I Wait, Wet

One of the reasons I want to move towards a live-in care giver has to do with emergency requirements, like today's little event. My catheter came off. today. This is something which happens, if not on a regular basis, at least often enough to be a nuisance. It seems like I will go for some length of time without a problem, then, for no discernable reason, the sucker will escape its bonds and glue, and I end up messing up a perfectly good pair of pants.

So here I sit, wet pants and uncomfortable. It has taken me 15 minutes to get ahold of a coordinator at CBI, my home care provider. Once I finally did get ahold of a coordinator, she said it would take about a half an hour to 45 minutes to get someone here to help me. Shortly after the HCA called and said it would more likely be 3:30 PM before she got here, a full 45 minutes. Reality and experience suggests this wait will more likely be a full hour. So, by the time I am clean and dry, I expect it will be an hour and 15 minutes of sitting in wet pants, waiting.

Live-In care would have resolved this issue in less than 10 minutes. What's more, the live-in care giver would have been the person who attached the catheter, giving him or her the opportunity to learn from the experience, to see what can happen if things are rushed or not done properly.

Live-in Care would also provide for the smaller things in life. I forgot to buy butter yesterday. I wanted to go to the store today. In fact I was getting ready to do just that when the catheter came off. A Live-In Care giver would have just run across the street to Safeway and gotten the butter, without me having to go through the exercise of dressing and heading out into the cold of winter in my power wheelchair.

Tomorrow is my assessment to determine what level of care I need, and how much AHS will provide in funding. It is my sincere hope that this will provide enough so that I can hire a live in. I will likely spend a lot less time in soiled clothing after that.