TGIF (aka counting the days)

This has been a busy, crazy post-holiday week. I'm so happy it's over. I'm adjusting to my new home at work by floating. I have equipment that allows me to work all over the Hotel, so I'm taking advantage of it.

The volunteers are nice, but the real dust-stirrers this week are the construction guys, but thankfully, the dust is contained. They are drilling stuff in our building (which is also being repaired for settling). If you didn't have a headache when you got to work, you might have one when you leave.

Bubba decided to give me a headache. He got in trouble. I got a call from the principal and now he'll be on in-school suspension for two days. He opens his mouth and inserts foot a lot. He is very filterless sometimes, and the think it-close the mouth-let it go mode doesn't always work with him. He is also not yet the master of the double entendre. I am baffled why my child has to be punny at school when the education system has zero tolerance for anything.

It's not as easy as when I was a kid. If you said the wrong thing, the nun (or other teacher) gave you the dope slap.

You never did it again.

So happy it's the weekend! Hope you enjoy wherever you may be!

Harbinger of things to come?

Sunday started with a migraine, which did not go away. It just subsided here and there until the migraine drugs came out (thankfully, no nausea and vomiting!)

Went over by the Hotel and saw one of my coworkers, F., getting ready for the night shift. Long discussion. Had to cut it short to do what I had to do and get two friends to bring home for Dahey and Bubba.

Those friends: Ben & Jerry. Yes, we ran out of ice cream (found this out yesterday) and you would have thought the world would indeed end.

But alas, as I'm leaving I saw it. The harvest moon. 

I hope F. has a really boring night.

That is all. Stay tuned...the night (and the week) is young.

The crazy week continues

Snippets of my day:

1. Overheard while the tech support guy was in my office: "Really? It was on fire?" Medical equipment and fires just don't mix. It's especially troubling when it catches on fire due to the electrical outlet.

2. The headache from Hades. Was it pollen, sunlight, #1 or the storm front moving through? Not sure at all. Thank goodness for migraine meds!

3. In my role as nurse volunteer for a conference, I got to grade a selection of the poster and paper submissions.

I swear I graded one by some of the folks from Saintarama Rehab. It's blinded, but I do know they are from my neck of the woods. I hope I can stay long enough to see their poster (if the other folks accept it too).

BTW I thought it was pretty good. Would love to implement the same thing at the Hotel. Communication and keeping people from falling is a very good thing.

I need a t-shirt that says

"I survived jury duty". I did. I did. I did.

What did I miss in the years I did not get called and picked to serve on a jury? Not much.

A few things I learned though, were very important.

1. Don't let your lawyer clown it up on the opening arguments. He/she should be reasonable and convincing, but bouncing binders in front of the jury to get their attention is not the way to do that. It gave me a headache.

2. Tell the truth. Or at least be expected to use the same story over and over. You know that oath "thingy"? Yes, it applies to you.

3. Related to #2, never swear that you never use the phone. There are records.

4. Don't hire one of your own employees to serve as your "expert witness". It is a little thing called conflict of interest for him/her to participate.

5. Don't repeatedly say your client knows nothing about business, because he/she has been at it for a few years...like 40. Despite everything, the business is solvent, so who's at the wheel?

6. Always be explicit. Some folks, for whom English is a second language, may not understand things that are implied, especially in e-mails.

7. Don't use easels to display e-mail quotes that you've circulated ad nauseum in the courtroom. I got tired of looking at your not-so-hot quotes on foam board.

And finally, one of the most important things I learned from jury duty:

Take every moment you can to enjoy a moment outside in the sunshine. You will never get enough of those. Criminals and crazy relatives tend to stick around, but sunshine doesn't, so enjoy it while you can.

More to come...

Sometimes Google sleuthing pays off

When you run into an article like this that helps solve your problems. Thanks Dr. Foster!

That and an order for some seasickness pills cured most everything.

More to come...

The joys of sinus headaches

And yes, indeed, I do have a doozy, since the cold remainders are still hanging out in my upper respiratory system and sinuses. Laughing (or breathing just right) leads to coughing which leads to rattling the remaining junk...ugh!

Too many things to do today, so it's gotta go away.

Stay tuned...

Sometimes

I wonder about my faith in humanity when I see the world around me. Idiots and criminals get me rattled.

But today, I have flashbacks to my former lives.

JJ, one of our tech folks, took good care of one of my doctors, when her laptop when crazy.

His cohort, who made various sexist remarks when I brought the laptop over yesterday, had me wishing I had a beer bottle. (One, to drink and two, to smash over his head for his callousness.) Too bad it's verboten on our property and two, I'd have a hard time justifying giving him a beer bottle headache.

All in all, after a nice chat with my new manager, I think the Hotel may get where we need it to be.

Cross your fingers (toes, and other appendages) because I will be too.

More later.

Headaches...literal and figurative

Woke up again to a stuffed up nose and clogged ears, which by the time I get upright equals a headache.

'Tis summertime again in RehabLand and all the pollen's come out to play.

Will resume normal postings  as  soon as my head cooperates...

Can I just have one more thing?

One more thing to give me a headache
My sick brother repeating over and over and over that he wants to come home every time I go visit.  I need a Tylenol stat, please, with a coffee chaser!

One more thing to make my feet hurt
Dodging wheelchairs and dodging the wheel that fell off a guy's wheelchair as I was walking out the door today. We got it back on (with some assistance from two bystanders). Oh, "that's where that screw came from!" Mr. X assured me that the screw would be put in at home, since he knew exactly where it was.

One more thing that makes me go "Hmm..."
Why, oh why, do the docs tell Patient X, he/she can be up "as tolerated" and never bother to write the order? I document it over and over and over again, in my notes, of course, but my colleagues on other shifts don't really believe it if they don't see an order. And the way some of our docs act some days, it doesn't surprise me.

One more office visit for Bubba's strep throat...
And I will have spent over $100 for treatment and visits. Now if they made the kids' copay like last year, the antibiotic would have been the most expensive thing lately. Nothing like cost sharing. Note to self: save more in flexible spending account next year!

One more this...
And one more that. I'm not a big lemon fan, but these are the bomb as J. one of our nurses says. The ginger ones aren't bad, either.

And finally, one more that...
A nice cool glass of limeade, and I'm off to bed.

Stay tuned. Something's always happening around the Hotel...