When her son started radiation therapy for his brain tumour, Sheni had to take time off work. Unfortunately, her manager was not very understanding.
Transcript
He ended up going for 6 weeks of radiation treatments—every day we went down. I had to take time off work because I basically had a breakdown and I just—I couldn’t function anymore. And I had to… I just, I took this time off and I drove him down every day and he went for the radiation treatments. And we dealt with all that. And the poor guy, he was like so tired, lost half of his hair, and it was just, it was just really, really difficult. But anyway, after that the tumour shrunk a little bit and the last MRI that he had they said that the tumour was… well, they said “stable”. So that was back in December. And after, because he had gone for the radiation and the tumour shrunk a bit, and because he’s taking the drugs on a regular basis—like, not missing any, and they increased the amount of drugs that he’s taking and the combination of drugs—he’s actually, he was seizure-free for more than a year. And so he got his licence back. And so now, he’s able to drive again, which is a huge benefit to him and me because, when he wasn’t driving for over a year, I mean, I was the taxi. I was driving him all over the place and I felt—I mean, I had to do it. It’s my son; I had to do it and I wanted to do it.
But you know what? It’s so difficult to play taxi all the time, especially when you need to get up for work early in the morning and kids like to stay out late—they like to stay out late—and so, I would often have to say, “Well yeah, I can pick you up, but what it can’t… it’s not going be 12 midnight. It’s going to have to be 11, I’m sorry.” And so, I would feel bad cutting back on his social time, but there’s a limit to what you can do as a caregiver. Like, you’re not, you’re not superwoman, you’re not superman and you’re not a magician. And it’s so hard because you get so, so tired; physically tired, emotionally tired, drained. It’s just, it’s brutal.
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- Trying to find the right balance – SheniWhen her husband was in the hospital, Sheni did all she could to help her children through this period.
- Support from family and friends – SheniSheni’s family-in-law did not offer any help. In fact, they made it harder for her.
- Social impact and lifestyle changes – SheniSheni notices that she has a lot less tolerance for other people’s minor problems and this has affected her friendships.
- Legal issues – SheniSheni’s power of attorney was revoked after her sister-in-law contacted the Public Guardian. Sheni thinks it is important to read up on the rules of power of attorney to avoid any issues.
- Interaction with professionals – SheniSheni describes two occasions where she had a disagreement with the doctors.
- Financial impact – SheniSheni and her husband had always been self-employed. In just a few weeks, they lost all their income.
- Impact on professional life and career 2 – SheniWhen her son started radiation therapy for his brain tumour, Sheni had to take time off work. Unfortunately, her manager was not very understanding.
- Impact on professional life and career – SheniIt is difficult to work while caring for someone at home. Sheni dealt with situations that she felt most people never have to deal with.
- Home care and live-in caregivers – SheniSheni found the live-in caregiver very helpful, especially since she could check-in with him at home during the day.
- Health system issues – SheniFor Sheni, it was impossible to work and find care for her husband.