It's Wednesday...

already?  This week has flown by to me so far!

D started training at Goodyear Monday morning and has had some good stories everyday.  So far he is enjoying it. He got his schedule.. night shifts - Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday (week one)..... Wednesday, Thursday (week two).... then repeat.

Work has been busy busy busy. Job security... I know! I am thankful for it bug gees I'm tired.  I've also finally resigned to the fact that I have allergies and have started taking zyrtec [ok... CVS had a sale and I had a coupon and got ECB's].  It seems to be working well so far but I might have waited too long to start taking it because now I kind of feel like I have a sinus infection.

Da is back in the hospital with COPD exacerbation.  Even with constant re-assurance, he worries that we will send him to a nursing home [his worst nightmare]. It drives me absolutely crazy that he has no concept of energy conservation. Examples... 1. For reasons unknown, he jumps out of the chair and nearly runs across the room where he encounters 3 steps and clings to the wall like a spider monkey.  Then he has no breath left to get him down the hall to his room.  2. He can't breathe but insists on reading aloud to himself and commenting/exclaiming every chance he gets about whatever he sees/reads/tastes/hears...

It's hard to see Da like this though. He's scared, nervous, weak, and a little confused at times.

Prayer Answered...

Dustin starts orientation on Monday morning!!

Today =

Today = 151 days (5 months) since I quit smoking.

Today = I was in a funk... a really bad funky funk

Today = a reminder that I shouldn't expect others to do what I think they will do or say and I definitely shouldn't get my panties in a wad when they don't do/say what I "need" them to.

Today = a reminder that God is where my joy, satisfaction, hope, love... comes from (you name it... it comes from Him)

Today = a glimmer of an answered prayer - D got a call from goodyear! He goes in at 7am to do a physical and get a start date!!

inappropriate...

This was on a kid's homework today from school... match the sentence to the picture.

When another child ran out of verses for the "Wheels on the Bus" he sang... "the daddys on the bus say shut yo mouf... shut yo mouf..."

A Case of the Monday's

A patient's communication device was somehow reset to the factory default settings.  I asked his "caregivers" and teacher when was the last time it worked properly.  Their response? I didn't know it wasn't working.  Seriously?! His teacher said that the school therapist worked with him on Tuesday and didn't say anything was wrong.  TUESDAY?!  Keep in mind that the communication device is this child's ONLY means of communication.  There's so much more to this story that I can't even talk about... just know that I am so sick of people lying about stuff!

catching up...

Whew this week has flown by & I've barely blogged!

We ended up getting financing for my dad's truck through our bank.  We are the proud new owners of a 2007 Chevy Silverado with 117,000 miles on it but it still smells and looks brand spanking new!  Dustin is so excited!


Dustin was invited to a Goodyear "Meet & Greet" this week.  He went of course!  They took a tour of the plant and explained that "you are an employee with no start date yet".  OMG!  Basically as soon as jobs open up the new hires are called and given chances to get a job.  He's working at Sears today... his first full day not training.  He will start earning commission in about a month.

Bronco & I had a doggie play date this morning after he got a good bath at Petco.  Katie's dog tucker is a Bichon Frise and Rachel is dog-sitting for her mother's Westie (Kipper).  They are so tiny compared to Bronco!!  Kipper had no idea what to think of that big white thing that kept coming after him!!  He & Tucker play well together.

Wordy?

Me? What? No!

I admit... I'm wordy.  I'm working on this swallowing newsletter to educate our staff about what we do and to increase awareness/compliance about swallowing problems.... [looking into space] maybe I should make a ribbon or one of those plastic/silicone bracelet things... um no.

So my problem is... I have a lot to say and I truly feel that every word is important... BUT... these nurses are busy... and most probably think they know everything they need to know... and they also probably feel like they can't fit one more thing in their head or it will explode... I know this feeling!  Hospitals are constantly throwing "new" or "revised" stuff at you.

My goal for this newsletter is somewhat of an outlet to voice our preferences and to make our nurses jobs easier.  I promise it would be easier to make sure your patient's tray is correct {before they drink all of their unapproved liquids that somehow snuck on there} than it would be to treat their pneumonia for the next couple of weeks and then again when they come back because they "still don't feel right".

We have done our best to educate the dietary department to prevent unapproved items from making it to the rooms {and they were very receptive} but things happen... people make mistakes and family members ignore our warnings.  We need the nurses on our side to keep these patients healthy and safe!

LOL... with ALL that said... now I've got to condense everything I want to say into one tiny page that probably won't even make it to the bulletin board... any suggestions???

Prayers please...

Sears...

Dustin started work on Wednesday last week at Sears as an electronics salesman. Sears apparently requires very intense orientation.  He's required to do 30 hours of orientation on the computer, in a room by himself, for 5 hours a day.  After that he will still be "in training" and not eligible for commission for 2 weeks.

BUT, today I think God knew he needed to get out of that room and get a taste of what he'll be doing.  They needed the room to start another employee and so he got to go to the floor!  He sold about $3000 worth of stuff... TV, Ipod, Ipod dock, vacuum, some cables, and a bunch of other stuff.  I think he was very pleased with his abilities... and so am I.  He didn't make the commission off of any of it yet because he's still in training, but we are excited about the possibilities in a few weeks.

Sweet patient!

Phone rings.

KK: Who's that?

The gym

KK: You're going to the gym?

Yea

KK: Why?

So I can get healthy

KK: Why do you wanna get healthy?

So one day I can have sweet babies like you

KK: But i'm a big girl

Oh sorry

KK: That's ok. Don't let it happen again. You are beautiful.

*tear* you are beautiful too!

Sent from my iPhone

Wow.. what a crappy day!

I rarely have crappy Fridays but this one was mostly HORRIBLE!

• A disability eval's grandfather screamed and yelled because I didn't want the guardian in the the treatment room during the eval.
• Why not? 
• 1. Most disability evals we encounter just want a check and want their kid to be disabled so that they can continue to get more & more money... even if it was because they smoked crack while they were pregnant... we (taxpayers) still get to pay for their pitiful kids. (the kids usually are pitiful but the parents are usually mean and it makes me not feel compassionate toward them!)
• 2. Most parents refuse to shut up!  I am giving a STANDARDIZED test here!  You can't rephrase the question to get a certain answer!!!  The kid has to answer the question being asked or it is wrong.
• 3. Most kids act like a big whiny baby when momma's around.  They may not love being in the treatment room at first but give me a minute and let me do what I do and they'll warm up. And honestly, I can't take much whining.
• PS... I ended up having to let the grandmother in b/c the kid wouldn't warm up and then they tell me that yesterday he had a bladder test done and was held down to be catheterized!  The poor thing was probably scared out of his little gourd!
• FULL schedule - yes, I know... job security!  But OMG, I couldn't get anything done that I needed to do.  For every patient, there is paperwork and not all of it can be done with the patient sitting there trying to eat the playdoh.
• My friend is not preggers this month.

Enough with the negatives and thanks for letting me vent

Great things about today...

• Friday by nature
• An autistic child that I see cracked me up.  Instead of saying "please give me that back", he screams so loudly that it peels the wallpaper up, to which I usually calmly reply, "no screaming".  Today, I took a playdoh can away because he was trying to open it with his teeth. He screamed. I looked at him silently. He looked down sheepishly and quietly said, "no screaming."
• A friend that does home health called with a great story... Pt's granddaughter and her boyfriend bumped uglies in the next room as his treatment was going on!
• Paint The Town is always great
• I put a roast in the oven at lunch and had it ready by dinner.  It was delicious!
• The crackheads across the street moved all their crap out of the yard in the middle of the night.
• It's my dad's birthday!

Work lately...

Hmmm. Work is never boring and I don't always remember to blog about it.  Here's a few funnies/weirdos....

• When asked for length of pregnancy a mom answered 19.5 inches (unfortunately this is a common answer).  When asked again, she stated... "I got pregnant on april fools day and then he was due on christmas day and then he was due on the 31st but i didn't have him till the 7th) - the kid is 6.
• The same kid referenced above was also observed licking the front desk counter.
• R and I did disability evals on a set of twins yesterday.  Their parents REAKED of patchouli and everyone that came in asked what that horrible smell was.
• I could still smell it this morning.
• I totally busted someone (who will remain nameless) taking a full on midday nap with blanket and everything.... for the record, it was not a hospital employee but this person was "at work" ;)

Patients sometimes make me lose my patience!

I have been working with this patient after an injury for about 20 visits. Everything we do is "silly". Today was the patient's last visit and says "I'm glad I'm done coming here. We didn't do very much!". Are you kidding me??!! I worked my behind off for you! (That's what I wanted to say). What I actually said was "I'm sorry you feel that way. Take care."

UGH i'm so frustrated

ugh! I am so frustrated. work stuff :( wish i could talk about it on here but patient privacy act.... blah blah blah.