Getting Up to Speed ~ Bite Me!

This has been a time of many changes ~ most of them coming faster than expected.

But first let me bring you up to speed.

I lost my job in early July. Actually it was a blessing. I did not like working where I was working. It was a great challenge working with mentally and physically disabled adults.

When I first started the job, I was working at a group home that had 5 young adult women. While it wasn't what I would have considered my idea of a great job, it wasn't all that bad.

Sure, I hated working second shift. But the girls were nice. And that was the first job that I had where I got fed, where I could watch TV (that's if TV really mattered much to me), and where I could work on my craft projects when all the girls were in bed.

However, there were some challenging moments with one girl in particular. There would be times when she would go off, become violent, throw furniture around, and generally trash the house.

One night, during such an episode, she bit me after an attempt to restrain her failed.

And it was quite the bite.


The bruise was so black that people thought, at first, it was a tattoo.

While I was doing well at that house, it was becoming very obvious that the biter girl was targeting me. As such, the agency transferred me to another house at another location.

That house had 5 young adult males. There was one guy in particular that I was assigned to as his "one-on-one." The fellow had a multiple seizure disorder, severe brain damage, autism, mental retardation, and other related issues. Whenever he was awake, he had to wear a soft helmet for protection.

We always had to be prepared for head drop seizures. They could occur at any time. And there could be more than one.

Whenever I was with this young man, I had to carry a strong magnet with me. The fellow had a vagus nerve stimulator implanted in his chest. And whenever he had a head drop seizure, I had to swipe that magnet over the left side of his chest until his body relaxed from the seizure.

Dealing with that wasn't a problem. What was a problem with me was bathing the male residents and dealing with their many and very frequent toilet accidents.

Toilet accidents were not an issue that I had to deal with much when working with the girls. However, it was a different story with the guys.

Anyhow working with the guys had made the job so much more unpleasant for me. In addition to that, the commute was much longer. And it was stressing me out SO much that I was actually getting scared of driving.

I became so scared of driving that I was afraid that when taking an exit or getting onto an on-ramp, I was going to lose control, the wheels were going to snap off the pavement, and my car was going to flip over. Ariana was afraid to ride with me because my new fear of driving was affecting how I drove.

Anyhow, just as there was a biter (or two) at the girls' house, there were a couple of biters at this new house. Fortunately they did not act out anywhere as often as the biter girl did.

Still there was one fellow who bit me twice. At least this time I was in a better position to defend myself. As such, the bites were minor and inconsequential.

It was ultimately this fellow who had cost me my job.

One day in particular he was very agitated and was displaying antecedent behavior.

I had come in that afternoon. My one-on-one fellow was taking a nap in bed. That was good for me for it meant that I would not have to stick to him like Velcro, especially since he liked to wander around.

The biter fellow went into his room and woke him up. Then the fellow tried to attack me. And as he was poised to bite me, I said, "Don't you dare bite me!" His mother was right behind him. And she did not like the way I spoke to him.

Honestly, how was I supposed to speak to someone in the midst of attacking me?

Anyhow, the mother proceeded to dress me down. However, while that was going on, I was getting very concerned about my one-on-one fellow.

Because biter boy had woken him up, my fellow was going to be getting out of bed. And because my fellow did not like to wear his helmet, I had to hurry and make sure he did. After all, if he had a head drop seizure without wearing his helmet and had gotten injured, my ass would have been on the line.

Biter boy's mother did not like it one bit when I had to excuse myself from her dressing me down.

And after safely fetching my guy from his room, I saw that my supervisor was in biter boy's room, talking to his parents. She was there easily for an hour, most of that time being spent telling the parents that I was actually a good worker who took great interest in their son.

(I would like to add at this point that biter boy's parents were wealthy people who sunk a lot of money into the house. They were also people who felt entitled to have the rules bent for them. When I first started working at that house, both my supervisor and the rest of the staff warned me about these people.)

Later that night, biter boy's father snuck into the house without announcing himself. (Because this house did not have the elopement issues that the girls' house did, the staff did not generally keep the door locked until late at night.)

After visiting with his son and just before leaving the house, the father stopped by the living room and said to me three times, "You will not yell at my son."

(For the record, I did not yell at him and did not talk to him any louder than any other staff member would have in the same situation. In fact, there was one staff member ~ who was "employee of the month" ~ who actually did yell at biter boy when he acted up.)

Then the father proceeded to threaten to report me and file a complaint.

And that he did.

It wasn't too long before I found out that the parents filed a complaint against me with the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, accusing me of verbal abuse against their son.

(Did I remember to say that biter boy was spoiled by his parents?)

And right on the heels of that complaint, I was informed by the agency that I was put on a 10-day administrative leave. Basically, I was suspended for 10 days with pay. And I was subjected to an investigation by DPPC.

After the 10 days was up, my suspension went into a no-pay suspension.

And after 30 days, when DPPC still had not rendered a decision, the agency exercised its policy by terminating me so that it could fill my position in order to maintain continuity of the service it provided its "consumers." (That's what they called the group home residents.)

It was unfortunate that I lost my job. As much as I disliked it, and as much as it stressed me out considerably, I still gave it my best shot. I honestly did care for the people I served. Also, the job provided my family with the health insurance that we needed.

However, I was rather happy to be rid of that job. At least this time it was the company ditching me instead of me ditching the company.

In no time whatsoever, my fear of driving disappeared. My stress level diminished greatly.

I was able to reclaim my life.

And it's going to be a loooooong time before I work in the human service field again.