Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Self-Help
Publisher: (self) Amazon Create space
ISBN-10: 1499264941
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 175
Copyright: May 12, 2014
ISBN-13: 9781499264944
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Written to help other caregivers cope better with their difficult emotions based on my own 15 years caregiving my wife. Written in song lyric (rhyming light verse) form to be most easily absorbed, recalled and applied.
I took care of my increasingly stroke-impaired wife, Susan, over 15 years until she passed away in March of 2014. I was also a part-time caregiver for my father (Parkinson's) and mother (Alzheimer's) although they lived in a senior facility. Caregiving can be very rewarding but it is often extremely stressful physically, mentally and emotionally. Caregivers often experience feelings of confusion, anger, ambivalence, sadness, grief, guilt and regret and they can easily get worn down into compassion fatigue and caregiver burnout. By sharing my feelings and what I learned about how to deal with them, incuding my own burnout, I want to help other caregivers see that their emotions are normal; that they can manage them; and that they are not alone. I strongly urge them to get as much help and support as they can, even more than they think or feel they need. The entertaining, artistic, humorous format is to make this tough material as easy to take in as possible.
Excerpt
ONE BITE AT A TIME
Verses:
Mop the kitchen, sweep the floors, dust mites must not thrive,
Vacuum all the dirt and grit and grime.
Clean the toilet, scrub the sink, daily I must strive,
To root out all the bathroom mold and slime.
Give her water, give her food, help my wife to thrive, Make sure all her pills get served on time.
I’m staked out on an anthill and they’re eating me alive,
One mini-mouthful at a time.
Chorus:
“It ain’t the ‘eavy ‘auling what ‘urts the ‘orses’ ‘ooves,
But the ‘ammer, ‘ammer, ammer’ on the ‘ard ‘ighway.”
It ain’t the tough and painful stuff that carves my forehead grooves,
But all the little things I have to do and feel each day.
Verses:
The litany of memories lost, she daily does revive,
A thousand little steps I have to climb.
Tiny gripes and tiny snipes: these I must survive,
Itsy-bitsy insults quite sublime.
Little slights and mini-fights, my needs she’ll deprive,
A daily dose of misdemeanor crime.
I’m slogging through the swamp with skeeters eating me alive,
One puny pinprick at a time.
Chorus:
“It ain’t the ‘eavy ‘auling what ‘urts the ‘orses’ ‘ooves,
But the ‘ammer, ‘ammer, ammer’ on the ‘ard ‘ighway.”
It ain’t the tough and painful stuff that carves my forehead grooves,
But all the little things I have to do and feel each day.
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