Through the window: Maureen Libby and her son Chad – Lewiston Sun Journal

Maureen Libby, the sole caretaker for her 32-year-old son, Chad, who has cerebral palsy, has holed up with him in their Sumner home out of concern for his health.

On Thursday, Chad returned home from his day program with his United Ambulance driver, who told Maureen he was worried about the lack of precautions he was seeing in public while driving his route.

Their conversation prompted Maureen to call everyone she could think of to talk through the idea of immediately self-isolating. By the time she had heard back from the Bethel Family Heath Center office, she had decided. Chads doctor, Kevin Finley, recommended she plan to keep him at home for up to a month.

I have a feeling now, its going to be a lot longer than that, Libby said. Im nervous. Im really nervous. Chad and I were homebound last winter.

Her anxiety is heightened by the memories of a difficult winter a year ago battling the heath care system. After Chad became seriously ill, Libby brought him to multiple doctors before learning that hed been having a bad reaction to his seizure medication. The two spent the winter alone, while Maureen nursed him back to health.

He was just wasting away, she said.

This time, she is even more anxious because she hasnt stocked up in preparation for spending long periods in isolation with her son, whose needs are profound.

She isnt able to get the supplies she needs to care for him online because those items are sold out, she said. And she cant have people visit to deliver supplies due to the possibility of contacting the virus.

She has about a two weeks supply of food for her son, who can eat only formula.

Im afraid that everything is going to shut down, she said. I dont want to starve him to death.

In this trying time, she has managed to find some humanity and connection, she said.

Her neighbor, a man in his 70s who cares for an 84-year-old man, had the foresight to order canned goods, she said.

He came to her home Sunday with some tissues and canned fruit for her.

And we sat across from each other on the lawn, she said. I sat on my deck and he had his chairs out in the middle of my lawn. He sat on one side and I sat on the other.

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Through the window: Maureen Libby and her son Chad - Lewiston Sun Journal