What Gives with the Pool?

Yesterday I came home to one heck of a cloudy pool. When I left Thursday afternoon the chlorine was registering at almost 4. When I tested after getting back, 24hrs later, it was so low it was barely registering. I figured the pucks ran out in the chlorinator so I went to open it. The handle broke off. When I finally pried it open it was in fact empty. That means I'm going through about 12 pucks a week. That seems a little crazy, no? It felt like it shouldn't take that much muscle to open the lid....I'd rammed my hand into the shelf above from the force (yes the pump was off). I took it to P_____Pools and since I was already going there I also brought a water sample with me. Water came back perfect, except for chlorine. It was at less than 1. Apparently I'm supposed to shock once a week? But we only started swimming in it a couple days ago? How can it possibly need that much shocking? As for the lid, the lady in parts said I need to check the model as it may be out of date and parts not available. I may need a new chlorinator. How much? I wanted to know. $80.00 plus the call out to rip out the old one and put in the new. That's $135.00 I think. There was no way I was doing that right now. I picked up a floating chlorine dispenser for $10 and went home. We swam in the pool even though we weren't supposed to with the chlorine so low. I shocked last night with 10L of chlorine (which is what I've been told to use). This morning it's clear again, but chlorine is once again off the charts. It's like a bloody yo-yo. Also, every morning there's sand along the seams of the pool. I don't know where it's coming from. I vacuum every day and it's still dirty within 24 hours, regardless of if anyone swims. Pump started to surge again today and I hauled out the hose, even though the water has only dropped at maximum an inch. Not sure why it's still dropping either. I've fixed the two holes that I know about and those patches seem to be holding up fine since I checked them yesterday while I was swimming. Either there's more of them or that vacuum line is in fact leaking. Right now guests are minutes away, it's raining and we're all supposed to go swimming. Sounds like great fun in an un-heated pool...