Hi all you carers out there,!
Let me introduce myself. I am a 52 year young woman. The last 4years have been an absolute roller coaster ride. 2011 my husband (let's call him Lorence)then 52 was diagnosed with early onset vascular dementia.We have two beautiful children, at the time of my husbands diagnoses they where 10 and 12 years old. Needles to say that my husbands diagnoses (even though I already knew for a while that something was very wrong) threw me into a crysis. Coming to terms with such a devastating diagnosis was hard and honestly to begin with I was very angry, particularly about the fact that Lorence had neglected his health for years and despite my pleading never got his weight and blood pressure under control. When I finally got him into the emergency department with a blood pressure spiking 220/145 the news was disaterous. He was diagnosed with having had already several mini strokes, shrinkage of the brain, damage to the small blood vessels, the list went on and on. What did this all mean for me. Trying to inform our two young children as sensitively and child appropriately about dads diagnosis. Taking over the family finances (scary as I had no clue and was scared what I would find). Coming to terms with the fact that I would remain the only breadwinne as well as active parent, decision maker, long term carer for my husband who's decline was and remains unpredictable. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Lorence and I both migrated 25 years ago from Europe that means no extended family.
But this was just the beginning of bad things to happen. At the time I also had a job in health care working in one of Sydney's large hospitals. Not only did that the job come with huge responsibility but sadly it also came with a lot of internal stress and bullying ( sometimes I was not sure what is worse my work life or my private life) . Then 2013 I had a work accident which caused a very bad wrist fracture which required surgery and took month of recovery. Not ideal when one is the carer in the house. 2014 things at work got so bad that I had to finally take time off and subsequently resigned from my position ( best decision ever) , just when I had found a new dream job I was hit by a car trying to cross a road in Sydney CBD. WOULD YOU BELIVE being hit by a reversing car in a one way street. The impact which I did not see coming (well who looks in a one way street the opposite side) caused a broken shoulder several broken rips, pelvic fractures, I was out for weeks and so was my dream job. The first 6 weeks after the accident where a absolute nightmare. I was in severe pain could hardly move let alone doing all the things to run a household care for two teenagers and a disabled husband on top of it dealing with the insurance was and is a continuous nightmare. Unfortunately I had to go down the route of getting a lawyer involved (something I never thought I had to do). On the bright side, I did get the dream job after all, earlier this year I started and I enjoy every minute of my working hour. The insurance struggle is ongoing and that maybe is why I feel down and all alone today. I had to see one of the medico legal Dr's from the insurer side today. I find the whole process frustrating immoral and the only people profiting from it are lawyer, medico legal people and some healthcare providers who charge double the normal fee when they find out it's a insurance case. So now enough of feeling sorry for myself. I am looking forward to being part of a forum and able to vent a few frustrations from time to time. Hope all y
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