About Caregivers

Hello Waco friends,

Sometime ago we had here quite an exchange about caregivers… I wanted to share then my viewpoint as I have been a caregiver now for 10 years to a disabled friend who lives with me, but for technical reasons was not able to, So would appreciate if you would hear me before you make up your mind about caregivers!

First of all, putting any group of people in a labeled one box is illogical and unfair. You always have good and bad in any group of people. Think about medical doctors - they can save your life but also send you to an early grave! so let’s keep That in mind!

As far as I am concerned, caregivers are the most underrated, underpaid, underappreciated group of helpers there are! If you, God forbid were sick, disabled, unable to do what’s necessary to survive and thrive I would only hope that you would be able to have a great caregiver and advocate as it can be the difference between life and death and that is no exaggeration!

I can’t even count the many times that my friend who went thru a major 12 hours back surgery by a team of surgeons in Kaiser a few years ago, had doctors make mistakes right in the hospital/or convalescent facility as far as his medications or procedures… Try telling the doctors or nurses that when you are barely awake or functioning after such a grueling surgery, if you even have the presence of mind to know that a major mistake Was made… Not having an advocate or a caregiver right there who is caring enough and watchful enough can make a huge difference.

Forget hospitals, just recently, Kaiser ran out of a certain dosage of a medica of each tablet was 4 times higher than the regular one… I knew something was off since the amount fo tablets were much smaller… so after talking to nurses and the doctor I found out about the different dosage and that the prescription was wrong and could have caused a major catastrophe… luckily, we found that out in time and soon enough Kaiser got the regular dosage back… his doctor was kind enough to commend me for paying attention and correct her mistake.

So, I hope you got my point!

Wishing you all a long and healthy life far away from doctors, nurses, hospitals etc, but just in case you need any of these, please be kind to the caregivers who will take care of you, hopefully he or she will be watchful, kind, compassionate and supportive in spite of being so underpaid and under appreciated!

Varda