Weekly Wrap Up - The No-Brainer Blog

Well happy friggin’ Saturday to ya! I sure wish that my Word program had “Ezi Word” on it like my cell phone does. I would definitely blog a LOT more often!

I figured I better relocate myself from the living room couch amidst baskets of clean needing to be folded laundry and snoring Beagles to the lair where my computer resides, which also the same lair where my husband and graveyard shift worker, "Ralph the Nightwalker", is a day sleeper – and today he has Beauje’s butt about 12 inches from his face. Should I wake him and tell him? Nah. I’ll let him sleep.

So – about the only things I can TRULY recall about the past 7 days are this:

1. Church was REALLY awesome last Sunday – I love Pastor Herb more and more every week.

2. I don’t like S’s new boyfriend. What a creep. You got to be a WORKIN’ man if you’re gonna be my man – got to have a J-O-B if you wanna be with ME!

3. Miracles really do happen every day, all around us. We just have to be ready to see them happen when they do.

It’s been a loooonnnnngggggg week. It took FOR-EV-ERRRRR for the weekend to arrive this week. Monday was …Gee; I can’t seem to remember HOW Monday was? It was probably like any other typical Monday in a Medical Office: CHAOS. I think I remember someone pulling Bri out from under the counter where she’d “crawl’n” with a pocketknife, threatening to cut the phone cords. I can’t say that I blame her.

Tuesday always seems to drip by…you know, the whole “not quite Monday but too far from the weekend” thing. I had submitted my request for my monthly pain refills to Dr N this week, he’d told me he would change the dosage this month – (oh could it be? PAIN RELIEF!???) – ONLY for him to turn around and give me THE. SAME. FUCKING. THING. THAT. HE’S. BEEN. GIVING. ME. FOR. FOUR. FUCKING. MONTHS....Minus 325 milligrams of Tylenol. Fucking aye Doc, why don’t you just chain me to my desk, too. Then that would COMPLETE my idea of HELL. I am so frustrated I don’t know what to do? I think I am going to start looking for a new PCP this week. No, I don’t mean the mind, body and strength-altering dissociative drug formerly used as an anesthetic agent, exhibiting hallucinogenic and neurotoxic effects; I mean Primary Care Physician. I often forget that the “GP” (that’s YOU – the General Public) often doesn’t KNOW medical “lingo”. It’s kind of like dating again after a divorce: you kick the good for nothing so and so out of your life and go looking. You meet. You tell him (or HER in some cases – I’m NOT judgmental!!!!) what you’re looking for in a relationship, what you need and how often you want to see him. If it sticks, you’re lucky. It’s a match made in heaven. I had that with my old doctor, Dr. D. He’s the one who pretty much diagnosed my cancer when we moved back here from California without so much as a hands on examination: Dr D’s a paraplegic – he uses the “hands” of his P.A. (Physician’s Assistant) or Nurse. And this was AFTER 4 Dr’s in Palm Springs told me that I had a virus and I would just have to let it run it’s course.

Yeah.

Right.

I tried that and almost died. Never trust a Dr unless you REALLY know him/her!!!!!! I mean it! I bet that if I’d of needed a BOOB JOB those Palm Spring MD’s would have been all ova that sheee-at!

So I am probably going to begin my hunt this week. Wish me luck. I would go back to Dr D (and I am SERIOUSLY considering it and just self-paying despite the cost – at least I would get QUALITY care!!!!) if he took my insurance. He’s semi-retired though and doesn’t take my (sucky, crappy, we-don’t-pay-for-nothing-but-your-generic-and-PLEASE-make-sure-they-ARE-generic RXes insurance).

Anyhow – moving right along. Wednesday…I felt like hammered shit. I prolly looked like it too – I really didn’t give a shit. I don’t know if I was just having a bad physical day (I try not to blame it on Fibro), but I pretty much sleepwalked through the day. I hate days like that. Ever since I went through what I did, I see days like that as somewhat wasted. I mean, what was the point? Why can’t I even remember what I wore to work that day or who I talked to? Why? Was it because I was too consumed in my own pain? Because I over-slept in my car on my lunch break (the AZ weather is GORGEOUS for outdoor catnapping these days!)? I wish I knew. About the only thing that WAS good about Wednesday is WAY too personal to mention here. *wink, wink * >:-)~

Thursday was the maggot icing on the shit cake. OMG. I should have called out. But since D & K have pretty much tied my job up and hung it over the toilet, waiting to flush it and me down with the first GOOD REASON (that they can’t get SUED for), I have to hang in there, put my Big Girl panties on and DEAL with it. I did get a Toridol (anti-inflammatory) injection that day from one of the very empathetic nurses who KNOWS all too well why it is some of us are in the business we’re in. We also had a pre-Thanksgiving potluck at work that day. This year there were a lot of people who didn’t participate because of the fiasco LAST year over people who didn’t “participate” NOT being able to EAT (WTF??? Isn’t this what THANKSGIVING is all about!?!?!?! Sharing with those who have less than you??) We were so broke this week; I brought a plate of CUPCAKES to THANKSGIVING dinner just so I could get a FREE LUNCH. I know you’ve probably been told there’s no such thing, but in my company, as long as you bring something, the people that run these inner-office popularity contests will let you participate. So then, when it came time for lunch, about the only edible things on the table were the turkey, the pumpkin pie and my friend C’s Native American Fry Bread. I tried this one lady’s vegetable casserole – OMG – it tasted (and LOOKED LIKE) vomit. This one health conscious chick brought a fruit cobbler topped with granola and almonds – I could only eat that with a GENEROUS portion of Extra Creamy Redi-Whip on it! Gag! And the hominy-green chili stew reminded me TOO much of Menudo – no, not the formerly-fronted-by-Ricky-Martin-boy-band-of-the-80s, the Mexican Tripe Soup. It’s DISGUSTING, but my Daddy SWEARS it will cure a hangover! So I stuck with what I knew…and a cupcake ;-) But as soon as I could get home, I made a beeline for the bed and there I stayed until I had to drag my ass up at 6 am on Friday morning. I even missed HOUSE (and I LOVES me some Hugh Laurie!!!). Yes, I did.

So that brings us round to yesterday. Yesterday was MUCH better. I don’t know if it was because it was the day before Sleep In Day (that’s Saturday to those of you who DON’T have kids…) or because it was PAY DAY (Sistah even got herself a $100 BONUS – which I promptly went out and spent last night on the beginning’s of Christmas shopping!!!!!!), or if it was because the Wicked Witch of The South Building wasn’t there (even though The Kraut was), but I had a great day, I laughed with my co-workers and we all carried on as we worked. It was fun. Reminds me WHY I still go to work there. Why I call my co-workers who are MORE than co-workers on the weekends. Why I notice when one of them has a particularly bad day and I give her a hug when she just needs to know that, Yes, Virginia, someone else DOES understand how you feel.

Yesterday was great – until the sobbing girl ran through the lobby doors in with a 3-week-old PURPLE BABY in her hands – he wasn’t breathing. We ALL sprung into action: all the doctors and nurses that were there dropped what they were doing – even the doctors on the primary side who have to sit and listen to lonely old ladies bitch and complain about corns and crows feet all day. Hallways were cleared, people shoved into rooms, 9-1-1 called, people sent to the parking lot to flag in the rigs, ringing phones went unanswered, the screaming 19 yr old Mother and anxious Grandmother of the baby held physically at bay by medical assistants while the Drs and nurses worked on him giving him pediatric CPR, gave him oxygen and a hard sternum rub. No heart beat. No breath. They kept working – he was so little there was NOT much they could do - Urgent Care clinics ARE limited care facilities! They even set up for pediatric paddles for when the paramedics and EMS workers arrived. It was THE LONGEST 5 MINUTES OF MY LIFE. I HAVE NEVER PRAYED SO HARD. The EMS guys got the baby out of the Triage room and onto a stretcher, they got him breathing and it was MIRACULOUS to see him fade from a dusty blue-lilac color to bright pink – and to hear him wail out in the hallway sent shivers down my spine and brought tears to my eyes. He was on his way to the local hospital where he was going to be stabilized before they flew him down to Phoenix because they had NO IDEA how long he’d been without oxygen – no way of knowing if his brain function was altered in any way.

I know I want to go into the medical filed because I care about the quality of human life as a BIG PICTURE, but it’s little details like yesterday that make me know WHY that’s important. Why there needs to be MORE care and compassion in the world. I gained so much respect for some of my co-workers yesterday. People that I haven’t gotten to know very well over the last year (you would THINK – since I spend more time THERE every week than I do with my OWN FAMILY!!!), suddenly I UNDERSTOOD why there were where they are. Not because someone paid for them to go to medical school or because they think they look cute in one of the 80+ pairs of scrubs they own – but because THEY. CARE. And they’re GOOD at what they do. Most days it’s the same boring grind – sniffles, sneezes, pregnancy & STD tests because people can’t go to their “regular” doctors, but once in a while, there comes an event that just bolts you down, takes you out of your own mind & body and you go into auto-pilot, doing what it is you were taught to do; a dozen people working together as a well-oiled machine that doesn’t miss a beat. That’s awesome – and I got to be a part of it yesterday.

I pray that baby Daycen (we later learned his name) is going to be OK – we’re hoping the family keeps in touch. If they don’t, oh well – at least we know that when he left our hands, he was writhing, screaming and BREATHING.

So, today, I just have been taking it easy and not doing too much. I didn’t sleep too well last night – vivid dreams. Side effect of the new medication Dr O started me on?? I don’t know? Sometimes dreams are too vivid and you wake up wondering “WTF!?!?!?!”. Well, I am STILL wondering “WTF?” this afternoon. Maybe I should get off my ass and fold some laundry, eh?

If something else of interest happens, y’all will be 2nd to know. TTFN!