Things have been challenging in my care life at the moment. I am going to leave it at that and just say that everyone is doing the best they can despite unforeseen circumstances. With that said, I have some of my beautiful caregivers coming in the morning to help.
They also have other jobs and lives. So, for the last few weeks and few weeks to come I’ve been working with my 77-year-old mom to adapt my life from a caregiving perspective.
Let me say this. She may be 77, but she might as well be a 60-year-old monkey who loves to climb on counters and is faster than the speed of light. She is just one-of-a-kind. She’s an incredible crazy German lady who shows unwavering love all the time. She has saved my life more times than I can count.
Anyway, there are afternoons when we’ve been alone as of late and she cannot transfer me in bed as my caregivers do. So, what do we do? We adapt and overcome. We have come up with this transfer method together that seems to work well for her and doesn’t put much strain on her body. I can do it, but due to a number of shoulder injuries I have to dislocate my shoulder/scapula in order to push off the chair and to bed.
Yes. It’s painful. I see many of my fellow quadriplegic friends who can do this by themselves, but many my secondary complications generally prevent me from doing it. I don’t love to do it, but I’m adapting to circumstances that are a little bit out of my control.
This is disability life. This is life in general. I don’t think everything happens for a reason. Sometimes things just happen to great people and they just, well, suck. I wish I could sugarcoat that. I believe it’s what you do afterwards and how you recover with respect to your attitude, adjusting to the unknown, and re-directing your attention on what you can control.
I know this much. I am okay in this moment. I am safe. I am nervous, yes of course, but I choose to feel blessed regardless with an incredible mom who is still able to help even at her age.
One day life will change. My therapist tells me that there’s no point in worrying about the future of who might help me, but that is a tomorrow problem. Not a today problem.
So, why be miserable now and later She has a point. Just wanted to showcase how we transfer in bed together and stretch for range of motion together when flying solo in the midst of challenges we didn’t see coming.
