Caregiving: OMG!
I had to set a few things (okay, more than a few things) in place to move mom into assisted living. To me, it was important to have my husband make the trip with us. It is a long flight from Tennessee to Nevada (and we had to make a connection) and I thought it would be easier to have someone with me to help (and it was). To do that, I had to have someone stay with my dogs, one of which is 14.5 years old, with a heart condition, fainting spells, arthritis and taking multiple medications. I asked my son to step up and of course, he did.
The trip went smoothly, and we arrived in Nevada early enough to settle mom in the same day. My brother offered my husband to stay with him and we did. He has a nine-year-old Doberman Pinscher, that is epileptic and has a heart condition. He is a beautiful, sweet dog. Unfortunately, he had two seizures while we were there. He was a bit unsteady on his feet.
I was sitting outside while on a video call with my colleague when his feet gave way. I promptly jumped up and ran over to help (my colleague wasn’t sure what happened) him back into the house. When I returned, I apologized to my colleague and told her what happened. She kind of laughed, not at the dog of course. It occurred to me that at this point in my life, I cared for an aging mother, my elderly dog and ran to the rescue of my brother’s dog while visiting.
As all things age, special care is needed. It is not a matter of If; it is a matter of when it will impact us. All of us should be ready with a plan. Mom did not have one and my siblings and I were not as prepared as we should have been. In the end, we worked it out and mom is in a good place. If there was a plan in place, we would have saved ourselves stress.
Questions for you:
What is your plan?
Helpful Resources:
https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/ef37d374-f886-4709-432e-a298ccd413fd