The Other Patient
When Caring for Someone You Love Begins to Cost You your Own Healthby Amy Griseta
There is someone we often overlook.
You can find them sitting beside a hospital bed.
Sleeping in a recliner in a living room.
Standing at the kitchen counter sorting medications into little plastic containers.
Waiting in the car outside a doctor's office.
Helping someone into the shower.
Changing sheets in the middle of the night.
Listening for breathing from the next room.
Watching the clock.
Waiting for the next dose.
Waiting for the next appointment.
Waiting for the next change.
Waiting for the phone to ring.
They are not the patient.
At least, that's what everyone says.
They are the caregiver.
And sometimes they are slowly becoming the other patient.
