We were deluged with rain last Thursday.  It filled our basement; it killed our water heater; and we lost power for a short time.  I had to find a pump to get rid of the water; most stores were out of them.  I have finally gotten the water out, now I have to plan for actual cleanup, we lost quite a few possessions.

We were deluged with rain last Thursday.  It filled our basement; it killed our water heater; and we lost power for a short time.  I had to find a pump to get rid of the water; most stores were out of them.  I have finally gotten the water out, now I have to plan for actual cleanup, we lost quite a few possessions.
In the grand scheme of things it isn’t much.  Between New Hampshire and Massachusetts 300,000 homes lost power.  This winter the mid-Atlantic states were dumped on with snow.  Haiti and Chile were destroyed by earthquakes.  I will survive what problems I have right now.
With all of this however, I still have work to do.  I have several jobs one of which is as an on-call Personal Care Assistant (PCA).  I work for several people who have regular PCAs; I fill in if an assistant can’t make it on a given day or there is an emergency.  This weekend was one such situation.  One client has two regular PCAs that come to his apartment to clean his house, give him baths, and to dress him, among other things.  His legs are paralyzed so he is wheelchair bound.  My job is to be his chauffeur; I take him to doctors’ offices, hospitals, and to visit family members.
On Thursday night his apartment complex lost power in the storm.  It is a government-sponsored low income building that doesn’t have a generator.  Since the temperature started dropping in the evening they were in danger of freezing if he and his wife stayed there overnight.  When I spoke to them they were content to stay.  They found that if they boiled pots of water on the stove they got some heat.  They were prepared to do this until the power came back on.
As I mentioned he is in a wheelchair and has PCAs come in to dress and bathe him.  His wife, though mobile, has difficulty lifting much more than Styrofoam cups of liquid.  Between the two of them they were going to have trouble just keeping the pots full of water.
I informed them that they would be staying in a hotel for the evening.  I called around to discover that all the hotels and motels in the area were full; everyone needed to get out of their homes.  I finally found an open room; luckily it was what they call handicap-accessible.  I called my client; he was shocked but grateful.  At 8 pm I headed out to take care of them.
When I arrived at their apartment the first thing I had to do was help him get dressed before moving him into his wheelchair.  While I did this his wife packed a few belongings.  I pushed him down the long ramp to the car and loaded him up.  After helping his wife in as well I packed the chair in the trunk.
Now comes the fun part.  When we got to the motel we found a shabby ramshackle place.  The room was in the back side of it.  I had to roll him up a broken cement ramp into the building then down a hallway that sloped up and down like a rollercoaster.  The room was located at the far end of the corridor.  Inside this “handicap” room was a double bed that took up most of it.  There was barely enough space to squeeze the chair between the bed and the walls.  It was a tight turn into the bathroom and for a moment we thought we wouldn’t be able to make it.
But the door was wide enough to get in and we found a very large room with railings.  My client was able to maneuver around very easily.  And as it turns out he had no problem rolling himself around the bedroom.  He is very adept at getting around corners.
I got him to bed and then left for the evening.  In the morning I picked them up and took them to breakfast at a small diner down the road.  Afterwards I called the apartment complex and discovered that they now had power.  Even though it was only for one night you’ve never seen two more excited people when they finally got home.  I left them profusely thanking me for taking care of them during the storm.
So according to the title this post is about “PCA Storm Therapy”.  In this case it is about therapy for the PCA.  It took me away from all the stress at home.  The pump took care of the water in the basement without me. I didn’t worry about scheduling the installation of a new water heater or getting ready to clean up our ruined possessions.  Not only did it feel good helping my client and his wife but I was able to stay relaxed while doing it.We were deluged with rain last Thursday.  It filled our basement; it killed our water heater; and we lost power for a short time.  I had to find a pump to get rid of the water; most stores were out of them.  I have finally gotten the water out, now I have to plan for actual cleanup, we lost quite a few possessions.

In the grand scheme of things it isn’t much.  Between New Hampshire and Massachusetts 300,000 homes lost power.  This winter the mid-Atlantic states were dumped on with snow.  Haiti and Chile were destroyed by earthquakes.  I will survive what problems I have right now.

With all of this however, I still have work to do.  I have several jobs one of which is as an on-call Personal Care Assistant (PCA).  I work for several people who have regular PCAs; I fill in if an assistant can’t make it on a given day or there is an emergency.  This weekend was one such situation.  One client has two regular PCAs that come to his apartment to clean his house, give him baths, and to dress him, among other things.  His legs are paralyzed so he is wheelchair bound.  My job is to be his chauffeur; I take him to doctors’ offices, hospitals, and to visit family members.

On Thursday night his apartment complex lost power in the storm.  It is a government-sponsored low income building that doesn’t have a generator.  Since the temperature started dropping in the evening they were in danger of freezing if he and his wife stayed there overnight.  When I spoke to them they were content to stay.  They found that if they boiled pots of water on the stove they got some heat.  They were prepared to do this until the power came back on.

As I mentioned he is in a wheelchair and has PCAs come in to dress and bathe him.  His wife, though mobile, has difficulty lifting much more than Styrofoam cups of liquid.  Between the two of them they were going to have trouble just keeping the pots full of water.

I informed them that they would be staying in a hotel for the evening.  I called around to discover that all the hotels and motels in the area were full; everyone needed to get out of their homes.  I finally found an open room; luckily it was what they call handicap-accessible.  I called my client; he was shocked but grateful.  At 8 pm I headed out to take care of them.

When I arrived at their apartment the first thing I had to do was help him get dressed before moving him into his wheelchair.  While I did this his wife packed a few belongings.  I pushed him down the long ramp to the car and loaded him up.  After helping his wife in as well I packed the chair in the trunk.

Now comes the fun part.  When we got to the motel we found a shabby ramshackle place.  The room was in the back side of it.  I had to roll him up a broken cement ramp into the building then down a hallway that sloped up and down like a rollercoaster.  The room was located at the far end of the corridor.  Inside this “handicap” room was a double bed that took up most of it.  There was barely enough space to squeeze the chair between the bed and the walls.  It was a tight turn into the bathroom and for a moment we thought we wouldn’t be able to make it.

But the door was wide enough to get in and we found a very large room with railings.  My client was able to maneuver around very easily.  And as it turns out he had no problem rolling himself around the bedroom.  He is very adept at getting around corners.

I got him to bed and then left for the evening.  In the morning I picked them up and took them to breakfast at a small diner down the road.  Afterwards I called the apartment complex and discovered that they now had power.  Even though it was only for one night you’ve never seen two more excited people when they finally got home.  I left them profusely thanking me for taking care of them during the storm.

So according to the title this post is about “PCA Storm Therapy”.  In this case it is about therapy for the PCA.  It took me away from all the stress at home.  The pump took care of the water in the basement without me. I didn’t worry about scheduling the installation of a new water heater or getting ready to clean up our ruined possessions.  Not only did it feel good helping my client and his wife but I was able to stay relaxed while doing it.

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