The Flip Side- The Power of Thank You!

 A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother. Proverbs 10:1 NKJV 

I  have been my dad's caregiver for the last four years. The first year he lived with us, I was his full-time caregiver. After that, the doctor's said Dad needed more medical care than I could provide. Now, Dad resides in a nice Veteran's Home where he has the skilled nursing services the doctors wanted him to have for his Parkinson's Disease and frequent bouts of pneumonia. Now, I just oversee his care and visit Dad weekly.
Things have somewhat flipped in the last six months. Now, my husband is my caregiver because I broke my heel and was told I couldn't walk on it for three months. My wonderful husband has been doing the cleaning, the cooking, the laundry and picking up the grankiddos from school. 

 Although he's been very patient, I know from all my A Christian Caregiver research, caregivers can easily become overwhelmed and experience burnout. Knowing this, I decided that I needed to tell my husband thank you, frequently.

 I never dreamed of how much help I would need from getting me water refills to bringing me clean underwear. We tried to use water bottles, so he could refill several at a time and I used a small rolling bag to put my clean clothes in, which helped limit some of my requests for assistance. I tried to thank him every time he did something for me, but there were times when I forgot to thank him. During those times, I got the impression he felt unappreciated for all he did for me. Those times would reinforce my resolve to make sure I thanked him more consistently. At times, it feels you are saying thank you, thank you, thank you every five minutes of the day, but you don't want your caregiver to feel unappreciated.

 Additionally, I needed to remind him periodically of how blessed I feel to have such a supportive husband to help me through all of this. 

Since these are examples of how I've applied these Bible verses to my experience, they may not reflect the whole meaning of the verse.

I'm including You Tube Video clips on caregiving that I found interesting, inspirational, or might be helpful to others, but am not responsible for the content in the videos. Always check first with a physician before trying any suggestions mentioned.

Caregiving Video: The Voice of the Healthy Aging
By: Dr. Bernice Harper, Gladys Lanio, Mitra & Dr. Ramaswamy Rangaragan, Todd Lewers, Dr. Samuel & Bernice DeShay, Roslyn Goldstein, Dr. Yann King, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion via You Tube

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