{"id":1567,"date":"2024-07-06T18:10:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T18:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2025-06-02T22:09:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T22:09:00","slug":"whats-in-your-caregivers-purse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/06\/whats-in-your-caregivers-purse\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s In Your Caregiver’s Purse?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Truth be told, I\u2019ve had a thing for purses since the age of four. Back then I used to carry candy, crayons, and a picture of my cat, Mooney. Later, my handbag contained the usual keys, a wallet, a makeup pouch, a cell phone, and a damp washcloth in a plastic bag, (oh, wait, that was my mother). When I became a caregiver though, the contents of this over-the-shoulder life support system quickly expanded with my new reality. Now I carried:

Hastily jotted sticky notes, which sometimes stuck to my butt as I ran errands. One evening, I spent an entire hour grocery shopping with a sign attached to my pants that read “Fleets enema.\u201d Trust me, that\u2019s a back-story you don\u2019t want to hear.

A dozen to-do lists. Actually, it\u2019s pretty normal for me to juggle multiple lists, partly because there\u2019s something so damned satisfying in being able to line through something.

A pound of change in a baggie for the parking meter at my mother\u2019s rehab center. Twenty minutes for a quarter, which is about what my time was worth.

A key ring to make a custodian jealous. It held twelve keys, including my office, house, and car; my parents\u2019 houses and their safe deposit box, along with an assortment of scan thingies from Stein Mart and TJ Maxx for retail therapy.

My cell phone. Instead of salivating like Pavlov\u2019s dogs every time it rang, my body\u2019s response was a spray of adrenaline up my spine that wore me out. To keep my sanity, I would change ring tones every few weeks.

Tweezers, for pulling inch long chin hairs that literally sprang out of nowhere. What\u2019s with that? And of course, I never noticed them until glancing in my car mirror while sitting in traffic. Who can pluck while everyone\u2019s watching??

A pocket calendar with laughably small squares. Does anyone\u2019s life actually fits in those one-inch boxes??

Mooshed up Kleenex for those times I was so exhausted and a stranger would say or do something kind. I\u2019m not a crier, but that would always bring me to hot, messy, nose-running tears.

My parents\u2019 healthcare forms including: HIPPA letters, durable powers of attorney; healthcare surrogate documents; and living wills. I didn\u2019t think it the least bit odd to also carry their DNR\u2019s (Do Not Resuscitate), as well. It is always about being prepared.

A list of my parents\u2019 doctors. Unfortunately, my dad was doing a great job of alienating most of them, so the list was constantly changing. One physician told him he had an anger problem and suggested counseling. When my dad actually called to schedule a session, he got a voicemail recording, and left a string of four letter words that I can never, ever repeat.

Last, but not least, I rarely went anywhere without a twisted sense of humor; because, as we caregivers know, despite all our preparation and planning for the unexpected challenges of this role, sometimes laughter can save us when nothing else will.

So, in the spirit of sharing, tell us what\u2019s in your purse today?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Truth be told, I\u2019ve had a thing for purses since the age of four. Back then I used to carry candy, crayons, and a picture of my cat, Mooney. Later, my handbag contained the usual keys, a wallet, a makeup pouch, a cell phone, and a damp washcloth in a plastic bag, (oh, wait, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithdhenry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}