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Longtime caregiver looking for support and coping tips

Caregivers | Last Active: 10 hours ago | Replies (88)

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@asterken

I love this. I am going to print it and tape it to my bathroom mirror. I was caregiver for my MIL/Step-mother (yes she was both) for 7 years before she died with LBD. Now I am care-giver to my father who has been dealing with metastatic squamous cancer since 2020 (moved in with me after two months in the hospital) and my mother, a heart patient. I have managed to keep it all in balance except with crisis spikes, but after heart surgery in October, my mother has become confused and combative. My brother lives in the Pacific NW, and is here periodically when work coincides, but well, he works when he is here. My husband helps tremendously but the burden is real. I have been grounded. My freedom is gone. I have many health challenges of my own, (including RA/OA/PSA, Asthma, and chronic migraines) but taking care of myself is dependent upon the happenstance well being of my charges. I had severe COVID for three weeks, beginning in late January and if I had not been critically ill it would have seemed like a relief, to give up all the "have-tos" for three weeks.

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Replies to "I love this. I am going to print it and tape it to my bathroom mirror...."

Oh I am so sorry that you are having such a hard time. Have you tried to contact any social services in your area? Do you know how to access this information? If you have Medicare you can call them, a church, or even a local hospital. I would also think that telling your doctor and your father's doctor.

Some of us are on our own in terrible times. At the beginning of my husband's journey, I was scared to death of this but also didn't want to inconvenience my sister or neighbor. But I've stopped that. I need help! You need help! Ask for it anywhere you can get it. If you keep asking enough places and people word will get out and you will probably wind up getting calls. But you have to go after it!

Can you do this? Have you done it?