Just returned from a 900 mile road-trip to attend my daughter's nursing graduation.
My husband's parents went with us. His dad is 83 years old, and healthy. Both he and my husband did the driving. His mom is 78 and has had Parkinson's for 15 or 20 years.
She uses a rollator 100% of the time; sometimes to walk behind it and push it, but, more and more, she sits in it and her husband pushes.
I was amazed at how much work he does, on a daily basis, to help to care for her. She used to do more walking than she does now, and I hadn't realized how much he needs to push her now.
It's especially a lot of work, helping her to get in and out of the car for rest stops, for restaurants, etc. I was glad I could be there to help push her to the handicapped stalls in the ladies' rooms.
He does it all patiently and gently and kindly without complaining. I don't want my husband to need to do all that for me in the future. In the past, and, still sometimes, he was a gentle and patient person. But, my years with MS, already, have not been easy for him and it's hard for me to imagine him being as patient and uncomplaining-ly helpful as what I observed between his parents on this trip.
I don't want this to be our future. I hope that my MS can progress slowly, or that I could be one of those people for whom progression and flares seem to "burn out" as I continue to age. I can live with life like this, without too much complaining. But, I don't want to feel like a burden, and if and when my MS progresses to the condition that her Parkinson's has, I worry that I will become, and feel like, a burden.
My husband's parents went with us. His dad is 83 years old, and healthy. Both he and my husband did the driving. His mom is 78 and has had Parkinson's for 15 or 20 years.
She uses a rollator 100% of the time; sometimes to walk behind it and push it, but, more and more, she sits in it and her husband pushes.
I was amazed at how much work he does, on a daily basis, to help to care for her. She used to do more walking than she does now, and I hadn't realized how much he needs to push her now.
It's especially a lot of work, helping her to get in and out of the car for rest stops, for restaurants, etc. I was glad I could be there to help push her to the handicapped stalls in the ladies' rooms.
He does it all patiently and gently and kindly without complaining. I don't want my husband to need to do all that for me in the future. In the past, and, still sometimes, he was a gentle and patient person. But, my years with MS, already, have not been easy for him and it's hard for me to imagine him being as patient and uncomplaining-ly helpful as what I observed between his parents on this trip.
I don't want this to be our future. I hope that my MS can progress slowly, or that I could be one of those people for whom progression and flares seem to "burn out" as I continue to age. I can live with life like this, without too much complaining. But, I don't want to feel like a burden, and if and when my MS progresses to the condition that her Parkinson's has, I worry that I will become, and feel like, a burden.
Comment