Caregivers Stories Podcast: Tracey S. Lawrence, Author of Dementia Sucks A Caregivers Journey – With Lessons Learned shares her caregiver's story

 Caregivers Stories podcast, Kimberly interviews Tracey Lawrence, Speaker-Trainer, Family Coach and Author of Dementia Sucks A Caregivers Journey – With Lessons Learned.

Way back in 2003 Tracey had a successful career in graphic arts and was living with her husband in New Jersey while her parents were living a happy retirement in Florida. It was spring when she visited them. She remembered it so well because that was the time she found out that things were not going great for her father. There was a lot of cross complicating illness, and he had been misdiagnosed several times. It was Tracey who figured out that her dad had vascular dementia because he had coronary heart disease. Her father wished not to prolong his life and so around a year after he passed away. Her mother remained in Florida for a while, but when things started to become hard for her to live alone, Tracey asked her husband if her mother could live with them. Her husband agreed, so they packed her things and moved her to their home.  It was 2010 when they moved her to be with them permanently, and she died on her 64th wedding anniversary, the year 2015. So over five years, her mother experienced every kind of caregiving on the caregiving spectrum. From a combination of living with Tracey and having to hire people in the home to help them and at the end of her life, she was on Hospice in a group home.

As a way to cope with the rollercoaster ride that Tracey was on, she poured her heart out on a journal. She blogged her experience and gained a lot of followers. She was glad that she recorded it because she realized that the book she wanted to write already exists. After polishing it, she found someone who helped her and she got a publishing deal in July 2017. The book aims to help readers to understand the process of realization that your loved one is developing this problem and the kinds of things that you really need to do to prepare yourself for it. It also highlighted the importance of self-care for caregivers have the tendency to forget to take of oneself.

Listen to the rest of the interview for these two wonderful daughters shared their experience on what is it like to become a caregiver to a parent who has dementia. Don’t miss the chance to hear their heartwarming stories and the remarkable lessons that came along with it.  Visit Tracey's website or connect and follow her on IG, Twitter, FB and LinkedIn

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