Stories from Caregivers: Dorothy from KENTUCKY
KY
Dorothy
FROM KENTUCKY
I have been Gene's caretaker from birth, he was a twin who was born 3 month premature, and we lost his brother the day after they were born. Gene is now 37 and I still have to do everything for him. He is not able to walk, talk or take care of his self at all, in other words, he is still like a baby. We almost lost Gene two years ago, he was in the hospital for about two months, doctor finally sent him home saying he had anywhere from 6 weeks, 6 months to year left, but I was determined not to give up on him and now its been 2 years since then. He came home with bed sores which was really bad, I changed the pads on them every day, anywhere from 2 or more. I used the medicine the hospital sent home with us, had to find something else later on after it was unavailable from being discontinued from drug company. We tried putting Gene on one of those devices called a donut, did not work out, was too hard for him, so I went with a pool float for a kid and now he is up off his sores and they are getting better, we got one healed up, but the other one comes and go. I would not change a time about any of this, yes it time consuming, hard to go anywhere, no vacations, no time off, no life of my own, but I love every minute of it. I miss our days of taking a cruise with Gene, it was the only vacation he really enjoyed, we went on 8 of them before he got really sick, trying my best to get him in good health to maybe take one more. Then on top of all this my husband got ESRD (kidney disease), he is on home dialysis now, so that helps some. I don't get paid for what I do, to most people it's not a real job, but I would not trade it for anything in the world, I get pay by his smile, the love he show me in his eyes, just being able to keep him home with me is enough, I'm blessed in many ways.
