Lorri B.

People, in general, are born with specific qualities and gifts that, once found and expounded upon, open up a whole new universe of delight, joy, education, and fellowship. Over time, I discovered I was naturally gifted in being creative in the kitchen (via family/friends special diet needs), writing/journaling, and caregiving in all aspects of the word. My background in detailed administrative work, along with sign language, has allowed these two factors to interchange with each of my gifts, especially in communicating with family, powers-of-attorney, and the main person(s) I care for in any setting. My innate love to research and teach has proven to be very useful when I need to be well-versed on the subject at hand and document wherein necessary to show a pattern of improvement or lack thereof. From a caregiver perspective of personal achievement, three come to mind. FIRST, when my son became a Type 1 diabetic, we were able to allow him 1.5 years honeymoon stage on absolutely no insulin through a raw foods diet w/researched supplements. SECOND, I taught basic sign language commands to a three-generational family whose family member had ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), giving them all one year's worth of communication. THIRD, fire season brought two evacuations, two-weeks apart, back-to-back, which meant loading the five P's into the car, including a 95-year old disabled woman on 24/7 oxygen, with dementia, her adult cat in a crate with all his needs, and myself, driving to a nearby hotel/shelter without access to a handicapped or pet-equipped room for two days before returning (to our unscathed) home. Caregiving is a challenge in its own right. Having experienced grandparents and loving on elderly friends growing up, along with becoming a parent, too, certainly are perks. But of all the things I wanted to be when I grew up, a homemaker was one of the highlights for me, and caregiving falls in line with being a homemaker.

I became a caregiver because of a unique opprotunity to take the nursing assistant course for free with the chance to be hired on by the company afterwards. I've always liked interacting with people and been good at sales but sales wasn't what I liked doing. The idea of selling something I don't want never appiesed me, however I found that my sales experience came in handy being a cna because then I could get the residents to agree to the care they needed. That felt rewarding for me because something positive came from it rather then another piece of product in someones home. I'm very proud of the fact that I was able to step into this field with no prior experience and do well. Well enough even to turn the facilities second state inspection around to a passing grade. I enjoy working as much as I do being at home with my family and am always willing to put in extra time when asked.