Being a Caregiver is Hard

[RandallS]

I've always known that being a caregiver was hard work. I helped my mother take care of my father when he would have a heart attack or a stroke, after all. But that hasn't been the same as the last six months with Donna. It's been a constant grind that was more mentally tiring than it (usually) was physically tiring. The odd thing is that I'm really only started noticing after here treatments ended. Strangely enough I am even more mentally tired now that Donna is beginning to recover enough from her radiation treatments that she is feeling and acting more like her old self. She is beginning to have omph. I'm still not.

[DonnaH]

I've always known that being a caregiver was hard work. I helped my mother take care of my father when he would have a heart attack or a stroke, after all. But that hasn't been the same as the last six months with Donna. It's been a constant grind that was more mentally tiring than it (usually) was physically tiring. The odd thing is that I'm really only started noticing after here treatments ended. Strangely enough I am even more mentally tired now that Donna is beginning to recover enough from her radiation treatments that she is feeling and acting more like her old self. She is beginning to have omph. I'm still not.

I think the caregiver role is vastly understated, really. I know the surgery and radiation treatments were very hard on me, but since I was pretty self-absorbed in what I was dealing with, it was easy to overlook what you've had to deal with.

[RandallS]

I think the caregiver role is vastly understated, really. I know the surgery and radiation treatments were very hard on me, but since I was pretty self-absorbed in what I was dealing with, it was easy to overlook what you've had to deal with.

It's not nearly as bad as what you have gone through, but since there are only two of us, I was basically doing my work, what had to be done of yours, and caring for you (which fortunately was not nearly as bad as we were afraid it could be as your side effects were not bad until the very end). Mainly it has tiring, far more so they I expected. I'm sure stress has played a huge role in that, however.