Catheters

Yesterday a nurse came to the house to change George's leg bag (this is done weekly). Unfortunately she did not push the bag into the catheter tubing properly resulting in them coming apart during the night; result - another wet bed so I had to quickly take all his clothes off, clean him up and put some new clothes on until the caregiver arrived a couple of hours later. Three loads of washing for him today.

His bed must be the cleanest and most aired bed around

Today I had coffee with a relative from Australia who was in a similar situation. We were discussing the cost of rest homes. Much cheaper over there. Here the cost of keeping one person in a home is the total salary a teacher with a minimum of 14 years experience and in a senior position gets. This is just the very lowest basic rate and then other things are also required. This is a lot and then of course, for me,  I still have to live. Unfortunately that is impossible so he won't be able to go into a rest home unless something radical happens. Luckily he is still compliant and non aggressive. Mum's fees were paid for but had I not gifted and paid for so much her estate would have depleted down to the threshold for a subsidy but had this happened I would have failed her and the family.

I guess I could go back to work to pay for this but I would now have to retrain in accordance with the new regulations and all the money would just be going straight to the rest home. Teachers, I also feel, have their 'use by date'. I used to see lots of them who were still in the classroom long after they should have been but they were still working because they had to as they needed the money. This is not good for the children in their classrooms and I have no wish to become one of them.

We do have a govt subsidy here but you need to have a very low level of assets and no extra income to get this. My super puts it out of my reach. My advice to others is to spend or put things into a trust when you are very young. We are taught to save for our retirement and then you spend it all on keeping others in rest homes, seems very wrong. I admit that this was not on my radar and I do feel envy for others I see able to travel and enjoy their families and their lives in retirement. However we just have to make the best of what the cards deal us.