How my caregiving experience changed my relationship with my daughter The purpose of this article is to help others understand, that when care giving for a loved one, in my case a spouse, even loving relationships with other family members can be strained and even...
With many illnesses, there comes the risk of infection and even death from germs that a person with low immunity can catch, and are the same germs that we are exposed to every day that don't affect a healthy person. Here's an example of what I'm saying. This week in...
When I entered the world of cancer as my wife Annie's caregiver, quite frankly, I didn't have a clue that this cancer world would be so complex. And of course, one would think the natural trend of thought would be more or less doom and gloom. Not much laughter, and...
In this article on dominant verses non-dominant caregiver I'm applying it to spouses. However, it can apply to anyone where there is a caregiver to patient relationship. My wife Annie and I owned an estate sale business for almost twenty years. We kept it up and...
If You haven't read part 1 and part 2 you can read them here. To the bereaved, after the death and decision making can be very difficult. In my case, letting the funeral home or mortuary handle all the legal stuff to include pertinent notifications was very important....
End of life care If you haven't read part 1, you probably should. Along with this blog, it will give a complete picture to an alternative to hospice, when needed. And further provide some much needed education on how to help a loved one during their final days or...
In general, spousal care is very challenging and brings a very complex set of emotions to bear. Sometimes when my wife Annie refused to cooperate, which she did at times, I found myself feeling frustrated, ticked off a bit, and sad, all at the same time. Those were...
The loss: Going home, part 1 To this point I've written a series of blogs on a caregivers journey through cancer with his loving wife, Annie. I've barely skimmed the surface, but I'm seeing a void out there that needs to be filled now. It's estimated that there...
June 19, 2008 At approximately 11:00 A.M., I was sitting in my office at our antique shop when the phone rang. It was Tracy, Dr. Moore Sr.’s nurse. She asked me to take Annie to the cancer center at 3:00 P.M. to see Dr. Moore Sr. I instinctively knew that we were in...
Two hearts beat as one On Sunday 2 November, 2014, I was having a very difficult day. Four years earlier on that day my beloved wife Annie, after a thirty month struggle with a difficult cancer had to say goodbye. I had just opened a ten pound bag of potatoes and...
What I'm going to share in this blog is very important to a caregiver of a cancer patient needing pain control, or a loved one visiting a family member or friend with cancer that needs pain control. Sometimes things are not as they seem. I was a first time caregiver...
My sweet 'Little Annie' As I found out rather coldly, caregiver duties don't come with instructions, and neither does cancer. If you don't know what to expect, it can be a very cold world out there, but, with some unique surprises too. Such as this blog I wrote from...
Miracle or coincidence? This is part 2 of What has God got to do with it? You can read part 1 here. 15 August, 2008 The following statement from Dr. Moore Sr., Annie's Oncologist, was made on the fifth day of her hospital stay. At the time, he was a senior member of...
One of the most difficult and complex things one will ever do in life is be a caregiver for a terminally ill loved one. In my case, it was never a question of if Annie was going to die, but when. As a caregiver, the burden that we carry is almost too much to bear at...
What would you do if you woke your wife up one morning to get her washed and dressed for the day--"And she was blind." Welcome to my world! Annie was fighting a nightmarish battle with an aggressive cancer that was not only taking her down, but beating me down too. We...
Anytime you're told by your family doctor that you've been set up with an oncologist for a consultation at the cancer center, the anxiety will probably race through your body in waves. This is how the consultation went for Annie and me. Keep in mind, no two...
By now, my previous writing gives a clear indication of the complexities of a nasty cancer, and speaks to the ebb and flows of emotions. At times I felt like I was caught in a tug of war between two different worlds--the world of pain and suffering, and the world of...
It's been four years since I lost Annie, and even today I crave her love, her touch, her laughter and beautiful smile--I Guess I Just Miss Annie. Please understand this--If you love someone today, try to love them more tomorrow. Life Happens. I was always under the...
The following excerpt from Because of Annie is particularly important in that it shows a caregiver's life in motion fighting battles that he knows very little about. Learning to make decisions in a split second and living with the consequences is part of a caregivers...
After being my wife Annie’s caregiver for thirty months through her battle with cancer, I lost her. I started out as a novice caregiver, but over time I got my Caregiving PhD through on-the-job training. It didn’t take me long to realize the pain and torment some...
I've read some wonderful, well written, articulate articles on The Caregiver Space. Textbook perfect! Some of them, in my opinion, worthy of an award. In the perfect world of a caregiver, or at least a sane world, following many of the guidelines I've been reading,...
On November 2nd, 2010, I lost my wife Annie to a blood cancer. As Annie's caregiver for thirty months, we were always looking over our shoulders, dealing with a prognosis that was exceeded within the first three weeks of her diagnosis. So I was always dealing with...
In the summer of 2007, my wife Annie started suffering from fatigue and pain in her legs. In the evenings before we went to bed, I would sit on one end of our couch and she would lay down with her head at the opposite end stretching her legs out so I could massage...
by Bob Harrison, author of Because of Annie Many of you know Bob from our Communities and Facebook page. He has generously agreed to share excerpts of his deeply moving book, Because of Annie, with the community. In this chapter, Bob recalls the experience of starting...