My Experience as a Caregiver

My caregiving stint was part time and I was doing it when I started working. I only had first-aid and the lady taught me how to safely lift her in and out of bathtub. The lady was very elderly but could still live in her condo with help. Her son was in my Service Club. He hired me. She had a Monday to Friday day-time help. She had two part time evening helpers. I did exercise with her, (walking up and down the hallway and leg exercises in kitchen), watched Wheel of Fortune or baseball with her, ran her bath and helped bathe her, helped with facial and body cream, helped put sleepwear on, eye drops, reminder to take meds, put dirty clothing and towels in laundry, put clean things away, good conversation until sleepy, then I stayed until she fell asleep. Enjoyed this immensely. When my Mom needed a LTC bed because she had Dementia there wasn’t one. She was able to stay in the Catholic Hospital in the town where they lived with her pension cheque paying for it. Because it was a small community there weren’t many options. Luckily the staff cared for everyone with compassion and it was super clean with real on site cooked food. Our experience with elderly residents has taught us that the system was broken with options just not being available and worse what was supposedly available was not as advertised. What this pandemic has revealed is that LTC is broken. Families cannot abdicate their right to ask questions. Enjoying my veggie garden. Esther