Tuesday, September 8, 2015

A Day in the life of a caregiver....

Each morning I have to make sure that everything the caregiver needs to shower and dress George are all there ready. The clothes in George's bedroom are for him to rummage through as I cannot guarantee that I can find anything in there as he pulls stuff out and moves it round. It is rare to find two shoes or two socks.

I need to get him up and give him breakfast and a coffee and chat to him before the caregiver comes. This takes up to an hour so that he is a bit more alert. After the caregiver goes I may need to take him somewhere or do something with him. Monday the health nurse visits, Tuesday and Thursday he goes to his club, Friday is memory clinic, Wednesday a lady takes him out for a walk and coffee ( I pay for this).

George's club; it is about 10.30 when I get him there and I pick him up at 2.30. Sounds great but takes me half an hour to get back home so a lot of time is spent travelling.

Each morning I need to check the bed to see if it needs changing. Yesterday morning the bed was soiled. Three loads of washing yesterday.

I need to ensure that George is eating and drinking as he needs it. With the catheter he needs to drink quite a lot and he is not keen on water (rather have wine). I am constantly getting him fed and watered.

3 comments:

  1. Di, you must assemble all of your posts into a book. I'm absolutely blown away by what you do. and that's coming from somebody who's done about half of it...

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  2. Hi Susan, yes I have thought about a book. I looked for one to help me when I started first with Mum and then George. I found it hard to find anything and certainly nothing like reality which would have helped me. So many of what you read is about the positive side of things and very little about what you really need to know in order to cope

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