ME the human hoist.

Yesterday our under performing care agency finally gave up, took their ball and went home. Making our one remaining carer redundant. Leaving me yet again a virtual prisoner at home looking after hubby 24/7 on my own.

What is the problem? the crux of the matter is, that until the local medical profession wake up and realise that without the surgical intervention needed in this case hubby will continue to be care agencies worst nightmare, someone with massive, H&S non conforming manual handling issues. He can not use a hoist because of the pain / spasms. He can not sleep because the spasms constantly jolt him awake. He needs constant physiotherapy to get through the day, in the form of extreme, forcible straightening of his legs.

All of which everyone expects me as sole family carer to carry out 24/7, surviving on glimpses of sleep in between his spasms. Very hard physical work with no rest, constant day in day out.

23:00hrs 29 June - both having tried to rest in bed for a couple of hours, we get up again. I help brush his teeth, give him his pills. I feel like crap and just want to go to sleep.
Midnight - carry out his urine catheter.Wait for twenty minutes and then back to bed again.Which involves me manually lifting him from his chair to his bed.
01:00 my head finally hits the pillow after working on him, stretching his legs, for 20 minutes trying to get his body to settle.
02:20 he wakes me as his legs have started to spasm again. Drag my tired bod out of bed to help him settle again by forcible straightening his legs, stretching him out etc. He can not settle because he feels like his back is twisting, so I sit him up over the edge of the bed starting the whole regime again. Finally getting back to bed at 02:40.
03:45 he wakes me again, needing an extra urine catheter doing and his legs are spasming again. I finally get back to bed at 04:05.
06:00 up again to do another catheter, more physio etc. 06:15 lay down again.
07:30 his back is in such pain that I have to start to get him up. Try and wake myself up with copious amounts of coffee, finally getting him up at 08:15, which you have guessed it involved more manual handling , lifting by his human hoist, ME.

That's the night shift done, so on with the day which will involve several trips back to bed to carry out physio, and all the stuff that a day shift entails, washing, feeding, entertaining, campaigning etc etc...

This is our life day in day out, we ask for help, but it never comes, day in day out, no rest, no change, no freedom.