So, I wrote the vast majority of this post out on July 26th. When I got to the end of it, the Keyboard part, I put writing the blog on pause for a bit. And then never got back to it. Now its a week and a half later and I'm caught between starting completely over, posting it as is, or adding notes to it.
I'm gonna go with option three. The only thing is that they keyboard update will be moved to its own post as its getting... complicated. Anywho, here's my July 26th and August 5th update(s).
Health
Two migraines, both bad. One was on my third day of work. It was particularly busy as soon as I got in with like 4 patients already scheduled. If it were me and S, it wouldn't have been a problem at all. But it was J. J doesn't handle normal work well, let alone staying/getting busy. So I stayed and told myself that as soon as the migraine was unbearable, I'd go home. Between me saying that to myself and the first patient, we had three more on the schedule. At that point, me leaving would absolutely screw J. We'd have trouble keeping up with both of us up to full speed, let alone me slowed down with a migraine or worse yet, J alone. But that migraine train kept on rolling and getting worse and worse and worse. My first patient was relatively easy and straightforward and should have taken me just over an hour. It took me almost three hours.
Partway through I told J to call our supervisor and let her know I was going home soon and that there was just too much on her plate to work this alone. Before I left they'd found a nurse and a tech to send up from the back to help J. She was also able to do some rescheduling of the incoming patients and she got through the night. The migraine was absolutely terrible when I left and it lasted through the next day. My first two day severe migraine in long while.
The second migraine may have been helped, if not outright caused, by my odd sleep schedule. Real quick; I try to flip my sleep schedule from being on a nighttime schedule while I work and a daytime schedule while I'm off. But what that's done is make it so that I tend to sleep only a few hours at a time. For instance, last night I slept for 4 hours. I'll get tired most of the way through the day and need a nap. I may target an hour for the nap, but I might end up sleeping for three hours. Or seven. In this particular example I'd had trouble sleeping for the previous several nights and was working on only a few hours of sleep. I was hyper awake when I got home but able to get to sleep without issue. And then slept for 19 hours straight.
19 fucking hours!
Let me be clear, on a medical basis, that is NOT good. When I work up, I immediately knew that I had a migraine. It was very bad but only lasted that day. Ironically when I have a bad migraine like that all I want to do is sleep... but after 19 hours, I couldn't have slept if I'd tried.
Anyway, I'm now considering moving to a steady sleep schedule. Since I have to work at night, I might just stay up all night every night. Go to sleep in the morning, get up in the late afternoon (4 PM) and still have some time with the family in the evening before they go to bed. I'd have to 'stay up' in order to get anything done in normal business hours, but if I can get my body back to sleeping for six or seven hours at a time I think I'd be better off in the long run.
I'm still working on my weight. I dropped another few pounds instead of holding steady or gaining. Last I weighed myself at work I was 214lbs. I don't recall ever weighing myself and seeing numbers below 220lbs. Seriously. When I weighed myself in high school and saw that I was 220lbs, it was the first I'd taken notice of my weight. I know I WAS less than that... but at age 52, it's the first time I have empirical evidence of being this weight.
I saw my psychiatric NP last week and reduced my Paxil to 20mg. I have to give it a couple weeks before I even consider assessing it and likely have to give it a full two months before I decide if I notice anything. But so far, so good.
And finally, I had my dental crown... first major dental work in like 3 years... scheduled for this past week but it was a migraine day so I canceled it. I'll call to reschedule next week.
Oh, and just to note it... I pulled something in my left shoulder. That's the shoulder that I had so much trouble with before and had to see physical therapy about for months. It doesn't feel that severe and in fact is feeling better this morning, but I figure its worth putting down so that I think about it at my next Update post.
August 5th Update
I had another two day migraine. This time it wasn't helped by oversleeping, it was helped by being awake for almost 20 hours. I just can't win here.
I did see my 2nd Neurologist, Dr. C, and he suggested a change. Evidently when they were testing Quilipta, my miracle drug, they found it was most effective at 30mg twice a day. But it was only about a 10% advantage and they REALLY wanted a 'once a day' solution. So they ended up only trying for a 60mg once a day dose. Well, to squeeze the most out of the drug, Dr. C now has me cutting my pills in half and taking half in the morning and half at night.
It's only been a week, so I haven't noticed anything but we'll see.
Oh, and my shoulder issue was a three day problem. It's gone.
Finances
Nothing major here. Getting paid. Paying bills. Not going into debt.
August 5th Update
A possible HUGE update here... or a big nothing burger. I'll write about it in a post later but it involves me quitting my job.
Family/Friends
B continues to do better. He actually called ME to try and play Catan the other day. We didn't do it because of migraine, but it's the first time he's wanted to do something fun in a long time. R is good, Mom is good.
I haven't heard from E, other than some messages on What'sApp, but that's par for the course. Means he's doing fine. I messaged A about taking a trip down to visit him and got a fun answer... he wants to take his family on a road trip. We thought briefly about it and are considering meeting up someplace to camp/cabin. I need to hit him up again as the best times for me are this coming month... though heat wise we'd probably be better off doing it later.
August 5th Update
So, R's Jeep Grand Cherokee has been 'broke' for awhile now. It seems like such a simple problem. It's registering that the brake pedal is being pressed. If you're near the car with the key and press the start button it doesn't go into accessory mode and instead starts the engine. If you drive around, the brake lights are lit. You can't use the cruise control as it thinks you're canceling the cruise via the brake pedal.
R has tried many things, most above my head, and none of them worked. Out of desperation he pulled the new brake switch (which was one of the first things he tried) and put the old one back in and... yeah that worked.
But now this morning it registered that the battery in his key fob was almost dead. Naturally he replaced the battery and now... it doesn't register it at all. Which unfortunately means that even when he uses the physical key to unlock the door, it sounds the alarm and locks the vehicle down. He seriously just can't win with the car and I don't pay him nearly enough to get a new one.
Work
Work has stayed busy. One of the ways I can track that is the New York Times games section. It keeps track of which days you play. I used to play every morning, but I now most often just play at work when I'm bored. If I look back, I played most work nights in May and June. I only played on two work nights in July.
One of the things keeping us busy is that we don't have help. In fact, they're so short in the units that they're trying to schedule S and I to go in back and work as Techs. When they first asked one of us to go, I volunteered to be first. I went back and they told me I'd be a one-to-one with a patient. At night that means sitting in a dark room with the patient (and their roommate) and watching them sleep. I have a tablet that has to move every minute or it assumes I'M falling asleep and starts to beep. Every five minutes I have to check the patient in, basically saying that they're in bed with their chest rising and falling. This particular patient tends to fall down when she gets out of bed, so I'm to be there if she gets up.
In the two hours I was there, she got up once to use the bathroom. I was there to help her up, walk her to the bathroom, help her down on the toilet, watch her pee, then help her back to bed. That gave me plenty of time to think. As a nurse, I trend to take every situation and think of the worst thing possible. If I'm ready for the worst, then I'm certainly ready for something bad. With them being short staffed, the worst thing would be something that calls the attention of the two nurses. For instance, two patients getting into a fight where one is injured and the other needs meds to calm him down. I wouldn't need to leave my patient for that as the nurses would have it covered. But if another patient were to have a medical emergency at that time... say they were calling out that they couldn't breathe... well shit, I'm in a fucking pickle. As a tech, I cannot leave my patient. If she were to get up and injure herself because I wasn't there, I'd get disciplined and/or fired. BUT, if that other patient got injured or died because I didn't go help, my license could be up for grabs. And say I did run to offer help... where is the emergency bag of equipment? Do they have an ambu bag? Do they have a mask for giving respirations? Do they have an AED? If I have to log into their chart to look the patient up, where is the computer? Do I have full access to it? I know I have access to some stuff, but I don't utilize it in Admissions so I'm not familiar with it. I can't give meds as I do NOT have access to that area. If I need to call the doc, where's the phone? Where's the list of which doc is on call? Where are the doc's phone numbers? Do I call 911 first, or do I need permission? Are there different forms of 911 to call? What are the procedures for that?
In other words, I'm not trained to be a nurse on the unit. And it doesn't matter that I'm not working as a nurse, I'm OBLIGATED to render assistance as a nurse if it's needed. That's a licensure requirement. If not a legal one, an ethical one.
So, I gave that some thought and decided I'd talk about it with someone, but it wasn't an emergency or anything. Then the next week it got worse. Not only were we told that one of S or I had to go to the floor, we were told that BOTH of us were going to the floor to work as techs. They'd all but shutdown Admissions and send a tech up here to run the phones and answer the door.
Think about what that says right there. Move two nurses out of admissions, which closes admissions, to have them work as techs. Then move a tech into admissions to answer the phone and door. Yeah, they need a certain number of nurses on the floor and are getting around it by having us out there even though we're not working as a nurse. In other words, putting us into that very situation I was worried about where it MIGHT happen that we're required to work as a nurse without having the training to do so. That not only puts our patients at risk, that puts more of a burden on the other workers around us. The nurse on the unit needs help but only gets an extra tech... knowing damned well that they're a nurse.
I've mentioned that we have the corporate director of admissions having around our facility for the past few weeks. She was the one to call and tell S and I that we were going to the floor. While she was talking she mentioned that we wouldn't be expected to do any nursing work and only perform tech duties. She kept talking so I tried to interrupt her as that's the very problem I had. She just kept talking. I tried to interrupt her again. Continued talking. I raised my voice a bit and tried again. Still talking. I finally ended up shouting in order to be heard. And she heard me that time.
Before I get further, I should say that S and I were hovering around the phone as it was on speakerphone. That way all three of us could be on the call at the same time.
The corporate director's response was to wait until I stopped talking and then calmly and angrily ask "C, did you just yell at me?"
I won't detail every back and forth but she was convinced that I yelled at her while I was upset that she still didn't understand my issue. It finally came down to brass tacks with her asking if I'd go out to work as a tech. My answer was similarly blunt "Not until I get the proper training."
Later that I got an offer to 'Shadow' a tech for a couple hours before I worked as a tech. I declined this offer and made sure to mention that it was because this shadowing in no way solved the problem that I had.
S ended up taking advantage of the shadowing while I was left in admissions.
The next day I got an email from the corporate director that was an obvious attempt to set me up for discipline. I responded by dismantling everything she said in her email. The following day without further response, I got invited to a meeting with the corporate director, the CEO, and the chief nursing officers (CNO). Initially that didn't sound like discipline, it sounded like I was going to be fired. BUT, it turns out that meeting got invites sent to many other nurses and stakeholders as it would be talking about cross departmental training and longer term solutions.
I still may get in trouble as the meeting isn't this coming Tuesday morning (after a night of work). I'll keep you up to date.
August 5th Update
The meeting got pushed again. It went bad. I quit. I'll post more when the situation is either resolved or not as raw.
Entertainment
Last night I FINALLY finished all the Transformer movies. Don't get me wrong, they're good old fashioned summer popcorn movies but nine in a row (The Movie, Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon, Age of Extinction, The Last Knight, BumbleBee, Rise of the Beasts, One)? There's only so much you can take.
I did watch Backrooms. I'd wanted to see that since I saw the first trailer months ago. It was...fine. If you aren't into the lore of the internet films, it won't be all that enjoyable. Next up, probably today, is The Mandalorian and Grogu and Master of the Universe.
Then I'll finally be able to get back to... you know, I have no idea what I was watching before I took this Transformers detour. I'll have to look it up.
August 5th Update
Masters of the Universe kind of sucks. I'm glad it went straight to Amazon as I'd be kind of pissed if I'd paid money for it. The Mandalorian and Grogu was good... but not for a feature length Star Wars movie. It should have been a three or four hour TV special. next up... I dunno.
New Tech
Dull tech, but it's at least new. I went to charge my bathroom smart speaker the other day and... nothing. It's been annoying me for a long time as it's the last Mini-USB connector I have to charge with. Everything else is USB-C. And unfortunately they don't make another smart speaker that can replace it. It has to have a big battery, be completely waterproof, and work with Google Home.
After confirming that it would charge when the cable was plugged into my computer and just not the charger I had, I was afraid I'd have to buy a new charger. BUT, that particular charger was specifically chosen so that I could charge several power hungry devices at the same time. My laptop, my phone, my Kindle... stuff like that. It puts out 200 watts and would be expensive to replace... and especially annoying when it's just to charge a device that I'd rather replace. My solution after some looking was to get a USB-C to Mini-USB connection adapter. I keep my USB-C cable plugged in, which is plugged in at all times just to charge stuff, and when I need to charge the speaker I use the adapter. I also purchased a 2nd cable so that I have two that show the wattage being used.
The new springs came for my keyboard. More on that below.
Writing
I was hoping to get a few chapters out as it was my five days off. I still might get a chapter out as I have most of today and all of tonight yet, but the urge to write just wasn't there. Hell, my whole sense of arousal was absent most of the weekend. Anyway, no progress made.
College/Michigan Football
Nothing especially interesting here.
Transformers
I did remain strong and waited until I got my other Transformers before opening up Optimus Prime from Rise of the Beasts, so I'll start with him:
Optimus Prime - Voyager class - Rise of the Beasts - $21 (with sister-in-law discount at Ollies)
He's good. A fun transformation, good accessories including his hand cannon and sword, and great modeling both in truck and robot modes. I'd say he looks great but when I stack him up against my other Optimus Prime (One Shall Stand), I still gravitate toward that G1 style.
My first choice in new Transformers for that pay period was Megatron.
Megatron - Leader class - One Shall Fall - $59.99 (Target)
Megatron is easily as good as my first Optimus and his damage both matches The Movie and his counterpart Optimus Prime One Shall Stand. A quick word on his photos; I try to put an image of the Transformer on my screen in the background. So above you have Optimus in robot and truck modes from Rise of the Beasts and then Optimus from The Movie. Megatron unfortunately doesn't have a good version of him in tank mode. Let's face it, in G1 form he never was a tank. So I ended up borrowing a still from Akira.
At $60 I didn't have much left over for a 2nd Transformer so I just bought the one. BUT as I mentioned in the last Update, I spend some of my Independence holiday pay on Grimlock.
Grimlock- Titan class - Age of Extinction - $189.99 (Amazon)
I will simply say that Grimlock is even better than he looks. He's HUGE and fun. The only problem is that he's kind of a pain to transform so I'll be leaving him in T-Rex form.
I found out that they designed this particular Transformer so that Optimus Prime from the same movie could ride him. I also learned that the Nemesis Prime from The Last Knight was the same model as Optimus Prime from Age of Extinction... and he looked better. So, to make it perfect, I went ahead and bought Nemesis Prime too
Nemesis Prime- Leader class - The Last Knight - $55.00 (Amazon)
Just like with Optimus from Rise of the Beasts, he's cool. He's just not the G1 Prime. LOVE the sword though!
Because Ali Express missed their ship date on my springs (more on that below) I got an $18 credit from them. I checked out all the Transformers I have on my list and couldn't find any that would be a 'deal' even with that discount. Of course, I didn't want to just give up on the money so I searched more broadly for Transformers from Hasbro and found one I hadn't really wanted before, but was a great deal. Arcee. With shipping and the credit she's only $18. She'll be here in August.
And, to be fair, I'll put her on my purchased list next to Megatron. So that's $98 on Transformers. I carry over $2 next pay period.
August 5th Update
Arcee is still in China. Payday came and I bought Skywarp and Jazz. They should be here tomorrow.
Keyboard (FML)
I'll write more about the Keyboard in a post all its own. Suffice it to say the springs came and did NOT fix the problem.
I’m so frustrated for you about your new (now former) job. I was so glad things were stabilizing for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'll write more about it, but I'm working on the next step.
DeleteI hope your doing better now, and I hope you can find joy in your writing again
ReplyDelete