Trudging Along

The good news is we have a full time visit nurse, the bad news is she won't be available until the beginning of July. In the meantime business has been booming and my boss has decided to have an issue with me - she hasn't told me what the issue is and from what I've seen in the past, she apparently just does this. I was upset - I certainly don't need anymore stress!, but she's on vacation for a week and I'm just ignoring it for now. My pool cover is finally in so I'm picking it up today on my way through Mannington at Susan's dad's home center. I also have to get more pool supplies - I go through them pretty fast. Ray is supposed to be coming out this weekend so I have to De-Cat his room but I'm really looking foward to this weekend, I'll be off and so will my phone. Adam has been writing me from Washington state, he's figuring he'll be leaving around the 20th and cannot wait. I'm sure he can't. Pearl's tail is all better and she's back to her usual loony self, much to the cat's dismay. My other problem is the yarn I ordered from Yarnpicks - it comes unskeined and when I tried to skein it - what a mess! It came apart in about 10 short lengths and the rest is a huge knotted mess so I'll have to contact the company to find out if there's some secret way to skein it or I should just give it up as a lost cause. Things have been bad enough lately, I don't need my yarn turning on me!

A Good Night's Sleep

This weekend was busy to say the least, I had one admission on Friday and then two on Saturday so I spent most of the weekend traveling around and doing paperwork. I ended up missing yoga on Saturday, the first admission was much further than I had thought it would be and of course, the place that discharged the patient "forgot" to mention a couple of things which needed immediate attention. I've been worrying about this and that so my sleeping has been a bit worse than usual, the Two AM Girl has been putting in extra hours on me, sometimes showing up around midnight. We had to go food shopping and we got that done and I started in on finishing the shawl I've been working on since the beginning of time. So Saturday I went to be early - and at 1:30 am Pearl  made a special guest star appearance, standing on us and crying and shaking. We were up til 3 with her - she kept hiding and crying and couldn't stop trembling - we took her out and she went to the bathroom, we fed her a little and she was fine. I finally fell asleep around 4 only to be back up around 4:30 and that's when we discovered she'd somehow managed to sprain her tail which apparently hurt everytime she sat down which would account for the crying (she can move it but she can't hold it up). I finished up the paperwork Sunday morning - I was already up and then headed out around 10 to the Faraway Patient. I came home and went swimming for a few minutes until I got another phone call about another patient which thankfully only turned out to be a phone call and not a visit, took Jackson shopping, did the wash, played with Pearl who's feeling better  and her tail issues seem to be resolving - and then fell asleep around 7pm - and stayed that way til 5 am. David said Adam called last night around 1 am from Washington State and he reports he hates it - it's cold, rainy, everyone is a big snot and the night scene is not the greatest. I think he just wants back here personally. But he's here finally - I didn't get to talk to him because David said he didn't want to wake me up, but I guess I'll be seeing him soon. He's in Washington for a couple of weeks and then he heads out to the east coast. Grandpa is doing better too which I'm relieved about, so maybe the 2 am Girl can  take a vacation!

Crossroads.

I was about to say I'm bored, but I'm really not. I'm just at that funny little place you hit once in awhile - everything is sort of bad, but not getting worse or better, stagnant. I have this constant feeling of - sadness? stress? I think the term used years ago was "meloncholy"  - moping aboutness. Work has become a drudge, I keep plugging along with scary moments of stress - what did I forget or worse, WHO did I forget. I haven't forgotten anyone yet, at least I don't think so. I got bad news about one of patients that I've taken care of since I started, everytime I  talk to the family I start crying, I just can't help it. One of the problems with home care is the chronic patients you see - it's difficult if not impossible  not to become somewhat attached to them and thier families. Everyone is overworked and thumping about - I told my boss I was overwhelmed by work. The next day she suggested to get our hospitalization rate down (and it's not actually OUR rate, it's the other offices that is added with ours) we should see our patients MORE and call them! I think when she saw me wilt she said she didn't mean me specifically, she meant the nurse who's in the office. Sigh, that would be ME when I'm not out seeing patients. It's not her - everyone is just frustrated and crabby. And of course David is waving Maine under my nose all week - you can live near Kim! Swimming! Hiking! Wowee, look at that house! Stress stress and more stress. Jackson is done with school today, at least for the week. He starts back again on the 12th until the end of July. I haven't heard from Adam for a couple of days, I know he turned off his phone so I suppose I'll hear from him when I do.  

The Clouds In My Pool

It finally stopped raining yesterday afternoon - it's been raining off and on for a couple of days. The bad thing is my pool is now all cloudy and it's VERY annoying. The levels are all good so I'm guessing it's the rain water that's doing it. Last night I added some algecide so hopefully that'll help. I've heard from Adam several times in email, he's turning off his phone on Thursday and is getting ready to head out. Although we won't see him for awhile, just his being home will be wonderful. The not so wonderful thing is my Grandfather is in the hospital, I called him last night and he sounds awful. There are times when being so far from home is not a good thing and this is one of them. He said he's had a CT scan but didn't know the results. I'll call again tonight and hopefully he'll be better. Jackson's last day of school is tomorrow, yesterday David went to drop him off at MTech and there was no one there - oops. Jackson forgot he didn't have school til noon. So back home they went until noon and David brought him back to take his final. David just hung around town and had lunch - he said by the time he got home he would've had to turn around and come back. David spent the morning investigating a house in Maine!! of all places, that his latest idea, we'll see. Work was annoying yesterday, I was doing a self infusion teaching at a doctor's office - I got there at 9 am and went through the supplies - the pharmacy had forgotten the tubing - and it was specialized tubing of course. While I was on the phone with the company I asked the receptionist if she could get ahold of the patient as we  couldn't do the infusion without the equipment and she was like, the patient's here already.. And indeed, the patient was right behind me getting thier vitals taken. So everyone went out and played for an hour and a half while pharmacist rushed the tubing down from Pittsburgh - not a big deal, but with me being so pressed for time lately, it certainly didn't help. On the bright side, the part time RN has had a change of heart  and has decided to stay, so that makes it a little easier, but we still have been unable to find a full time RN and this time of year, there's literally no one to hire!

In Every Life A Little Rain Must Fall

Yes, after two solid weeks of predicting rain, The Crack Weather Team was finally correct yesterday - it DID rain just like they said it would.It took 14 days but By Golly, they are now on the right track and it just goes to show, persistance does payoff.  My persistance also paid off, there was a pair of Timberline sneakers I had my eye on over the holidays, but with a strong genetic background of Pennypinching I just couldn't bring myself to pay $80 for them. David needed a pair of shoes so we stopped at that store first - while he was looking I was browsing around and there were the sneakers - two pair left on CLEARANCE and one pair in my size!! Whoohoo - $19, can you believe it? We're also looking at exercise bicycles, I've been having problems with my right leg and foot and I'm sure it's a repetition injury since I've been spending between 40 minutes and an hour daily on the treadmill. I've cut way back but I need to find an alternate form of aerobic exercise so I figured an exercise bike would be good. Try finding a plain inexpensive exercise bike these days. They're all digital, recumbant, etc and have price tags to match. Usually what we do is looking in the Bulletin for used equipment but with our schedules we just may have to bite the bullet and buy new. Neither of us have time these days to go driving around looking so a new one might be on the horizon, even though it goes against every grain in my body. Jackson is done with school Thursday and is doing the big countdown, one more year folks!

Let The Countdown Begin

Can you believe Adam will be back in the US in less than a month? I can't! He's supposed to be calling his Grandmother as I've pointed out that although she loves him dearly and wouldn't send him to the homeless shelter, a bit of forwarning is always nice. I think he's just so excited he's not thinking clearly. Jackson will be done with school this Thursday - that went fast! He's off for a week and then starts summer school until the end of July - it's only 3 hours a day so not so bad. I was really off this weekend - work has reached nightmarish proportions lately and I ended the week with a tiny dust-up with my boss. Nothing serious but it just added to the stress which I really didn't need. I've been carrying a full load of patients but am still responsible for everything in the office and it just got to be too much - I think I'm a good visit nurse and a good manager, but I can't be both at once. Yesterday I got some stuff done, went to yoga, swam and then Jackson and I went to the movies in the afternoon. We saw the 3rd Pirates of The Carribean movie, it was very good but I don't think it's the last one by any stretch of the imagination. We ate a ton of popcorn and we put a shameless amount of butter on it.   Today looks overcast and grey, The Crack Weather Team has been predicting Severe Thunderstorms and Rain for over two weeks now - I assume if they keep it up they'll eventually be right. And that Rotten Vincent the Cat! He didn't come home last night at all - I called him for quite a bit after supper but nothing. This morning when I took Pearl the Pest out, there he was standing on the roof peering down at me. I did speak to him about his Behavior, but I'm pretty sure he could care less and went back out right after breakfast. David does not seem to feel the cat needs to be grounded, but I think he does, he's bad!

It's Friday. Whatever

Work continues to march on, I'm in early again today to finish up some paperwork before heading out for my infusions. Yesterday I finally got my "temporary" crown removed and had the permanent one done - almost an hour and a half in the dentist's chair for that one. The dentist we have here has every high tech gadget you can think of - the xrays are computerized, your files are computerized - they even have a program to design the crown and make it right there - in 17 minutes! Our dentist is very young and enthusiastic with an assistant named Tiff who is equally young and enthusiastic. Given that my appointment was for after work my enthusiasm was a bit  less and the only thing I could get excited about at that point was perhaps dinner and a nap. They were a bit put out that I didn't want to watch my crown being made but life is like that. We continue to hear from Adam and the Big Countdown, we're now into June so his departure is about a week away. We won't see him for awhile but he'll be HERE which is a great deal closer that Japan! Jackson is done with school next week, for a week and then he starts summer school for English 10. He's secretly looking foward to it I think because he's got a couple of friends in the class and it's only a few hours a day. It runs from June 14th to July 27th so that curtails any travel plans but he'll have most of August off.  It looks like rain for the entire weekend which is disappointing as most of my plans centered around the pool but I suppose I can think of something else to do. Jackson wants to see the 3rd pirate movie so perhaps we'll do that.