I should have started this blog many years ago..not today but ...better late than never. I have been looking for a way to relive my stress and honestly discuss some of the issues of being a caretaker. The biggest issue to deal with is the lose of your own way of life.
My first day of being a caretaker occurred sometime in late summer 2007. My mom called about my dad (stepfather but he was our dad) having an accident after passing out. She told me he refused to be taken to the hospital by the paramedics. My sister was already there (that's a story for another day) so I told her to take him. I went up to there house (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours away, picked up my mom and met my sister and my dad at the ER. CT showed nothing...he was lucky - car was totaled.
Over the next several months he kept having "incidents" where he would forget things and feel nauseous. He couldn't find his keys sitting in his car, called my mom and said I can't find my keys, she told him to look in his pockets and on the ground by the door, not there. She told him to look in the ignition and he asked her what that was...that's when I knew we had to find out what was wrong. We had blood tests for dementia, sleep deprived EEG's, etc. All normal. Then he had another incident in the car, thank God he was stopped at a light. He didn't go and the car honking behind him didn't change that. The man in that care got out to check on my dad called 911, he was confused and he thought he might be having a heart attack.
This time they found a 3.5 cm mass in his head..did not know if it was a tumor, cyst or aneurysm.
This was just before Christmas. We went to a neurologist and scheduled surgery on the day of my 49th birthday.
Worst news possible Stage 4 GBM - a nasty malignant tumor of the brain. They gave him 6 months.
That is when my care-taking actually began - the night of my 49th birthday, January 2008.
I need to go cry now because I still miss him (and my old life).
Tomorrow's blog - Star Date 1.1 How can I make this work.
