Wednesday 10 June 2009

Oh the worry


I haven't been in my craft room for a while so I don't have anything to show you.
I thought I might mention some concerns of mine in dealing with an aging parent.
We have my mother living in the house and she is 87 years young. Up to two years ago
when my father passed away, she kept herself going and seemed quite bright minded.
But the shock of losing my dad seemed to have driven her into dementia. She still takes care of herself, still eats, still keeps up with the news but her memory is failing her, which is a cause for stress for everyone. On top of her mental state, she has a bad back and now it is affecting her legs to the point of weakness and
the occasional fall. If she doesn't actually hurt herself with aches and pains following her mishap, she is a candidate for the worse bruising you have ever seen.
It looks like she has taken on the worse beating of her life, poor thing. When we take her out, we use a transporter chair as she can't walk any distance. The most
tiring part of looking after her, is the memory thing, and her constant nagging and
negatism of everything around her. It wears you down. Her care has fallen on my
daughter's and my shoulders, as we all share the house we are in. Other siblings
come in to see her and see the changes in her but they are too far away to help with
her care. One of these days it will come to the point that she will require more help than we are capable of giving and then we will have the sad duty of changing her
address for her. I don't think it will be that far away. Perhaps after this year is
done, we will have to assess her again. It's a worry, it's a duty and it's love that carrys you on, but it's a weary road to follow.

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