You know you are a caregiver if you are broke 45 minutes after getting paid. By the time you buy Depends, wipes, meds, pay the caregiver, fill your tank with gas to get you to appointments and a totally unfulfilling full-time JOB, and get a week's worth of groceries (that you need to stretch to last 2 weeks). All so you can get up every day and do the same thing until the next paycheck.
Susan, I know how you feel this happen to me yesterday. Fifteen minutes before heading out to the Dr. All I could do was change her completely and very quickly, her and the bathroom looked like a bomb went off. Needless to say we went through a couple pair of underwear and had another shower when we got home. I just bought 10 pair and have to run this weekend for more,
They're so useful I'd just assumed they must be American - and actually they are. You can get a sample from their website by the look of it - dissolvobags. I'm keeping a few in the cupboard just in case!
CM, I don't think we have those here, never heard of them. For the most part, Mom doesn't have too many problems with bowel incontinence - but I tell you what, she let out such a God-awful sounding blast earlier today that I was checking the chair and floor behind her!
Jeanette - trust me, when they're THAT bad, yes, I toss them. We were discussing things I found for cheap on Amazon one day with my aunt, and I mentioned that Mom's favorite style of undies was no longer available, because the manufacturer had changed their sizing system, and they eliminated her size in that particular style - so I went on Amazon and bought 20 pair. My aunt was flabbergasted and laughed because we bought so many - said that was a silly thing to do.
Not so silly when your loved one goes through 6-10 pairs a day (depending on the day), and you end up tossing out 1-2 pairs each month because they're beyond saving. (ew.)
Hey book... I use puppy pads too!! They're less expensive and do the same exact thing, which is save us another few loads of laundry. There is a big distributor pulling out of the West Cost... why?... too many strikes.
Susan.... I... I ... I hate to admit but I tossed mom's when that happened.
You know you're a caregiver when you hear the news of the port strikes in the West coast where they refuse to load the shipping vessels...you're immediate thoughts are.. "oh no, what am I going to do when there's no Depends at the store!"
And you're immediate game plan is to buy as much Depends, baby wipes, puppy liners and toilet tissue. That's what I will be doing either tonight after work or tomorrow morning.
You know you're a caregiver when you make up answers to their questions because telling them the truth would get them started in a direction you don't want to go in.
Oo! Susan! There are things called Dissolvo bags - have you come across these? New to me, but they use them in the hospital and rehab centre - which you put soiled clothing in, tie up, and bung whole in the washing machine. There's a little strip down the centre of the bag which dissolves in the wash (the clue's in the brand name!) and it empties itself in the process. You just have to remember to fish it out before you put the wash load in the dryer, and it saves getting nameless substances onto other clothing or who knows where.
You know you're a caregiver when your elderly loved one stands up and emits a very long, loud and WET-sounding fart....and your heart drops to your stomach in anticipation of yet another pair of underwear and other clothing soiled with "stuff" to wash. :-(
You're right, Veronica! I forgot the paper plates.
You know you're a caregiver when your Amazon Prime membership is used to buy incontinence pads, diaper rash cream (for the skin folds), jumbo sized containers of disinfectant cleaning wipes, bum wipes, toilet paper and the like.
You are called out for at 0200, so you turn off the monitor so you do not wake your spouse speed walk across the house only to hear I just wanted to know where you were.
I know some of these have been mentioned earlier in this (very long) thread, but worth mentioning again:
You know you're a caregiver if: -you keep a "ditty bag" containing underwear, wipes, incontinence pads, extra toilet paper, a full set of clothing (or two!) and even extra SOCKS....in every possible place it may be needed - the car, your purse, hanging in a bag from her wheelchair and scooter....
-you carry an extra large purse to accommodate the above-mentioned ditty bag, a protein bar and the other "extras" she seems to always need.
-you refuse to allow visitors to use the bathroom in your home unless you can check it first
-you catch a whiff of poo or gas, and instead of blaming the dog or cat (and you have both), you immediately start checking your loved one or wondering if it's them, not the animals.
-you get irritated when other relatives come over and ask why your loved one has a huge stack of clean, folded underwear in the bathroom (because they obviously have no clue just how many pairs of underwear an incontinent elderly adult can go through in a day's time!)
-you know the true meaning of "loneliness", even when you have someone with you 24/7.
-a trip to the big-box grocery/department store feels like a vacation trip to Hawaii. (They have sun lamps, exotic foods and fruits and alcohol. Sounds like a vacation to me.)
-you feel like a complete failure as a housekeeper, because you can't keep up with the laundry and dishes all the time - where things used to be all done by the end of the evening, now they may sit a day or so before you get to them, because you're too busy doing the other of those items - so dishes might not get done because you're doing laundry, or vice versa.
-you have several searches saved on your computer for incontinence items, handicap-accessible furniture and helpers, and your "big ticket purchase" in the near future will be a handicap accessible vehicle. Not a boat. Not a luxury car. Not even a vacation trip to an exotic locale or Disney. Your big bucks are going for a handicap vehicle.
-you know EXACTLY where to find the lowest prices on incontinence pads, bum wipes, disinfectant cleaning wipes for the bathroom, and fabric pads for chairs and beds.
You get a note from pharmacy that you forgot to renew YOUR prescription when you got everyone else in household refilled and you can remember what vitamins and supplements when the not impaired spouse taking them does not *sigh
You know you are a caregiver if on a workday morning you find yourself weighing the pros and cons of taking a quick shower or snuggling another 5 minutes with the dogs and your coffee before getting mom up. Snuggle/coffee won today. Now I'm running late and will feel gross all day. Sigh.
You know you are a caregiver if....you know the "tv remote game".
your loved one wakes up and, still laying in bed, asks you to turn the tv up so they can hear it. You do so, and not 20 seconds later, you hear snoring from the bed. So you turn it back down. They wake again 10 minutes later and ask you to turn it up again. You do, and they fall back asleep again, so you turn it back down. Soon they get up and sit in their chair, so you try to be proactive and turn it up, only to look over and see your loved one with the 2nd remote in their hand, also turning it up. (sigh)
You know you are a caregiver when you have memorized the dosages of your loved ones and could fix them in your sleep but cannot remember to take your own Vitamin D once a week! And your television watching is centered around the Game Show Network with episodes of Full House periodically thrown in for variety!
You know you're a caregiver when your dad thinks his whiteboard is his iPad and tries to figure out why email won't work... Or when he thinks his IPad is his whiteboard and writes on it in permant ink but still can't see it and now only uses it for tray to hold his coffee and cookies...
Not so silly when your loved one goes through 6-10 pairs a day (depending on the day), and you end up tossing out 1-2 pairs each month because they're beyond saving. (ew.)
Speaking of which...I need to order more.
Susan.... I... I ... I hate to admit but I tossed mom's when that happened.
And you're immediate game plan is to buy as much Depends, baby wipes, puppy liners and toilet tissue. That's what I will be doing either tonight after work or tomorrow morning.
You know you're a caregiver when your Amazon Prime membership is used to buy incontinence pads, diaper rash cream (for the skin folds), jumbo sized containers of disinfectant cleaning wipes, bum wipes, toilet paper and the like.
You know you're a caregiver if:
-you keep a "ditty bag" containing underwear, wipes, incontinence pads, extra toilet paper, a full set of clothing (or two!) and even extra SOCKS....in every possible place it may be needed - the car, your purse, hanging in a bag from her wheelchair and scooter....
-you carry an extra large purse to accommodate the above-mentioned ditty bag, a protein bar and the other "extras" she seems to always need.
-you refuse to allow visitors to use the bathroom in your home unless you can check it first
-you catch a whiff of poo or gas, and instead of blaming the dog or cat (and you have both), you immediately start checking your loved one or wondering if it's them, not the animals.
-you get irritated when other relatives come over and ask why your loved one has a huge stack of clean, folded underwear in the bathroom (because they obviously have no clue just how many pairs of underwear an incontinent elderly adult can go through in a day's time!)
-you know the true meaning of "loneliness", even when you have someone with you 24/7.
-a trip to the big-box grocery/department store feels like a vacation trip to Hawaii. (They have sun lamps, exotic foods and fruits and alcohol. Sounds like a vacation to me.)
-you feel like a complete failure as a housekeeper, because you can't keep up with the laundry and dishes all the time - where things used to be all done by the end of the evening, now they may sit a day or so before you get to them, because you're too busy doing the other of those items - so dishes might not get done because you're doing laundry, or vice versa.
-you have several searches saved on your computer for incontinence items, handicap-accessible furniture and helpers, and your "big ticket purchase" in the near future will be a handicap accessible vehicle. Not a boat. Not a luxury car. Not even a vacation trip to an exotic locale or Disney. Your big bucks are going for a handicap vehicle.
-you know EXACTLY where to find the lowest prices on incontinence pads, bum wipes, disinfectant cleaning wipes for the bathroom, and fabric pads for chairs and beds.
your loved one wakes up and, still laying in bed, asks you to turn the tv up so they can hear it. You do so, and not 20 seconds later, you hear snoring from the bed. So you turn it back down. They wake again 10 minutes later and ask you to turn it up again. You do, and they fall back asleep again, so you turn it back down. Soon they get up and sit in their chair, so you try to be proactive and turn it up, only to look over and see your loved one with the 2nd remote in their hand, also turning it up. (sigh)
Yep. I'm back. Really wish I wasn't.