Daily Challenges

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April 28, 2009

Can Caregivers Give too Much Care?

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving, Relationship Issues | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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“Let me do it for you, Mary Ann, we are running out of time.”   “I’ll take that to the kitchen for you. ”  “What are you getting up to get?  I’ll get it for you.”

Someone made the comment to me that when Caregiver’s take over full time care of their Loved One, the Loved One’s ability to take care of him/herself tends to decline.  I don’t remember who said it.  I don’t know if the person who said it had any formal knowledge to validate the comment.  I just know that my own experience seems to allow the possibility that the observation was correct.

I feel responsible for Mary Ann’s well-being.  I am taking care of her.  I need to do for her what she cannot do for herself.  I am here to determine what she needs and wants and then see to it that she gets it.  She is virtually helpless to do even the most basic things.  I am her arms and legs.   My job is to figure out what she wants or needs when she is having trouble figuring that out for herself.  She has a right to have the highest quality of life that the Parkinson’s will allow. 

Caregivers are committed to take care of their Loved Ones.  The question is, can they do too much for their Loved Ones and do more harm than good in the process?  In other arenas, the term for helping too much is “enabling.”  Is it possible that in all our good intentions we may very well be doing less good than we thought? 

A less comfortable question is, do we sometimes take over tasks from our Loved Ones more for our own sake than their sake?  Are some of our generous acts of service rooted more in our impatience than their need?

Those are very tough questions quite reluctant to produce easy answers.  Mary Ann would love to be back in the kitchen.  There are knives there, very sharp knives.  The Cutco knives she purchased from a traveling salesman some time before we were married forty-three years ago, have recently been sent back to the company for sharpening.  A broken blade was replaced, as were the handles, and they were honed until razor sharp.   (By the way, all that was done only for the cost of shipping — the salesman was not lying.)  Those knives could cut to the bone in a fraction of a second.  When Mary Ann’s basic Parkinson’s medication kicks in, she has dramatic dyskinetic movements, arms waving around with involuntary muscle activity.  She falls easily.  Armed with knives she could easily do major damage to herself and anyone else within reach.  Hot pans with oil or water in them are equally dangerous in dyskinetic hands. 

The easiest solution is for her not to participate in any way in the food preparation process.  That is pretty much what has come to be.  It is much less stressful for me if she stays in her chair in the living room while I do whatever needs to be done.  That solution is the easiest one for me but not necessarily the best for her.  My need for her safety is one part of this solution, but another part is my seeking to avoid the stress of helping her do whatever part of the preparation process she can, while I am trying to get the rest of the preparation tasks done.  Our solution is easier for me but does not necessarily increase the quality of her life. 

At our last visit to the Cardiologist I asked about an increase in number and intensity of Mary Ann’s episodes of labored breathing.  One part of the answer from the Cardiologist was that her inactivity has diminished her muscle tone. 

Here is the major area of concern from my perspective.  Now that I am retired and at home with her all day long every day, I am right there, every time she stands up to go somewhere.   I ask where she is going and offer to get for her whatever it is she was going to get.   If she gets up to walk when I am not able to see her, when I do see that she is up and on the loose, I move as quickly as I can to offer her an elbow, or put my hand on the gait belt. 

One negative effect of my presence is that her freedom of movement is more limited.  Another negative effect is that she gets less exercise while I am so attentive.  Her muscle tone diminishes and the stress on her artery-blocked heart increases.  It takes less and less activity to trigger the labored breathing. 

The problem for me is that I am the one who picks her up when she falls, and I have seen again and again how close she has come to doing major damage to herself.  She has fallen and cut herself, resulting in a couple of trips to the Emergency Room to check for major damage and stop the bleeding.  I have seen her start to crumple and then lose consciousness for anywhere from a minute or so to ten minutes.  I have hurt my back trying to hold her up or get her up, putting at risk my ability to continue to care for her. 

How much help is too much help?  

Whenever we have any time pressure, or my impatience kicks in, I do little tasks that she might be able to do if she was allowed to do them at her pace rather than mine. 

When is the help actually more for the sake of the Caregiver than the one receiving the care?

Sometimes I am so available, that rather than doing a task herself, a task she could do, she lets me, asks me to do it.

When is help no longer help, but enabling behavior that slowly takes away the ability to do the task from the one for whom you are caring?

Caregivers can care too much.   We can do too much.  We can indulge our own impatience and steal abilities from the one we love. 

The challenge is to find the location of the place in between too much help and too little help.  If nothing else, asking the question, “Should I do it or let her do it,” allows the possibility of finding that place.

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 27, 2009

Caregivers: Hallucinations and Confusion

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Either there were two mice fighting on Mary Ann’s bed this afternoon as she was preparing for a nap, there were bubbles rolling down the hallway as she sat in front of the television earlier today, and there was a cat on the floor two pews ahead of us when we sat down for the Evening Service at church tonight or Mary Ann has been hallucinating today.   Lots and lots of times throughout the day from the time she got up in the morning until she went to bed tonight she has picked up non-existent threads from the floor, pulled them off her fingers and my hand once also.   

I knew today would be a day of hallucinations and confusion.  For reasons  almost never obvious to us when it happens, last night was one of the nights she was not able to get to sleep.  She was restless – up and down for water, trips to the commode, to eat a snack, to straighten her bedding, to reposition in bed, all demanding my participation.  Needless to say, I am not at my best today either. 

It pretty much never fails that when she does not sleep at night, the next day she regularly crosses the nearby threshold from lucidity to confusion and hallucinating.  The confusion is especially difficult since in her case it is not always clear if she is confused or talking about something real.  She wanted me to get a fruit jar from the basement to send to our Daughter whom she said wanted a clothes pin (or didn’t know what one looked like).  I haven’t yet emailed my daughter to see if they had a conversation the last time we saw her that might explain this . 

I am assuming that this episode last night and today is part of our recuperation process after traveling a couple of times in the last three weeks.  It seems as if she is more vulnerable to bouts of confusion, long daytime naps and hallucinations after traveling.  It is not always clear, however, what causes the adventures into the  part of her thinking and seeing that is not within the bounds of reality. 

Mary Ann’s first major bout of confusion came almost two years ago.  She began to faint often one day and struggle to be clear where she was and what we were doing.  She moved into a non-responsive mode.  She could sit in front of the television, eat food and, with the usual assistance, manage to get bathroom duties accomplished.  It seemed as if she had left the planet mentally.  She did not recognize our Daughter (very painful for her) when she came by to bring Mary Ann something.  By about the fourth day of this, I became convinced that she had crossed a threshold permanently.  Then, without any hint as to why, on that Tuesday morning she woke up completely lucid and conversant without a hint of confusion.  She was able to remember some of the time during her seeming mental departure. 

Parkinson’s Disease Dementia and Lewy Body Dementia have the somewhat unique and insidious characteristic of moving dramatically and quickly between confusion and lucidity.  Some recent threads of posts on the Caregivers of spouses with Lewy Body Dementia have been about the challenge of dealing with the hallucinations, confusion, sometimes paranoia.  PDD and LBD folks live on a margin between reality and somewhere else.  They can move from one place to the other without warning, with no obvious triggering event.  This is different from the somewhat predictable Sundown Effect that comes with Alzheimer’s Disease. 

One thing that Caregivers of Loved Ones with PDD or LBD struggle with is that those who visit or talk with their Loved One may only see and hear the lucidity.  They wonder what the Caregiver is talking about when suggesting that their Loved One has Dementia.  That problem can be especially troublesome when other family members don’t believe there is a problem, while the primary Caregiver is going crazy trying to deal with their Loved One and make difficult decisions. 

A number of those who post in the LBD Spouses group have far more bizarre expressions of delusional behavior and hallucinations.  Some have dealt with Capras delusions in which the person is convinced that their Caregiver (even if a spouse or child) has been replaced by someone who looks just like them.  They will ask to see the other you.  Some who have dealt with that delusion suggest simply telling the person you will go and get the real you, then they leave the room and return announcing that you are now the real person.   There is another delusion called Reduplicative Paramnesia in which the person thinks that the room has been replaced by a duplicate that is not the real one.  One Caregiver said she asked her Loved One if it would be okay to go ahead and stay in this new room.  Some Caregivers in the LBD group, who live in what they call Lewy Land, have to put up with spouses saying horrible things to them, lashing out at them, being accused of all sorts of infidelities because of the paranoia. 

When I read those posts I am grateful that Mary Ann is lucid most of the time, other than on days like this.  The most disturbing hallucinations have been the times she has seen a man and two children, then a man, woman and two children, finally accusing me of protecting them by lying when I explained to her (in what seemed like a lucid moment) that they were not really there. 

The general wisdom is not to argue with the person who is hallucinating since they are actually seeing what we cannot see.  My seat of the pants approach to her hallucinations is to explain that while she can actually see what she is hallucinating, it is not there outside of her mind, in a way that I can do anything about.  When she sees the mice in bed, I run my hands over the spot to verify they are not there.  I wait for her to throw away the threads or have her hand them to me to throw away.  I offer to take her to the place where she sees whatever it is to be. 

While she has told me that the problem is not that she is hallucinating but that I don’t believe her, for the most part, we have been able to work through the hallucinations and the confusion without major problems.  Judging from the experience of others, the time of major problems with hallucinations and confusion and paranoia will come.   

As with most Caregivers, we live in a fragile world traveling on a very narrow road with steep precipices on both sides.  It is not for the faint of heart! 

The problem is that most of us in the Role of Caregiver are  faint of heart.  We are at times scared and frustrated and out of control.  We take each moment as it comes, dealing well sometimes and poorly other times with what we encounter in a particular moment.  We just make do, and in doing so we survive to live to deal with whatever the next moment brings. 

It is interesting to me what impact the accumulation of surviving those moment by moment encounters has on our sense of value and purpose.  Even as our coping skills seem to diminish, a quiet strength appears.  It grows little by little as we endure.  I have more respect than words can express for those in the LBD Spouses online group who have traveled much farther down the narrow road that we have.  They are truly heroes. 

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 26, 2009

Caregivers Sweat the Small Stuff!

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Have you ever been horrified at your own pettiness?  I am!

We just returned from a trip that took us first to visit with dear friends in Grove, Oklahoma, at their home on Grand Lake.  What a beautiful spot!  Then we spent three nights and the days at Lookout Point Lakeside Inn Bed and Breakfast in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  We finished the trip at Eureka Springs, Arkansas and returned home last night, after a detour to Emporia, Kansas to have a Sundae at Braum’s.  Arkansas is overwhelmingly beautiful at this time of the year.  Dogwoods were blooming throughout the tens of thousands of acres of woods through which the roads wound.  Everywhere we looked it appeared as if there was a layer of pure white snow hanging above the floor of the forest.

As I reported in my last post, after a challenging first night at the B&B on account of some middle of the night issues with Mary Ann, and a physically draining, beautiful visually but draining day, we returned to our room.  The one handicapped parking space that allowed us to enter the B&B on the same level as our room was taken by a vehicle without a Handicapped Plate or sticker. Gratefully, there was a second space in that same area.  It was available.

We relish the handicapped parking spaces since we need room to bring the wheel chair to the passenger side of the car so that Mary Ann can easily move into it.  When she is mobile (which is most of the time) she can walk to the back of the car to get into the chair.  There was enough room to get the chair between the cars.  There was actually no real inconvenience to us.

It is true that I was concerned that the folks who had been using that lower non-handicapped spot would be annoyed that I took their spot.  It is true I was concerned that if we left in the car someone else might take that non-handicapped parking spot, leaving us the only other option of parking in an upper lot with a very steep incline to the lower door.  Upper doors led only to stairs stairs inside, not negotiable in a wheelchair.

Yes, I had reason to be annoyed.  I assumed that the person who used the spot was just another one who ignores any efforts to make life easier for those of us who have special needs.  It is always a struggle to find a way into any public place, stores, restaurants, museums, especially those in older buildings or small venues without the resources to make major modifications to their place for easy access to wheelchairs.  But we had no real problem getting to our room.  It was fine!

I couldn’t let it go.  I complained to the Innkeeper at the desk.  I saw a group meeting in the dining room and assumed someone there was the culprit.  The vehicle had indication of an organization on the door.  It seemed logical to me that the group meeitng was for folks in that organization.  I was right.

I kept checking to see if someone went out to move the vehicle.  I just couldn’t let it go!  Even though we were fine, I stewed about it.  The group met for hours.  It was not until they broke up for a late supper that I saw some of them head down the hall toward the lower parking spots.  I went out to move our van into the handicapped spot when they left.  I couldn’t keep from asking the driver if she realized she had parked in a handicapped spot.  She said yes.  She added that they (the B&B Staff) told her it was all right.  I went on to tell her about our need with the wheel chair.  I spoke with attitude, and she was not apologetic.

Caregivers sweat the small stuff.  We had not actually been inconvenienced.  The driver had been told she could park there.  The Staff person who gave permission made an error in judgment, but she did not intend to cause us a problem.  It was small stuff!  Not to me!

The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how small I had become.  We were in the midst of flowers and birds and serenity and wonderful lake views and sunsets and gourmet meals and afternoon wine and cheese and good people.  We had time to be together as we saw an impressive garden.  We got to dig through mud in search of quartz crystals.  We got to see mountains and wonderfully contrasting colors of conifers sprinkled among the freshly leaved deciduous trees.  How could something of no actual consequence grow to a size that interfered with the celebration of life we were free to enjoy in that remarkable place.

My world has gotten too small.  The realization settled in that I had allowed something to grow out of proportion to its importance.  That problem is mine.  The more I think about it, the more I suspect that those of us who are full time Caregivers are especially susceptible to sweating the small stuff.  Our world is shrinking.  Many of us are virtually house bound.  When confined to a small space, little things look bigger by comparison to the space in which we find them.  When our view of the world is filled by one central task, mostly done at our house, everything we encounter is magnified in our eyes.

It seems to me that the problem of sweating the small stuff is not confined to Caregivers.  In the past, I have noticed that older folks (whatever that means when said by a sixty-six year old) sometimes seem to be so particular.  If the restaurant doesn’t have the sweetener they use, it is to them a big deal.  Older folks seem to be grumpy about little things of no real importance.  I am horrified to discover that I have caught the virus.  I knew I was letting something grow out of proportion to its real importance.  I couldn’t stop.  Nothing I did cured that particular expression of sweating the small stuff.

That particular outbreak of the virus finally subsided.  I talked with the owner of the B&B who explained that they often did give permission for people to use that spot if is was not needed.  She apologized that the permission had been given in light of our need.  I made a point of connecting with the driver I had scolded to apologize for my tone with her.  She had just done what she had been told was all right to do.  She had a back problem that made the stairs very difficult to negotiate, so she had asked about using the spot. She felt badly that it happened.  She valued the importance of honoring that accommodation to the needs of those with physical limitations.

As with most viral infections (metaphorically speaking), there is no cure.  Our world, and, I suspect, the world of most Caregivers, is growing smaller as the Parkinson’s progresses.  To find meaning in our lives even as the space within which we live them grows smaller, we have to work at keeping things in perspective.  It helped me to think about what was happening as I let something small grow out of proportion to its actual size.  I couldn’t stop myself from letting it grow, but by thinking about it and watching it, realizing I didn’t want it to be happening, finally it settled back into its proper place.

Caregivers sweat the small stuff.  I hope that the time and effort spent processing this outbreak of pettiness will help me find the way to better perspective sooner next time a bit of small stuff starts to grow.

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 23, 2009

Caregiver Vacation Realities

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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The following is quoted ( some paraphrasing) from some journaling I did the other night while on vacation at a Bed and Breakfast in Arkansas. We had spent a wonderful evening with some dear friends on the trip there.  It was our first night at the B&B. (Let me apologize in advance for the graphic detail – it seemed the only way to explain the challenges of caregiving.) It is a follow-up on my last post on travel preparations:

Ask me now if I would sound so bold and courageous about traveling! It is 3:35am. Mary Ann has had a usual middle of the night need to go to the bathroom. I got her into the transfer chair by the bed and rolled her as far into the bathroom as I could and transfered her to the toilet stool. Pants needed to be changed. That task involved the use of one of those flimsy plastic bags that refuses to open or stay opened to put the completely soaked pad (generic Depends) in. While sitting on the stool, she fainted (low blood pressure due to the Parkinson’s and medication side effects). She was out for two or three minutes while I held her on the stool – no easy task since at that point she is dead weight.

She came around enough to get her to stand up. While I was getting pad and pajamas back in place, she went out again. This time it was a major challenge. As light as she is, holding her up in a standing position when she is cannot assist is beyond the strength in this little sixty-six year old body. I tried to get her twisted around and on to the transfer chair. She slipped off on to the floor. Picking her up from the hard ceramic tile floor put my back in danger of damage. There were no other options that were available. I pulled her up and managed to get her into the transfer chair. I tried very hard to use my legs rather than back, since damaging my back would sabotage our system of survival.   There was a painful twinge.

When finally she was in transfer chair she was still not fully awake. The low BP leaves her brain an without adequate blood supply, so she is often minimally responsive after a major fainting spell. Since the bed was particularly high, getting her into bed so that she did not slide back on to the floor was difficult. I finally got her on the bed, twisted her into position, adjusted her on to her side and she is now secure and sleeping.

On the positive side of the fainting spells and only partial awakening, she has no memory of the events.  Sometimes she doubts that the spells really happened, but she seems now to accept it when I tell her about one.

In the journal, I added that she had had a noisy night before this episode. She was vocalizing and active, obviously having vivid dreams. One of the characteristics of people who experience Lewy Body Dementia is that they have very vivid dreams in which there is bodily movement and vocalizing. The normal dream process includes some sort of automatic disconnect of mind and body. LBD folks seem to lack that automatic disconnect so they tend to act out and speak out what they are dreaming. I have heard lots of laughing, crying, screaming and talking over the years.

Vacationing while having responsibility for someone needing full care is exhausting and frustrating. We spent a significant portion of the evening looking for a Baskin and Robbins Ice Cream store she was convinced she had seen more than once earlier in the day. There was none.

The day after the challenging night included the usual tasks that are added due to the presence of Parkinson’s in our household. As I describe them, I am embarrassed to talk as if they are a burden to me. Many of these tasks are well-understood by anyone who has been the primary parent of one or more children. Those responsible for little ones do many of these things routinely with little or no credit for doing tasks that are terribly difficult and draining. I understand far better what Mary Ann did as a stay-at-home Mom for two children. As I whine about the impact on me of things I do for Mary Ann, she has the primary burden of the disease and the resulting dependence on me to do them. She has more reason to whine than I have.

Morning duties included giving Mary Ann a shower, washing and drying her hair.  On vacation there is no bath aid. The routines at home, provide some security and order that helps us through the days. Vacations provide new challenges. After getting the shower and hair done, comes the medication ritual. There is an Exelon patch to be removed and new one put on. The old band-aid on one skin Cancer must be removed and a new one put on – Polysporin first. Then the other skin Cancer needs to be cleaned with Peroxide. Only after those duties are complete do I start my own morning regimen.

The breakfast as always here was wonderful. We arrived, I moved Mary Ann from her transfer chair to the chair at the table and put the transfer chair aside. Pills needed to be put in a container for her to take with the meal, then the daytime pills put in the timers and the timers set and started. Meals always include getting Mary Ann’s food arranged and prepared for her to eat. The omelet needed to be cut into bite sized pieces, the same with the sausage. What parent of little children has ever gotten to eat food while still hot. It just goes with the territory. For someone debilitated with Parkinson’s Disease, eating is a difficult task. The food tends to slide off the side of the place as it is chased to the edge. The food can end up in lots of unintended places. During mealtimes, my stomach is usually in a knot as I try to determine what to do and what not to do to help, as I watch things heading for a place that will create a mess for me to clean up. Certainly Mary Ann struggles to get meals eaten. She dislikes my help, but often allows it. Meals are more uncomfortable when eaten in a public setting.

The day included a self-guided tour that took us to see beautiful gardens, but demanded pushing the wheelchair for two or three miles on paths, sometimes paved and sometimes not, sometimes ADA approved and sometimes not. The circumstances allowed few options other than effort that got my heart pounding to a degree that left me wondering if I would have to call for help to make it back to the entrance. Today Mary Ann wanted to hunt for diamonds at a diamond mine around here. It was too far, so we ended up spending close to a couple of hours looking for quartz crystals, both of us in the hot sun, me digging through the gooey clay and Mary Ann, while in her wheel-chair, examining the discoveries .

Now that we are midstream in the trip, the question remains. Is it worth it?  It is much harder to handle things away than at home.  The barriers that must be dealt with are many.  We could stay home and watch television.  It would be so much easier.  A trip like this allows us to see things we could not see and do things we couldn’t do at home.  It gets us away, with new people.  It provides exercise and stimulation (sometimes more than we would otherwise choose).

Would we still do it?  Even knowing the realities, at the moment we would still choose to go.  We won’t be home for another two days.  I’ll let you know then if that is still my answer.

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 19, 2009

Caregiver/Receiver Travel Preparations

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving, Practical Tools for Coping, Therapeutic Activities | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Traveling fools that we are, we are heading out again tomorrow morning.  Having just returned from Kentucky last Monday, the preparations seem to be going more smoothly than last time.

This time we are heading for the most beautiful Bed and Breakfast that could be imagined.  There are ten rooms (one especially for handicapped), all of them facing a beautiful arm of Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Each room has its own patio or balcony.  There is a library, a reading room (both with fireplaces), a heated and cooled sun porch with games and puzzles and areas for conversation.  The decor is elegant without being pretentious.  There are many watercolors by local artists, one artist in particular.  The quality of the art is impeccable.  There is a garden that spills down the terrace toward the lake.  It is laced with paths and a stream divided by waterfalls, the water from a wonderfully gurgling fountain at the edge of the patio outside the dining room.  The garden is filled with trees and blooming shrubs and Azaleas.

The Owners and Staff are welcoming and engaging.  The breakfast is, of course, many courses, all tasty and what I would call comfortable gourmet.  I just made up that descriptor, but it is the only way of saying it that makes sense to me.  The 4:00pm wine and cheese and freshly baked cookies, sometimes fruit, is a relaxed time for conversation around the serving table or for eating on the patio listening to the fountain and the birds that visit the multiple feeders.  By the way Chocolate Wednesday is a special treat!

What I just described I am remembering from a visit last October.  That trip was a retirement gift from the Congregation that has meant so much to us in these last dozen or so years.  Since one of the owners of the Bed and Breakfast is an active Pastor, there are special rates for those of us in the business, making this trip possible for a pastor living on a pension.  This B&B is called Lookout Point – Lakeside Inn, www.lookoutpointinn.com/

I am excited about this trip.  Part of the reality of Caregiving is that anything can happen in the next few days as we make this trip.  Tomorrow something may emerge that makes it impossible to go.  We may have any number of problems as we travel.  None of that dampens my enthusiasm.  I cannot know what will happen, so I will enjoy what I can, while I can.  Mary Ann enjoyed our last visit and is motivated to make it work.

As always the preparations are many.  Choosing clothes to take along is a special challenge.  As is the case each morning, I gather as many options for clothing as I can hold and carry them to her as she sits on the edge of the bed.  Often it takes what seems to be an interminable amount of time for her to work back and forth through the clothes as the hangers dig into my fingers.  Deciding on clothes for six days of travel is an exhausting experience for the one holding the clothes.

There are pills to be prepared and put in the plastic seven day, four section each day, pill holder.  Then the bottles of pills need to be along in case anything happens to the ones in the daily container.  There are meds for the two skin cancers that have just been removed so that they can be treated properly to enhance the healing process.  One takes Polysporin and a band-aid each day, the other needs to be dabbed with Peroxide three or four times a day.  The Exelon patches need to come along. The black case with liquid band-aids to deal with the Plavix thinned blood if there is a cut comes along.  There are straws and bandages and wipes and adhesive tape, boxes and tubes and containers filled with all sorts of things that have been needed at one time or another in the past.  All are contained in that black case.

There is the booklet with all the medical information including a list of medications, insurance information, doctors names and phone numbers, her living will.  There are snacks to be gathered for the trip.  There are paper towels for the inevitable spills as we travel.  Both wheel chair and transfer chairs will come along.  We may add the bedside commode if there is room. Those who are in the stage of life that includes young children know how hard it is to gather all that is needed so that the odds of the trip going well are increased.  There are never any guarantees about how it will go, no matter how many preparations are made.

Every time we do this, the usual questions come to mind again.  Should we be traveling away from the security of home and familiar medical resources?  Is it more trouble than it is worth?  What if something happens!!

I guess we have decided that if something happens, it will happen.  We can’t control that.  We can sit at home and wait for it to happen so that if it does, we will be close to the familiar.  We are simply choosing not to sit and wait.  Our reasoning is obvious.  We have what appears to be a limited time remaining with enough mobility to even attempt traveling.  We will do it while we can and not do it when we can’t.  We think we still can, so off we go!

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 18, 2009

Prolonged Grieving for Caregivers/Receivers

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Downstairs on a quilt rack is a queen-sized Sampler Quilt. A Sampler Quilt is a quilt made with many different patterns that serve as samples of traditional quilt blocks. That quilt was stitched entirely by hand — no machine quilting. The stitches are even and very, very tiny, the way quilt stitches are supposed to be. It took Mary Ann two years to transform pieces of fabric into a completed quilt. Parkinson’s has stolen from her the ability to handle a needle at all, let alone sew a quilt.

Those who have a progressive disease with no known cure are forced to watch their abilities, abilities that that helped define them as unique individuals, diminish until each one crosses a threshold that leaves them empty of that ability. Each loss is a little death. It is grieved just as if a piece of her/hiim has died. Each loss brings with it all the same stages that have been used to describe the grieving process that is experienced after losing a loved one.

Most of the times Mary Ann and I find ourselves in conflict it is because we disagree on the degree to which one of her abilities has diminished. She is convinced she hasn’t crossed the boundary that leaves that ability on the other side, out of reach. I am often more ready to find acceptance than she is when an ability is lost to her. While the conflicts are unsettling, seeing her fighting acceptance reassures me that she is still her feisty self. When I see her accept whatever loss it is, I feel a deep sadness that a little of her is lost.

Watching someone you love lose a bit of herself grieves the Caregiver. To put it in more dramatic terms, Caregivers watch their Loved Ones die a little at a time for however long the caregiving goes on. While that is a harsh way to speak of it, calling each loss a death helps put in motion the process that ultimately can lead to acceptance.

Please understand, there is no way to make this part of the life of a Caregiver and Carereceiver pleasant and fulfilling. What can happen is by accepting the loss, full attention can be given to the task of building a new reality that has new ways of finding meaning and fulfillment. That, of course, is far easier said than done.

As a Caregiver, I am tasked with finding new ways to live meaningfully, when old ones are no longer available. I cannot stop the progression of the disease, the process of decline, but I can look for places to stop along the way, places of significance and meaning, places that could not be discovered if still trapped in the grief.

As I was thinking about this today, it dawned on me that the chronically ill and their caregivers are not alone on this journey of loss and grief and the need for acceptance. Every one of us who has seen a gray hair or felt the sharp stab of some arthritis or seen wrinkles where the skin used to be smooth and taut, every one of us who has been defeated at our favorite sport by someone younger and more agile has some grieving to do.

Since we are all mortal and confronted by our mortality at every sign of aging, we all have the challenge of identifying what we have lost and moving through the grieving process to acceptance. Otherwise we will waste the time of life we are in trying to live in a time long gone. We will miss whatever opportunities lie embedded in the present, opportunities unavailable to us until now.

For those with Parkinson’s Disease or any other seriously debilitating disease, the pace of the loss is increased, the degree intensified. There is just more grieving to do and more acceptance to seek. The abilities in those with a progressive disease may diminish to the extent that it seems virtually impossible to find anything left for them to do.

In almost forty years of pastoring, I have been invited innumerable times into peoples’ lives at the death of someone they loved.  (Sometimes it was someone I loved too.)  Sometimes the death came at the end of a long life. Sometimes there was a protracted illness. Sometimes people stood watch as their loved ones died painfully.  Sometimes the death came so suddenly as to leave them breathless, having had no time to prepare or say goodbye.  No matter how it happens, a death must be grieved. It is not a matter of one being harder or easier to deal with, each must be grieved.

For those who are Caregivers for someone with a progressive disease for which there is no known cure, the grieving is spread over all the years of Caregiving.  There are times when the pace is measured by small steps and times when there are frightening leaps toward the inevitable end of the journey.  Grieving is an important process in the journey.  It gives us a chance to express a variety of emotions, to deny for a while whatever it is that has been lost, to spew out some anger, to spend time wondering what we could do to change it, to just feel bad about it for a while and finally to recognize it for what it is, another step we have taken as we travel along with each other and the disease.

When we move through grief in a healthy way, the accepance that comes frees us to be ready to see what possibilities lie in the present.  We are able to see them and judge their value by what is so in the present, not by a past that is no longer accessible.

It must be added that those of us who deal with Parkinson’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease Dementia, Lewy Body Dementia and a number of diseases like them have the even more frustrating challenge of grieving the loss of one level of functionality, only to see it return for a time, then disappear, return again, all without any identifible pattern.  It is sort of like the weather in Kansas and Oklahoma.  If you don’t like it, just wait a bit, and it will change. One loss may be grieved many times.  There is joy when what has been lost returns and sadness when it leaves again.  We have the challenge of grieving the loss of consistency and the ability to make and realize plans based on the abilities that exist at the moment.  We have to develop the ability to turn on a dime and change directions based on what is so in each moment as it comes.  Our need is to come to acceptance that we are not on a train moving at a measured pace in a certain direction.  Our need is to accept that we are on a roller coaster with all the twists and turns, ups and downs, with no way of knowing when or where we will be next.  We know the destination for certain.  We just have no idea when that destination come and the roller coaster will stop.

In the meantime, the journey with Parkinson’s or any debilitating disease accompanying us demands that we learn to grieve effectively.  The grieving helps us find our way to acceptance so that we can live in the present, so that we can see and take advantage of whatever opportunities lie in the present as it really is.  The ability to grieve losses effectively frees us to live with meaning and purpose the life we have each day as it comes.  The day we are in is the only one we have for sure.  Grieving well frees us to live it to the full.

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 17, 2009

Caregiver Guilt: Guilty or Not Guilty?

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving, Relationship Issues | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Yes!!!

In yesterday’s post, I said this one was coming.  I have been thinking about it for a long time.  Those of us who have full responsiblity for another human being suffer from feelings of guilt.  We just do — and yes, sometimes we actually are guilty and sometimes we are not guilty. 

There is nothing in particular that triggered my thinking about this today.  It was a long and somewhat frustrating day.  The morning routine went fine, the one through which I declare that there is some shred of control left in our lives in spite of Parkinson’s Disease joining the family twenty-two years ago.  Then some repair work that was to be done at our house was sabotaged by the carelessness of the vendor’s service manager.   The resolution of that problem is not yet in sight. 

After that start to the day, my list, the list by which I seek to create some order out of our chaos simply didn’t accomplish its task.   It did not order my day.  I didn’t do it, much of any of it.  I looked at it often.  I did some self-talk trying to encourage doing enough to check off an item or two.  It just didn’t work — I just didn’t work.

One thing that did take control of the day was the activity of the alimentary canal of the one for whom I care, about whom I care.  She was up and down, in need of an elbow to steady her, or a task to be done throughout the day.  There were anywhere from moments to minutes between the needs — no more than minutes. 

With that said, I could have, should have accomplished more. 

The guilt that is part of a Caregiver’s world is a constant presence.  It does not really have to do with how good the care is, how well the Caregiver does at responding to the needs of the one for whom they are caring.  In fact, the better the care that is given, the greater the opportunity to feel guilty. 

Caregivers feel guilty for not doing enough, not doing all that they should do as well as they should do it.  The harder they try to be the perfect, nurturing, loving, kind, thoughtful, capable Caregiver, the farther behind that goal they fall.  

The problem is obvious.  There is more that should be done than can be done by any one human being!  There are no boundaries around all that should be done to help your Loved One have all that she/he needs to have the life she/he deserves.  It is impossible.  The Disease has joined the family.  Caregivers can’t fix that.  Mary Ann has Parkinson’s.  I can’t change that.  I cannot give her back the life she deserves.

Why do Caregivers then feel guilty?  Mary Ann has been to Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy.  We have pages of exercises she should be doing.  There are games that should be played to keep her mind stimulated.  I should get her out more, find entertaining activities to keep her from being bored.  I should learn how to cook three good meals a day that are tasty and pleasing to her palate. 

Why do Caregiver’s feel guilty?  We aren’t always nice!  I get irritated!  I get irritated when she falls after making the same frustrating choice that has resulted in a fall hundreds of times  before (literally, in twenty-two years).  She doesn’t want to fall.  She has Parkinson’s Disease and Orthostatic Hypotension and the side effects of medicines, but she still wants and needs to get up and move.  I get angry at her when the Parkinson’s deserves the anger. 

Why do Caregivers feel guilty?  Yes I love her and am completely committed to her care, but I don’t like having my biggest needs trumped by her tiniest needs.  I am well.   She is sick.  I shouldn’t resent her for something she can’t control.   The truth be known, she is no more perfect than I am.  Because she has Parkinson’s does not make the things that used to be irritating any less irritating now.  I am hardly sweet and wonderful.  I am also just as irritating and frustrating to live with as ever.

It seems to me that one challenge for Caregivers is to separate the things of which we are guilty from the things of which we are not guilty. 

We are not guilty!  We cannot do all the things we should do.  That means we will not be doing a whole list of things we should be doing.  Every helpful suggestion for what we should be doing just moves the already impossible goal farther away.  Caregivers need to come to terms with a simple reality.  We are just people.  We have a life too.  It is actually healthy for us to set limits on how much we do so that we can continue to give good care. This is a marathon, not a sprint.   We cannot make up for all that the chronic illness has taken away from our Loved One.  We will soon become completely disabled if we try.  Feeling guilty about what we cannot actually accomplish is a waste of precious energy and a weight on our spirit that can’t be carried for long without breaking that spirit. 

We are guilty.  We actually do say things we should not have said.  We do blame our Loved Ones for things over which they have little or no control.  We really are imperfect.  We do fail to do things that we could have done to make a real difference.  We take out on our Loved Ones our frustrations with the Disease by our tone of voice or our unresponsiveness or whatever subtle tools we use to punish them.  It does us no good to do all sorts of mental gymnastics to try to justify our behavior.  It is a waste of time.  We are guilty! 

What can we do with the guilt we deserve?  We can’t undo what we have done that we should not have done, or not done that we should have done.  For some of us there lies within our spirituality the freedom to admit our guilt, face it boldly. without fear, and refuse to be disabled by it.  The kernal of truth that lies in the very center of the spiritual tradition that nourishes me is that the One who chooses that I exist, loves me unconditionally with love more powerful than all the things for which I rightly feel guilty.  That love is not weak and shallow and without consequences.  It is easy to feel guilty.  We can wallow in it, get depressed on account of it, and give up trying.  Unconditional love, mercy, forgiveness is much harder.  It implies the possibility of change.   It offers the freedom to change.  It removes the excuses we use to avoid growing. 

For those who do not have a particular spirituality or do not understand there to be a spiritual dimension to life, the issue is the same.  Feeling guilty is still a waste of time.  Naming the things we have done that are actually wrong, harmful, destructive is a healthy first step.  Our primitive brain elicits words and behaviors that frustrate our humanity.  We need to face that before we can choose behavior that nurtures our humanity.  The task is to identify and accept the truth about ourselves and choose behavior that allows us to grow and change and become more than we have been. 

However we define the nature of our humanity, whether in spiritual terms or otherwise, we can find meaning in our caregiving, nurture our humanity, grow in our ability to live full and complete lives even in the company of a chronic illness that seems to be hell-bent on destroying us and our Loved Ones. 

Caregivers, are we guilty or not guilty?  Yes!!!  With that clear, let’s get on with it.  We have things to do!

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 15, 2009

Caregivers Feel Powerless

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving, Practical Tools for Coping, Therapeutic Activities | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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We made it!!!  Last evening we returned from Kentucky traveling 10.5 hours — under overcast skies dropping periodic showers on us as we traveled — all 10.5 hours.  Then, two miles from our home, the sun broke through.   Traveling can be wonderful, thrilling, entertaining, full of comfort with family that is loved very much, and still, coming home feels good. 

Then there was the mail to be opened.  Two pieces of mail in particular dampened my enthusiasm to be home more than the showers had dampened our travel that day.   Both were Caregiver irritants.  The first was another in the seemingly endless array of medical insurance claims denied because someone had a wrong code or a wrong insurance ID number or hadn’t communicated information in the left hand to the right hand or because this Caregiver didn’t get the right information to the right person at the right time.

The second piece of mail that dampened my spirits was what appeared to be a summons for Mary Ann to serve on a jury.  The form to be filled out looked as if someone had printed some sort of printer test page with bar codes and fonts both tiny and bold. 

Now, I am a reasonably intelligent person.  I graduated eighth out of three hundred twenty-five in my high school class.  I tied one other student with the highest numbers on my college entrance exams.  I got a 31 composite score on my ACT and a 34 (out of 36) on the quantitative portion of the test.  I spent eight years in college and seminary, learning to read Hebrew, Greek, Latin and German.  I went back to school and got a Doctor of Ministry degree after ten years of working.  Why am I so intimidated by health insurance forms and jury summons and keeping track of pills in their little plastic holders and making sure that prescriptions are obtained or renewed before the pills run out. 

Why is it that little things seem to have so much power to ruffle my feathers.  So the person who got my order for two pieces of white meat sent me home with a thigh and a wing instead of a breast and a wing.  I actually called and complained (got a free meal out of it).  Things that are of no account in the grand scheme of the universe seem so huge and frustrating.  I have dealt with tough issues hundreds of times over the years, helped families through major crises, worked through substantial budgets, been through crises myself more than once.  Why should I now be undone by chocolate squished in Mary Ann’s hands and on clothes that can easily be Spray and Washed. 

Whether it is verifiable scientifically or not, I am convinced that people have just so much coping capability.   As Caregivers, we live in a chaotic world in which things can change in moments.  We have absolutely nothing to say about what happens to us.  We can do everything it makes sense to do so that there will be a certain outcome.  We actually have no say in what outcome results.  Every time something happens that throws that truth in our face, every time events take an unforseen turn, we are forced to use up some of our coping skills. 

Any of us who have been caring for a Loved One for some time understands that we have pretty much nothing to say about what happens.  Parkinson’s in particular is unpredictable in how it will present itself and how it will proceed.  Lewy Body Dementia is especially insidious in that dramatic changes can take place for the better or for the worse (mostly the worse) at any time, at any pace.  Other diseases have different patterns but no less power to use up a Caregiver’s coping ability. 

So, what can we do in the face of the harsh reality that we are out of control, we are completely powerless to order our world?  We live in total chaos. 

If it is little things that can now undo us, since we have used up all our coping ability on the big things, how about trying to beat this powerlessness at its own game?  If little things can undo us, why not use little things to create some semblance of order in our lives?  Why not create little pockets of control in our lives to suggest to our insides that we actually can survive the chaos — we can refuse to give it the power to unravel us completely.

Here is how I fight the chaos, the feelings of powerlessness.  This will sound stupid and silly, but it helps me survive.  I clean the commode every morning.  I make the beds and fold the corners so that they will not trip Mary Ann when she walks around the foot of the bed.  I fold the chuk that was under the commode, move the clean commode to the foot of my bed.  I roll the lift from the living room where it spends the night into the bedroom to the foot of my bed.  I get Mary Ann’s pills which, every Saturday, I put in the little compartments in which they always go.  I set the pill timers.  I change Mary Ann’s night time pad (like Depends) for a day time pad (each holds a different quantity of liquid).  I get her dressed, velcro shoes for when we are out, making bathroom changes of pads go more quickly.  And so it goes. 

If we can’t control the big things, we can control some things.  When people came in struggling with mild depression (I referred those in deep depression), one suggestion I made was to make a list of just two or three simple things that they could easily do, tiny things.  I suggested making the list and checking off those silly little items when they were done.  Depression seems to come when we have the sensation that we are powerless to do anything about our situation.  My goal was to help them re-train their thinking, their gut, so that some small sense of control returned.

Most people who talked with me about problems that were overwhelming them heard the same suggestion.  Make a list of all the pieces of the problem that seems so overwhelming — usually there were multiple problems converging.  Then take the list and divide it into two lists. In one column, put the things you don’t have the power to control or change.  In the other column list the things that you can actually affect in some way.   The first list for those whose view of reality gives this weight, is the prayer list.  For those who don’t find that a meaningful option, it is the list of things to take off your plate of things to do.  Any energy spent on them is wasted.  If you had the power to change them you would have long ago.  Let them go! 

The second list is the “to do” list.  Take all the time and energy that has been wasted on things over which you have no control, get off your butt and do one of the things on the second list.  If it is too big to do, do something, anything, any part of the thing that is too big. 

Yes, I am a list maker.  Yes, I have put something on the list after I did it so that I could check it off.  Do whatever works for you to help you find some level of control in the face of things over which you have no control. 

Caregivers feel powerless because we are powerless — but not completely powerless.  Our job is to figure out what we can and can’t do, then do what we can and let go of what we can’t.  What is surpising to me is how often it turns out that the little things I could actually do did make a difference — more difference than I thought possible.  

 If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 9, 2009

Caregiver’s Loneliness

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Help from Others, Meaningful Caregiving, Practical Tools for Coping, Relationship Issues, Therapeutic Activities | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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A comment on a post I wrote a couple of nights ago raised an issue that is significant for many Caregivers who are doing full time caregiving all day long every day.  The writer mentioned that she often uses the time after her Loved One goes to bed to try communicate with others, since the opportunity for adult conversation is limited.

For many of us conversation that was a routine part of our daily lives with our Loved One and with others has pretty much ceased.  Especially those caring for someone with a form of Dementia find it tough to converse meaningfully.  A number of recent emails from others who are caring for spouses with Dementia have included reflections on the challenge of dealing with the lack of meaningful conversation and the loneliness that sometimes settles in.

Until I retired a number of months ago, I was active in a profession that involved lots of meetings, visiting with people, counseling folks struggling with problems, speaking in front of groups, and many hours each day communicating electronically (email).  All of that came to a halt pretty much the day I retired.  Emails ceased, phone calls stopped, meetings ended, there were no more visits to be made, no more speaking in front of groups.

Now there is one person stuck with me twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, someone who has never really been a talker and now after twenty-two years of Parkinson’s has taken its toll finds great difficulty getting thoughts into words and sustaining conversation.  She has struggled with the challenge of having me there constantly, so I can hardly complain.  She tired long ago of listening to my voice as it drones on and on.

One comment in an email I read tonight provided an image of the Caregiver in need of communication.  She mentioned that when she was at the dentist getting her teeth cleaned, every time the Hygienist took her hands out of her mouth she started talking immediately, not stopping until the instruments were back in her mouth.

I find myself starting conversations in with strangers in line at the store, or making conversation with the person at the register. Anyone who dares cross our threshold is likely to be fully engaged in conversation by the time their second foot has landed inside.

Anyone who reads this blog has certainly noticed the length of the posts.  When I write I imagine that there are people actually reading this with whom I am having conversation.

Living in a world of silence other than the sound of the television, can certainly produce a deep sense of loneliness.  I suspect there are lonely Caregivers by the tens of thousands out there.  It seems to me very likely that lots of them, probably a majority, are not computer users who have the option of going online and relating to others regularly. If the Caregivers are lonely, imagine how lonely and bored those who need the care must be.

There are no simple solutions to the loneliness and isolation, the boredom and lack of conversation that comes with the Caregiver and Carereceiver territory.  For me the battle with loneliness starts with developing a rich inner life that experiences each moment fully and fills my thoughts with wonderful images from my environment, from reading, from the lives of others I have encountered, from my own story, from a head filled with unfinished business, from intellectual and spiritual curiousity.

While I have never been a writer, the exercise of writing these posts is safisfying and fulfilling.  Reading emails and occasionally responding to those who are caring for spouses with Lewy Body Dementia is engaging.  When Volunteers come to stay with Mary Ann to give her a break from my constant presence, it takes me a long time to get out the door as I engage them in conversation.  I find myself on the phone with brothers and sisters more often than ever before in my life.  Trips to the coffee shop to get a cup of coffee take a little longer. When we attend the Parkinson’s Support Group meetings, I am not shy in speaking up.

Since I am not good at all at small talk, I know very little about sports and I am completely uninterested in debating politics, conversation just for the sake of talking is not all that satisfying.  I suppose I can talk about the weather with the best.  I do have a genuine interest in people’s stories, so given the opportunity, I will find out what you do and what you like and dislike about it, where you have lived, what challenges you have faced and how you are coping with them.  The problem when homebound by the Caregiving task, or the chronic illness, is that the opportunities for such meaningful conversations are limited.

While it helps, electronic communication is not fully satisfying to me since I thrive on the non-verbal elements of communication as well as the actual words themselves. Getting out of the house with the one for whom you are caring is worth the effort.  Go anywhere.  Do anything.  Put yourselves out there where the chance for human interaction and verbal interchange is possible.

Every job has its good points and its bad points.  The trick is to “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative” as the lyrics to an old song say.  Celebrate what is good that the Caregiving experience brings into your life.  Refuse to give the negative more power than it is due in ruling, in defining your life. I know that is far easier said than done.

Caregiver loneliness — Are you?  What are you doing about it?  What works for you?

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

 

April 8, 2009

Caregivers: Shall we Travel?

Posted by PeterT under Daily Challenges, Meaningful Caregiving, Therapeutic Activities | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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I am writing this post at my Daughter and Son-in-Law’s computer after driving for eleven hours yesterday to get here.  The word “disincentive” has come to be a regular in my vocabulary.  The disincentives to traveling with someone who needs lots of care are legion.

There is a powerful ambivalence that comes as the trip nears.  Memories of struggles on past trips loom.  There was the trip to that Elderhostel held in Tucson, Arizona one winter.  We flew since the drive would have been a couple of long days.  In my mind, the air quality on the plane brought it on.  Four days later I called the children to fly in for what was thought could be Mary Ann’s last night.  She recovered.  Nonetheless, that memory brings to mind the distinct possibility of having problems away from home.   A strange and unfamiliar hospital, new doctors, the communication of a complex of illnesses about which records lie a thousand miles away, the usual support system unavailable all compound the stress felt by the Caregiver.

Memories of driving for miles trying to find a one-holer, a single-user bathroom, or searching for someone willing to guard the multi-stall bathroom while the two of you spend what seems like an eternity in the restroom, those memories are firmly entrenched and surface immediately at the first thought of heading off on another trip.

I think most of us who are full time Caregivers have worked hard at developing routines that help us anticipate and deal with the many daily struggles that come with the territory.  We have found what works.  We have the tools handy in the places we will need them.  We know to whom to turn for what.  When we are in another place, routines no longer in place, everything is harder.  What we would have taken in stride at home becomes a major challenge.  There is added stress due to the increased vigilance demanded by a new environment filled with the unexpected.

The destination of our travel may not be user friendly for those with physical limitations.  If we are staying in a home with family or friends, the chances are there will not be all the accommodations we have provided at home as we have worked at making it more accessible over the years.  As Caregivers we have all come to realize how easily a few steps or a curb or a gravel drive or cramped quarters in a bathroom or a low toilet stool or any number of seemingly minor challenges can become major barriers.

Eating out in public places during the travel and, perhaps, at the destination is not a time to relax and converse and rest from the trip.  Finding a spot to park, getting the wheel chair out and through the doors of what is usually an air lock arrangement, two sets of doors with a small space in between sets the tone for the mealtime.  Figuring out what to order, dealing with the logistics of finding a table and getting the food to it in a fast food restaurant are more difficult that would be imagined.   Then, unfortunately, I get embarrassed when the food as it is being eaten ends up in a mess on the table, lap and floor.  I consider it my job to leave the table as I found it.

The disincentives to travel are legion.  The challenge is to put the disincentives in perspective when deciding whether or not to travel.  Mary Ann is less conscious of the disincentives.   She does not embarrass as easily as I do.  She seems less conscious of the difficulties we encounter.  I assume that part of the reason for that is that I am the one who does the physical tasks associated with getting her needs met.

There are incentives to traveling.  This trip brings us to two of our Granddaughters.  That trumps pretty much all of the disincentives for traveling here.  Traveling gets us out of those same few rooms in which we are spending our whole lives.   Traveling gets us away from one more Law and Order episode, Spaghetti Western, session of self-help on Oprah.  Traveling gets us in contact with real, live, human beings, able to converse with us.  Traveling exposes us to the beauty that surrounds us but is out of sight because it is on the other side of the houses surrounding ours.

We have worked at determining where the best bathrooms (single user) are when traveling.  They include Subways, Taco Bells, newer Casey’s General Stores, smaller convenience stores, Arbys,  BP station (if there is not an attached fast food restaurant).  Those places don’t always have a bathroom suited to our needs, but often do.  We have learned what foods are more and less challenging to handle.  We have an old catalog case filled with first aid supplies, straws, wipes, anything we can think of that we might need, but might not be readily available.  We grab that case every time we hit the road for an overnight.

You remember that often repeated quote attributed to someone who is looking back on life regretting not what he did but rather what he did not do.  There is only so much time left for any of us.  With a chronic illness in the family, mortality is clear.  Whatever we will do yet in our lives needs to be done now if it will be done at all.

Of course we need not to tempt fate and be foolish about what we choose to do.   If quality of life actually is more important that quantity, we do need to stretch the limits a bit and take the risk on traveling.

Shall we travel?  For Caregivers, it is far easier not to.  Logically speaking, the disincentives may seem to outweigh the incentives.  The challenge is to put in healthy perspective both disincentives and incentives.  Weigh them carefully and remember, we don’t have forever, we have now.

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