Caring for My Chaos

If you are a follower of the blog, you know that my husband and I have gotten to the point in our lives that we are caregivers for his parents. For a while, it wasn't that big a deal; some cancer dr appts and keeping up with my father in law's care for his Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. But, right before Christmas, everything changed. My father in law had called and told me that his ankles were very swollen, which we had been told to let the dr know immediately if that happened. They instructed us to go to the walk in care clinic who instructed us to go straight to the ER. This started a whirlwind of hospital and doctors. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, this on top of the leukemia and emphysema. He had to have 3 liters of fluid drained from one lung. The first hospital visit, they put him on blood thinners which interacted with his cancer treatment and made his blood pressure drop to 73/37. That ended up in another ER/hospital stay. Now, I am not only keeping u...

(I believe these were my great or great-great grandparents on my mother's side. Isn't his mustache the best?) For the next part in my series about becoming a caregiver, I figured I would give you a rundown on Medicare. I am still learning about co-pays and what not as I go, but I have done some research to help.

**This picture is my grandparents back when they were dating in 1940. Aren't they adorable?** This is the first in a series that I'm going to do on becoming the caregiver. What does that mean, you ask? Aren't I already the caregiver by being the mother?