It Wears Me Out

It's Friday. It must be time for another new Home Care Aide. It seems that the Home Care agency has a real problem providing a consistent care giver for Fridays. Last Friday I just sent the new person off without doing exercises; I had already done my shower on my own while waiting. Today I went through the effort and energy of orienting and training a new person. It wears me out.

The HCA herself has great potential. She's a lovely lady, with a great sense of humour. She doesn't mind the challenges of the job. She seems quite competent and understands the issues I face with ALS. In fact she has a friend in Vancouver who has ALS, so I didn't have to explain it to her at all. And she only mentioned God once in the conversation. It's not that she is a bad caregiver, not at all. It's that the process of orienting and training a new person every week is both tedious and tiring. I wears me out.

With today as her first day on the job, she doesn't know the timing of things, when there are going to be gaps in the process and where she can get other things done while I am busy in the shower or on the toilet. She doesn't know where the dishes go, where the mop is kept, what to do with the dirty towels. She didn't empty the dishwasher, usually the first thing that needs doing in the  kitchen. She hand washed all the dishes in the sink, not bothering to load or use the dishwasher, which remains full of clean dishes. It's not that I expect perfection on the first day; it's that there are too many "first days" lately, with too many new Home Care Aides. It wears me out.

Now that she has gone, I will have to attend to my kitchen, putting away what dishes I can, emptying the dishwasher, clearing the counters, On top of that, I have to do laundry today. It's not part of the HCA work; it's that laundry will come on top of kitchen work. I need to get ready for wine bottling tomorrow, which means clear counters and clean surfaces. I have to do that in addition to putting away dishes. It's going to be a busy day. It wears me out.