She has an hysterically funny blog called "Living With the Oldies." It's about taking her elderly, dying in laws into her home. But, guess what?, they got better and now spend their time driving her and her husband crazy.
But my niece has chosen to care for them. There's great POWER in choosing.
But it doesn't make it easy. Today's paper has an article about the cost in $$ of care giving.
Family members responsible for ailing loved ones provide not only "hands-on" care but often reach into their own pockets to pay for many other expenses of care recipients, including groceries, household good, drugs, medical co-payments and transportation.
OK, they forgot to mention the cost of:
- Falling down and bashing into walls, lamps, vases, etc.
- Ordering things over the telephone. (After three years I'm now down to only 48 bottles of liquid soap.)
- Throwing telephones, remotes, eyeglasses, etc. in the trash.
I could go on and on - but you get the picture. The yearly expense the article gave was between $5,000 and $8,000 per year. I'd call that a drop in the bucket.
But the worst is the toll it takes on the caregiver. Most in home caregivers die before the patient.
By the way, I'm a reformed Natural Born Caregiver.
