Role Reversal: I'm Taking Care Of My Mom

This is an article that I wrote years ago, basically it is mine and my children's feelings about my health problems and the struggles we have to go through on a daily basis.

Role Reversal: I’m Taking Care of My Mom

 

 

    It really can be tough being a child in our society today. You are trying to be a child, dealing with peer pressure and trying to stay out of trouble. You may have to deal with both parents working, or you may be in a single parent home. Or what may seem worse you’re in that single parent home and that parent is disabled. In a home with a disabled parent you’re not only the child, you also have to be (in a lot of cases) the housekeeper, and that parent’s caretaker.
     I am writing this article from my own children’s perspective, since I am a disabled single parent. I have several health concerns that my boys have to deal with. The two major ones are diabetes and fibromyalgia. The diabetes can be deadly and the fibromyalgia crippling.
    Diabetes is a common illness characterized by high and low blood sugar levels. Normal levels are between 70 mg/dl and 110 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter).
    Fibromyalgia literally means the condition of pain in the muscles and connective tissue fibers. The best way to describe fibromyalgia is like having the flu 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Your muscles are constantly weak and painful. 
    In my house everything revolves literally around my illnesses, because there are times that I can’t even do for myself much less anyone else. So, in those times I have to depend on my two 12 year old boys.
     When my sugar levels drop dangerously low they have to get me something sweet immediately, since low blood sugar could cause me to go into a coma. One afternoon my sugar dropped to 57 mg/dl, and there wasn’t anything in the house to raise my sugar level, (food to keep in stock at all times are hard candy, orange juice, candy bars, etc.). So one of my children went to the convenience store that’s half a mile from my house on his bike to get me a candy bar. When he returned he didn’t just have one candy bar, he had bought about eight candy bars.
     When my fibromyalgia acts up really bad, the kids have to help me walk or bring me either my walker or my wheel chair, when I am in my wheel chair they usually have to push me around, because my arms are to weak to maneuver the wheels myself. There are a lot of times they have to cook supper or fix sandwiches because I can’t stand there and do it. I have to get their help a lot with washing dishes, or it will take me four to five hours due to the fact that I cannot stand for more than about 10 minutes at a time. For every 10 minutes that I am on my feet I have to sit for 20 minutes. I have to get on them about keeping their room clean just so I can get in there to put away their clothes after I have washed them, and now I am having to get them to do the laundry as well.
   I have to get their help to go to the bathroom a lot of times, because my legs get so weak and shaky. One night while I was sitting on the couch and had to go to the bathroom really bad, I couldn’t get up to walk to the bathroom, so my younger twin, Robby brought a bucket to the couch for me to use! He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get my wheelchair, get me in it and to the bathroom quickly enough, so he thought about it and came up with that solution himself.
     So my kids have had to start taking care of me, do their homework, help keep the apartment clean, cook supper and still try to have time to be children. I know this task isn’t easy for them at all, and I know they are not the only kids out there that are going through this. So to you Robby and Bryan and to all the other kids out there, from me and all of the other parents, Thank You Very Much and I love You.