My life as a caregiver

 

My name is ryan and I am a caregiver.I have been a caregiver for over two years. I am currently a caregiver to my father in law who is a paraplegic veteran with a long list of medical conditions including but not limited to:

  • Paraplegia
  • Diabetic neuropathy
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Major nerucognitive disorder
And the list goes on.

 

There are many sides to being a caregiver. Being a caregiver entails more than merely feeding and bathing your client/family member/resident. Depending on the individuals who receives the care, the care can be extensive or minimalistic. In some cases, the individual may just need some assistance with some ADL’s. In other cases, the individual can’t even feed themselves and need several types of therapies that they just cant live without.

 

My father in law requires many therapies and needs quite a bit of assistance. While he can feed himself fairly well, he still need some help in that area among many, many others.

 

As i have previously said, I have been a caregiver for a paraplegic veteran with not only physical issues but also neurocognitive issues for over the last two years. However, that is not the extent of my caregiving experience. I have worked with individuals that presented with physical, mental or behavioral challenged. My specialty at the time was working with individuals with behavioral and mental issues on a developmental scale.

Simply put, i worked with individuals with intellectual disabilities, brain injuries along with emotional, behavioral or medical complexities.

Prior to that, i had various experience ranging from food service, customer service, information technology and so on.

When I was a teenager I also helped care for my great grandmother who at the time had been diagnosed with dementia. She would eventually have a stroke which changed her demeanor greatly. It was only when she had her 3rd stroke that my grandmother had no choice but to relinquish her to a nursing home.

I did not set out in life to become a live in caregiver to anyone much less my father in law. But life works in funny ways. My blog will cover many things ranging from tips to being a better caregiver, dealing with caregiver burnout, or tidbits from my experiences as a live in caregiver.