Hello
Don't want to give too many details but I am feeling a little overwhelmed by support and kindness, not only from the hospital and palliative care team and from family but from friends and colleagues. Since we shared the news of my partner's diagnosis it seems that I spend half of my life making tea and fielding sincere and well-meaning offers of help and support and dealing with other people's emotions. The phone never seems to stop ringing and people keep arriving and I sort of need a bit of time and space to process my own response to going from working full-time and then some to being on indefinite leave from work and becoming a full-time carer, and from looking forward to a shared retirement to realising that, in all probability, we have months, not years left... all in the space of a few weeks.
Many people are being great and phoning to see if they can visit and I thought I had it sorted but there have been times this week when one " booked" visitor has turned up at the same time as one, two or even three other " so sorry to hear your news is there anything we can do to help?" visits.
It feels so very selfish of me to be reacting in this way and I genuinely appreciate all of the care and concern but I also think we need to find a nice way of gatekeeping a bit. as my partner tires very quickly and needs some space too ( as does my freezer as so many people are bringing food, which again, is lovely but...)
Does anyone have any useful advice on how to navigate this without upsetting people who genuinely care and who mean so well?
