Biographical Non-Fiction posted September 20, 2024 | Chapters: | ...5 6 -7- 8... |
No working phones
A chapter in the book Danger is my business
Incommunicado
by Liz O'Neill
Background Part of my brother's ocd his related to his needing use phones the are charged up. We went around town looking for a working phone for him, and even now I find out that phone didn't have any kind of a |
Ladies and gentlemen, you have an ideal seat to watch as every incredible documented event unfolds before our very eyes. You may remember I thought my brother had slipped back into his recovery stages of four and five. That would be behavior of violence and inappropriateness.
Not so. I'm so happy to know that he is fine. Mike is not back in stage four and five. He is in his regular stages of life. What was happening was his former caretaker was baiting him so we thought there was something wrong with his psyche stability. She was baiting him to get him to act out.
She would even send him to the psych ward to spend a couple of hours. Once again with that activity, it seemed something was wrong with him. She was baiting him to react in anger and frustration which would be a normal reaction. It had nothing to do with stage 4 and five.
One of the times she sent him to the psych ward she locked him out of his house. I guess it was so disruptive outside his house the neighbors were there. There was a police car and a fire truck. The fireman put a ladder up against the kitchen window and took the screen out and he was able to get inside. At the same time, the neighbors called an ambulance. She was sadly carried out on a gurney, shuffled into the ambulance, and taken to the psych ward. The door was opened so my brother could get inside.
I may have already stated this earlier or in another chapter but she was an untreated schizophrenic. She had decided maybe four months ago to stop taking her medication and she grew sicker and sicker and more paranoid until it came to a head that night.
When they went inside there was evidence of schizophrenia. She had taken everything in the old freezer, refrigerator and put it in foul-smelling garbage bags and left them in the dining room where there were about 40 bags. My nephew took about 10 of them out and then little by little Mike has been taking more out. There are about four left and maybe by the time of this writing they will all be gone.
One of my friends whom I mentored, when she was very young at the women's shelter got in touch with me the last couple of years to mentor her. She's become my mentor. It's fun to have someone give you back what you gifted when you advised another. She cleans places up on the mountain so she's become a professional cleaner.
Mike said, "She only lives a half hour away. " That was perfect for her to be able to come to his house and do some cleaning. There were two targets to be attacked. One was the sink where she stuffed all the silverware, glasses, and cups and I don't know what else. The other sink had numerous empty drink bottles in it. Mike cleared all that out. There was still other stuff in that sink. I wanted my friend Janet to come work on the sink stuff. The primary mess was what she left at the base of Mike's bed.
His caregiver dumped everything from the kitchen and dining room into Mike's bedroom right at the base of his bed. That needs to be sorted to get the cereal refuse out of the room. We do have a new group called Ava's Home Care, Mike discovered. I'll let you know how it goes. We've also just been contacted by Vermont Nurse' Association. It's all very exciting.
The most insane aspect of the last three days when I went up to Mike's and I take responsibility for the faux pas. I thought I had charged my cell phone. I plugged the charger into the cell phone but did not plug it into the wall So when I got up to my brother's hoping I had a working phone I found my phone was not charged. His caretaker of 15 some odd years tore the landline out of the wall and we later found out canceled his cell phone account.
We went to Walmart to get a phone so we'd have a working phone. I can't believe they sent him out of there with a non-working phone. They gave him a little card and told him to have his neighbors call the number and then put in some code. The neighbors had no idea what they were supposed to be doing. We went to bed that night without a working phone and I resolved that we would do something about it tomorrow.
The following day we were driving around and I said, "I know, we're going to go to some place with generous people. We went to the local Catholic Church. However, sadly no one there knew how to do anything with phones plus it was very confusing with the minuscule directions they had on the card. The kind people directed us down the hill to the Mental Health Agency.
That worked out perfectly since my brother has been one of their patience. I believe the universe was shining on me because when we got in there, the fellow who was going to be helping us was from IT. He knew all about phones.
He was able to make contact with the phone company and slowly set up a working phone for him. That night we had a working phone and I said tomorrow we will go to AT&T and you will get a regular phone that you have an account for. That's when we found out that his caretaker had disconnected or discontinued his account. The assistant who was helping us with a phone for Mike, was very sensitive to his situation.
She realized he had tremors and he would need a special phone, Never a phone like mine. I've had people little by little giving me some clues of how to use my phone. I rue the day my brother would have to use my phone. He would be able to flip up and you could see the numbers and type them out. Nothing is simple. She Cloie said, "Oh we don't have any of those phones here, but you can go to Walmart and get one, bring it back here and I will set up a plan for him." She had the charger all set for him. So we went to Walmart for about the third time. We were very happy to walk out with a phone that we knew was going to be a working phone.
Post Number 300 A Milestone Post |
I feel a bit out of character writing this but I want people to know the struggles my brother has had made a little bit worse by his OCD and his ADD.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. You need to login or register to write reviews. It's quick! We only ask four questions to new members.
© Copyright 2024. Liz O'Neill All rights reserved.
Liz O'Neill has granted FanStory.com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.