Manhattanite
Distinguished member
- Joined
- May 10, 2015
- Messages
- 209
- Reason
- Lost a loved one
- Diagnosis
- 05/2015
- Country
- US
- State
- NY
- City
- New York
Hi, please bear with me as I post my rambling thoughts on an issue I am going through at the moment.
Unfortunately the time has come to get a caretaker for my partner for 5-6 hours a week. He has finally agreed to receiving all the Jevity 1.5 that the nutritionist prescribed (he had resisted for a long time) after watching his weight drop to 128 lbs. I work full time and I am able to give him a feeding in the morning, then a second one when I return home at around 5:30 pm and a final feeding at 8 pm, but I want someone to come in the middle of the day to give him the second feeding and look after him, as he is alone all day.
Option 1: We live in a high rise building with hundreds of apartments in a part of NYC that has a large senior population, so I figured that there must be people in my building already receiving home care. I checked with the doorman and he recommended someone who is already taking care of another person in the building. I have had this person's number for five days but I am paralyzed. I dread making the call. I hate dealing with these situations and my partner was always the one who took care of dealing with handymen, repairmen, etc.
Option 2: My partner's psychologist thinks that we should go through a "professional" home care service such as Visiting Nurse Service of NY to find someone who can provide more in-depth care such as a bit of occupational/physical therapy. When he had the PEG but in last year VNS provided one week of nurse visits and we had a nurse who was very competent. I called VNS yesterday to see if I could get in touch with this nurse, but they said that I need to go through their sister service called "Partners in Care" because we would have to pay privately, as Medicare will not pay for home care. I am concerned about the cost.
Option 3: I also went into care dot com and found some care takers who appear to be competent. But I have a funny feeling about this site and having to perform a background check.
Option 4: Finally, our ALS Clinic gave me the name of someone at the ALS org who can give me referrals. I've been playing phone tag with this person but it's my turn to make the call.
Then there is the issue of thinking of what the home care person would do. PEG feeding, nail clipping, help with shaving, cleaning the tubes of the Trilogy and cough assist machines... Partner is still independent but he is becoming weaker every week.
I feel overwhelmed and paralyzed. I am grateful to have all these options, but I don't seem to be able to take the next step.
Thanks for listening
Unfortunately the time has come to get a caretaker for my partner for 5-6 hours a week. He has finally agreed to receiving all the Jevity 1.5 that the nutritionist prescribed (he had resisted for a long time) after watching his weight drop to 128 lbs. I work full time and I am able to give him a feeding in the morning, then a second one when I return home at around 5:30 pm and a final feeding at 8 pm, but I want someone to come in the middle of the day to give him the second feeding and look after him, as he is alone all day.
Option 1: We live in a high rise building with hundreds of apartments in a part of NYC that has a large senior population, so I figured that there must be people in my building already receiving home care. I checked with the doorman and he recommended someone who is already taking care of another person in the building. I have had this person's number for five days but I am paralyzed. I dread making the call. I hate dealing with these situations and my partner was always the one who took care of dealing with handymen, repairmen, etc.
Option 2: My partner's psychologist thinks that we should go through a "professional" home care service such as Visiting Nurse Service of NY to find someone who can provide more in-depth care such as a bit of occupational/physical therapy. When he had the PEG but in last year VNS provided one week of nurse visits and we had a nurse who was very competent. I called VNS yesterday to see if I could get in touch with this nurse, but they said that I need to go through their sister service called "Partners in Care" because we would have to pay privately, as Medicare will not pay for home care. I am concerned about the cost.
Option 3: I also went into care dot com and found some care takers who appear to be competent. But I have a funny feeling about this site and having to perform a background check.
Option 4: Finally, our ALS Clinic gave me the name of someone at the ALS org who can give me referrals. I've been playing phone tag with this person but it's my turn to make the call.
Then there is the issue of thinking of what the home care person would do. PEG feeding, nail clipping, help with shaving, cleaning the tubes of the Trilogy and cough assist machines... Partner is still independent but he is becoming weaker every week.
I feel overwhelmed and paralyzed. I am grateful to have all these options, but I don't seem to be able to take the next step.
Thanks for listening