Hello, everyone. I continue to feel immense relief at no longer being my mother's caregiver. Those of you have followed my story know all the things that happened. Now, my next caregiving task is upon me. My mother's stepmother is 90 years old and needs a TAVR. She never had children of her own. Her remaining sibling is 87, and currently taking care of his wife after her second knee replacement and she is struggling with mobility.
So this is basically my step grandmother. There were times my mother did not associate with her and her father because she hated her father. So I was not solidly raised around them. But still, I have a very good relationship with my step grandmother. It’s not quite the super comfortable level that it normally would be, but I genuinely love her and have a lot of affection for her. She’s a good person. She supported me a lot through everything I went through with my mother. She knew exactly what kind of a whack job my mother was. That being said, I’m super nervous about this. I’m nervous that if it does not go well I will be thrust into full-time caregiving. What if she gets hospital delirium and they’re trying to release her or something like that. I do not currently have any sort of power of attorney for her. Her brother has this. But the things that are positive in the situation are number one, that I love her and enjoy being around her, number two, her house is normal and not boarded so it does not bother me to spend the time there. Number three, she’s a normal mentally fit person who makes good decisions. And number four, she is financially stable and has long-term care insurance.
Her procedure will be at a hospital that is about an hour away from here. It’s in a location that’s not a terrible drive or terrible parking at least. She has offered to pay for my hotel if I want to stay nearby while she is in the hospital. I have too much pain and orthopedic stuff going on to sleep on the crummy hospital visitor bed. This should be just a one night stay and then she comes home. I also have to take her up for a pre-op appointment and I think some sort of test. I will find out more Monday when we see the cardiologist. Crossing my fingers this all goes smoothly. Does anyone have experience with this procedure?
My mantra "I am here to help people find a way, not be the way".