Re: “Caregivers struggle to fulfil their duties,” Nov. 16.
I want to join the 61 per cent of caregivers in the survey who “admitted they took on the role because they believed they had no choice.”
I became a caregiver for my 85-year-old husband when he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke. The damage to his brain meant he was severely mentally and physically disabled, with little chance of improvement. I knew that I, a 78-year-old woman, with no nursing experience, was not the proper caregiver for my husband, but the health-care system thought otherwise.
His stroke happened on July 24. He was discharged from hospital into my sole care on Sept. 6 and we await a residential-care bed. I have felt exhausted and overwhelmed every day since he came home.
The stress of the stroke and constant visiting at the hospital caused difficulty for me in being able to access much-needed help. The health-care system will say that lots of help is provided. Yes, that’s true, if you count mounds of written material as help. Yes, I was given a dining-room table full of written material but, with the full-time care of my husband being my main focus, I was unable to make sense of it all.
It is well known that stress has a major effect on the functioning of the brain — that is certainly the case with me. So we struggle along on our own, hoping to be able to hang in there until a residential-care bed becomes available.
Bertha MacBain
Brentwood Bay
