Another Saturday with the Hoyer

This morning two night shift aides got me up with the help of a day shift aide. I wonder if the night shift aides are not allowed to get me up with the Hoyer by themselves. And then, AM/aide did not do the Hoyer lift like she's done it before. She was not guiding the Hoyer sling like she has done before. I think my aide was doing it. AM/aide did not pull up on the Hoyer sling as I was lowered into the shower chair. She also did not quickly pull out the Hoyer pad from behind me like she did last week. We needed it out because I was being washed up. I don't know what they were thinking.

By the time K my aide came to do my wash up, it was later. Kay had to get another resident up. And she cannot make up for being behind schedule very well. I said I was crooked in the shower chair. K assured me she felt bad about my position, but she said there was nothing she could do. I told her we need a better method for using the Hoyer, and she agreed.

After breakfast when I was transferred to my bed to get my pants down and then to the shower chair K, pulled up on the Hoyer pad behind my left hip. That got me back in the chair the right way. K said that Hoyer has something wrong with it and does not lift me straight. She said one side of it seems to be lower and she compensates for that. The last thing I wanted to hear was that the Hoyer was not working properly.

Anyway K figured out what to do to get me into a better position on the shower chair. It worked much better after breakfast. Now, if the other aides will just do what K does I will be in a much better spot in the shower chair.

It's kind of weird because we did better the first weekend I used it than we are now. Probably everyone was being more careful because they had never really used it with me before.

So, I sat and composed an email to Ms. L/therapist. I told her that we need to have a plan for the Hoyer's use to make it more functional when I'm getting onto the shower chair. I also said we need a Hoyer discontinuation plan that is well drawn out. Not everyone is a good writer or even a good thinker. Maybe that part of my plan has not even been started, but only talked about. Perhaps therapy thought I'd return to standing for transfers with the aides, like I used to. But it is going to be more complicated than that. There will have to be planning steps..

E mentioned yesterday morning that she's afraid as soon as I start standing with the aides to transfer that I will bend and straighten my knees and then nothing will be solved. They want some type of assurance that I will not bend and straighten my knees while transferring. Maybe with the help of the ombudsman something can be worked out.