First is my health. I saw the neurologist and he was happy with the Depakote results. He says to keep taking it and we'll check back in 6 months. At this point, I'm fairly sure I have a long term solution to my migraines as I still haven't had one. Oh, I still get headaches and some really bad ones, occasionally I'll get some light sensitivity and even rarer some sound sensitivity. But it's never the combination of symptoms that equates out to a migraine and has never included that confused, "can't think straight" feeling. So screw the weight gain, I now take Depakote every night and am happy to swallow two of those fucking horse pills (seriously, they're huge!).
The shoulder is... well, it's ongoing. Physical Therapy seems to actually be gaining some traction. I've gained some range of motion mainly in front and out to the side, but it's still limited and it's still very limited to my back. To their credit, the physical therapists aren't giving up. They've tried all manner of exercises and stretching. They've tried tape like you see on athletes. They've even tried some cupping like you saw on the athletes in the recent Olympics. I saw the orthopedic specialist again and he wanted me to continue with PT for another few weeks and then check on me in a month or so. I'll see him again just after Christmas. I'll even see my regular doc around that same time.
The dental portion was a real pain. I had the temporary crown on my back upper molar and unlike the previous temporary crown, this one felt distinctly fake. I endured it's obvious fakeness and just a few days ago went in to get the long term crown put on... and OH MY FUCKING GOD DID IT HURT! When they pulled the temporary crown off it hurt with just some air blown on it. I guess they need it really dry to permanently adhere the long term crown and needed to apply a chemical to help dry it and that's where the pain got really bad. Too bad to endure. So instead of a quick procedure, I had to be numbed up.
But it's in there. I'm halfway between cleanings, so it feels all silky smooth where all the other teeth feel icky, but it's not bad. I'm sure just like last time, the swelling around the gums will go down in a few more days and it will be fine. Hopefully UNLIKE last time it won't need a root canal in 6 months!
The job.
Yeah, I'm now a nursing supervisor. This job is so radically different than my previous job in the clinic. In my previous job I was exactly what you'd think... I was a nurse providing care to my patients. Yes, sometimes it was tedious care like giving 20-30 guys their nightly insulin shots, but it was still care. Well here a month later and I haven't given anybody any direct care. Instead I'm doing reports, and checking in with my the nurses under my supervision, and making up the schedule and working on the vacation book and.... on and on and on. I don't really finish up any of my days... I just leave when its the end of the day and continue on with what I was doing in the morning.
Yesterday I went out to the two nurses stations to check in and do my signatures on the paperwork I have to sign daily. That took about 20 minutes. When I got down to my office... yeah, the cell that is my office... I checked my email. Checking my email and dealing with them lasted 7 hours.
7 FUCKING GOD DAMN MIND NUMBING SOUL CRUSHING DEALING WITH BITCHY NURSES HOURS!!!!!
(sigh)
Okay, it wasn't all that bad, but seriously I never got on to any other task. It's vacation time and all the nurses have to put in their requests for all of 2019. This process is entirely new, is designed to take 2 months, we're stuffing it into 2 weeks, and nobody 'gets' the process except me. I even have the other supervisors calling me with questions on it. So all day, it was catching up to those requests, processing those requests, sending emails out to people who had done it wrong, later getting their responses and then dealing with it... on and on and on. And I'm not done. I didn't catch up. I just left when my vision was getting so blurry that I was honestly having difficulty seeing the damned screen.
I do get to dress up in a nice shirt, tie, and slacks every day. And while I look better than when I wear scrubs (which just looks like I'm wearing ill fitting pajamas), it feels strange to not be immediately identified as a medical provider. I say mp because most of my patients (remember, my patients are all inmates!) would think I'm a doctor. Now they don't guess doctor or nurse or anything medical at all.
They think I'm the Assistant Warden.
(sigh)
I can't really blame them. I've had several meetings with the Warden, the two Deputy Wardents, and the four Assistant Wardens (technically they're Assistant Deputy Wardens) and I'm dressed just like them. Nice shoes, slacks, a button up solid colored shirt, a fashionable tie. The only real difference is that I'm going specifically for a more casual look. The top button of my shirt is undone and my tie is loosened just a bit. The sleeves of my shirt are french cuffed (rolled up twice but on the inside instead of the outside).
I've liked working with some of the people... others are a real pain. My fellow nursing supervisors are particularly frustrating. One is just a bad nurse. She makes bad decisions and tries to be more administrator than anything else, but she's bad at that too. She speaks in broken english and worse, writes in the same way. It takes a long time to read her emails as I have to decipher them as I go along. She's only been a supervisor for a few years (she was a nurse just like me when I went to the other facility 3 years ago), but she tries to act like a long serving sage with advice and wisdom to pass on to someone as naive as me.
(sigh)
Anybody's opinion that I care about is laughing along with me. She could out nurse me if she really wanted to as she has many MANY years of experience to draw from. But where she's been a nurse for all those decades, I've had supervisory roles in various fields. I'm twice the supervisor she is and I'm still just getting comfortable with my responsibility portfolio. Anyway, I put her in her place when I need to and ignore her otherwise.
The other supervisor has been working too long and is probably going to retire soon. She's tired and cranky and it shows. Don't get me wrong, she's good at her job, but she snaps to judgement really quick and sometimes needs to be walked back to take a longer look at the situation. She's also a self martyr to the extreme and wants pity/admiration for it.
You see, the three supervisors take turns being on call and its her turn. We're technically on call for everything, so if you have a nursing question you can call us. But really we're there for when people call in. Here's how it used tow work; the supervisor in my position was always on call. If someone was calling off a shift they would contact that supervisor and then that supervisor would either shift people around to cover the hole or start the overtime process. Since we have union contracts to deal with its a little different if its an RN as opposed to an LPN, but more or less you start at the top of the seniority list and start calling everybody to 'offer' the overtime opportunity. If someone takes it, great. They come in and cover the shift. If no one takes it and/or no one answers their phone (the more likely scenario) then we start the process over and start at the bottom of the seniority list and mandate them to come in to work. Of course if someone is low on the seniority list and they took the call to say no to the 'overtime opportunity' then they damned well aren't going to answer their phone a few minutes later as they'll know they're going to get mandated. So then the supervisor would see who is on shift and can be mandated to cover up the hole. And at worst case scenario, if they can't find anybody to cover and can't mandate anybody, they come in to cover their area (or call the supervisor of the area and have them come in to cover).
Not fun, but straight forward. Well now they've split it up. It's not just the one supervisor. And they've changed the process further. When a nurse calls in, they call into the clinic they are supposed to work at. THAT nurse then sees if they can fill the whole with personnel already on. If they can't, they then start calling down the list and 'offering' the overtime. Only when they get done with all of that do they call the nursing supervisor as they shouldn't ever have to mandate anybody (and they well might be the person to be mandated). That's when the supervisor starts calling the list from the bottom and mandating nurses.
Well it's Thanksgiving. We've had a whole in our schedule today for the past month. As the nurse who makes the schedule I've been sending out daily emails asking if someone would like to pick up that shift. No one did. This supervisor whos on call knows she would have to mandate someone and since everybody knows there's a hole in the schedule, if they don't want to be mandated they're just not going to answer their phone. We already know who is on staff that morning and who will be mandated. The supervisor just doesn't want to mandate them. So instead she's going to come in and cover the shift.
That's very nice of her. I imagine the nurse who would be mandated is really appreciative. But this supervisor is all 'whoa is me, this is so terrible, look at all the work I have to do and how far I go to do it'. Umm.... no. It's nice that you're doing it, but there's another path. Just mandate the other nurse.
So, the jobs too new to really say whether its good or bad. I'm leaning toward bad but I need to get past this vacation book as it's new for everybody and a real strain on my job.
The computer.
(sigh)
The fucking computer company hasn't delivered the computer yet. Last week I had to threaten them with refunding my money and even showed them spec sheets from two other companies where I'd spend less money and have the computer sooner than what they were indicating. That seemed to light a fire under their ass and my computer shipped out yesterday. UPS is estimating it to be delivered Tuesday (sigh), but it's moving fairly quickly and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it gets delivered tomorrow or Saturday.
Once that beast comes in, I'll write more about it.
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