S1E1 Intro - My Best Caregiver Life

Welcome to My Best Caregiver Life. This podcast focuses on the family caregiver as a person FIRST, then as a caregiver. It's not about being the perfect caregiver but the best person you can be in your caregiving season. In this Intro, you'll learn a bit more about the host, Christy Moore and the purpose for the podcast.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to My Best Caregiver Life. My name is Christy Moore. I'm a registered nurse. I work full-time as a patient and community clinical educator. I've worked in healthcare for over 30 years and I'm also a caregiver.

Even though I'm now able to juggle all of these things, it wasn't always this way for me.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I noticed that my husband was experiencing some health challenges. And as the months went by, I noticed how severely these challenges were impacting him.

When we were finally able to get in front of a doctor almost a year later, we finally got a diagnosis and I realized that I was now my husband's caregiver.

Although I was grateful, really grateful, to finally have a diagnosis, I remember letting out a big sigh because I realized that I'm also my parents' caregiver, too. And even though I've been a nurse for over 30 plus years, I was still not prepared for this.

So I should have been really relieved when I finally had my first work trip since the beginning of the pandemic.

But on a meeting break after having a call with my husband, a co-worker asked me how my husband was doing.

As I began to fill her in, my face got hot and red and I burst out into tears. I had finally told someone about what I'd been going through for the last year.

In my heart of hearts, I didn't want to admit to anyone that I was struggling.

But when I got home, I had a conversation with a social worker for my insurance plan who did my assessment.

At the end of the call, she said something that changed the outlook on my life forever. She said, Christy, you are more important than your husband. You are, you're more important.

He's going to be living with these health challenges. But what if something happens to you? Then what? And I knew she was absolutely right. I didn't see myself as anything but a caregiver.

I had put my life on the back burner. Even though I was mentally, physically and emotionally drained and running on fumes. I had been chronically stressed for over a year.

I put off all of my own healthcare appointments and I felt like I had to be on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And that's why I created this podcast.

My Best Caregiver Life is about what is best for you as a person who's also a caregiver. Caregiving is something that we do, but we can only care for someone to the extent that we care for ourselves.

It's really really easy for our own identity to get lost in the shuffle of the day-to -day.

Maybe you're known as the dutiful daughter like I am, or maybe you're a healthcare professional. So the family always defaults to you to manage or take charge of a situation and as a result nearly everything lands on your shoulders.

That's me too.

My intention with this podcast is to speak from the heart, to connect with other people who are family caregivers and discuss a variety of topics that focus on the family caregiver as a person first, then as a caregiver.

It doesn't matter what season of caregiving you're in.

Some of us will be in the early stages where our loved one may still be doing some things for themselves, while others of us may be providing a significant amount of hands on care.

We're all in different seasons and we're all in it together.

So what is meant by My Best Caregiver Life is being the best person you can be first. Then as a caregiver at this moment in time, it's not about being perfect, but being the best version of you.

In this season.

As you listen to each upcoming episode, I'd like you to keep one question in the back of your mind. What's best for me in this season? Remember, you can't really help anyone unless you put your own mask on first.

So welcome to the first season of My Best Caregiver Life. I'm happy you're here.

This will be a bi -weekly podcast that focuses on matters related to you being the best person you can be first and then as a caregiver. I want to thank you for listening in advance.

Some weeks of this show may be put maybe just a short check-in, other weeks it may be a longer episode. But that's real talk. As a caregiver again, I'm happy that you're here.

Let's go.