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Re: Good morning! 

By: Decomposed in POPE IV | Recommend this post (5)
Sun, 31 Jul 16 9:10 PM | 57 view(s)
Boardmark this board | POPES NEW and Improved Real Board 		Msg. 09851 of 47202
(This msg. is a reply to 09844 by micro)
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re: "Only hard part now is finding some help with nursing to come into dad's house and monitoring him and maybe helping him shower, eat, and give him some stronger pain meds (morphine) when needed."

micro,

You have my sympathies. My siblings and I have hired caregivers for my father since 2013. Thankfully, since December, we've had a really good one with a loving personality and a history of staying with terminal patients until the end. (Most of the others were flakes, leaving for a variety of reasons including "having taken a trip to San Francisco and not having a car with which to get back," and "My brother was just shot so I'm going to care for him instead," or obnoxious enough that we took the opportunity to release her when my father was re-hospitalized last year.) While my father isn't terminal, he IS seriously injured and 95 years old, so the distinction is largely a matter of semantics.

In Sacramento, the Fijian community seems to have a lot of women who specialize in this career. Is there such a community where your father is? Look to see if there's a Fijian church, then stop by to see if they might have any parishioners who do this kind of work. Why Fijians? They're large women and extremely family oriented. That's the only answer I've come up with.

If he's able to stand on his own, then you have it much easier than we do. We ruled out a lot of otherwise good caregivers due to their being small. Back problems are common among caregivers, and especially with the small ones. My Dad has always been thin, but we still worry about him being dropped. A bigger issue is that if he's manhandled, the skin on his arms tears like tissue, so it's important to find someone who uses proper lifting techniques.

Ask anyone you interview about their health and whether they have any back issues. Also ask whether they can drive. Many of the foreign caregivers cannot, but driving is important if you want her to take your father to appointments.

If size and lifting skills aren't a problem you'll need to deal with, then your biggest challenge is to find a caregiver who actually cares. Many don't, and if they don't truly care about your father, he isn't likely to care for them either.

If at all possible, try to find a CNA (certified nursing assistant.) CNAs are better than nurses for these jobs. Not only are CNAs less expensive, but nurses aren't usually 'hands on' with their patients. It's the CNAs who get patients out of bed, dressed, bathed, fed, medicated, toileted, etc, and those are probably the skills you want in a caregiver.

I recommend figuring out what the most is that you want to pay your caregiver, then dropping the offer by a bit so that you can give them a generous tip at Christmas bonus if she is doing a good job. The tip will help with her morale, and it will keep her from being complacent about the work she's doing, knowing that her Christmas tip is likely to be significant if you're happy with her.

Good luck. It's hard to finding and keeping someone good.
 




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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Good morning!
By: micro in POPE IV
Sun, 31 Jul 16 5:51 PM 		Msg. 09844 of 47202

Hope all is well with everyone at Pope 4 !!!

My week was long, and yet had fun on Wednesday with a long trip. Went to see a client in West Virginia who is building himself a new building in rural area he owns.

Not doing anything with him now, but will when he gets it up an his equipment running.... The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well, at least in him!

I left there and drove another 100 miles to Huntington to visit with a small client, yet very enjoyable person who is a Gun Dealer as well. Unfortunately, when I got there, he was not.... So then I made the two hour journey back home from there. 500 miles total. Scenery was great. So was the visit.

Got bad news from Doc as well after the CT scan showed and confirmed he has Pancreatic cancer and it is blocking the Bile Ducts. He wants me to take him to see a liver specialist who MIGHT want to insert tubes into him.

I don't think dad will want that and I am going to honor his wishes anyway. He wants to go on and be with mom. I am at peace with that.
Next week should be interesting... Only hard part now is finding some help with nursing to come into dad's house and monitoring him and maybe helping him shower, eat, and give him some stronger pain meds (morphine) when needed. Lot to do there.

On the home front, I dropped my LG Optimus G cell phone on cement. It landed on the back side and it cracked the glass on the back into lots of crack lines. NO, I did not have the case on it at that time. I do now to protect my hands from the glass shards. Still works.

Anyway, just ordered a NEW LG G3 phone for a couple hundred bucks. Much bigger and faster still. This was a top rated phone two years ago. All I need.

Should have it by Wednesday. Then I can transfer my contacts to it and get it set up. I already ordered a protective case by Spigen, which is actually rated higher than Otterbox. Slim and well designed. I hate it when cases interfere with the buttons on the phone or the virtual keyboards when sending a text message.

I am praying that I will make the right decisions for my father, and be able to let him not be alone or become irritable when he does not react or respond how I would like him to. Patience and love.

This is difficult for me because all my life, my father DISLIKED ME and was always mean-spirited and sometimes downright ugly. Mom would say to me that my father just did not like me. Yeah, that it true.

I never knew why. Now I am the one of four that has to do MOST of the work and make the decisions for HIM.

Ironic. Yet a testing of my faith and I will honor my dad as I am his son.
Difficult to do. Taking a toll.

Anyway, I look forward to reading the board and seeing what you all have found out with your great perspectives, insights, and researching. It is a sort of escape for me. I do so much appreciate every one of you contributors.

A Blessed Lord's Day to you all!

micro....

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