Well, I think most of you know by now that I started a job back in May working with people with disabilities. It is a job that is both rewarding and challenging. It was originally meant to be a casual job to fill some gaps and to earn a bit of extra money however, the company I work for is short staffed, combined with the fact that I have a have a hard time saying 'NO' and my life for the past 4 1/2 months has been consumed with work, work and more work.
I took on a client at the beginning, a lovely man called Alex who had prostate cancer and had become paralysed from the waist down as the cancer spread to his spine. I spent 5 mornings a week with Alex and the occassional week end relieving other workers. It was quite intense and confronting work at times, but Alex was so positive and tried so hard to be cheerful that as time passed, the work became easier and I formed quite a bond with him and his family. Alex passed away suddenly a week ago. He was 64. I was shocked that it had happened so soon as he didn't seem to have a period of real deterioration, but then realised that Alex was so tough and brave that he had probably masked his real pain to spare all of us from worrying about him.
Fortunately for me, this is only the first time I have had to deal with someone I was close to dying. I am sad, but relieved for Alex and glad he isn't in such pain any more. I will miss him and his family now I am not going there daily, but have used the opportunity to speak to my boss and tell her that I can't take on a 5 day a week client again and that I need to work a maximum of 3 days a week and my regular every second Sunday nght shift. This is more than enough for me with everything else we have going on. So...the good news is I will hopefully have more time to fill you all in on what is going on in the lives of each member of our family through blogging!
It feels good to be back!!
4 comments:
Woohoo!! Good to have you back, Liesa! So sorry to hear about Alex - very sad. It's an amazing job you are doing. I don't know how I would cope looking after someone terminally ill.
Looking forward to more updates soon. Hope all the family are well, and Sydney! Karen xx
I was so surprised to see a new post! I hope you are dealing with Alex's death alright. I'm glad you'll have more time now and I can't wait to see more posts.
That's a sad experience for you, Liesa, but unfortunately it probably won't be the only time if you continue doing that job. It's so good to hear from you again. I was going down the list of blogs and didn't really expect to find anything from you, so it has made my day! Love to all.
I'm glad you'll be blogging more. It's sad that Alex's death was so sudden.
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