Friday Update 2

The first lady showed up, then the 2nd lady followed shortly. They talked briefly just to find out the first lady didn't need to be here, the 2nd lady stayed and here's how it went:

Lets call her jane.

Jane explained the whole situation and asked a LOT of questions. She met grams and said:
"Well, this is definitely a unique case…"
Pops: "You have no idea how many times we've heard that" he laughed
Jane: "I'll have to talk to my supervisor and brainstorm on how to go about this. I'll tell you now, the maximum hours I've gotten for a caregiver was 24 hours a week for a bed ridden stroke patient."
Me: "Only 24?! This is a 24/7 job. The other program we were with got $3,000 a month for doing nothing at all!"
Jane: "I know, honey. But the programs available for people in your case are limited on funds. If its the money you are worried about, they can send you to other homes through out the week…but your point is care for your grandmother, and I understand that. Like I said, I will pick my supervisors brain and get back to you early next week."

So, she left after an emotional encounter with grams after pops played his accordion and sang grams favorite christmas song. Grams even teared up, her chin quivered then Jane's eyes watered, then I almost lost it when pops got choked up…It was quite the emotional roller coaster.

But, all in all, there is a 90 day period where I'm supposed to go through a series of training courses provided by the company that will employ me to specifically care for grams at home. The other trick is choosing a company and finding the patience to wait that long for any compensation.

I told Jane how badly I wanted to get grams some new clothes and shoes and a wheel chair…Jane said that medicaid rarely ever provides a new wheel chair, that we'd have to purchase one ourselves. The other HUGE issue is the maximum amount of paid caregivers is…one. Only one person can be paid to care for her with a single backup caregiver that picks up the missed hours by the primary caregiver. For example:

• One caregiver
• 10 hours a week
• $10 an hour

I miss 3 hours one week, my backup can only make up those 3 hours, no more.

I work 10 hours a week at $10 an hour, thats $100 a week, $400 a month…

Now, what on earth would make anyone think thats ever enough for someone in this situation?!

So, Pops and I talked for a while about that. He didn't think it was worth the hassle for that little pay, but then we remembered that the program grams was approved for paid family MEMBERS, plural. Not just one! We went back to the website and realized, Jane never said anything about this program, that she was only focused on the basic care package from her company! But now it was the weekend and we have to wait to talk to her about it when she calls next week.

I'm not sure how long this will take or how long we all can wait, I do know that money is tight and patience is thin. For all we know, this is all we get. Luckily, I have taught myself to not get excited about things that sound too good to be true, so, here's to hoping…once again!