a marketing leader who can bring this same forward-thinking approach to your team, let’s connect!

Have you ever used AI for an unexpected challenge? Let me know in the comments!