Newbie

[Sglisson]

I'm new here my father in law was Diagnosed with PSP in about 2010. My husbands Mom recently passed and was his Dad's caregiver so he has moved in with us. its been about a month. My husband is having a hard time taking care of his dad. He is exhausted and he works full time and we have 3 teenage kids. We all pitch in but its still hardest on my husband.

[honjen43]

Hi Sglisson

[honjen43 in reply to honjen43]

(Haven't got that right yet!) Welcome to this site. You will find it great for help, advice and support for your family while you have your father in law with you.

It will help us to know where you live, as there will be others here who will be able to give you direct advice. I live in New Zealand and not much use if you live in UK or USA!

You will need plenty of support and practical help - which will be available, but knowing where and how to begin can be overwhelming!

You will find the answers here in due course. The search function is also good to find detail of specific symptoms.

Enjoy this Christmas period and make memories! It is not an easy road but has been followed by others here.

Hugs

Jen xxx

[raincitygirl]

Hello Sglisson and Welcome;

Sorry to hear about your father in law. If he was dx in 2010 and is still with you, he is having a longer life span than most we hear about on this site (for whatever small comfort that is I too will be interested to hear what country you're in: what sort of public-funded health support are you able to access?

Hang in there and check in often - we are here to support you!

[LuisRodicioRodicio]

Hi Sglisson !

Enclose is my experience, I hope it can inspire some positive actions to you.

In my opinion, as far as it is possible, the best place for a PSP patients is their own home or as is your case, a family environment. This entails the need for other assistants to help the main caregiver and the capacity to cope with the considerable expenses that this generates. It also demands a reasonable good health of the caregiver since the management of all tasks that it carries out with it produces a remarkable fatigue physical and psychic. In principle, the limits I have set to send the patient to a nursing home are: dementia, very aggressive behaviour, the need to apply specialized medical care or if the patient´s needs became more complex and persistent tan it could hold up at home,chronic fatigue in the caregiver .

We have a part-time hired person to perform gymnastics, personal hygiene and dressing. Another person lives with us. Those two persons help me a lot regularly and the children help whenever they can.

Releasing the PSP caregiver and allowing him/her to have life outside the home as well as to avoid strong or continuous physical and psychic efforts is fundamental. The main caregiver of a PSP patient is progressively taking additional tasks. To the personal previous work (when the disease had not been shown), must be added the work formerly done by the PSP patient, plus the management of the illness and the guidance of people who share the help team. A special and continous attention must be directed to the main caregiver and his/her medical history.

The bottom paragraphs are to remember that the main caregiver jobs and occupations grow at the same time as age..... without an important help is very difficult to carry out all these activities without suffer a severe wear down.

From my experience and also from my group of caregivers it is essential to find efficient help that allows areas of freedom and leisure as well as vacation periods for the caregivers, far away from the PSP problems. At least, a week of holidays each six month is advisable.

I hope and I wish these notes are useful.

Hugs.

Luis.