New Year Thoughts
I don't make New Year's resolutions but I do tend to think about the shape of my life. What have I been doing? Where am I going? Where do I want to go?
The first half of last year was dominated by cancer and money problems. The cancer was a slog and painful, but the news got better at every step and now it seems to be gone. The money issues were much worse. Partly due to the cancer, my finances were out of control and getting worse all the time. I had a nightmare about money worries, which I can't recall ever having done before. One day I realized that I had just spent several hours sitting in a chair, staring at my hands, and feeling so shut down I couldn't move. EEK! Depressive sliding! I put out a call to several friends who helped me immeasurably. I finally bit the bullet on a solution to the money problem that was very painful personally.
My life changed a lot and got harder in some ways but my mood and energy climbed steeply when I could see a future that didn't look like bankruptcy. I worked my little tushie off on the house to make space for new renters. I now have two Vietnamese high school students and my very demented 91 year old mother living with me. None of them pay as much rent as I might be able to get in this neighborhood, and cooking dinner every night has gotten old fast, but I have achieved positive cash flow plus I find my household interesting and satisfying.
Caregiving occupies a lot of my time and my mental space. As dementia patients go, Phyllis is pretty easy. She's mostly calm, doesn't have complicated medical problems, and doesn't wander. However, she can't do much of anything for herself. She can't even tell me clearly what she wants or needs. My daily do list is long and I'm embarrassed by how often I end the day with, "Aw, hell -- I forgot to do X!" "X" is usually not terribly important but X*3 can induce guilt attacks.
What I think about is this: My generation of boomers is already hitting the nursing homes, and we're going to wind up warehoused if the nitty-gritty of caregiving can't be made a whole lot easier. I think technology exists that could vastly improve the lives of those who give care as well as those who need it.
For example, I'm just about sure I could rig up something that would alert me when Phyllis ... has certain biological events. I wouldn't care if it had a high false positive rate. Cleanup is much easier when done promptly. Of course, even better would be a device that did the cleanup without me, but I don't think that's feasible yet! An alert would be a worthwhile improvement in both of our lives. Besides, I really want to take an Arduino class....
The first half of last year was dominated by cancer and money problems. The cancer was a slog and painful, but the news got better at every step and now it seems to be gone. The money issues were much worse. Partly due to the cancer, my finances were out of control and getting worse all the time. I had a nightmare about money worries, which I can't recall ever having done before. One day I realized that I had just spent several hours sitting in a chair, staring at my hands, and feeling so shut down I couldn't move. EEK! Depressive sliding! I put out a call to several friends who helped me immeasurably. I finally bit the bullet on a solution to the money problem that was very painful personally.
My life changed a lot and got harder in some ways but my mood and energy climbed steeply when I could see a future that didn't look like bankruptcy. I worked my little tushie off on the house to make space for new renters. I now have two Vietnamese high school students and my very demented 91 year old mother living with me. None of them pay as much rent as I might be able to get in this neighborhood, and cooking dinner every night has gotten old fast, but I have achieved positive cash flow plus I find my household interesting and satisfying.
Caregiving occupies a lot of my time and my mental space. As dementia patients go, Phyllis is pretty easy. She's mostly calm, doesn't have complicated medical problems, and doesn't wander. However, she can't do much of anything for herself. She can't even tell me clearly what she wants or needs. My daily do list is long and I'm embarrassed by how often I end the day with, "Aw, hell -- I forgot to do X!" "X" is usually not terribly important but X*3 can induce guilt attacks.
What I think about is this: My generation of boomers is already hitting the nursing homes, and we're going to wind up warehoused if the nitty-gritty of caregiving can't be made a whole lot easier. I think technology exists that could vastly improve the lives of those who give care as well as those who need it.
For example, I'm just about sure I could rig up something that would alert me when Phyllis ... has certain biological events. I wouldn't care if it had a high false positive rate. Cleanup is much easier when done promptly. Of course, even better would be a device that did the cleanup without me, but I don't think that's feasible yet! An alert would be a worthwhile improvement in both of our lives. Besides, I really want to take an Arduino class....