Stories from Caregivers: Louanna from ALASKA
AK
Louanna
FROM ALASKA
I am a caregiver for both my father, Milton, and my adult son, Kasmir. Father is elderly and disabled, in a wheelchair, has COPD and is beginning to forget things like dates, people and some of his life. Son Kasmir is 48 and had an accident while driving his truck on ice roads 10 years ago. He broke many bones, had facial reconstruction surgery and pins in his legs and back. He cannot work anymore. I am an ESL teacher online and in class so I am the main caretaker for father and son both. My husband, Hank, helps when I need to be out of the house. Things get very hard and life is not easy but we have to help each other or we will not make it. Hank is the best husband who does all bathing and personal care for our son and my father. He wants them to both keep their dignity and not have to resort to mother or daughter cleaning them like babies. Husband puts up with a lot of stress and sometimes we wonder how much we can take. Life starts at 5am, we get up and do breakfast, do dishes, straighten up and I do work online for a few hours with ESL students. 2 days a week I go into class for one on one help, get materials, go shopping at the same time. I make sure everything is finished at the same time. Later on we have lunch of sandwich or leftover and do dishes, straighten up and get everyone's personal care taken care of. Around 5-6 we eat the last meal, watch some television like a family movie or sitcom and get everyone in bed by 9-10pm. The next day we start over, only weekends I don't have classes so we get extra time to have family time. It could be worse because everyone does make do and get around the best they can. Nobody sick or in bad health, only physical problems except for father's COPD. He uses oxygen tanks a few hours a day and CPAP to sleep so he breathes better.
