I don’t think we are at a place where I can take a full day, but am learning the pleasure of taking just a few hours off. Now that we have in-home care, I can go out to take care of tasks or meet with friends knowing my husband is safe. It’s such a great way to relieve the stresses that are associated with daily vigilance as it gives me a chance to breathe. My only challenge is figuring out what to do with that time!

One part of our plan for care was to hire someone who could accompany him to the gym for his weekly workout on the recumbent bike. I like having an hour alone in my house to do chores or just relax. This is working really well. We have this set as a part of our Monday afternoon routine and it is amazing how much I can get done in that one hour. Then I have them coming on Wednesday morning, my yoga day. It gives me a few more hours during my week when I can focus on self-care without having an ear on my phone, it’s wonderful!

I can’t thank my husband enough for insisting that we get long term care insurance all those years ago. I think he must have been psychic because neither of us had health concerns at the time. I do know that it is making such a difference for us now. If we didn’t have the insurance, I don’t know that we could afford in-home care and I know that our family and friends would not be able to provide the additional support we need. Maybe it’s time we all got together and pushed our legislators to get basic in-home care included in Medicare coverage. That’s a conversation for another day, today I’ll just be thankful for our caregiver and enjoy my free time while I can.