Sometimes blogging is easy. Sometimes there is so much going on that the only difficulty is finding the right words to describe them without omitting some major plot points along the way. Other times, life rolls along in a series of mostly congruent days that blend together to such an extent that they are hard to distinguish from one another. Did we have the fish on Tuesday or Wednesday? What day was the day the patient showed up maddeningly early......or late.....or not at all? And is any of this even remotely interesting enough to document? Hell, I am getting a little sloe eyed just typing it.
When there is little to talk about, there is always the weather. So far, is hasn't been too gray. The sun has appeared far more than it has not and what rains we have had have largely occurred while I slept. It gives me hope (tenuous) that this winter will prove less downbeat and overcast (though La Nina may have something to say about that.
Of course, I am particularly sensitive to it. It doesn't take many of those days before I start to feel a bone deep sense of, well, I guess it is hard to describe. It isn't so much that I feel it like any other emotion.........but more like it subtracts something from me. It deducts a sense of genial well-being and overall optimism and amplifies that dark part of us all that sees every nick, crack and imperfection. That part of you that knows, without a doubt, that if you wake up with a sense of foreboding about the day (generally arbitrarily) it will be a shitty day. The glass half empty part.
The even keeled amongst us deal successfully with this sort of thing routinely. I generally do as well. Yes, some days are black, some are white, but most are shades of gray and one event rarely color a day in it's entirety. But, when the weather turns gray and damp, the black bleeds over. To fight it this year, the prescription is simple (yet oh so difficult). Must go to the gym and get the endorphins going. Must try to get out even if the weather is practically begging me to lie in bed. Mostly I just must try to do what I can to not let it get to me.
Got my SAD lamp ready. Bring it on.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
the first fall cold
It just isn't Fall unless I get sick..............or Spring, or Winter (you get the point). Anyway, I spent today largely prone and only moving when circumstances compelled me to. Hopefully this is a passing thing. Thankfully, Tia picked me up some good meds, so mostly I just feel a bit spaced out and tired, but not altogether terrible. Yeah meds and yeah wives who run and get them for you before work!
We have mostly been reestablishing our routines and starting the slide into early sunsets and overcast days. My goal this year is to try not to let it get to me. It is the same goal I have every year though, so no promises. There is just something completely wrong about the sun disappearing for so many days (weeks) at a time. I would I just viewed it as an irritation, but physically it get to me as much as any virus would. But, best to start with optimism and proceed from there.
Work remains about the same with it's minor dramas that I rarely hear about until far after the fact and still an overall shortage of staff (and evidently no 'viable' candidates per the supervisor). The wound care side of things if shifting though, which may directly affect me. They share the office with me and do their own thing as I do mine but work as my second nurse for emergencies. As such, they can't leave while I have patients running.......even if they have nothing whatsoever to do. It makes no sense other than we share the same boss. They work as a pair, with one doing the inpatient (hospital) side and one the outpatient (clinic) side of things. Since one of them will be moving over to another hospital, it means they will need to replace her. Only, the plan is evidently to make both of them less than 40 hours a week. In discussions, of which I have not really been a part of, they have evidently talked about closing their side of the clinic a half day weekly. This means that I could not schedule anyone then which leaves me a few options (that I presented to my boss).
My push is to extend the clinic hours, but make it a 4 day a week proposition. I would work 9 hours 4 days a week and open up an hour earlier than I do presently. It makes sense because, for reasons that fail to make any sense to me, the wound care nurses (and again, they are my second nurse) start and end their shifts an hour earlier than I do already. Option B would be to match their half day in the clinic. A further option would be to stay on the same schedule and work the floor the other half of the day we close the clinic. I badly want it to go back to a 4/9 though because it would mean only a minimal financial impact, would give me a full day off during the week so we don't have to cram all our errands in on the weekend, and would largely restore my sanity because I could plan all other appointments on that day and plan to work towards other goals, hobbies, etc as well. Of course, I won't hold my breath. Things seem to change not at all for the most part........or with a whiplash inducing suddenness. I will post an update of course.
The only other thing of note is a general conversation I had with my supervisor. The conversation centered around my asking about a certain medication they want to infuse in the clinic. I called the woman who 'runs' one of our other clinics (and used to be my supervisor) and she advised me that she had never given that med and that she would feel uncomfortable doing it without a second IV nurse. When I brought this up with my supervisor, she seemed to think that the wound care nurses were the second nurse and that should be good enough. She was also concerned that things might eventually come to a head with certain doctor's offices who want to send patients that I refuse to see without a second IV nurse. Initially this kind of pissed me off because I already see some patients that are a little 'iffy' to be doing with wound care as my second and I have to run out regularly to get meds, run labs, etc that are not located anywhere near my clinic. So, I do what I have to do, but god forbid something happen when I step out. But, the truth is that likely NOTHING will be done to change things because: A. no one wants to work the clinic and B. because of point A, they pretty much leave me the alone to make those decisions because if I leave no one wants or knows how to run the clinic. And, honestly, if push came to shove I would just refuse and make them force me out. I am not going to put my license and the patient's safety in any doubt when no one else is willing to do the same.
More to come as always.............time for the night time cold meds in the meantime.
We have mostly been reestablishing our routines and starting the slide into early sunsets and overcast days. My goal this year is to try not to let it get to me. It is the same goal I have every year though, so no promises. There is just something completely wrong about the sun disappearing for so many days (weeks) at a time. I would I just viewed it as an irritation, but physically it get to me as much as any virus would. But, best to start with optimism and proceed from there.
Work remains about the same with it's minor dramas that I rarely hear about until far after the fact and still an overall shortage of staff (and evidently no 'viable' candidates per the supervisor). The wound care side of things if shifting though, which may directly affect me. They share the office with me and do their own thing as I do mine but work as my second nurse for emergencies. As such, they can't leave while I have patients running.......even if they have nothing whatsoever to do. It makes no sense other than we share the same boss. They work as a pair, with one doing the inpatient (hospital) side and one the outpatient (clinic) side of things. Since one of them will be moving over to another hospital, it means they will need to replace her. Only, the plan is evidently to make both of them less than 40 hours a week. In discussions, of which I have not really been a part of, they have evidently talked about closing their side of the clinic a half day weekly. This means that I could not schedule anyone then which leaves me a few options (that I presented to my boss).
My push is to extend the clinic hours, but make it a 4 day a week proposition. I would work 9 hours 4 days a week and open up an hour earlier than I do presently. It makes sense because, for reasons that fail to make any sense to me, the wound care nurses (and again, they are my second nurse) start and end their shifts an hour earlier than I do already. Option B would be to match their half day in the clinic. A further option would be to stay on the same schedule and work the floor the other half of the day we close the clinic. I badly want it to go back to a 4/9 though because it would mean only a minimal financial impact, would give me a full day off during the week so we don't have to cram all our errands in on the weekend, and would largely restore my sanity because I could plan all other appointments on that day and plan to work towards other goals, hobbies, etc as well. Of course, I won't hold my breath. Things seem to change not at all for the most part........or with a whiplash inducing suddenness. I will post an update of course.
The only other thing of note is a general conversation I had with my supervisor. The conversation centered around my asking about a certain medication they want to infuse in the clinic. I called the woman who 'runs' one of our other clinics (and used to be my supervisor) and she advised me that she had never given that med and that she would feel uncomfortable doing it without a second IV nurse. When I brought this up with my supervisor, she seemed to think that the wound care nurses were the second nurse and that should be good enough. She was also concerned that things might eventually come to a head with certain doctor's offices who want to send patients that I refuse to see without a second IV nurse. Initially this kind of pissed me off because I already see some patients that are a little 'iffy' to be doing with wound care as my second and I have to run out regularly to get meds, run labs, etc that are not located anywhere near my clinic. So, I do what I have to do, but god forbid something happen when I step out. But, the truth is that likely NOTHING will be done to change things because: A. no one wants to work the clinic and B. because of point A, they pretty much leave me the alone to make those decisions because if I leave no one wants or knows how to run the clinic. And, honestly, if push came to shove I would just refuse and make them force me out. I am not going to put my license and the patient's safety in any doubt when no one else is willing to do the same.
More to come as always.............time for the night time cold meds in the meantime.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Living on East Coast time
I love to travel. I also hate the actual traveling portion of that equation. I know many other people agree. You have to go through a ridiculous amount of security, you spend hours on layovers, the seating is cramped, they barely bother to entertain you en route and you no longer get even the barest semblance of food (though they have oddly reverted to giving out full cans of beverages), and due to the baggage fees now everyone is trying to carry on an egregious amount of baggage (which also means you are screwed if you aren't an early boarder). Overall it is a joyless experience for something that is, when you think about it, pretty freaking amazing. I mean, for all the misery, you are still being put aloft at over 6 miles up in a heavy steel winged tube with hundreds of other passengers and able to travel thousands of miles in a matter of hours. So, while I may complain, it beats the hell out of driving it.
Coming back has been a bit of a shock to the system. Work was honestly better than I expected with a couple light days and a not overly abundant amount of notes and leftover new orders to deal with. It is mostly the time change (I keep wanting to go to bed around 8 or 9 and waking up well before the alarm clock) and the weather change (the sun stayed back East evidently). So, weirdly, though I know it has more to do with the time of year and being on vacation, I can't help but kind of miss Florida just a little bit. I am sure visiting again in the midst of July would cure that quickly, but the winters sure beat the hell out of the ones here. If I could just figure out a way to snowbird.
Speaking of crazy dreams, Tia just turned me on to a new blog that looks pretty interesting. It is a Portland couple who are working on amassing funds, eliminating debt, and pursuing their shared dreams of quitting their cubicle dwelling gigs to take a year to travel the world. Fascinating stuff. I told Tia it was to her peril to have introduced me to the idea. Like pouring gasoline on the flame of my wanderlust. hmmmmm.
So Many Places
Coming back has been a bit of a shock to the system. Work was honestly better than I expected with a couple light days and a not overly abundant amount of notes and leftover new orders to deal with. It is mostly the time change (I keep wanting to go to bed around 8 or 9 and waking up well before the alarm clock) and the weather change (the sun stayed back East evidently). So, weirdly, though I know it has more to do with the time of year and being on vacation, I can't help but kind of miss Florida just a little bit. I am sure visiting again in the midst of July would cure that quickly, but the winters sure beat the hell out of the ones here. If I could just figure out a way to snowbird.
Speaking of crazy dreams, Tia just turned me on to a new blog that looks pretty interesting. It is a Portland couple who are working on amassing funds, eliminating debt, and pursuing their shared dreams of quitting their cubicle dwelling gigs to take a year to travel the world. Fascinating stuff. I told Tia it was to her peril to have introduced me to the idea. Like pouring gasoline on the flame of my wanderlust. hmmmmm.
So Many Places
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Vacation!
Vacation is possibly the most wonderful word in the English language. It connotes nothing less than happiness, freedom, and high caloric foodstuffs. Vacation is like pizza...........even a bad pizza is still pizza. And, lest we forget, it is most certainly not being at work. Win win!
This vacation was assembled more or less due to convenience. Tia had a conference in Orlando that went from Sunday til Tuesday. So, herround trip flight was paid for, as were hotel transfers, baggage fees, and 4 days at a nice resort hotel. So, why not extend it and take me along for the ride?
The plan, which I followed through with happily, was for me to enjoy the hotel amenities while Tia attended her obesity conference. The hotel largely accommodated. We stayed at a Marriott resort/conference center hotel which had 6 pools, a water slide, at least 3 hot tubs, a golf course (damn shame I don't golf), a state of the art gym (seriously as good as any I have paid to be a member of), and a number of restaurants on site. However, it was also an expensive cab ride (so we learned) to get to pretty much anything else around it and you were not going to get anywhere on foot. As you may assume, they took full advantage of the fact that you were stuck there to jack up the price of any and all services. Internet was $15/day (comped for conference attendees), parking another $15/day for self parking and even more for valet. But, mostly they caught you on the food. It is a shame really, because it is a beautiful resort and one you could easily spend days at just hanging around the grounds and yet I would never be compelled to go back because, despite a price tag of $239/night, very little was included. For half the price you can get much much more.
By contrast, we spent the second half of our vacation at a Best Western near the entrance of Universal (we walked the mile from our door to the entrance of the park itself). The hotel had a laughably small 'fitness room', an average pool, and slightly lackluster furnishings (though it was clearly recently renovated). However, it was also about the same cost for three nights there as one at the Marriott, they threw in free parking, free internet, and a free breakfast. Oh yeah, and if you wanted to use it, a free shuttle to the theme parks at well. And they boasted about 6-8 restaurants within a half mile radius (some within 100 yards). It wasn't high end, but it was far better than I thought it would be and I would definitely go back should I be compelled to visit Universal in the future.
On to the theme parks!
- We began with Discovery Cove on Wednesday. The weather could not have been more idyllic (the entire trip through Friday honestly.....low to mid 80s with scarcely a cloud and low humidity). The park doesn't consist of much. You pay a flat fee and it includes all day access to a large saltwater pool full of stingrays with 6 foot wing spans (seriously impressive and always within touching distance), schools of colorful fish, and a shark tank. You also get to swim in a freshwater lazy river and hang out in an Aviary with the most social birds I have ever seen (they land all over you while you feed them). Probably the most fun part of the day, and maybe the trip, involved us playing catch with some birds that are related to terns and will fetch sticks from the air if you throw them, even taking them from your hands on occasion. Additionally, admission includes unlimited food, beverages (even grown up ones), and snorkel gear. Plus, there are a limited number of people allowed through the turnstiles daily. For additional money, you can have a 'dolphin experience', but we felt badly about it and skipped it. Overall, I would say it was really pleasant, but for the price it isn't something that I can recommend without some caveats, but we really liked it.
- Day 2 found us at Universal Islands of Adventure. It is the newer of the Universal theme parks and has a large array of rides including the new Harry Potter themed area. The park looks great, with the most minute details taken care of (like the trash cans in the Dr. Suess themed area, which were oddly shaped and brightly colored). The rides varied in there levels of success, though all were similarly nonsensically plotted (usually some variation on the theme of going along with the hero on a quest of some sort). The nice part was, as we had hoped, the theme park was largely empty. The longest we waited for a ride was 30 minutes for the Potter ride, but most were less than 5 or 10. We started the day getting drenched on two water themed rides and the rest of the day drying off in the warm sun on the rest of the rides. We ended up doing everything but the hulk themed roller coaster (I have been on it before and found it a bit lurchy) and finished up shy of the park closing. Most notable was the new Potter village, which was very well done and highly detailed (even had Moaning Myrtle talking to you in the bathroom), and the Poseidon adventure.
- On our final day, we went to Universal Studios. The weather finally turned a bit and we had bands of rain that whipped through the area every hour or so. The park was busier since it was Friday, but there was less to see and do so that worked out (plus most rides are fully indoors). Oddly our 2 favorite rides were there, The new Simpson's ride was the most impressive (as was the Shrek 4D, in spite of an utterly nonsensical holding area that seemed entirely devoid of any connection to the ride itself). Also, our least favorite ride, the Mummy roller coaster which was incredibly short and not exceedingly well done. Additionally, they probably ought to just kill off the T2 attraction as it is increasingly dated (especially when Arnold Schwarzenegger is on screen). Overall, still worth it in the context of the discounted pass for multiple parks, but would probably lean towards Islands of Adventure if you had to choose just one to throw money at.
More to come as always.
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