Over in a Day

Good morning. Just me. We’re up early again this morning, but the difference is that I am on "Vacation!" Well sort of ... we’re on sick leave. The big difference is "No work!" An entire four more days off, Yipeeeee!

LOL - we’ve had easier breaks though. We did some baby surgery yesterday. We were at the hospital by 7 and home by 4 with a couple of Subway sandwiches AND the required milk shake! Mmmm, just remembered our friend had put some ice cream in our fridge. Perfect! Turns out to be M&M vanilla fudge! YAYYYYY!

We didn’t understand the part of what the Doctors did. We had a hernia and he had said before hand that it was a classic and they’d be making 3 small holes in my abdomen, but after surgery, it was obvious that there were at least 12 holes, maybe one or two more. The doctor wasn’t available afterward, so I don’t know might have to wait two weeks for checkup to figure it out? Or, maybe I can call his nurse when I get to a phone on Monday. At this point, it would seem the hernia was a lot bigger than he may have imagined. Just not sure.

The pain is something that can be negotiated. It is present only slightly when just sitting (not straining), but when straining it hurts. Today, isn’t as bad as yesterday if I don’t have to bend all the way to the ground. Course that may be something do to the happy pill they’ve given. I think its called Vicodin. Not, a real strong one maybe, but I know I’m going to make it. I walk kind of funny though, kind of bent over in an old person fashion. I don’t think I’m going to make my psychiatry appointment today. It’s a long ... almost a couple of blocks walk. I think that would be pushing it. Maybe Monday, before I return to work. The best case scenario would be that my friend comes back in time and I can use his phone. We’ll have to see.

The experience wasn’t so bad in itself. I had to be there at 7 am and surgery started on schedule at 8:30 am. Couple of hour procedure, then recovery. That was a little longer ... kept falling back to sleep. The nurses were pretty good and there was a sense of moving forward. I think the whole thing went more smoothly than a trip to the emergency room. The deal was I could go home as soon as I could use the washroom. They couldn’t give me a bigger person’s wheelchair so I ended up walking to the car (shortcut) and then it was all over. Sweet!

When we got home our friend said that we didn’t have to bring my work up from the car. We didn’t argue much, though I think in a day or so sitting around watching TV might get old. At least, and especially the good part is that I can sit at the computer. The nurse said that as long as I was up, I should stand-up and walk around a bit. So, that is good enough for me. Whoops, already coffee is ready, hold on :)

Ahh washroom stop and picked up a warm blanket too. Might as well be comfortable!

So, beside all that ... oh yeah, there is another medical update.

I made it to the doctor's appointment Monday. It seems as if there will be a few more things to do after surgery. I'm having trouble keeping it all in my mind, but the doctor wants to now check my lungs and for sleep apnea. She's running some more tests, one that will require a 12 hour fast. I'm still having trouble with my back due to the arthritis and feet and she's worrying over left leg for something. She's pretty sure I should be on an 1800 calorie diet, she's added a couple new medicines, and I'm going to have to start glucose testing again. This is in addition to still keeping appointments for my eyes, nutrition, and physical therapy. Diabetes, cholesterol, and thyroid seem to be going along as fine as can be expected. No way of getting out of being a multiple, but the anxiety and depression that goes with it is pretty stable. Think that’s all the problems. *Sigh*

I know ... one thing at a time. I can do this.

I’ve gotten over the toughest part now ... well, maybe that and an 1800 calorie diet. That seems pretty not fun. I know, I know ... life change, only a life change.

Need to get out of this frame of mind for a while. I AM on vacation! Think I would like to write little and read a lot. We’re very happy to be reading yet on organizing. All the costs incurred this past couple of weeks in setting up the program, seem to have gone through the bank. So, we’re all set up and ready to go. Hopefully, by the time we get back on Monday, the last part will have come in. That’s the Paper Tiger software we’d talked about last entry. I think on that one we went the free delivery in 7-10 business days.

We spent some time on Monday and Tuesday setting things up and working it out. I was making good use of the time and I got a few small projects accomplished which made me feel good. I love the new order on my desk. I made the divider cards for all of my different work areas, and we added one more group of divider cards. We listed out our day in time segments. I think we’re going with 7:30-9:00, 9:00-11:30, 11:30-12:00, 12:00-1:00, 1:00-2:00, 2:00-2:30, 2:30-4:00 and 4 and beyond. It works out in my head and includes natural breaks that are going on with the clients and other staff. So, the new idea is not only to take certain cards out of the pile for accomplishment that day, but to estimate by time segments goals for each task. That’s Howard’s idea. He distinctly separates to do lists for those tasks that get scheduled in a planner. It has to do with making a commitment to get things done.

The key work area where we’re going to be shutting our door is the period between 9:00-11:30. That I think is going to get reserved for CARF as soon as we finish the last annual report to be written up. That makes me feel good. I found our CARF manuscript too before leaving. That will be the first project brought up from the car. We need to be planning on what to do there first. I know there is a couple of Reports to finish, not sure if I’ll do them first or something else. For those of you newer to our journal, CARF is a major project of ours to take care of our center’s accreditation. It’s a pretty encompassing project. Lot of time, but its been put on hold while preparing for the State inspection that is now over. Always something next and next on the schedule. I don’t have one of those jobs that is ever completable.

I’m not sure how my plans for staff training have faired out. I used Sunday to set up a 17 week course of events. It involves spending a private half hour with each of the eight DSPs going over job improvement material. I decided that we could use each of the terms in the employee evaluation tools. The first one is quality of work. So, from the Internet we pulled some stuff together and made a 30 statement survey. Beside that, we made up personal "I can" statements that corresponded to the first. So that if you wanted to strongly agree with a statement (be very positive), you would follow a path of taking personal responsibility.

I left the project with Sr. Tess on Monday, so we’ll find out how that goes when we get back. We’ll see, we’ll see. I think it was good thinking though. Hope, hope ...

Whoops, more coffee and V’s on-line ... YaYYYYYYYYY

Whew, next time put blanket up on couch. Bending sucks!

Hmm, back again. Whoops nother stretch/cup o’coffee. Maybe go wake up that lazy cat of mine in th back bedroom snoozin! Ohh, he’s up!! Maybehe was laying on my blanket. Ahh, good coffee, good stretch. And, good kitty pet. Hmm, kitty treats on the house!

Well, what else is there to think up this morning? Kind of getting excited to get back into the organizational stuff, but not sure if I shouldn’t take a nap first. Hmm. Maybe first reading ... just 30 pages left of the book I’m reading. Yep, yep ... that THEN nap. :)

Pretty good, pretty good!