Thankful Thursday

Today I posted on Twitter that it takes a Tribe to care for a loved one at home. Any caregiver knows that it does. Point blank if you haven't lived in a caregivers shoes you have no idea. The sleepless nights and the emotional strain that caring for my mother knowing that she won't get better no matter what I do because there's no cure for Alzheimer's Disease while seeing her decline regularly pulls at my heart strings..

Make no mistake any form of Dementia is horrible. It's not just a lack of memory, it's taking them to the hospital and struggling with telling the medical staff what's wrong because she can tell them for herself. It's helping her eat when she says that she's not hungry even though she hasn't eaten. It's bathing her because she fights you when you do. It so much more than that.

I'm just thankful that her husband is able to care for her because he loves her and doesn't want her to waste away in a nursing home. I'm thankful for his daughter because even though she travels a long distance she gave me the knowledge from being a nursing assistant that I need to care for my mother better. And I'm thankful for my friends that make me laugh to take the edge off.

It takes a tribe. You can't go at it alone. Take time for yourself, mediate, yoga, sleep, laugh etc. Share the burden, the burden of love. You be glad that you did. My mom would do it for me.