Talking About a Job

Before Sharon came to us she had been working at a recycling center as a sorter. Well, I emphasize HAD because she started to have a problem with her foot/ankle and the moment she said she had discomfort my mother-in-law pulled her from the job. It turned out to be a fortuitous move since my mother-in-law needed Sharon to do pretty much everything for them both in the apartment right before she passed (cleaning, shopping, cooking, etc). Sharon was more than happy to do so.

So once Sharon started settling in here, we started talking to her about work. What kind of work do you want to do here in Illinois? She said that she liked doing the recycling work because it kept her moving. BUT she didn't think she wanted to work in recycling in Illinois because the job she had in California was pretty much outside (under cover, but not temperature controlled) and she didn't think that was a good thing. She decided she did want a job that kept her active though. Great!

Since she wasn't going to be able to get work directly through Pioneer Center because they have been downsized in grants, it was suggested to us that we meet with Department of Rehabilitation in Elgin (which I have mentioned before - Jospehine - we LOVE her). So Sharon became eligible for the work program through her office. Yeah! Josephine was quite thorough in asking Sharon questions about her likes and dislikes related to work environment. Sharon actually has quite a good job background with some very diverse skills that make her very marketable for an employee with disabilities. We weren't anticipating too many hang-ups with the job placement.

Unfortunately, the job placement still falls under government and that translates into SLOW. We are now into the month of April and we are awaiting a call from the job that she has been told that she is going to be getting working for a garden center. She is excited and we are too! I'm a little concerned about her standing on that foot for 4 hours a day/4 days a week, but I have had her continue doing her stretching and exercising of the foot that she was doing in physical therapy (a topic for another day). We can only hope that our persistence in making her do the exercises will help her to handle the strain on her limb.

Sharon tried to tell me yesterday that her foot isn't hurting anymore so it is all better. I had her move it around like the physical therapist had to see that she does not come anywhere near the mobility that she is supposed to have. I said, you may not have the pain now, but you don't have the mobility (or the ability to move it) that you should. I asked her how long she thinks she might be standing on her foot when she starts working in the garden center. She gave me a blank look. I said, you are working for 4 hours each day, right? Right. So how many hours do you think you might be standing? Sharon, there is an excellent chance that you will be standing all of those 4 hours. If you stop stretching and exercising now, how do you think your foot/ankle might feel when you start working? Not good, said Sharon. That is definitely a possibility, I said. And Sharon, I said, if your foot starts hurting...will we be letting you quit work? Uh, no...she wisely said. That's right, I said...you won't be quitting work. So what do you think you should do? Sharon replied, keep stretching and exercising my foot so it keeps getting better. Riiiight. Good thinking.

It gets tiring. We know she is developmentally disabled, but we also know that she has fantastic recall (seriously fantastic recall) for many things and we have a hard time being patient when we have to have conversations like this. Why? Because it is a guessing game...is she really not understanding of her situation or is she playing the game because she doesn't want to exercise anymore (which she has admitted to both...not wanting to exercise anymore AND she has admitted to using her disability to get away with not doing something she doesn't want to do or purposefully not remember). Very tiring.