Travels with Sandi-6/30/2010

Things have been quite good since my last post. Encouraging.

Last night Sandi and I "interviewed" Tasha Higgins as a in-home daytime care provider. Of course that may not be what Sandi thought we were doing.... Tasha was recommended to us by the Relief Society President. She is 31, single and a life-long member. Grew up in the area, went to Ricks (graduated the last year it was really Ricks) and has been working in the local area since. Just got laid off. She is a very personable and caring 'young' lady. Of note, she has an older sibling that has had a disability for as long as Tasha can remember, so dealing with challenges, including communications difficulties, isn't new. I felt good, very good in fact, with the interview. She and Sandi are going to do a 'trial' starting today...but the one being 'tried' is Sandi. This is going to be more of a challenge to her than to Tasha. Tasha will come at 10am and stay until 3pm, including lunch. That is signficant since I've been coming home to do that and, with my flex schedule (nominally 4x9 8 and then 4x9 in a pay period) means that I was doing 10 hour days. Since I'm still paying back for last week, I will work Friday. Long story: Wed-Friday this week are the trial period. Then off Monday and we'll see about the next week. I'm sure there will be adjustments but Tasha seems flexible enough to adapt--hopefully Sandi will see the need for all this.

Then there was last night....she had a rash of visits to the bathroom which aren't the uncommon part...but when she comes to my side of the bed at 0430 and asks for help it got weird. Not help finding the bathroom (she STILL hasn't got the geography of the apartment down) but she wanted help with the process..yes, what do I do--to the detail of "pull down pants" and when to wipe. I'm sure this is probably more than some of you want to know, but when it gets to this point you know that full-time professional care is no longer an 'if' but a when. I didn't mind what happened last night. It would almost be humorous if it wasn't so sad. I told some of you that the second day here she waited until I got home for lunch to ask me to show her how to run the shower (it IS different than what she is used to in VA)--but the important thing to remember is that the day previous she figured it out...and every day since, although I would go home at lunch wondering whether she would be in her gown waiting for me to help with the shower or dressed. It only happened once, but it was an eye-opening experience when it happened. That incident is what solidified my plan to make almost everything a 'routine' so she could learn and depend on it. That seems to be working. My only fear with bringing Tasha into the mix is the possible disruption of the routine. Hopefully she and Sandi can establish their own. enough for now....keep your fingers crossed for the 'experiment' today.