THE PITFALLS OF PASSIONATE CAREGIVING

[Crewleader]

By Frank Kaiser



CLEARWATER, APRIL 4, 2008 — I’m a stubborn old coot.

So when I had a heart attack last Saturday, I wasn’t about to go to the hospital.

With my wife, Carolyn, home for the weekend after months of chemo and an entire week tethered to a machine harvesting her blood stem cells, I’d tough it till Monday.

That’s when I had to drive Carolyn “home” to Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center for two days of high-dose melphalan injections — a powerful chemical that kills her cancerous myeloma cells (as well as her normal blood cells) — leaving her without an immune system to fight infection for months until her harvested stem cells, transplanted back into her system, take hold and begin producing new, non-diseased blood.

So much for the biology lesson.

I’d had similar events before — sweats, chest and left-arm pain, shortness of breath — but stubbornly practiced medicine without a license, taking aspirin and beta-blockers until the symptoms disappeared.

I take my role as Carolyn’s caregiver passionately. She’s the love of my life. My miracle. Besides, we can’t both be sick. It’s unacceptable. So I lied to her when she asked what was wrong.

Honest to God, it’s the first time I’ve ever lied to Carolyn. Ever! (And that’s a wonder by itself.)

http://www.suddenlysenior.com/fullstory.html