Supervisor Required

So. My caregiver on Friday is a young girl, all of 20 going on 21. She makes the distinction, as most of us did, wanting to seem older, more responsible than someone a couple of years out of high school. She is good at what she does, but lacks experience in a couple of areas, most notably in catheters. In order to get checked out on how to do the various catheters I need, she would need a supervisor. Except the homecare coordinators forgot about that.

When Mikhaila arrived this morning I asked her about a supervisor. She had no idea what was going on, nor had she any real experience with either in/out catheters or the external, condom catheters I wear during the day. She was very reluctant to try doing them without a supervisor, so we decided to call the office and ask one to come out. Unfortunately my regular supervisor, Erin, has today off. This means the covering supervisor, in this case Aragash, was busier than a one armed paper hanger with and itchy rear end. She said she would come as quickly as she could.

As quickly as she could in fact meant 90 minutes. I don't blame her at all. She was covering for another supervisor today as well as working with her own team and clients. And because the in/out catheter is the first thing in my day for any number of reasons, we simply had to wait. That wait meant I would miss out on exercises today. It's not the end of the world, but I let my displeasure be clearly known. I have a limited number of hours in my life; I don't like to waste them waiting on someone else's mistake.

We did finally get the whole catheter thing done. Mikhaila was deeply concerned; it was her first time. With furrowed brow and tongue held firmly at the side of her mouth, she inserted the catheter, slid it all the way to my bladder, and drained me. Then, after my shower, I explained the workings of the condom catheter. She grasped both the principal and the attending member, put the thing on, and attached it to my leg bag.

Now she is an expert, at least where my private parts are involved. That's the last HCA needing this kind of supervision so, hopefully, from here on in time will be conserved, no supervisor required.