This article is meant for anyone who has had to be a Caregiver.
Growing up as a child I endured having Asthma and anyone can tell you that it is one of the most scariest things a child can go through.
If I were going to describe it to someone who has never dealt with Asthma its like being constantly squeezed around your chest and slowly drowning from the inside out.
Being as scary as it was for both my parents, they would sit with me and console me with the words ‘Just Breathe’, don’t worry we’re here. As I got older it became a mantra of sorts.
Little did I know ‘Just Breathe’, that this in itself is how I found peace during the most turbulent moment my wife Peggy’s and my life.
You see I had to stop working to be here for her as a Caregiver, in my opinion she had been misdiagnosed at the onset of her medical problems which led to dozens of different medications she had been placed on.
The scary realization we had together is that we both were blindly following what we were being told by the medical community.
I’m not a medical professional nor will I ever pretend to be, so aren’t you supposed to trust these people to your welfare?
None-the-less mistakes were made and the people we were dealing with these past seven years were only trying to help by putting out the numerous fires that kept arising in my wife’s physical and mental status and had absolutely nothing to do with what had been happening.
So through all of this we had to endure my wife detoxing from all the hard pharmaceuticals she had been prescribed.
I am not sure as to how many readers have had to care for a loved one going through this but it will test the core of who you are with out a doubt, as much as taking care of a loved one in hospice.
In this last year and a half I have almost lost my wife twice to her body being overwhelmed by the side effects of the medicines she had been taking.
During these times I would remind her to ‘Just Breathe’, it will pass. Either in faith or just something in my thoughts knew this was the answer, it had saved me many times before.
Unconditional Love, Reassurance and the reminder ‘Just Breathe’ are the main things I used to help my wife mentally survive what she had to go through.
The one thing I’ve never shared with my wife is what helped me during the roughest times we shared was the fact regardless of the crazy things coming out of her due to the medicines detox affects, I could look into her eyes and I knew she loved me, without a doubt in my mind, and I always reminded myself to ‘Just Breathe’.
The following song is something we both understand more now than when we first got married, ‘JUST BREATHE’.
I have included the lyrics below the video.
“JUST BREATHE”
song writer: Eddie Vedder
I Love You Sweetheart!
~Michael Lynn Jones~
