Tornado Drills

Over a month ago, during our morning meeting, it was announced that our facility would be participating in a city-wide tornado drill on April 17^th. I signed up for PTO for the 17th because I knew that sometimes, these things have a way of going live. It was nice to have a Thursday off, and I ran a bunch of errands and got some spring cleaning done.

When I came to work on Friday the 18^th, everyone was saying that nothing much happened for the drill and there were no adverse weather events. Then they tell me that the Director of Nursing quit suddenly, and I would now be doing all the scheduling for the entire Nursing Department, and Corporate added some extra responsibilities on top of that (for no extra money of course.)

Then every whiner and malingerer came out of the woodwork to tell me their sob stories and childcare issues and how they never work nights or weekends and that these are all the PTO days they to have off, etc., etc., etc.,

I may have been in shock a little bit, because I was surprisingly calm. The whole place was utter chaos and they are still reeling from the fall out a week later.

I said, “Yeah, there WAS a tornado here, just not the kind you were thinking about.” I ended up spending most of the day calling people to see if they can come in and work a graveyard shift since one of our CNA's was a no call, no show for the second night in a row. Oh yeah, this is going to be very fun, I can tell already.

So, I ended up working last Saturday, and as much as I totally don't want to, I have to work tomorrow (Saturday) as well. It is what it is, I guess. I was already so busy, but my checks should be nice with the amount of overtime I'm getting. Like usual, I just take things one day at a time.

Cederq – if you are reading this, I did plan on calling you tomorrow, but now I won't have time. I will try to call on Sunday, we really need to catch up.

I wanted to write about the nightmare of going to pick up my new glasses, or my experience with multi-factor authentication at work but those stories will just have to wait. Wanted to get something posted cuz I know it's been a really long time.

Hope you all are well. Take care out there!

Doctors and Zombies

I am still very busy these days, and it takes me a couple hours to write a blog post sometimes, which is one of the reasons I don't get a chance to post that often anymore. I'd like to say that spring is finally here, but since it is only 30 degrees at the moment, it will probably be a little late this year. I'm so sick of the cold.

Speaking of sick, (not that I am, mind you) since my last job only lasted 4 or 5 months, and I paid for insurance that I never used, I decided that this time, I would use it right away, just in case.

The first stop was the regular doctor (I haven't see one since I have been in Kansas, at least three years going on forever.) All I wanted was a prescription for my thyroid medicine. That's it. But of course, they have to take a blood test, and while they are in there they will test for every disease known to man, and then tell you that you have half of them and then write you a slew of prescriptions. The medical establishment and the pharmaceutical companies are the enemy, so I'll just wander into their camp and say Hey, here I am. It's a nightmare.

After stating unequivocally that I just want a prescription for thyroid, refusing to answer a good portion of the medical history questions (my data is worth more than gold baby), that she can prescribe cholesterol medicine all day long – I wont take it, and don't even try to write a script for the rat poison they call Vitamin D, I agreed to take the labs. She was very unhappy with the fact that I'd been taking donated levothyroxine of various strengths for the last several years. Well, that source was drying up anyway, hence my need to get a real prescription. Maybe now a days, after being poisoned since birth, we literally can't survive without a pill of some sort. I don't know. I did agree to addressing some of my other higher lab numbers. We'll see how it all works out in the end.

By the time I had to go to the Eye Doctor, I was in no mood to answer any more personal questions. Did you know that if you ever say you are depressed to a doctor, it NEVER comes off your medical record? It is there for the rest of your life, even if you are now the happiest person on earth.

On the initial paperwork, I left almost all of it blank, including my social security number. If they are going to use our info against us, I'm going to make it very hard to come by. So I was especially annoyed by the time the little assistant walked me back to the exam room to ask more invasive questions. When she asked me if I smoked, I said, that is not relevant to getting a pair of glasses. She started saying a bunch of nonsense about its all about the total body, etc.

I doubled down. I could see the drop down list of acceptable answers on the computer, yet I just didn't want to answer. After an incredibly long and painful silence, I finally said, “is patient refuses to answer on the list?” She said, “Well, the doctor will want to know this.” I answered, “I'm sure the doctor will deal.”

That was the end of that I guess. Oh, and she was training a new assistant at the time. Welcome to the new job sweet heart.

My eye doctor herself was very nice and the exam was fairly uneventful. All good. As I'm waiting in the lobby to pick out my frames, there was a mother with her daughter who was getting her very first pair of glasses. The daughter was only 5 or 6 years old. I over heard the mother tell the little girl that her new glasses would protect her from zombies.

As if I wasn't annoyed enough already. That was the stupidest thing I had ever heard in my life. First of all why does your 5 year old daughter even know about zombies! Second of all, why would you lie to her like that? No pair of glasses, no matter how thick, is going to protect her from zombies. You might as well have said that Santa Claus is going to protect her from zombies. Sheesh! It take at least a double tap, from what I hear.

I should be able to pick up my new glasses in a couple weeks.

Anyways, I gotta get back to my chores. I hope you all are doing well.

Take care out there.