Melissa & Bruce…welcome. “Care Taker” does sound like an institutional label. As wife & husband, mother & father, sure your resume of living and sharing, giving and receiving LOVE trumps the care over and over millions of times throughout the years. Your example of living is a true gift to your children and friends.

This group is also a reward. These persons share freely their histories. The successes and moments of disappointment. This kind of support cannot be measured. Doctors, teams of clinicians, are directly responsible for delivering the best patient care possible; however, as many can testify to, it can and does fall short of the emotional discomfort and depression that settles into our being when we are labeled with a chronic disease. My doctor suggested I speak with a psychologist (which I resisted strongly). Two years later, living with regimens and MAC…I made the decision to release some of the sadness and futility on a different doctor, and made my appointment with a psychiatrist. Of course, a psychiatrist is a doctor who prescribes medication (not so much the talk therapist), but in the few discussions we did have, it helped me refocus. Looking in the personal mirror of self, I now embrace my “not so well lungs” and decide to love my body as imperfect as it is, do the best I can for it, and just love back as much as I can as long as I can as well as I can.

Continue on and feel well.
Regina