I have found great people through ads in the paper. We have a great rehab facility in Washington. Physical therapists can be good resources for ideas for this sort of thing. When I was still living off of settlement money I would pay someone for just the basics, so not much housecleaning and such so my place was a pigsty. Now I have dshs and found an agency. They were paying for one person to do bowel care (a nurse) and one to do housecleaning and everything. I trained the woman who was doing the housecleaning and had it supervised throught the state's nurse delegation program, now she helps with everything.
It does seem women with children do enjoy the flexibility that the job can bring. There are all kinds of people out there and I hope you find a great match! Please keep us updated and tell us of any snags, as someone here has surely had some similar experience :-) It does require creativity and patience! I always thought it would be great to have someone as a backup, but this isn't always easy. On 2/20/07, Merrill Burghardt < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
HOW DO YOU DO IT? If you do not care to read this in complete, can you share how as a fellow quadriplegic you live? To learn what is possible for myself, I watch and speak to as many quadriplegics how they live, particularly on a low budget paying to get in and out of bed at that. After rehab when I was first injured, the hospital nor I knew what to do with me. My family lived 2,000 miles away in Milwaukee. Moving from California was not at present an option, nor did I want at that time be the prodigal son I was, to move in this way. Fortunate for me, the SCI psychologist refused to allow me be discharged to a nursing home. I am forever thankful to this woman to have given me a standard and the guts to be creative in how I live. I know nursing facilities are necessary to perhaps most people at one time or another, so any person at home in such a facility I mean no disrespect. Contrary, what you have to do, or found, ya have to do it. My solution was to run an ad in the domestic colomn in a newspaper in an area I desired to live. The ad read something like, " 38 year old quadriplegic looking to live with caregiver. Offering (at that time $1,300.)" A woman with two old enough to work daughters, CNAs themselves were my best choice. As a new C/5 injury I pretty much broke myself in with my new found injury survival ways here. This was working out pretty well. A cousin I had never met started calling me insisting for me to move in with her in a house she recently bought. After two months of persuasiveness, I felt if she wanted me bad enough she could have me. So not involving her in my care outside of meals, could you, would yours, and the sort, I pretty well cut my teeth on hiring, working with, training, and firing attendants. After ten years it was time to move on. Again I ran my ad for someone to adopt me so to speak. Luck again, I moved in with a woman who recently gave birth, and not wanting to return to work was looking for someone just like me. Now after seven years I need to move on again. Long story short, how are other's living? Please share your stories with me direct, or to the list. I am so interested how others have met the challenge, particularly those on their own without money. I guess I am looking for encouragement and creativity. Thank you. Merrill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-- Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine. -Henry Miller
