My house has been without help for days, the agency is saying there is a national caregiver shortage. Even though under the CARES Act, my govenor gives bonuses of $1600 to people who get employment caregiving as a new employee or has not worked in 6 months as a caregiver. I am kinda tired of being told I am "doing God's work"?
I am not involved in anything, refuse to be because pt is independent. That means to me she can function. I have no problem letting he sit in poo, problem is my floors. I explode alot.
So now that I cam evict, the judge says $62k to make her house livable because of the neglect the last few month.
So this is at least 6 to 8 hours of woundcare with circulation boots etc. a day. Then the toileting, which I wont do. APS was at the house 2 days ago becauae the person had a dr appt and the worker gave her 4 stool softeners and 32 oz of prune juice. By the time I got home, it was the 1 hr before the same worker was coming back...she made the mess, she can clean it so she reported it.
Now no workers for days. Agency says there is a shortage and I am doing gods work to which my response was she is the devil and needs to be banished. I was told the Bible does not work that way.
I cant and wont do this, i have anxiety attacks where my pulse goes through the roof like 150-160. It is hell.
People who suffer from paroxysmal atrial tachycardia sometime mistake the rapid heart rate for anxiety attacks. It makes you feel like your heart will jump out of your skin and you are super-sensitive the the heart beat (like "slam, slam, slam). It isn't a particularly dangerous rhythm problem but it can make you miserable. Have you talked with your doc about the rapid HR? They will sometimes suggest you wear a monitor for a day or so, and there are simple medications that work to slow this rapid heart rate.
https://www.healthline.com/health/paroxysmal-atrial-tachycardia
If you want an extensive discussion on it follow these links:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215393/
https://phinational.org/
The above is from April.
We are peaking again, and I expect it will get worse in so far as shortages--just a guess. A friend manages a High End ALF in San Francisco. She says it is getting very difficult to get workers; they pay quite well. I don't know if that is true city wide. She tells me that many of their workers were working two jobs, and will go from 8 hour shift with her facility, which has all levels of care, to 8 hours at another facility. Right now, because her place remains Covid-19 free they are not employing people who are working at other care facilities.
My fear has ALWAYS been, given we still aren't getting inadequate supplies of the needed PPE in many places, is that a new peak may see people still suffering a lot of post traumatic stress from the first go around with Covid-19 simply quitting.
These are very tough times. Hope you find quality help soon.
Could you provide some info on whom you are a caregiver for, what agency has told you about the shortage, and who’s telling you that you’re “doing God’s work”?