Series · Memory and Personality Exoskeleton
The Caregiver's Own Life
Fifty-three million unpaid caregivers are carrying a weight the healthcare system designed them to carry alone. This series follows the arc from the first year through care coordination, health decline, financial damage, respite, the placement decision, and the life after. The technology helps. The structural failure remains. The person on the other end of the phone who has been through it is still the most powerful tool in the series.
BML-06.01
The First Year
Series 06: The Caregiver's Own Life
Diane Kowalczyk, fourteen months into caring for her mother with Lewy body dementia, writes the list she wishes someone had handed her on day one. Legal documents, financial clarity, the care team, …
BML-06.02
The Day You Stopped Being the Switchboard
Series 06: The Caregiver's Own Life
Robert Dietrich managed three specialists, a pharmacy, and a home health aide for a wife with Alzheimer's, heart failure, and diabetes. He was not a caregiver. He was a switchboard. The AI care …
BML-06.03
Your Brain on Caregiving
Series 06: The Caregiver's Own Life
Margaret Holloway dismissed her own health notification because she did not have time for herself. Her A1C crossed into the diabetic range while she was watching her husband's numbers. The …
BML-06.04
The Money Nobody Talks About
Series 06: The Caregiver's Own Life
Sylvia Brewster lost $147,000 in wages, $23,000 in retirement contributions, and three years before finding a state stipend she never knew existed. The financial cost of caregiving falls on the people …
BML-06.05
Finding Respite When There Is None
Series 06: The Caregiver's Own Life
Thomas Overbeck's internist told him he would not survive his wife's disease. He had not left the house for more than two hours in fourteen months. Respite is not a luxury for caregivers who cannot …
BML-06.06
When You Cannot Do This Anymore
Series 06: The Caregiver's Own Life
Frank Russo signed the memory care paperwork and felt relief he would not tell his children about for six months. The placement decision is not a failure of love. It is a clinical decision about …
BML-06.07
The Caregiver After Caregiving
Series 06: The Caregiver's Own Life
Vivian Pryce cared for her husband for eight years and did not know who she was when it ended. The identity vacuum after caregiving is distinct from grief and mostly missed by support systems. Vivian …
