Saturday, February 13, 2010

At Work - Friday November 13th, 2009

I'm probably breaking rules or something, I'm not exactly sure. I'm at work right now doing a sleep shift at my old job, which I have to add doesn't necessarily mean you sleep the whole time. I just tucked in Mr. Slaps-a-lot (it's wrong for me to say that, I'm not trying to be rude but he does do that), a few mintues ago after he got up soon after my arrival.

Poor guy has a cold. At one point I heard him gasping for air, wait I thought I heard him gasping for air (on the monitor we keep in his room). You see Mr. S. (A.K.A. Gui)has life threatening seizures that we have to monitor. They don't happen often, but when they do, it's really crazy. An automatic call to 911 is required, along with serious first aid, sometimes including CPR. Not my favourite activity.

Mr. S. doesn't have seizures often, maybe once a year. However this year he's already had three (all since the time I've been working there - hopefully that's not saying anything about me).

I've only ever seen one and that was on the night of the 'Incident'. I started my post on the 'Incident' but never finished. It's a lot to bite off, chew and spew out.

Maybe I'll try. THe following si the beginning of the post I started about my Guy and the 'Incident'.

Here she goes.

My guy is Guy. Guy is the young man I worked with at the group home I worked at (well still take night shifts at once in a while). This is an account of the date above. And how my heart broke again for the first time in a long time.


It was 3:15pm as I opened the back door of the house. I noticed I was a few minutes early so I slipped into he office to check my e-mail for the day. It was Friday. Finally. I would get my only day off for the week, the 70 hour week, tomorrow.

The 15 minute walk I took from the college was very cold and it seemed unfair that the bus drivers were on strike. But they were and I had legs so ... that was that.

I quickly checked my mail and by 3:30pm was already into the staff room (which is just a third bedroom where the night staff slept, meds were kept and the rest of us congregated). I was reading through the first of 3 books I would need to catch up on with what was up. (Wouldn't take long since I was in every day).

Not two minutes after I began my reading I hear Guy enter the house. There's a brief conversation between him and a staff, then out of no where the staff yells 'Eva I need your help Guy just sexually assaulted me!'

I bolt out of the bedroom to see Guy going into his room with the staff behind him. HE slams the door and begins to cry loudly in anger and slam things around. There are three staff present in total. Myself, the co-worker that was assaulted and the staff that just returned home with Guy.

The three of us congregate in the staff office to go over what the heck just happened. A phone call is made for the PM (Program Manager - our boss). A few minutes have gone buy. Myself and the staff that just returned comment on how quiet Guy is in his room. Initially he was crying and being very loud, slamming things and such. At this point we didn't hear a thing.

I ran into Gui's room to look out the window as the other staff knocks and enters Guy's room, to see his window wide open with the screen removed. I see that Guy has climbed out of the window and onto the room and is making his way along the awning to jump down and run away. We catch his attention by yelling his name. HE stops and grins at us.

I dart out the front door and to the side of the house where he is several feet in the air climbing on the over hang on the patio. I quickly call his name, calming ask him to come down carefully so we can go into the house and talk. He begins to come downward until he sees the staff he asssaulted. HE then begins going back up. I ask the staff to return to the house and that I felt ok to handle it. I knew that her presence at that point wouldn't make him feel secure. I talked with his for a few minutes and he slowly made his way down. I allowed him to follow me into the house, until we got to the front door, when I let him go in first.

He was imediately asked to go to his room to hang out - with the door OPEN this time. HE did so without a problem. There was much discussion at that point with our manager over the phone as to what we should do.

The Program Manager (PM) decided that I should give him his PRN medication. This is generally a big deal however I had gotten the experience 2 weeks prior of giving it to him. It's a story in itself.

You see he used to get it all of the time when he was young and raged. His behaviour has improved greatly over the past 6 years and hadn't had it given to him in over a year.

Luckily (I guess) I had the experience of doing this before myself in a very similar situation. I needed gloves (so the med wouldn't get into my skin and knock me out), a cell phone (in case he acted out), and mental preparation because I knew this would take a little while.

I took a deep breath and was given by my co workers what I needed. I went in and held what I had discretely in my hand. And we talked. We actually started the talking 10 minutes before I got the med, then we continued to talk for 20 minutes before he would agree to take the med. But he eventually did take the med.

2 weeks prior when I had to go through virtually the same routine and I had gotten him to take the PRN my co worker's eye balls had almost bulged completely out fo her head. He took it peacefully, willingly and came out of his room calmly after wards. She told me she(in her 6 years of working with him) had never seen anything like it. Of course that stroked my ego (a lot) and gave me confidence the second time around.

The only thing was, the second time around was a whole different ball game and everyone knew it.

AFter he finally take the med, which once his adrenaline calms down is supposed to kick in and really relax (and at times knock) him out. At least it had 2 week before that.

Afterwards I stuck around standing just outside his bedroom door chatting with him as another staff fixed him a sandwhich (as he hadn't yet had lunch). I got out of him why he had done what he did, as well as a confession of what he indeed did do. He told me that 'she deserved it' because she was 'torturing him' and he wanted to 'teach her a lesson'.

Now I need to set the record straight. She is a fabulous staff. Probably the strongest one on our team. She has become a close friend of mine as well. She in no way was torturing him, but in his mind her specifically asking him to do something (like leaving his overnight bag in the staff office due to the fact there were his meds in it for the weekend visit he was soon to be picked up for). He has a history with her. Memories of her being there when he used to rage as a child, of when things weren't so smooth.

Anyways I talked with Guy for another 30 minutes. Everything was very calm however I knew something was 'off'. He wasn't right. He began to fixate on the door. He was calmly anger at the other staff, whom I had to ask to leave the area as I did not feel she was safe, even though he was quitely talking to me in his room.

At this point during hte incident the third staff who had been with Guy all afternoon, had left (as things seemed calm), the other staff was outside the front door making phone calls to both Guy's mother (who was supposed to be on her way to pick him up anyways for the weekend), and our PM (boss). She was making sure everyone was up to speed. Oh yes, Gui (A.K.A. Mr.S.) was in the gated living room for his own safety.

During the 30 inutes after giving Guy his med I discretely called my co worker on the house's cell phone I had in my pocket. I feared he was going to escalate. As I said before, he wasn't himself.

He told me that he wanted to run to the door and distract his mother before she heard what happen. He was literally preparing to run. He also spoke of how he could out smart the police as well and how they wouldn't be able to catch him. He also said that he knew that his mother, if she found out, would come into his room and yell at him about what he did and call him nothing but 'a little retard'.

All the while I continued to talk with him, update my co worker, and wait. His mother was running late as usual. Of all days, this didn't seem to be the one to have her be late on. But she was (an hour late).

When she finally arrived my co worker was outside briefing her on the events of the afternoon, telling her that she really needed to go in and approach him with love and care.

Unfortunately that idea turned into a pipe dream because it wasn't love we saw ...

To be continued another day ...