floor plan

while hubbie was out in the yard today, my bff came over to help me tear up the floor -- literally.  

our house was built in 1989, and hubbie and i are pretty sure the linoleum tiles were put down by the original owners.  being that it's 25 years later, the tiles have been gradually chipping to the point where even i felt the need to do something.  we have many items on the DIY home improvement list, but as neither of us are particularly handy, this is probably one of our biggest projects to date.

i could tell hubbie was pretty skeptical about how much my bff and i would accomplish.  when i mentioned that we'd need to move the refrigerator out of the way, he eyed the floor and pretty much said we'd get to that when the time came.

but i was a woman on a mission, and my bff came to work.  the scraping, hammering, prying, and chipping was therapeutic.  within a few hours, we had most of the floor up.  when hubbie came in to check on us, he seemed a bit surprised by the progress -- but true to his word, he moved the fridge and jumped in to help.

so part 1 of the project is done!  more to come...

on the job

whenever someone asks me about my job, it's kind of hard to explain.  if i don't feel like clarifying, i'll say i'm in medical records, and usually the conversation ends there.  i'll bet an image of me filing papers comes up, which is enough for anyone to stop asking.  (and btw, the last time i filed papers was when i was a clerk fresh out of school).

my role, though, involves so much more: management principles, business operations, information technology applications, electronic health records, data analysis and integrity, quality and patient care... i also play a supportive role for our internal customers.  physicians, for example.

it's not uncommon for me to be paged in the evenings to take care of something.  i do what i have to do, because ultimately the service we provide affects our patients, and that is our #1 priority.  whenever i think of it like that, it's what has me returning the page that much quicker.

when i called a doctor back tonight to confirm details of a report with him, he was extremely appreciative.  and in his words, not mine: "especially at almost 8 o'clock... on a friday."  it's nice to have that acknowledgment once in awhile.  that even though i'm the helper, the supporter... there's gratitude for the part i play.  it surely makes my job worthwhile.

busy bee

work has been a blur of activity... it's that time of year where a number of things happen at once: end of fiscal year stuff, start of new fiscal year stuff, new and visiting residents starting = volumes pick up, which is a domino effect of its own.  so in other words, yeah, it's busy.

add to that a number of projects, test plans, meeting after meeting in preparation for a whole new EHR... and yeah, you can call it crazy busy.

the kind of busy where i don't realize it's afternoon until i glance down at the clock.  the kind of busy where i somehow find myself in 7 hours of meetings with literally 9 minutes to gobble down lunch in between, stuffing my face with one hand while jotting down notes in the other.  the kind of busy where i don't get up to pee until i absolutely can not hold it any longer.  the kind of busy where i've lost track of what day it is, and then realize it's already... thursday?  the kind of busy where i work straight through 10 hours, come home, get paged after 11:30 p.m. just as i'm starting to unwind, and am now blogging after 1 a.m. because i'm waiting for a stat report to be completed.

but busy is good.  busy is what always makes me feel like myself again, the person who throws herself into work and isn't all that bothered by having to be on-call or feeling somewhat... needed.  essential.  productive.  busy, i've found, can be rather healing.

(especially following a week of being not-so-busy - per doctor's orders).

battle wounds

list of things i've come to dislike about surgery:

• the IV.  especially in the hand.  especially when i have to be poked more than once.

• having to take off my glasses before walking to the OR.. because i can't really see anything, including the people working on me.
• how incredibly chilly the OR is.  i mean, i understand why, but it's freezing!  and all i get is this little gown and a robe i can't even keep on!
• being strapped down to the OR table.  yes, i get it, but it always feels a bit odd.
• feeling like i have no control over when i go under.  every time i've had anesthesia, i have this weird thought in my head that it won't work, and then... nothing.
• waking up later, as if from sleep, and realizing there's a chunk of my life that's missing.  and the fact that things were being done to my body, and what those things were, i have no idea.  probably for the best.
• recovery.  "taking it easy" is not an easy thing to do.