This might seem calous , but my wife and I have been caring for her father who has ,moderate dementia, we did this because no other family members would put their hands up. He was given 6 mths to live, (thats why we accepted the challenge , we thought it was the right thing to do). He has multiple myloma , some sort of cancer, has to be hooked up to a dialysis machine 3 times a week otherwise he would be cactus.
My wife does all the running around for him with no help from anyone, docs apps etc, these amount to driving him around for 5 days EVERY week, plus part time work at NIGHT as a nurse and taking kids to school and back, and with ALL that she still finds time to keep me happy( I dont know how!!!!).
The problem is his body is not failing him and he may live for 2-5 years !!!, shame is that the brain is completley switched off, the man that was once doesnt live in this body anymore. The problem we have is we dont seem to be able to put him into care without forking out huge sums of money,(and we just bought another block of land in exmouth) so we are realy stretched at the moment (until we sell where we are and move up there).
Has anyone been in a similar situation , if so WHAT is the solution .
We are at our wits end and are starting to get desperate
My wife wont let me take him fishing either , I cant work that out?[}:)]

Yeeeehaaaaa, a bed just became available at a nursing home across the road from where he has to go 3 days a week,but not for 2 weeks , couldnt have worked out better cause we organized respite for the next 2 weeks while we find our sanity in Exmouth, ,,,,,, this holiday to exy just got a whole lot better

Cassa said...

Yeeeehaaaaa, a bed just became available at a nursing home across the road from where he has to go 3 days a week,but not for 2 weeks , couldnt have worked out better cause we organized respite for the next 2 weeks while we find our sanity in Exmouth, ,,,,,, this holiday to exy just got a whole lot better

Your wife is one of those "Super Women"
I am glad it worked out this well for you both

Gizmo said...

On the other end of the scale how do you get "gen Y" to move out of home and become independent

size 14 boot up the arse mate

Your right about that Gypsy, she is truely beyond Super Woman!!
Oh and by the way we left for Exmouth ,got 2hrs up the road and blew the transfer case in my cruiser, we sat in the bush with the flies and heat from11am til 3pm when the RAC finally arived and my wife did not complain , spit the dummy,or lose it in any way ( even though she did a night shift before we left) she had no sleep whatsoever, and still drove me at 9pm last night to pick up the hire car . She is truely a beautiful, wonderfull ,woman , I am very lucky
We leave at 6am this morning to start the journey all over again!!