I expect there will be less posting overall. Lemme explain why.
Before I dive into the specific categories I want to say that after more than 18 months, I've returned to role playing at D+X. I've had my alt there for awhile, but it was slow going and not a lot of action. Now that "I'm" back, that will change. I already have a class lined up, have one of my old threads picked up where it left off, and have a new thread as well. I'm not just diving feet first, getting dozens of threads going, but I am going to pick up more and more until I find myself stretched just a bit.
I wanted to mention this first as a LOT of my time will now go toward playing there. It's already brought my gaming down to nothing and dragged my watching of movies and TV shows to a minimum. Naturally, my caps/obsurra will also suffer, and finally my posts over here. But, lest you be concerned about me going quiet, know that if I'm busy over there, I'm happy over there.
Anywho, on to the categories.
Health
Not much to go with here. I finally got the new migraine medication delivered. I only requested it on Memorial day! It's called Nurtec and I need to read up more about it, but I wasn't going to sink a lot of time into it until I found out if it worked.
I knew I was close to getting it as the doc's office had me confirm that I had previously been on Imitrex, which is a requirement for the insurance company to authorize this new med. I then had to provide paperwork from the doc's office to the online pharmacy before they'd fulfil the prescription. So a couple weeks ago when I came home with a migraine, I expected the normal recovery. An eletriptan, a nap, a reduction of the migraine to a more manageable state, and finally going to sleep. I'd wake up with the migraine gone, but still feel down and have a headache for the rest of the next day. So, after dinner, I wa excited to see a package from the pharmacy sitting on my desk. Opening it up, I saw my Nurtec.
Nurtec is the first med I've ever taken in this form. It's not a pill, it's an "orally disintegrating tablet" In other words you don't pop this in your mouth and swallow it down. You either place it on or under your tongue and let it disolve. It doesn't taste horrible and it only takes about a minute to fully disolve. I don't know exactly what I expected, so I turned the lights down, put on an old movie that I could close my eyes through, and let it work. Thirty minutes after taking the Nurtec, I felt a difference. The cloudy thought process was all but gone. The headache was vastly reduced. Even the light sensitivity was almost gone. After two hours, the migraine was gone. GONE! G. O. N. E. Gone!
I have never before been able to take a medication or do some procedure and have a migraine go away. It was either a way to reduce the intensity of the migraine or make it possible for me to stomach it's affects until it decided to stop all on its own. This was HUGE for me. And better yet, the next day there was no 'migraine hangover'. No headache, no down feeling... I felt great!
Now, the normal expected result is that you'll feel affects within a couple hours with full affect taking 4 to 6 hours. But if it worked like this, this is something I could take at work. A migraine would no longer mean leaving work. I could walk out to my car, take a Nurtec, wait for it to go into high gear, and then come back in. I'd lose an hour, two a the most, instead of losing almost an entire working day.
That next day I must have told half the people that I worked with the ballad of the miracle drug. They were all very happy for me. The only problem I saw was storage for Nurtec. It has to be kept in it's blister pack (understandable, as touching it or adding any moisture starts the dissolving process) and it has to be kept at room temperature. 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Umm... my car is hardly EVER in that temp range. If the outside temps are anywhere near that, the greenhouse effect takes the interior of my car to upwards of 100. There is no shaded parking at work and I can't leave the windows open (it's a security risk, and lest we forget... I work at a prison!). So, I can't leave this in my car. It's a royal pain in the ass to take in prescription medication, but if this works like this first dose, it's worth jumping through all the hoops in the world.
So, this past week on Thursday, when I got another migraine, I was ready to experience the miracle again. Sadly, I got almost nothing out of it. I left work at 1 PM, got home around 2 PM to take a Nurtec, and by 4 PM was still in the complete throes of the migraine. If anything, it was worse.
I'll need to see which is the exception. Was getting full relief the standard and no relief the oddity? Is that reversed? Is it somewhere in between with me getting different levels of relief upon each take? I know I really want it to work as if it does they'll prescribe it as a preventative, taking one every other day. But right now it's batting .500. Good for baseball, not for effective medical management.
Oh, and I should mention the cost. I get almost all of my medications from the mail in pharmacy as they deliver three month supplies. Many of my meds are old school, been on the market for decades, cheap generic meds. This morning I ordered up more of my cholesterol medication, atorvastatin, and it cost me $5.84 for the three month supply. Some of the meds are newer, so even though there are generics, they're more expensive. Those cost me $20 for three months. Then there's the non generic meds. Both of my newest diabetic medications, Farxiga and Ozempic, cost $60 per three months. I can't complain as most of these meds would cost me more at a local pharmacy and I'd generally only get a single month supply. Nurtec? It cost me $60 for a single months supply. It is single handedly the most expensive medication I've taken. It really got me wondering what the retail price was. If I had no insurance but went to the pharmacy to get the eight tablets I just paid $60 for, what would it cost me?
Just under $1000 dollars!!!
That's right, it cost about $125 (retail) to get rid of that one migraine. Considering the other one didn't work you could argue that it's cost $250 to get rid of that one migraine. And if I got on this as a preventative? That's over $2000 a month. Over $24,000 a year!
But I won't even pause to consider the value of the medication. I've lost hundreds of hours to migraines over the past few years. In pure salary alone, that's more than the $24,000 a year and doesn't even account for missed social or family time.
Anyway, nothing else is up with health.
Finances
I was completely surprised by the return process of my old extended warranty from Nina. I didn't expect to get anything from it so I went in with low expectations. It was an absolute bear to find the right forms on the website. To their credit, they did say on the paperwork to just return to the selling dealership... but no, I didn't like that dealership and didn't want to even see them again. I found the forms, filled them out, signed them, scanned them in, and emailed them off. A few days later, they sent me another set of forms along with some other requirements and a new email address to send it all to. Another hoop, another jump. I got it done and emailed it in and a couple days later got the confirmation that they'd received it. Not accepted it... just that they received it. The paperwork (both physical and digital) was clear that after accepting it a cancelation they could take up to six to eight weeks (quick aside, I've never understood that. Shouldn't it just be "up to eight weeks" instead of "up to six to eight weeks"?) to get a check out.
They made clear that the preferable method was to return to the selling dealership to pick up the check, but I made it clear to them that they were free to mail it to me or have the dealership mail it to me as I would not be returning there.
Well.... two weeks later and I got my check in the mail! $1300 that will go straight on the credit card. That makes the new warranty about $500! Nice!
I did end up getting that trashcan for Tiffany... and yea, it's nice to have it. I also picked up some cleaning supplies from "The Chemical Guys" out in Cali. I got their Leather spray (leather cleaner and conditioner in one) as well as an all over interior cleaner. I got some brushes to clean the leather, a detail brush for the perforations in the leather (stuff gets stuck in the small holes and it's a pain to get it out!), and some microfiber clothes to use. I got it all last week and it all works good. I'll save the leather spray as they only recommend using that about once a month. But each weekend I can spritz some of the cleaner around the interior when I get the exterior cleaned and it will be fine.
I also picked up my winter tires/wheels from Belle Tire. These sadly won't fit Tiffany, so I just need to sell them. I unfortunately have no idea what the value is. The tread looks good and has at least a year left in them. The wheels are all fine. Together they cost me $2300. I doubt I can even get $1000 out of them, especially as they practically have to go on a similar mustang due to sizing. They're too big for most cars, too small for most SUVs. I think I'll list them for $1000 and if I get an offer of $500 or more, I'll just take it without negotiation. If I don't get any serious bites in a few months, I'll lower it down accordingly as at that point we'll be entering snow tire season and interest should be piqued. If I make it to spring without any offers (by that time I'll take a hundred bucks for someone to pick them up!) I'll take them to the dump and pay to throw them away.
And finally for Finances, President Biden pushing off student loans again is nice. My next payment isn't until February of 2022. That's $400 a month I can put toward my credit card.
Family/Friends
Yeah, B moving out wasn't as easy as I put it. He put in a few apps for apartments and a rental mobile home, but was outright denied on one and was too late on the others. Things are going fast. He wanted to wait to build up his credit some more before trying to get a mortgage, but he now feels that's his best option. He'll pay quite a bit more in interest, but he wants to have his family back together. And I can't blame him.
He did end up getting a car. I was going to write up a whole post about that process, but it went like most before. I got him a list of cars in an area of a nearby town (larger than ours, therefore more cars for sale) that he took up and viewed. He wasn't halfway through the list when his wife saw one that she liked. I wouldn't have even put it on the list as it was a smaller SUV with no options. Sure, it was newer and had fewer miles, but it didn't even have cruise control. But she really REALLY wanted an SUV, so he settled on it as it would be her car. It's a red 2015 red Chevy Trax. Ick.
Work
Not much new here. Still struggling, but not sinking any further. I did want to mention the bad part of being a supervisor though that I don't think gets enough credit. If there is no one left that we can mandate, we're the final option. It's very rare for it to happen, but it does occur. And it bit me in the ass.
Just a quick step back before I talk about the above ass biting. A month or so back, our HUM wanted me and my fellow supervisor to pick up some of the shifts as our nurses were getting mandated too much and were getting burned out. Burned out nurses pick up less overtime which means even more get mandated. It's a vicious circle... but I had a bad feeling about us picking up shifts. I couldn't exactly put it into words, but I thought that it would initially make the nurses feel better than work out worse for everybody. And it did exactly that. M, my fellow supervisor, took many morning shifts as she comes in that time anyway. It put her way behind on her own tasks, so we pulled it back some. I took a morning shift (when I was late) and later an afternoon shift. Like M, it screwed me as that was time I wasn't doing my job. But at the time, we were heralded as amzing for picking up the shifts.
Fast forward a couple weeks and we get two nurses back from medical leave. Both had been out for most of this quarter on the overtime equalization list or OEL as we refer to it. The OEL simply tracks all overtime hours worked. If two people want to volunteer for a shift, the one with the lowest hours gets it so that people can't hog all the overtime. Similarly, if no one wants it then the one with the lowest hours gets mandated so that everybody remains about equal. Obviously we have nurses that want a lot of overtime and we have nurses that want no overtime. And as down as we were, there was far FAR to much overtime to get soaked up by the ones that wanted it. So, nurses were getting mandated left and right.
The rules for maintaining the OEL are pretty vague and there's nothing specific about returning nurses from medical leave. But if I didn't do anything they'd come in with zero hours. The next lowest nurse has 50 hours. I other words both would be mandated for six full shifts before the next lowest nurse would be up again. And I can't emphasize this enough, we had overtime on most days that wasn't getting picked up. They'd get mandated Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.... all after returning from MEDICAL leave. Working on their days off and working double shifts otherwise. No, that just didn't work for me. I found a part of the rules that said new employees, transfers, or "those bumped into the schedule", would be entered into the OEL with an equal number of hours to the nurse with the least amount of hours. I considered them as 'bumping into' the schedule and did just that.
Well, the reaction was a bunch of pissed off nurses. One even sent out an email to everybody (a nurse who doesn't pick up overtime and therefore gets mandated over and over again!) that maybe the supervisor should work the 100 hours of overtime instead of giving it to the two returning nurses. It got UGLY quick and I had to shut it down harshly and fully.
If we hadn't worked those shifts, there would have still been an uproar but it wouldn't have been with the thought of "They Don't Work Enough".
Okay, back to the ass biting scenario.
I mentioned in the health section above that I had a migraine on Thursday and that Nurtec didn't take care of it. One of the things that happened that morning before I left was finding out that one of our night nurses had recently had a bunch of COVID symptoms and was waiting on the result of a lab test. She wouldn't be in for days. I was supposed to share that information out, but I forgot. No big deal though as there was another nurse. No big deal... right?
Wrong. Our shifts change over at 2200 (10 pm). At 2220 (20 minutes after shift change) I got a call (also 20 minutes after I laid down to go to sleep WITH the migraine still pounding away) from work. It seems that they didn't have a night nurse. One called in and the other wasn't responding to calls. Well, the one not responding to calls was the one I knew wasn't going to be there and had already approved of it. When the other one called in they SHOULD have called me, as I would have taken the bull by the horns right then and there. He called in at 2130 so the full staff was still there and I could have found someone to mandate. But at 2020, only these two nurses were there, and I couldn't mandate either of them to cover the full shift.
Fuck.
I could have taken the time to call all the volunteers, get their voicemails, leave messages, and finally call back to say that I'd be there in an hour... or just take the easier route. Screw calling around, I just got dressed and headed in. There was a bunch of construction so it took me forever to get there, but I finally relieved the nurse at midnight. I'd get relieved at 0530 by the morning shift so technically I only had to last five and a half hours... but honestly that was struggle enough. I kept getting up to walk around or risk falling asleep. I did a bunch of scheduling tasks as they required some thought but not too much (remember... migraine still in full affect). At first I was walking about once an hour, but I got up to move around six times between 0400 and 0530.
When I was relieved, I quickly gave report, gave report to my fellow supervisor (as that's when she gets in too), and then left. As I was driving away at 0600 I was fairly sure I wasn't going to come back in that day. My shift would start at 1130 and without construction I'd spend two of those five and a half hours on the road. Eat, sleep, shower... there's just no way I would get rid of the migraine as without medicinal help (and I couldn't even TRY another Nurtec for another eight hours!) it normally takes a full nights sleep.
Well, the drive home took almost two hours because of the construction. At that point I would need to jump in the shower, pack a lunch, and just about turn around to go straight back. Instead, since my shift would extend until 2000 that night, I figured I'd try to sleep and maybe get there for a few hours at the end of my shift.
No go. I was so beyond tired that with the migraine doing its thing between my eyes, I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned in bed for about three hours before getting back up. I was a zombie for the rest of the day. When I called into work to officially tell the boss I wasn't coming in, she was surprised I was even calling as she just assumed I wouldn't be in. She did tell me that the nurses were very impressed that I came in, doubly so when they learned I did it through a migraine that had sent me home earlier.
I have to wonder though... would they be impressed if they knew I'd have mandated someone in a heartbeat if I could have? There just wasn't a choice.
Anyway, hopefully that earns some good will. Lord knows that with those two nurses back, we have far less overtime and we're getting another nurse back from a temporary transfer in a week or so. So, it will really be far less overtime.
Entertainment
Music wise, it's been a good month. I've added six new songs, but I'd like to talk about two.
Metallica doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to digital music. They protect their copyrights quite a bit and, if you remember, initially sued Napster. Well, recently they've been allowing for more and more freedom with their tunes. I learned that they're one of the few groups that will freely allow people to have 'reaction' videos to their songs without tapping the monetary portion of YouTube (which, as a copyright holder, they can do with their music). The reaction videos are like "Pop Kids react to hearing Metallica for the first time" or "Retirement home residents hear Metallica for the first time".
Anyway, it's build them up some good will. Now, they have a compilation album coming out called "The Metallica Blacklist" It's 53 covers from a wide variety of artists, all from their seminal work "The Black Album". The songs come from all over the spectrum.
The two I got as pre-releases are below:
Well, I don't have anything else to write about. Life is just moving on. College football is here and I'm torn on it. On the one hand it's nice to see the big crowds and hear them cheer for my Michigan Wolverines. On the other hand, COVID is still out and about and having 107,000+ people in Michigan Stadium in such close proximity scares the absolute hell out of me. Maybe I'll write more on that later with delta variant vs vaccinations vs mandated vaccinations vs 'freedom' and a 105 year old supreme court decision.
But that's for another day! Ta Ta!
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