Case Manager to Client

As a professionally educated person, it's hard to see myself with a chronic illness.  I have four degree's and have worked both as a teacher and a case manager.  Then, a vacation of a lifetime ended up leaving work with a bang.   I was once the person who was entering families homes, documenting the area, the personality and the appearance of the person and how I am the one who is having my care team enter my home, having hard discussions than leaving to write pages of documentation about the visit.  It is weird.  There is no other word to describe it.  What are they thinking of me?  Every move I make is being documented on.  The appearance of my house, the various pieces of my world are out on display.   If the dishes are washed, the food scraps on the table and how my clothes look are a snapshot of their records. 

We shouldn't feel judged, as as the client but we do.   We dissolve our lives into the care team, and in return they try to make plans that work for us.  They assist us is various facets and capacities to try to give us a 'normal' life, being able to socialize and stay safe and healthy.  But in the end, what is left is us, feeling violated and judged. 

When you enter a clients territory remember, this is the clients home and space.  The space you are attempting to create safer is the place they need to stare at every moment of the day, and remember the time they were told they could never go down the stairs anymore.  The time the grab bars were installed, the platform lift quoted on and the time the garden needed to become a space for the walker to sit. 

When people look at me, they believe I'm a typical person.  When I tell them I cannot understand their forms, needing assistance to read, and then when writing backwards and upside down their impressions change.  They automatically start speaking extremely slowly and loudly like the tone of their voice will assist in me reading and comprehending.   Then when I tell them my education and the brain injury their looks of concern become helpless.

Remember, my followers, we were once EDUCATED PROFESSIONALS who have lived unfortunate circumstances.  But we will get through this too.