Small Bits of Quirky Caregiver Humor

This week, complete with Full Moon and a migratory Venus, had some comical or just plain surprising moments.  Of course, that’s depending on your perspective, so it’s possible that your idea of quirky may be different than ours.  All incidents below are provided in good fun.  Sometimes, though, “you just had to be there”!

Caregiving has its moments and here are a few:

·         Following a recent emergency situation, one of the local police cars were outside the home.  In a moment of candor and revelation, the Caregiver said “Did you know that policemen hang their handcuffs on the turn signal? That’s where I hang my hair scrunchies!”

·         One Caregiver tried valiantly to reach her Caregiver Coordinator over a period of two weeks.  She eventually received a callback voicemail that said “Thank you for your calls, but I’m out the next five days”.  When they finally connected seven days later, the Caregiver was told:  “I received two voicemails, an email, a Post-it Note, and a message from my supervisor to call you, but the problem isn’t in my job description”.  When the Coordinator coulen’t inform her of whose job it was, there was an email follow-up provided.  The Subject Line in the email below says it all.  J

·        A Caregiver went to pick up a pain medication prescription (in person) at the end of the month as usual.  The pharmacy said that the veteran could not be out of medicine for the month?  The caregiver showed the paper record of her son taking the medicine as directed.  After three hours, the problem was determined to be that the pharmacy could not or would not adjust for months with 31 days in them.  

·         It took a Caregiver to show spinal compressions from scans to get attention for repeatedly catching her falling husband over a long period of time. VA is now providing for a battery of tests to determine the veteran’s balance issues following this ER physician note that said:  “A wife is not a proper assistive device”!

·         Finally, we think a series of “educational T-shirts” would help PTSD and TBI public awareness and suggest slogans like the following:

Ø  Let Him Keep the Hat On! (The Nosy Civilian’s Guide to Veteran Clothing)

Ø  Anger vs Shock (or, Why Your Question Was Wildly Inappropriate)

Ø  PTSD in Pop Culture (Phil & Friends Frenzy)

Ø  He’s MY Veteran and Yours! (Give Us Some Room Please)

Ø  My Injuries May be Invisible – but I’m Invincible!

Ø  My Mother DOES Wear Combat Boots!

Ø  Dining Out?  We’ll Take the Seats With Our Backs Against the Wall…

Ø  Mom Can’t Sign My Report Card – She’s In Afghanistan

Please share your quirky moments and have a very good weekend!

Linda