#1 of 64

Sometimes I feel at a loss for what to post here - I can't always share what's happening at work, and I rarely share what's going on in my personal life. So I bust out the blog topic challenges!

And this one's a doozy - 64 topics. I'm not trying to do a new one daily, though. That would be insane, with how work and school is going this quarter. But I do plan to get through all of them!

So, Topic #1: Introduce yourself with a recent picture and 15 interesting facts

Sorry dudes, no pictures of me on here. That might mess with my whole anonymous vibe.

And 15 interesting facts about me...

1. I love ballet and do DVD's of it at home.

2. My Mam-Maw could really turn a phrase, and said that when she was younger, she wouldn't have touched my Pap-Paw "if he'd'a been on an ice cream stick". She later changed her mind and married him.

3. I can turn a phrase too. Especially when I blurt out things without thinking first. I referred to a winter hat with ear-covers as having "Fudd Flaps" which Mr. Polly was delighted by.

4. I want to like gardening, but I suspect I secretly hate it. That's so awful of me! Maybe I'd feel differently if I had a yard?

5. If I were a character in Alice in Wonderland, I would want to be the Caterpillar, but suspect I might end up being one of the cards.

6. I'm jealous of Bill Nighy's strut and swagger.

7. I call Bill Nighy's character in Pirates of the Carribean "Tentacle Bill".

8. I'm afraid of depths (like in the ocean) and of very large aquariums, but not for the same reasons.

9. When I'm tired, I develop a southern slurred speech pattern that my friend described as sounding like Adam Sandler in "The Waterboy". I haven't seen that movie but I'm pretty sure I ought to be insulted by that.

10. I get nervous and inappropriate around religious clergy of all stripes and am pretty sure I weirded out this chaplain intern that was at my hospital this week. And I outed myself as an atheist too. And I blushed so much that he either thinks I'm in love with him or I have rosacea.

11. Sometimes I'd rather change someone's diaper than have to talk to them. This is more about whether I'm feeling chatty and less about my love of diaper changing. Sometimes I really hate talking to people.

12. I loooooooooooooove Thumbelina, the world's smallest horse! I daydream about sewing us matching pajamas.

13. I interned at a couple of juvenile detention centers back in the day, which left me with a lasting fascination with prison culture.

14. I have a never-ending crush on John Goodman.

15. Little Women is probably my favorite book of all time. Or at least right up there. You can get me to cry by talking about Beth and Marmee pretty much any time.

Tweet round-up

Real bloggers do this, sometimes, don't they? I think the Bloggess does. She calls it phoning it in. Anyway, here are some of my most recent tweets for those of you who don't have the pleasure of subscribing to my brilliance there.

• March 25th: I feel genuinely excited to be about to clean my bathroom with lemon comet while I listen to an EMT podcast. 30 isn't too different from 29.
• March 26th: PT [physical therapy]asked me to come help push a guy's leg and then when I did it went kablooey and sprayed blood. And I didn't faint!
• April 7th: My shift is half over and very boring, I'm watching an old man watch baseball.
• April 8th: My confused elderly patient told me our relationship won't work if I don't stop lying to him & pretending we're at the hospital.
• April 15th: Hospital riddle: you're working a double and get a 1:1 for a confused impulsive fall risk old man. What word do you least want to hear him say when you walk into the room? ...My real answer (and what he said) = Vietnam. Other contenders?
• April 27th: What should I watch on VHS, crossroads or 3 men and a baby?
• April 29th: I'm still sick. Wheen I finally get better I have a new life goal: pinup girl gator wrestling queen. Seriously, I like Louisiana, waterproof makeup, alligators and crocodiles in general and I could dust off the fisticuffs.
• today: OMG I just got to cut off a patient's undies for the first time: today is AWESOME!!

I'm on it.

I'm off training and working on my hospital's orthopaedics floor regularly now, and I LOVE IT. Love, love, love it. I love that no matter what the problem is, there's always someone there for backup. Not sure how to use that whatchamacallit? Ask someone. Need a bariatric-sized something or another? Ask the unit secretary to call for one. Patient getting combative? You can always call security. We never run out of the basic stuff I use to care for patients (gloves, linens, hygiene supplies) and I'm never left completely on my own to just deal with a situation. It's great. That's the benefit of being at a facility many times over the size of the GreatRep, with all different sorts of staff available.

I've also gotten to see some pretty amazingly gross stuff, like the patient who came in with the complaint of "My toe is missing. I think maybe the dog bit it off". Sure enough, the whole thing was missing, and I could see the bone right in the middle of that toe stump. I get a lot of darling little old ladies who are getting hips repaired or replaced and who are just delighted to have a young lady being the one who helps them to the bathroom. We don't get all that many amputations, which is kind of too bad because I think those are really neat and I want to see how people get back to their regular activities after one (but that's more of physical therapy/rehab deal).

All in all, I'm being exposed to a lot of new conditions/procedures/equipment and the nurses on my floor are quite nice and pleasant to work with. I feel so lucky that I happened into a floor where patients (usually) go home happier and healthier than when they came in - it makes for such a different dynamic than I've experienced before. And I have health insurance! For myself and Mr. Polly both!

NKOTB

I've started training on my actual floor of the hospital, caring for real live patients. I've learned how to use (most of) the equipment there, including my first ever go-around with electronic charting and fancy-schmancy vitals-taking machines. I have yet to have a patient accept my offer of a bed bath or a shower, so maybe these people just like to be dirty or maybe they're too high to move or maybe they just don't wanna get even a little naked in front of me? Hard to say.

Tomorrow I'll have 8 patients to care for, then for my last day of training I'll have the full 10 (my normal load).

And so far, no more fainting. Not at the blood bank, not after chugging up all the flights of stairs in the "tower", not when someone was admitted with their toe already missing, not any fainting at all. Yay me!

Now if I can just navigate the whole time-management aspect and deal with nurses who are unused to delegating anything at all, I'll be golden.

Whew!

Occupy Wall Street Occupies my Heart

I'm no financial genius. I bust my ass 40 hours a week for very low pay, and go to school thanks to a state tuition waiver. My husband and I are perpetually struggling to pay off medical bills, courtesy of Cystic Fibrosis and our country's lack of socialized health care. The amount we spend every month on our health insurance premiums (mind you, I'm talking about JUST for coverage, not meds or anything else) is equal to 45% of the amount we pay for rent. Between basic health care and a place to live, that's most of our budget.

I've never invested in stock, never had a mutual fund.

I'm the 99%, clearly.

And the Occupy Wall Street protests are thrilling me. I look at the sea of people protesting that wide, wide income gap, and my heart beats faster. I feel honored that my new job is not only in healthcare, helping people, but is at a nonprofit hospital, and a union job at that.

I loved this quote from a CNN article about it: "The protest has drawn some criticism for its lack of concrete goals. But the fact that Occupy Wall Street is still going strong 19 days later means it's done what it set out to do: Draw focus to the concerns -- and anger -- many Americans have about the country's growing economic gap, plant the seed of an organized voice, and let the protest evolve naturally.

'We're showing that 'we the people' really are here, present, from all walks of life," said Tammy Bick, 49, an unemployed former medical secretary. "It's a meeting of the minds and a voicing of our issues. That alone makes it the best single experience of my life.'"

The other day, I had to go to the nearest Big Town to go get my BLS card (CPR for healthcare providers) before I start orienting at Father Sainty's. I kept Mr. Polly company when he needed to go a litle further out of the Big Town for an appointment with our accountants to get our taxes all finished up. The accountants that we use are people I've known most of my life - they work from home, and their home is on the street I grew up on.

Since we were right there, I saw my childhood home for the first time since the foreclosure. My Mother was still living there up until recently, but I hadn't been there, because of issues between me and her. I was having a very hard time setting foot in that house for the last few years, because of the condition it was in. I believe my Mother is a hoarder, although she would say differently (and does). At any rate, anyone would agree that the house was deeply in disrepair and looked obviously out of place in the neighborhood; it was the one on the block that was 'the eyesore'.

I hadn't seen it since my last visits there which were when I was cleaning and repainting the interior a few years ago.

Since it's been foreclosed, it's being renovated; pretty much gutted and redone. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about that. I think most people feel nostalgic about their childhood homes, and don't want anything changed. I found it to be a big relief to see the house being rehabilitated. I hope it turns out nicely and that the next occupants will be happy and healthy there.

I don't blame the bank for taking away the home, in this particular instance, I'm grateful that it happened. But I understand that's a rare reaction. And I would much rather that any profit from the whole transaction would be shared equally among all the workers involved.

Interviews

I just finished my phone screening (pre-interview) for a part-time job at Father Sainty's. I feel like it went really well, and should find out soon if I'll be called for a face-to-face interview or not.

I'm applying for a part time 2nd shift position on the orthopedic floor. The base pay over at Father Sainty's is almost $4 more per hour than my CNA pay at the Great Rep (and $2 more than I make as a Med Aide there) PLUS they have shift differentials for evenings and weekends, which is what I'd primarily be doing.

The lady I spoke to was cool, and we built enough rapport during the phone interview that I felt comfortable asking her my big question:

Since Father Sainty's just implemented CNA's, were any nurses let go in the process? What about LPN's?
I wanted to be sure I'm not walking into a situation where they've fired 3 RN's and hired 10 CNA's. The remaining RN's would start off hating me and all CNA's. Which is not good news, because they're going to be my direct supervisors. Or if they used to have LPN's and decided to do away with them in favor of all RN's supervising CNA's; that would be sticky too.

But they're actually going from an all-RN model to adding some CNA's. They never did use LPN's. And had they fired any RN's for this change?

She said no, that wasn't the case, and that while they had let some people's contracts expire without renewing them, they mainly freed up the budget by letting nurses retire. I hope that's the truth. I should try to get the scoop from my next door neighbor, because she's an RN over there.

Anyway, she didn't seem to be put off by my asking that, and answered as though it were a very reasonable question, which I think it is.

Now I just have to hold my breath for a couple of days to find out if I go get interviewed by a panel (!!!) at Father Sainty's. If I'm offered the job, I need to get details about their health insurance and how much it costs for employees, and then tally up whether I can afford to work part time there with benefits or if I need to stay full time at the Great Rep without benefits (which I'm currently paying the entire premium on).

Wish me luck!