CAREGIVING / MUSIC: Hump day doesn’t mean a lot when you are doing what I’m doing. Part of you is fairly content. The week is going along. There’s a bit of paying work to do. But when things get frustrating you become impatient with the patient. Impatient with time in general. With not knowing what is going to happen next. What will next month bring.
Most days I truly go with the flow. I’m ready for accidents, choking on orange juice and figuring out creative ways to move a body into a bed without both of us doing a face plant. Other days maybe I’m worried about bills. Or that an aide forgot to come. It is cold enough to make icicles on a basset hound. And maybe I have a few aches and pains. Then I look at Kathy trying to feed herself a snack. Or unable to move her feet. And I feel a little guilty. Perspective.
Today I called Jennifer at the area senior services again. I left another message to see if Kathy can qualify for more help. I had left a message and sent an email when the VNA stopped but I guess she missed it. Caregivers have to keep after things. Nobody else will. The other thing that has happened is that the aides from one agency keep quitting. Kathy can’t have any consistency. (I can’t trust whether someone will be here.) Su was great. Then she left because the agency wasn’t paying her gas mileage. Eventually they sent a new girl named Ashley who was very nice. But she wasn’t here a half hour before she said she would not be our permanent aide. It was costing more in gas to get between clients. She found a job at a nursing home. So it didn’t make sense to train her or try to create a new routine. So that is the next little battle: getting them to send somebody that likes working for Kathy even though they don’t get paid enough to do it. I’m pessimistically realistic at least.
This is a ditty by the Gershwin boys called Bidin’ My Time from my new covers project to benefit the UConn Huntington’s Clinic. It seems to fit the discussion. There’s a description here.