If you read this blog, you know that one of my areas of great interest, or shall we say great "concern", is the lack of data about just how many OTR drivers are coping with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and depression. Something else I'm very concerned with is how many drivers are faced with the "challenges" of taking care of one or both parents, because of age, health reasons - Alzheimer's, cancer, etc or finances.How are these drivers dealing with his? How do "they" stay on the road - away from home? And, how does the rest of the family manage the "dual" problem of having a parent to take care of while the son or daughter is OTR? Do the companies we work for provide any support for their drivers? What resources are out there for us drivers to better cope? This is large subject to try and tackle. I have given serious thought about creating an entirely separate blog site to open a forum dealing with this. If only I had the time.
As a writer, you have to, too many times, attempt to force a wedge between the more popular interest in NASCAR, tires, shiny new trucks, the latest buffet menu and other "fluff" to try to open up an intelligent discussion on issues like depression and less popular subjects like - taking care of parents.
This is personal for me. A number of years ago, Mrs. Grumpy and I (and son) put everything down and moved up to NJ. We didn't sell our home in FL, we just shut it down. We quit our jobs and our son switched schools. My wife's parents were old, frail and needed help. Both had been in and out of the hospital. Her mother was in worst shape. She was in a local nursing home and could barely remember who we were. Right after we arrived, an attendant spilled hot coffee on her, and within a day or two, we brought her home. We had to a convert a bedroom to a hospital room.
As you can imagine, even after the years have passed, this is very emotional for me. What struck a nerve, is a conversation I had with my mother, this past Mother's Day. She also lives in FL. The only way she can afford to remain in her apartment for another year, is if the owners agreed to decrease the rent about $300 a month. Because the market is way down and the prospects of re-renting the place are so poor if she moved out, they agreed. But, that's only one more year - 12 more months. After that she needs to move into some type of assisted living facility (ALF). She is almost 80.
I have never heard my mother talk like this. She has always been fiercely independent both emotionally and financially. She has NEVER asked for my help. She is not now. But when she said she would have to move - I have trouble even writing it - into an ALF - I had to pause, and became very sad.
At 53, I am an OTR driver. I only wish I had the resources to do more, back then with my wife parents, who both passed with a few days of each other, and now with my mother. I don't want any regrets. I want to do the right thing.
More later...
as a start please visit this site: http://takingcareofyourparents.com/ and the photo is from: http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTb_2OfixIIbwAmhyjzbkF/SIG=11rkpmesf/EXP=1210961934/**http%3A//caregivingadvice.com/signup.html
