Hélène used up all her vacation days to care for her husband; she ended up taking 5 years worth in advance.

Transcript

So he was in the hospital and caught C. difficile. So that was the first four months of being a caregiver. So of course I could not work. I used up my vacation, my sick leave, my anything leave, and then went onto unemployment—on sick leave for me at that point because you have to have a reason; they won’t give it to you just because you’re caring for somebody. You don’t get anything.

So that lasted maybe—he was diagnosed in November; I went back to work in March and five days/week was not feasible at that point in time too because he was starting other treatments. So what helped at that point was I have an elderly aunt who offered to take him to the treatments and pick him up after. And then the treatments were all day long. So he was in the hospital at that point I could keep on working. It’s after when he’d come home and it’s finished, then he was very ill all the time, so I would take a week off after a treatment […] like, on and off, and on and off, and on and off, which meant that I used up all my vacation time up until 2010.

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