Forums de discussion

Fear and Anger 
Créé par Westcoast
06 mai 2021, 20 h 17

Hello - My name is Ken.  I am the sole caregiver for my wife, who has a terminal diagnosis for a debilitating Lung disease.  She was diagnosed 5 years ago, so thanks to her exercise regime and supportive medications, she has outlived her "due date".
We are trying to make the best of it, savouring every moment on the good days, not getting too dragged down on the bad ones.  We are both fairly private people, and love to spend our time together.
I'm not coping with her condition and the sad prognosis as well as I need to.  I am angry that she will pass away, and our plans for a long and happy retirement will be stolen from us.  I know that this anger flows from my fear of losing her, but knowing that and taking positive steps to manage it are two different things.  My failure to deal with the fear and anger are stressing my wife all the more.
I'm hopeful that some of the folks on these forums can give me the benefit of their experience going throught this really horrific process.

Thank you for reading.
 
Réponse de Seeker
07 mai 2021, 15 h 31

Hello Westcoast;  I am deeply moved by what you have shared.  If I may, I would like to encourage you to try not to judge yourself.  At least not too much.  You say you are failing to deal with your fear and anger.  I really doubt that.  It sounds like you and your wife are extremely close. You are grieving the pain and suffering that you see her go through and dreading the day when she is no longer physically with you.  It is so hard that these feelings of grief and sorrow only come when we deeply love someone. So are you failing? I say, "No."  You may wish you were super human and had the perfect thing to say all the time, and no tears to show your wife but my guess is that you are human like the rest of us and need to forgive yourself for not being perfect.
My husband died of lung cancer just over three years ago.  I am on a lifelong journey now of learning to live with grief and figuring out a different life for myself.  I have lots of help along this path and I encourage you to consider what might help you - now and down the road.  Letting people in who "get it" or  who will listen has been very helpful for me.  Yes, I definitely need quiet time to cry, reflect, regroup and allow myself to feel - or not - but being able to vent and tell my story to trusted friends has been very supportive for me.
The other thing I have found helpful is seeing a therapist (virtually now) who is an expert in grief.  She has helped me to understand that grief is not the enemy - it is another way that my love shines through.  And so coming to peace with grief is a big part of the work that I do.
I don't know if you are a reader (or if you have time to read) but I find the work of David Kessler very helpful - especially his book, "Finding Meaning". You may want to listen to his interview with Brene Brown. The best book I read on living with grief was "Option B" by Sheryl Sandberg.  I read and re-read these books on grief. If you just want to listen to videos and stories from others who have walked a similar path, "Grief Stories" is a very good online resource.
You are grieving now - don't doubt it - and your wife likely is, too.  You sound so much like you are on the right track.  You are making the most of your time together, you are being present.  That is the greatest gift you could give her or yourself right now.  Try to be kind to yourself.  You are going through the hardest thing anyone who loves someone can go through.  Try to think about what will help you to recharge and restore yourself as you tend to her and your sense of the two of you together.
Please continue to let us know how you are doing and how we might help.  I have nothing but admiration for how you are managing and I hope you can find some peace in how much love and care you are giving your wife right now.  You deserve some, too, so please do take care of yourself, too, when you can.
 
Réponse de Westcoast
10 mai 2021, 20 h 20

Hello Seeker
Thanks so much for your wonderful words of advice and support.  And thank you for sharing your experience around the loss of your husband.

I have acquired the Option B book and just started it.  I'm trying to have some exercise every day, and find this helps considerably.  

Unfortunately, we males are not as open and communicative about such stressful situations.  We bottles things up, compartmentalize or worse, deny their existence.  I am working on this, fingers crossed.

Again, thank you for your reply, and may you find peace and joy.
 
Réponse de Mark99
12 mai 2021, 13 h 08

Ken
I so understand and appreciate your thoughts here. Donna, my wife, was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and told she had 6 months to live. I closed my business and became a caregiver. She survived for 3 1/2 years.

Durning that time she was in treatment I began grieving. Grieving was always there and still remains. I've learned to walk with it. Have be part of my life because I learned that the wound of grief allows light in. It brings me knowledge, understanding, and greater love for us and the love we have. Though that is not all sunshine and light. It hurts and I am angry at myself for the irrational thought I could not keep her alive.

The hardest part for me when people say I should move on or find closure. Closure is indifference. Closure is denial. I will not do that to Donna. I have gown realized more about love and us. Wrote a memoir about Donna. I have become more of who she loved into being. And that is the hardest part for me she will never see what I've become. Some day we will talk about it. And all the bad home design choices I made after her death. LOL

Allow your anger and grief be a sort of north star to guide you and embrace you. Allow the memories to dance with each other creating more memories. You got this because you're here sharing.  
 
Réponse de Jimmie
16 mai 2021, 17 h 25

Dear, West Coast:

Though we live on opposite coast of Canada, your struggles with fear and anger are very similar to my own.  Having lost two partners to untreatable illnesses, I know something of which you speak. In particular, I understand the necessity you feel to "manage" those two emotions because the rawness of them is "stressing my wife even more".  Others who have written to yo before me have provided excellent counsel as well as profound compassion in responding to your initial post.  In doing so, they have created a community of care and support.  My suggestion would be that such a community, virtual though it might be, can be of signifcant benefit to you, and your partner, as you both try and navigate your way through the days ahead. Use that community  for support. use that community to help reduce the sense of isolation which is often felt by individuals living through the challenges you both are facing.  

My one other suggestion would be to shift your objective slightly from trying to "manage" your fear and anger, to "claiming" those emotions, affirming them as being absolutely understandable feelings to be experiencing given what the two of you are dealing with.  I would agree with Seeker.  who wites about the benefit of working with a grief counsellor in this regard. You have every right to those emotions though others might suggest they are self-indulgent.  You might even think that yourself.  They are best not "managed".  They are best expressed.  And that is best done in a safe, supportive, and professional therapeutic circumstance for your own benefit and for your partner's as well.  

Virtual friends, compssionate counsellors. Communities of support. Still such a difficult, difficult journey. Anyone who suggests otherwise in expectaion or attitude, may have the very best of intentions, but they don't know what they are talking about.....ask Mark, and ask Seeker, they have a better understanding of the suffering you and your partner are enduring.  Not in the least bit easy, just a little bit eaier with compansion such as the two of them offering you their compassionate support and understanding, and a good therapist creating a safe environment for you to be exactly who your are emotionally on any given day without fear, or ambarrassment, or pretense, or apology and - without " stressing your wife even more", which seems to be one of your deepest wishes at the moment, a teatament to the quality of the love and care you hope to give her.

jm 


Nos partenaires
Questions-réponses
Questions-réponses

Découvrez ce que les Canadiens veulent savoir

Consulter un professionnel
Consulter un professionnel

Notre équipe d’experts est là pour répondre à vos questions à propos des maladies potentiellement mortelles et de la perte d’un proche.

Simplement envie de parler?
Simplement envie de parler?

Participez aux forums
de discussion.

Livres, liens et bien plus
Livres, liens et bien plus

Recommandations de notre
équipe

Programmes et services
Programmes et services

Services offerts aux échelons
local, régional et national