(No subject)

[Guest guest]

This is again, begging for guidance. Currently, my 73 year old

father is at a very uncomfortable stage of MSA. He no longer has the

strength to feed himself, he becomes more and more incontinent each day,

rarely can even slip his shirt on. One of the saddest things about this

deal is that my dad spent his entire life taking care of others. He used

to call my mom during the day to make sure she was playing with the kids.

He told her he would take care of the house when he got home.

Surprisingly, he did!! He encouraged my mother to get a college degree,

just in case something happened to him, he taught me to drive when I was 12

because we lived in a very rural area, and if someone got sick, we'd need

to get them to the hospital. He always tried to plan things out so that all

the bases were covered in the event of a crisis or tragedy. Now, he can't

even plan and carry out a trip from the bedroom the the living room. Every

few days, he is able to take a few steps with the walker....most of the

time, we have to push him in the wheelchair. He and my mother are home

alone about 70% of their waking hours, and my mother is absolutely drained.

She's relatively uncooperative, in that she thinks she is the only one who

can care for my dad. Our suggestions are not well heeded, but she

sometimes re-thinks situations and changes her mind. At this time, none of

the family wants to put daddy away, but it looks like our options are

extremely limited. Are there any agencies that will come in to the home

for a few hours a day to let the caretaker handle the household chores?

Does Medicare assist in paying for such services. We live in the

Houston/Baytown area. We are also looking for a neurologist who is

familiar with this disorder but is not all caught up in the research

aspect. My dad appears to be a textbook case, so there doesn't seem to be

a lot of willingness to look beyond the obvious. They keep telling us they

can't cure him. We understand that, I just believe there should be a way

to make him comfortable.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my rantings and ravings. I just wish my mother had access to the internet so that maybe some of her questions could be answered.

Thanks so much,

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