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Showing posts with the label care giving

The trials of caregiving, continued

Today is Saturday, December 8, 2012.  Though it's a bit cloudy and somewhat warm for a December day, it's nice enough outside for people to be going out on walks or to run errands.  I really want to be out of this house, doing anything, really, but because our weekend aide (Margarita) is only here for one hour on Saturdays and Sundays, I can only go out for a brief stroll around the block, and that is not really enough for me, kind readers. I've never been much of a "roamer" who needs to be out of the house all day just to for the sake of being anywhere but home.  When I was a student or had consulting/ghostwriting gigs which required me to be elsewhere, I enjoyed it, but because I was not a party animal and did not date anyone back then, I was fairly content with being a homebody. Now that I'm taking care of my sick mother, I desperately long for any physical escape from my environment. It's one thing to pick-and-choose when one goes to see a movie or

The trials of caregiving....

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Mom as a teenager (circa 1943) Although I do not plan to turn my blog into a dreary litany of gripes about my current situation, I need to be able to get a few things off my chest.  I don't have too many people to turn to these days, and although I could probably start a discussion on my Facebook page about the dark side of care giving, I think that would do more harm than good. I'm writing at a moment of relative peace and quiet.  Margarita, the morning aide, came by and cleaned up Mom in bed since my mother no longer gets up to take showers even when she has assistants.  Margarita is only here for an hour on Saturdays and Sundays, so much of her time is devoted to cleaning Mom and doing light housekeeping chores in the bedroom, kitchen (if I haven't done it yet) and living room areas. Because Mom wanted to sleep late today, I ended up giving her breakfast at an hour more suitable for lunch: 12:15 PM.  I've been up since eight in the morning, having fallen as

Low Point

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you've probably noticed that as of late most of the entries are movie reviews, some of them which are complete and others which are essentially "teasers" which contain links to the original versions at Epinions.  Over the past few months, that's all that I've really been doing; I've written a few "op-ed" columns about Trayvon Martin and the civil war in Syria, but not much else which can be called original blog content. If this disappoints some (or all) of you, I apologize. I started this blog last year with every intention of providing a variety of entries that weren't limited to movie reviews and/or the creative process. I wanted to explore all kinds of topics which may be of interest to a diverse audience, and that is still my hope, because I want this blog to, as the Vulcans say on Star Trek, "live long and prosper." However, I must point out that this is possibly one of the lowest points