Caregiving is F*cking Hard

One thing you learn while working in healthcare is that you’ve got to have a sense of humor about some pretty dark shit.

My first job out of nursing school was in the ICU in 2020. THIS IS HILARIOUS. All the confidence I’d accumulated in school completely disappeared once I was the one responsible for the patient. It was tough, and humbling, and I learned a lot but it was not pretty.

Jump ahead a few years and I found myself working in Home Health and I noticed that my patients and their families were going through something similar. They were suddenly thrown into this world where they had to learn a ton of new information and put it to use immediately. I saw what a confusing, frustrating, and terrifying experience this was particularly for the adults who now had to take care of their elderly parents. 

I also saw that the sense of humor that we all used to cope in the medical industry was not present. It was as if everyone had decided that humor was okay for the nurses and doctors but not for the patients and their caregivers.  I think there’s a disconnect here. Yes, these topics and situations are difficult and uncomfortable and in certain situations we need to have very serious talks. But it doesn’t always need to be this way.

Maybe, just maybe this is precisely the time for some humor. Wouldn’t it make things easier if we could find the humor in learning to be a caregiver? We all need a spoon full of sugar, or a tub of ice cream, or maybe something stronger to take the edge off of the fact that Mom’s shitting her pants again and it’s our responsibility to deal with the mess.

Anyway, my hope is that this site will make you laugh, teach you a thing or two, and make the process of taking care of your aging parents a little less challenging.

— Robert, RN, BSN