Caregiving: ... family first

     Most people are only familiar with illness or incapacity in an acute situation. If you get sick then you get better. If you sprain an ankle, you may hobble on a crutch for a brief period, then you walk freely again.

     Another common bond most share is that a catastrophic medical condition ends in death.

     “Living” with a chronic illness is an entirely different universe. There is NO Hallmark “Get Well Soon” phase and there is no end in sight. Yet as long as there is life there is hope and you learn to “live”!

     I never gave all this much public thought in the beginning. Then this journal soon began to take on a life of its own. Within a year it was highlighted in Australian carer publications, Eldercare.com, and even Forbes.com referenced it in an article on Medicaid planning. Questions in emails began to light up my mail box from readers of those articles.

      I share OUR story, which is all I really can share. I also share our lives because families facing the challenge of one member living with a chronic illness or disability are still families first.

     Children are raised, bills are paid, groceries bought, meals cooked and lawns are mowed. People still worry, laugh and cry. It isn’t that we do less; probably we do more than able bodied families because we have to.

     Family activities are as much a part of caring as the nuts and bolts of a wheelchair. You MUST create the time and the means for them.