One day at a time, as the debilitating disease strips her of her ability to walk, talk and even hold up her head, her family cares for her, hoping for a miracle. Erin's mother has to take breaks from the daily routine of feeding and nursing her to find a private place to weep. The hidden cost of caregiving McConaghy has become one of the more than 25 million Americans who the National Family Caregivers Association says are caring for a loved one without compensation. Regular crying is one symptom of the stress they experience, caused by the constant pressure of being a caregiver coping with a long-term chronic illness. Family members are often forced to leave jobs, go without sleep or end up neglecting other family members to be on the front line of a battle with a life-threatening disease.
Caregivers are more susceptible to colds, flu and more serious diseases.
The stress caregivers experience can also have a ripple effect, extending from family members to friends, classmates, employees and others who come into contact with the situation. How a family became caregivers For the McConaghys, matters came to a head after they moved to Temecula from Oceanside two years ago. Just after Christmas last year, Erin became ill with a virus, suffering temperatures above 100 degrees. She began losing her balance and having speech problems, and was hospitalized for nine days. Erin was eventually given a molecular genetics test, for which a DNA strand was extracted from a muscle, to see if a gene held a defect.