Visits with bigwigs

Today was one of those two day visits. In theory, everything is clean and shiny, but it wasn't. The big shots got in before the housekeepers started mopping up the big dried coffee stain in the lobby.

I was fortunate to stumble upon the visitors as I was leaving my office to go to the restroom down the hall. Since I am well acquainted with one of them, I escorted them to the meeting room. They were thrilled with the coffee and pastries.

As luck would have it, I was scheduled in not one but three meetings. Since they ran over, I excused myself from the second one, so I could escape and do some work. Since the Slug needed someone to impress and was being a total toad, it was really for his/her own safety (and the safety of my license) that I left.

When I went back to my desk, I kept making phone calls. I called several patients and checked on orders for equipment. It was fun to get away.

Finally, the visitors had had enough in the last meeting and we finished by 5PM, over an hour past my usual. I was so glad to go home.

More excitement is coming...stay tuned.

I'm glad they're not my bosses

When you come out of a meeting and want to scream, it's not always good.

When people come to a meeting with an agenda on their yearly visit, it's always interesting. Either, I'm getting better at it, or the inspectors are becoming more transparent.

Needless to say, when they complain about things that are absolutely crazy, my lack of poker face showed.

So glad MY boss wasn't there at that meeting.

More to come.

Vacation: the inevitable

It's not close, but vacation will end. I know it. I still have a ton of things to do. Even if I were off for a month, I'm sure I'd harbor some regret for what didn't get done around the house, but I'm doing my best.

I continue to work on getting the outdoor work done: packing up yard waste for pickup, cutting down and mowing stuff. I haven't mowed in years, and yes, I have the mosquito bites to prove it (despite everything, they love me).

Bubba decided he really didn't want to go to the CityPark pool again with camp, so since he crashed into another kid yesterday and got a huge bump on his head, I decided to keep him home. The camp  forced me: they called in panic mode yesterday and made me pick him up. It worked out well that I told Dahey where I was going, because they called him at work when I didn't answer and he had to find me at the movie theatre where I was trying to be a grown up and watching a grown up movie (Amy, the documentary on Amy Winehouse). Luckily, there weren't too many other folks around (and I was able to get a voucher to come again).

Since Bubba was on sick leave, and I'm on vacation, we went on a placid stroll in town at the gardens, then we went to lunch and had cupcakes. He even went to a local house featured on Ghost Adventures. Thankfully, he was sufficiently scared by some of the stuff he saw for sale in the gift shop, that we won't be going back.

Now, I just have to take him to a boy movie (Ant Man) instead of Dahey. We're going to an interesting old theatre, and this time, I'll make sure to leave the phone on vibrate, just in case.

Stay tuned.

The weekend is here again

Next week is a short one. Dahey returns from his travels. We have a holiday.

Can you say stress? RehabRN hits the road to visit patients in their homes (I occasionally see patients with our super home care team) all by myself. Yes, I'm going in a company car and I'm a nervous wreck. I have to get to the farthest patient first, see the next one (who can be a curmudgeon) and see if I can get the last one in before that day is over, so I don't have to go through the "request a company car" thing all over again.

I admire all of you in home care who do 5-6 visits per day. I don't know how you do it.

However, it's now Friday night. I am off this weekend, which makes me incredibly happy. I'm not going to be stressed about getting ready. I'm just going to do what I can with what I have.

Hope you have a happy weekend too, wherever you are.

Dear paranoid relative

Thank you for travelling across the country, stopping in three different airports. It must have been not just physically, but mentally taxing.

Coming to our house was probably better than roaming around the airport. Yes, I did actually clean your room just before you arrived. I washed the linens that very day, so you'd have the fresh ones. (I also did this because I couldn't find the other ones I normally use, and decided these were good enough for your once a decade visits).

However, when you panic when we are out and about, on every choice of public restroom, I want to throttle you. Throttling a 50-something year old person in public is still not common here in RehabLand, unless you threw a punch at Dahey or said something obnoxious to me or the other ladies in the crowd.

That is all. The secret to life in a public restroom is wash your hands and use a paper towel to open the door. Pure and simple.

Hope you remember this the next time you visit and we take you out on the town.

Sincerely ('cause I'd hate to throttle you in public),

RehabRN

The joys of spring

Yes, RehabLand is warming up for the moment. The neighbor's daffodils are up and looking bright. I'm going to be trapped inside, since I got invited back to MegaConference nursing section. I'm not going to lie: I was a second string presenter, but since they found a bigger room, they decided to invite me. This year, MegaConference is not far away and Dahey can visit lots of friends and relatives. It was a no-brainer.

Bubba had fun on his spring break. I don't think he'll like going back to school, but it will be over soon enough. Getting a kid to do homework when the weather is nice is challenging.

Dahey finally got a new (used) car. Hallelujah! I'm just hoping this former grandma mobile can handle him driving it all over the place.

So I'm going to stop for now. Thank goodness we have a printing group who works on short notice (and mine is very nice). I'm going to be busy doing my homework this weekend.

More to come...

Another week on the way...

Thank goodness the big visit came and went. The team that showed up loves the work we do. Some things need improvement, but we already knew that. My boss was happy I was around to answer questions.

We just hope they can convince the Manglement to keep their word as promised a while ago. They all showed up en masse in our building for the big wrap up meeting.

Because the day of reckoning for that will come soon enough.

Back to our regularly scheduled program, with a dash of rain.

Yes, it's coming!

Whatever you want to call this month's full moon, it's here.I should have known it when I got to work and my day started off smoothly.

The rest of it, got wild and crazy.

First, I got a lot of strange requests, and those were just from the people who came to my door. We had orientation in our conference room, so we always have those lost souls looking for the conference room.

Next, our doc had his clinic in the SU. One of his characters, after a procedure, decided to sit outside my office and say, "I don't feel so hot. Can you get me some candy?" He thought his blood sugar was low so one of the nurses took his blood sugar, then another got him candy. He bounced up, and our clinic RN checked him out.

Why didn't I do this? I was managing a few other fires:

1. A meeting for one of our patients was abruptly cancelled when one of the interdisciplinary team members didn't show up for work. No one knew until the last minute. It's always a joy rearranging schedules for people eight hours driving distance from you who won't answer phone or e-mail messages before you leave.

2. Another patient thought he had an appointment, while our sugar guy lounged on the chairs in the lobby. Nope, I told the therapist, I'll have to talk to him later.

3. Finally, a few minutes later, when I thought all was finally quieted down, I had to take a family over to another unit, because they were picking up a discharged family member. They had just driven in from far away and their relative was wondering if they ditched him because they ended up in our end of the Hotel, instead of his.

All went well after that. One of the nurses I know from one of our other clinics came to see me. We had a nice chat and I showed her all the stuff. She enjoyed it.

I was so happy to leave. Now I just have to wait for the full moon to be over...more to come!

Misspent vacation day #23

1. Go rounding up your own medical records for a specialty appointment later this summer. Now do you understand why I like linked, interactive electronic health records? Time spent: 1 hour and 30 minutes. I had to fill out one hospital authorization, wait for one CD of images, and go to two physician offices which were, of course, each on the different sides of the campus.

Thankfully, one doc was near where I parked the car.

2. Dig through garage to find bike that husband has lovingly piled the dining room baseboard on top of in the pile. Get bike to gas station and only one tire inflates. Other tire zero.

Time to take old reliable bicycle to the shop.

Outside of the fun administrative details, I did get to see Giacomo again. Haven't been around his parts since Spring Break with Bubba. He's heading for the hills for two weeks soon but has to come back on weekends since he can't get anyone to work for him. Such is the life of those spiritual leaders, except this one.

I also got to have lunch with my old right side seat mate from nursing school. Yes, we sat way up in the front row and had a grand old time with all the instructors. I miss being around her. She is so darned funny. Reminds me of one of my very best friends. One of these days, the two of them will have to meet.

Now I'm off to my regularly scheduled rendezvous with Bubba. Joy! Any day away from work is fun!

Stay tuned...

And some thing I forgot....

If you're due to get your annual or infrequent cancer screenings, whether they are mammograms, colonoscopies, or your visit to your favorite dermatologist, please go!

I don't care who you are, what your name is, you need to GO, as recommended, based on your own personal history.

Too many people I know have had those big CA diagnoses this year, and some of them are not pretty.

That is all...stay tuned!

Fritterin' the day away

I had an enormous task today: entertain Bubba and keep him out of trouble on his spring break.

Our task list:

1. Eat breakfast at McDonalds early in the AM. No kids were on any of the Playland equipment. Run, dance and sing in there with reckless abandon. Why not?

2. Go on errands with Mom, which included checking out all the spice blends and providing commentary for other customers: "Oh! Mom, this Greek one sounds interesting." as he read the information on the shelf.

3. Visit the library AND the bookstore. We went out of the way to a different library, so this was a fun diversion. The bookstore moved some of his favorite books, so we went searching for them, and he's been reading it all day.

4. Go to lunch with Mom, don't order anything, but eat about half of her lunch. "Wow, salmon is pretty good."

5. Visit relatives who also happen to be off. Fun times when your retired great aunt gives you the remote control and you watch every cartoon you can.

I enjoyed that, because I could talk without interruption.

6. Come home and help Mom make dinner and dessert.

I didn't do all the things I wanted today (or this weekend), but I did do one thing. I had fun with my family.

Stay tuned...