Mandi,

I'm not sure I can help directly with your point about "not responding in an emotionally positive" way. However, I can imagine how stressful it can be for you as a caregiver over this period of time.

A little more than a year after I finished my cancer treatment, my husband was suddenly hospitalized for a period of several weeks with a severe gastro-intestinal illness that took the doctors quite awhile to diagnose and begin treating. It took both of us totally by surprise, as he is someone who is almost never sick with anything. As time went on and I wasn't seeing the kind of improvement that I thought I should be seeing, I was getting more exasperated each day, and every night when I drove home from visiting him in the hospital I would scream my lungs out in frustration. There were times during that experience when I concluded that it was harder to be the caregiver than the patient.

None of us can know exactly what you're going through, but our thoughts and prayers are with you for strength to deal with your situation. Please keep coming back here -- you are a hero too.

Cathy