Trying again

My Grandmother is catholic. Every week, she receives a newsletter from the catholic church called the Catholic Register- and typically we recycle it after she knows it has arrived. She has a hard time reading and usually gets rid of it herself. This week... Chris cracked it open. Right to the page about Caregivers. And how they need to take care of themselves too. It talked about how flight attendants instruct passengers to put on their own oxygen mask before helping others- and how so many of us forget to do that.

Then article described what happens when a caretaker (or takers... me and my hubby) neglect themselves. Sleep deprivation... Check. Poor eating habits... check. Failure to exercise... Check. Depression... hopefully no check- even though there are days I wonder.

We didn't really know the depths of what we were stepping into when we came to take care of Gran. I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it is hard and taxing. Sadly, dealing with the external forces is much harder than the dementia, the difficulty getting her to eat, the general confusion that occurs on a daily basis. The external forces are what cause us to question if we really should stay. The people who visit maybe 3 times a year that have the decision making power. The people who assume instead of ask, the people who think that we don't do enough. They make it hard. They sadly don't know that we can't go do what we want to do when we want to do it. Even a grocery trip requires careful planning. It can't be too late in the day or for more than an hour. My kids can't have a trampoline or a swing set.

We love her. She is truly a member of OUR family. The kids are crazy about her. Even the hardest days when she hardly can remember her own name are a blessing to us- because we get the time with her. She is graceful- making people who she doesn't remember feel as though she has known them forever. We wouldn't trade this time in our lives for the world.

We are trying round 3 with this personal blog. I hopefully will be able to post a couple times a week about this that and the other... Our trials with dementia, our amazing kids, our home businesses- all sorts of stuff!!