MoniqueFrahm I am a caregiver to my father, who has Parkinson's Disease. One of the problems of caring for him is his lack of compliance, which can land him in hospital or rehab, like this time around. He spent 3 months in rehab after refusing to seek treatment for a fractured vertebra for a week. Now he requires walking aids indoors, and a wheelchair when he goes out.
Today he was discharged from rehab, the same week I started a new job. We hired a home healthcare aide, but he can't start until Monday. So now I have to take care of him by myself. I asked him if he was able to stay in bed for 30 minutes while I walked the dog and he said yes. When I came back, I found him collapsed in the doorway (he had tried to use his cane). He had to crawl on the floor back into the bedroom, where I helped him up onto the bed.
Then, in the middle of the night, he called me to change his mudslide-filled diaper. This was the first time I ever had to do something like this for an adult. This experience also brought up a lot of trauma for me as an SA victim (the SA was by an acquaintance, not a family member), to say nothing about how HE berated me when I needed help with my homework in high school. Thank God I had a pair of latex gloves handy!
As I am somewhat squeamish about touching anybody's genitals, I wasn't able to clean off all the crap. It is to be hoped that he will learn to use the bidet toilet seat I had installed the day he came home, but I doubt it.
