Offer number one

Trying to keep up with my blog is going about as well as trying to start running again…or flossing…or cleaning out the house.  But, given the chance to rectify one of those things, I am opting for the blog because I have a patient gap and am too exhausted to contemplate the running or cleaning and, lets face it, flossing just isn’t going to happen. 

I have, finally (sorta kinda), some job news.  I have been hired on to take over a floor position.  I currently work 4-8s.  I will be moving into 3-10s, along with what I hope will be the odd shift every week or two.  The upside, obviously, is one less day.  The downside is that I will be back to working every other weekend, some holidays (tbd), and the shifts will obviously be 25% longer.  The other news is that no one, not even my boss, knows when I will be starting this position as they have to now post, then interview, then hire and train a new person for my current job.  That is unless OHSU is still picking it up in June/July, in which case I will stay here until that happens.  No one knows that either.

Why change?  First off, it was not an easy decision.  While it can be frustrating at times and while I would dearly love at least a part time second nurse, I still do like what I do.  I will miss some of my patients a great deal.  However, the stories I have heard from the nurses who did go through the transition and have since left have been troubling at best and disheartening at worst.  Perhaps they will get the issues sorted out by the time they move on to this clinic, but I was not hopeful.  Additionally, though it is indeed a good skill to have and one I would not mind having as a piece of my practice, I really don’t want majority of my job to revolve around chemotherapy.  I have worked with chemo patients before, mainly doing blood transfusions, and it is just a terrible thing to watch the effects of the medications and the disease eat away at them.   Plus, the volumes they demand eliminates the true joy of getting to know the patients in the way that personalizes the experience.  So, ultimately, I worry about losing pretty much everything I enjoy about my job anyway…so why not go back to relearn the floor and placing PICC lines? 

Other than the job stuff and how it will possibly impact everything from childcare to Tia’s sanity, is that our nanny share looks to have a finite end point.  The gal we share with is pregnant with her second kiddo and due in October.   At that point they are going to look at putting their first born into daycare.  Plus, with my schedule shifting, we may well need to alter our care needs.  Oh yeah, and we are still looking to possibly move to a better school district which would blow up the share anyway.  Sigh.  You can never fully comprehend the sheer amount of things that change once you have a kid until you have one.  It really does touch on pretty much everything.

  

We also put in our first offer on a home since we started looking.  Shooting for a much upgraded school district.  It ended up being a microcosm of the housing market here as a whole.  It was on the market for 1 day.  We were one of 4 offers presented.  We were 1% above and non-contingent, which ended up being the lowest bid.  They ended up taking an all cash offer 2% above list.  This all in 24 hours.  You gotta move fast.  Oh yeah, and have hundreds of thousands in cash on hand.