My $14K appendix

Okay, I haven't posted in awhile.  Largely because nothing major has happened since my surgery and subsequent return to work.  Work in fact, remains a curious balance of chaos and indecision and since the meeting between our charge nurses and our de facto (until they hire someone) boss yielded no new information and no leads, we are just kind of floating with the current.  I did get a spreadsheet regarding the clinic from my meeting with the nurse exec, but it was utterly incomprehensible and my response to it has yet to yield and reply.   They are, however, trying to work out '5 year projections' for all our clinics.  To which I have to ask, what about now?  What about 5 week or 5 month projections?  Sigh.

We got the bill for my surgery.  Just a shade under $14K.  Thankfully it only ended up costing us $116.  Yay for Tia's insurance!  Go KP!

I did another thing that I never in my life thought I would do this past few weeks.  I spent $272 on dirt and rocks.  Not a new tablet computer.  Not a weekend away.  Not a shopping spree at the mall.  Nope, dirt and rocks.  8 cubic yards of em.  Then, they all had to be hauled into the back yard, one wheelbarrow at a time.  Thankfully, it is starting to really shape up now.  After 2 weekends and some help from the moms, our backyard no longer has more weeds than grass.  In fact, it now has 5 planter boxes and rock pathways.  It has actual plants planted.  In a fit of over ebullience, we even managed to rip out all the grass/weeds from our divider and gussy that up with some new plants and gravel.  So, also, our backyard now houses a couple cubic yards of plant clippings and weedy sod.  Anyone need some compost?

We also have managed to just about finish up the kiddo's room.  Painting - check.  Furniture - check (chair, dresser/changing table, and crib with mattress).  Art/wall hangings - not so much.  But, it is coming along.  I am pretty sure Tia will post pics.

I am being required to get my WA license now or 'risk having my position terminated by June 1st'.  This has thus far involved a $30 fee to verify my current license, a $92 fee for my new license, a fingerprint card that I must find a place to roll my fingers across ($15), and then send those along with a check for $32.50 so they can pay to verify those.  So, about $170 for a license to work where we have a small hospital/clinic that I might go to 6 times a year......or get fired.  Then it is just $108 annually to keep it up.  Sigh again.

Well, as the day is startlingly flying, I probably ought to take advantage of the last few hours of light.  I have a big day involving me: fasting, doing a barium swallow study, and later fingerprinting and then work.  Oh yeah, and then a 2 hour meeting with our financial adviser.  Maybe I should just go to sleep now.  

Portland in the 'summer'

I know it isn't summer yet (or really even Spring despite the official designation of such since March 20th), but a few days of sun and, relative, warmth serves as a nice reminder of the things I really like about Portland.  Tia and I spent this afternoon on about a 90- minute stroll. In that time we stopped and picked up an iced coffee, wandered through a consignment shop, found a new coffee/pastry place that had just opened, walked past a new non-profit brew pub prepping to open, another one doing brisk business, a quaint little garden store (complete with chickens), and past the Firehouse Restaurant on our way to our new community garden plot which, incidently, sidles up to a great park.  This we achieved by walking less than a half mile semicircle from our house going south and west.  As much as I cannot stand the weather most of the year, I can't say I have ever lived in another city where I was so near to so much and still living in a residential area.  It will be a great summer....you know, if it ever arrives.

I finally got to feel the baby kick.  Was really neat, though I don't know how I would feel if it was kicking  around inside of me.  It is gradually becoming more and more concrete a concept to me now though.  4 more months.  

Speaking of 4 more months, I made it through 2 days of work.  I thankfully had help, which gave me plenty of time to catch up on paperwork and all the little niggling issues that tend to come up.   I was asked to put together a 'clinic survival guide' or sorts as well in case something should again come up that leaves everyone else scrambling (like maybe a baby being born).  I thought I would be able to knock it out in an hour or two.   But, after over 2 hours and 5+ pages, I am nowhere near finished (though closer than when I started!).  Every time I answer once question, it brings up a bevy of additional ones.  I am not saying my job is exceedingly difficult (or any more so than anyone's job), but having to break down what you do to accomplish the things that I do to make the clinic run is not easy.  You have to think of all the things you take for granted that you do just because that is what you do day in and day out.  But, how would I explain it to anyone else who rarely to never does my job?  Will be a long process.   Of course, this wouldn't be necessary if, at any point ever, my suggestions to train everyone to work in the clinic (a 2-3 day initial rotation and then 1 day a month to keep up skills) were implemented.  But, I am going to go ahead and guess that the guide I will end up typing up will probably be the way that people orient themselves.  Sigh.  

We have started the discussion on childcare though.  It is really quite startling just how much will be changing.  Determining how many days you want (or can afford) to put a child in daycare is a huge topic of conversation.  Do you go with a nanny?  What if I work part time?  Not at all?  What if Tia does either of those?  It involves a LOT of guesstimation at this point of course.  By August, I might not have a clinic to work at.  Or Tia may run out of funding?  Or we might win Powerball and retire?  But, assuming we don't win any money, we have to figure out how much we can afford to live on, how much the kid will 'cost' on a monthly basis, and where those 2 lines intersect.  I know I at least would like to try to be home more than I am at work.   I guess we shall see.  

Time to finish up dinner and try to push through that thin melancholy that also descends on Sunday evening when you know in your bones another work week is about to begin.  

returning

Well, it would appear that tomorrow is the day.  I got the go ahead from the doc and got the paperwork to our HR department.  Of course, as always, there were issues.  The doc put today's date for my return on the form instead of tomorrow's date.  Despite my explanation to HR. they needed a 'corrected' date prior to letting me come back.  The doctor, mind you, is out in Clackamas and I was back at work to fax it (about 12 miles away).  So, I had the option of: A. Driving back out to Clackamas, B. Trying to contact said doc on the phone, fax over the form and have them fax the form back to my HR department (and somehow impart that this needed to be done ASAP) or C. Fix it my damn self and re-fax it.  Hmmmm, wonder which choice I went with.

Looks like a busy return date as well with 7 patients on the board.  Should be a nice welcome back.  It will be good to try to get my legs back under me with 2 days on, then hitting the weekend, before returning for the full week.  I haven't heard anything about the future of said clinic at this point, so I will assume at this point that I will be operating it in the same manner as I have been.   Wish me luck.

More to come as always.