Would you believe more ice?

Two days later we stopped by the harbour as we left town.  It was a sunny, and the ice was amazing.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures!  There was a steady stream of locals stopping by the shore to photograph the ice.

More Ice Sculptures

I gathered lots of pictures of ice along the shoreline, so here are a few more for your viewing pleasure.  There'll still be more too.  These are all in Meaford.

Recognize the Meaford tortoise?  A little covered up at the moment.

Icy Shoreline

Locals have been stopping at the shoreline to take pictures of the ice creeping up the trees.  Inevitably I wanted to check it out, so down we went a couple of days ago.  Lots of interesting ice coatings!

Thenarbour itself was full of ice, carried down the river, but held in the harbour by the waves off the bay.

A flock of gulls sat peacefully on the ice.

You can see the waves undulating the water as they roll toward the shore.
 

 

More ice tomorrow.

How far have we come?

After my musings on Ontario’s homecare system, you may be wondering how far we have come in

adjusting to our new lives.  It has been an incredibly hectic nearly 4 months, and a very fast learning curve.   We’ve met more new people than you can imagine, and the whole experience has been exhausting.  But on balance we’d both say we’ve done well.

The highlights have been the person we hired to help us in the morning, my progress at physiotherapy, and our connections here in our local community.  Our mornings are now fairly relaxed as a result, and learning to do a slide board transfer has us both excited about the future.  We have taken advantage of all the services we can find that will help us, even if they aren’t enough.

Meaford has turned out to be a great little town.  There are more community breakfasts and dinners than we can keep up with, and we have a good group of friends.  There’s a Robbie Burns supper coming up we hope to go to with some of them.  Above all, Mrs. F.G. has held it all together, doing everything from serving as administrative secretary to the laundry.

On the other side of the coin I have to mention the exhaustion, which we both struggle with.  Keeping track of the appointments, prescriptions and supplies, and keeping track of phone calls has been a real challenge.  Just this morning a caregiver apparently showed up at the door, but we were out running errands and having coffee.  No one had told us a thing!

And our lives have changed completely.  My hobbies of hiking, paddling and photography have gone by the board, and I can no longer contribute much of my share to the household chores.  This leaves Mrs. F.G. to pick up the extra.  As she has done that, guess what she no longer has much time for – her favourite hobby, her sewing.  As I learn to contribute more, we continue working to find the balance.

Our major challenge remains sorting out the assistance we need from PSW’s.  We’re almost there, and have a meeting scheduled which we hope will help.  But in the meantime I have to admit it’s a major frustration.

Never-the-less, I think we’re over the hump of the learning curve, and understand the challenges we face.  I’m currently finishing an application for the Direct Funding program, which would give us the funds to hire the assistants we need ourselves directly.  It appears to be best suited to the ‘younger’ disabled (yes, that includes me) who can manage the business of managing and reporting on a budget, and hiring and firing staff.

It’s going to be interesting to see where we stand 6 months from now.

Family Caregiving

In spite of all the services I described in earlier posts (here and here), the vast majority of caregiving hours in Ontario are provided by family members.  These family caregivers face a wide range of situations, some finding the work highly stressful and others finding the work a pleasure. 

At one extreme are those adult children who may visit an elderly parent once a week, perhaps helping with shopping or banking.  At the other extreme are those caring for a disabled child or a spouse, where the caregiver lives in the same home as the patient, and where the ‘caring’ goes on all day long.  Family caregivers report that these are the most stressful situations.  In between is the ‘sandwich generation’, caring for elderly parents while still raising their own children.

I don’t want to dwell on our limited personal experience, so this is one of those posts where I relied on the literature.  I found two reports particularly helpful – ‘A Profile of Family Caregivers in Ontario’ and ‘Family Caregiving: what are the consequences?’  Google them if you like.  The basic point these reports make is that unpaid and largely invisible family caregivers make an enormous contribution to the health care system (3 million people annually in Ontario providing millions of visits to those in need).  And yet this work goes largely unrecognized, and there are essentially no programs designed to help the family caregiver.

They go on to provide a detailed breakdown of who these caregivers are, and who they care for.  Only 8% care for a spouse and only 5% for a child, at the intense end of the spectrum.  At the less intense end (usually), a full 71% care for parents or other relatives.  They also report on the challenges that these caregivers face.  Commonly reported problems at the intense end of the spectrum include:  feeling tired, anxious or worried, overwhelmed, angry or irritable, or having sleep problems. 

Significantly, there are few complaints about the work being too hard, rather all these concerns are about psychological stress.  And among this, “People who care for or help their partner or child are most likely to suffer from an elevated level of psychological distress”.

Putting my brief exploration of the literature up against our own experience makes me realize that the current PSW program in Ontario is actually a source of stress for many recipients of care.  For us it’s the uncertainty of not knowing either when we will get help or whether we’ll get it at all.  Some nights people just don’t show up; some nights we get a call saying they haven’t been able to find anyone to come.

My conclusion is that the small portion of family caregivers who support a spouse or child is the part of the system that is broken and needs investment of new staff.  Usually it’s a specific part of the care that requires extra help (for example morning or evening care).  Without the support of the public caregivers for the difficult part, the family caregiver is overwhelmed.  It's the combination of publicaly-supported caregiving and family caregiving that makes it work.

First Slide-board Transfer!!!!!

This afternoon at physio I managed my first slide-board transfer - a huge milestone for me!  And I managed it mostly on my own. This opens more doors than anything else will, like travel for example.  I didn't think I'd get this far for another 2-3 months.

A slide-board is simply a slick piece of plywood about 10" x 2 feet.  With a wheelchair set at right angles to another chair or a bed for example, the board gets stuck under your butt at a 45° angle leading to the other chair.  Then, without falling over forwards or backwards, you hitch yourself sideways using all that strength in your arms.  I managed this almost by myself today, and it was a lot easier than I expected.

After 5 months in the hospital last July, I could hardly lift my arms, let alone lift anything with my arms.  Now, 6 months later, I'm able to shuffle my body sideways using those arms, moving over 100 lbs. of deadweight in those paralyzed legs and trunk.

Three cheers for myself!

Weather Gets Crazier!

Our January weather is getting seriously crazy.  Last night the temperature rose and it rained.  Guess what was the result.  Compare this to the last (mostly white) picture in Monday's post.  I will not predict what comes next.

Meanwhile I'm still struggling with my next post on 'Caregiving', and here at home we're locked in a battle to get enough caregiving!