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Feeling helpless 
Créé par PenPun
13 avr. 2024, 21 h 51

Hi,  I am looking after my 85 year old dad.  Along with my very understanding husband.  The issue we are experiancing are the aging narcissist/ borderline personality.  The insults. The accusations. The disrespect.  We took him into our home for his end-of-life process with his two animals.  We have two animals ourselves so it's been an upheaval for everyone.  My dad tried to pick fights which I don't rise to.  I just stick to the basic facts and leave it, which just gets him more angry.  He sits in my husbands recliner and throws his garbage or other disgusting things on our clean floors. It's like living with a none domesticated adult toddler.  He's been with us since the middle of March.  The guilt trip laid upon me and pushed to make it seem like it was normal to bring him into our home, has me wishing we had never done it. The emotional abuse is so difficult to deal with.  I've done years of therapy before all this and now I feel I've undone all my own progress. He even goes as far as pretending he can't do anything only to jump up and do things when he thinks no one is listening or around... such as spitting in our kitchen sink, which I disinfected the entire kitchen when I came back downstairs.  I am beside myself on what to do so we can all live in some sort of peace yet still be able to take care of an ungrateful, dirty, hurtful man.  He doesn't even see how disgusting he's being. He's registered with hospice and I'm really considering talking to him about going there.  I should mention I was in a bad car accident last November and my back was broken... is broken.  I do my best but I do things I'm not supposed to like bending over to pick his garbage up or just cleaning and scrubbing the kitchen so my husband doesn't have too much on his plate. My father doesn't seem to understand anyone else's needs wants or feelings.  Typical narcissist.  Oh and we were at his palliative care doctors appointment the other day and he says to her, "what I'm concerned about is all those medications that will be left over.  I don't want them to end up on the streets getting sold," the doctor glances over at me and I just raised my eyebrows.  My husband and I don't drink or do drugs but my father loves to accuse everyone of being like what he would do if the tables were turned.  It's so embarrassing. At night I cry from the pent up frustration before falling asleep  it's no longer grief of losing him, it's grief of wishing it would all be done so we can heal and move on in life without the toxic presence.  I can't even remind him to take his meds because he gets angry at me, then he blames me when he hasn't taken them and has a coughing fit that almost kills him.  He has cancer everywhere which came from two bouts of lung cancer with copd.  The doctor and nurses told him the t3s would help with the coughing fits but he won't take anything the way it's supposed to be.  I haven't bothered to remind him today because I no longer want the abuse that goes with it.   It's a very sad situation.  A very frustrating and has certainly put my blood pressure up many times because of it all.  He will disown me if I express any of this so here I am, moaning about it and wishing we had never taken him and his abused animals. 
 
Réponse de Mark99
14 avr. 2024, 2 h 03

Oh Penpun This situation is devastating, demeaning to your natural humanity, and so emotionally damaging on all levels. It's unfair and leans into you being a trauma victim. And that will need long term care.

All of this coming from the kindness and compassion you offered to him. And that point is one that I want to say is who you are which is being eroded and broken right now. It is so understandable to question taking him in. Which must be such an emotional dissoance for you.

You have shared so well. Shared the vulerable state you face which is true courage to do that. This burden you carry deserves to shared. To allow others to hear you see you listen to so it does not become a festering sore eating at you now and into the future. The words we say out loud & share takes the jagged shards of our feelings and offers a narrative for us to see and others to see. It helps us to see better but you seem to see it all to well. Yet sharing is a step forward. There may not be solutions right now but there is support, understanding and compassion here for you.

If you can be kind to yourself. Give yourself grace. That compassion you offered your dad may seem broken but it is there give it to yourself. Allow you to feel it for you.

Keep sharing here we will be here for you
 
 
Réponse de JennJilks
14 avr. 2024, 14 h 16

I am so sorry for what you are going through. Caregiving is terribly difficult in the best of times.

All I can do is ask some questions.
Has your father been like this before he was paliative?
Could he be in more pain than he'll admit? Sometimes people's anger is simply their pain. We take it out on theose closest to us.  
Are you getting any home care? You should have a palliative care nurse who can help with meds and any issues. You can assure him that the medications will be returned to the pharmacy, although it doesn't seem as if he is inclined to believe you! A home care nurse can advise you, too.
I think your father might feel diminished by relying on his adult child for care, and lashes out in response. I had a hospice client who did this. Well off, and forced to live with his daughter. He was bitter and angry. 

So, it is not unusual for a formerly kind person to lose it in this situation. With a human who cannot treat others with respect in the first place there isn't far to fall. 
Vent here, by all means. 

By all means, you have to look after yourself. You cannot care for him if you aren't well either. You do the best for you and your family.

Let us know how it goes.
Jennifer
Hospice Volunteer, Southeast Ontario



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