Tag Archives: work

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Disney Day

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This week is spirit week at work. This reminded me of when my girls were in grade school. Today was Disney day and the endo girls informed me I was to represent endo. Well Disney is one of my favorite places so I took the challenge and ran with it.

I wore my favorite Disney running shirt from the Disneyland half marathon. Of course it is orange and short sleeves and a favorite. I dug out my monsters inc scrub cap I made during the first few months of covid and my Mickey ears from when Emily and I went three years ago. I was proud of how I looked until Sarah told me I looked like a psycho. Well everyone knows I’m psycho but I try to not look the part so I skipped having my picture taken. I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to how insane I actually looked.

I ended up being assigned to washing all the scopes all day which meant no one would see my ears. They are pretty tight on my head so I avoided a headache. Amanda told me since it’s Disney day I should listen to Disney music so I dialed up Disney sing along songs and had a great time in the scope room. Not only was I singing but dancing as well so I’m sure I looked like a complete psycho but I had a wonderful day.

It dawned on me that when I was young my dad took my sister and I to quite a few Disney movies. Cinderella, The Apple Dumpling gang, Pete’s Dragon and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang all came to mind. This is most likely what led to my love of Disney movies.

I was 17 the first time I went to Disney World. My parents divorced when I was five but remained good friends. My mom called my dad to tell him of her plans and he said he always wanted to go to Disney so how about if he comes with us and pays for it. My favorite memory was conning my mother into riding space mountain. She nearly had a heart attack and never forgave us for talking her into it. The three of us loved it and rode it at least two more times. Epcot was the only other park back then and we were not that impressed. Not enough rides and walking around the world showcase was beyond boring. I know my mom liked that part but us three six flag lovers wanted the rides. I do remember after the trip was over I understood why my parents were friends but not married to each other.

Today was a good day, full of wonderful memories of my childhood and my kids childhoods as well. Before I started endo anytime I got up early to work at seven I would sing “Prince Ali, Ababwa strong as ten regular men check it and see.” I had no idea I even did this until Emily pointed it out. I can’t sing at all so it’s a good thing I stopped this since I’m up for work three to four times a week.

Mole Moral ~ If you don’t have fun at work, perhaps you are not in the right place.

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I survived week one!

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Some random thoughts from my first week.
1. Schleprock is alive and well
A. I stepped on the water pedal not once but twice (same day) and squirted water all over the floor.
B. I didn’t connect the water tightly and therefore water squirted all over the doctor. He said hey I’m getting wet and was very nice.
C. I dropped a 45K piece of equipment on the floor on day three.
D. Almost hit same doctor in the head with a wire.
2. I realized I was on autopilot with my old job and didn’t even think about what I was doing. So being 100 percent focused for forty hours is exhausting.
3. The drive does not involve 270 which is fantastic.
4. Working full time is for the birds.
5. I’m way too hard on myself.
6. I love all the people I work with. They are happy and fun.
7. Everyone over the age of fifty who does not have a screening colonoscopy is playing with fire.
8. Learning something completely new is intimidating (see number 5) but also rewarding.
9. You can teach this old dog new tricks.
10. Looking forward to week two  What disaster can Schleprock avert?

 

Mole Moral ~ Change is scary but better than misery!

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A Pinterest Thanksgiving

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First of all I will confess I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. It was about two months ago when my boss requested rice krispy treat turkeys for our Thanksgiving teamwork reminder. Our one word for the year at work is Teamwork between women’s health, mother/baby and labor/birth. So each month the Professional Governance committee that I am on comes up with different ways to remind the unit of the word. I had thought about the turkey request but made the mistake of getting on the above mentioned website and found these.

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They are so cute and look so easy. Looks can be very deceiving. I had to make them in three batches and I ended up with chocolate everywhere. Six hours later this was my end results.

The next issue was just exactly how was I going to get them all to work. So I decided to put them on a tri-fold science project board, folded up. That worked well, except they were heavy as all get out. I covered them tightly with Saran wrap and put them in my car. I hadn’t made it three miles from my house when there was an accident on the highway and I hit the brakes. That sent my turkeys flying into the floorboard. I thought I was never going to get to work to assess the damage.

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A few lost a leg, a few lost an eyeball and  three lost their entire face but all in all they survived pretty well. My boss loved them and the general consensus was I have way too much patience to put that much work into something. Actually by the time I realized how time-consuming they were, I was in over my head and decided I had no choice but to finish what I had started.

I could not figure out what I wanted to make for Thanksgiving when it popped into my head to look for a carrot cake cheesecake recipe. I swear you can find the kitchen sink on pinterest. So here is what I found and the article said the ingredients made the cake look initimitating but do not be afraid it was pretty easy.

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Well the way it said to layer the cheese cake with the carrot cake did not work out at all for me. And after I had the cake in the oven I realized I had forgotten to put the sour cream in the cheesecake portion. It was too late. So we finally cut into around four this afternoon and I baked in a 9×13 pan so mine looked like this.

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It tasted really good and my mother in law told me to leave it with her. Now she had made my favorite cheesecake of all,  Jello No Bake Cheesecake so I took a chunk of that home for later tonight.

Mole Moral ~ So many things to be Thankful for, I can read, I can follow directions, all of my family is healthy, I can taste, I can see, I can enjoy good food. I love my job (most days) and I have patience to do crazy crafts.

 

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Not everyone knows my name

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Sometime within the last month the girls at work were giving me the business about my obsession with Pokémon Go. I was talking about the raid bus and one of the second year Ob/Gyn residents joined in the conversation. Let’s flash forward to yesterday my first day back from camp.

The same resident is at the desk and he was talking about how he was at Queeny Park on Saturday with his kids when a bus pulled up into the parking lot. He thought that was really random given the time of the day until he saw me get off the bus. Then he knew it was the Pokémon bus I was talking about. I was cracking up. He left and I went on to give out some pain medicine.

A few minutes later I hear Amy answer the phone and she says just call her Pokémon girl, everyone will know who you mean. Apparently he didn’t know my name. I was cracking up and this made a great day even better!!

 

Mole moral ~ It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one terrible with names and I always enjoy a good nickname.

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Own it, don’t dismiss it.

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A few weeks back my music switched to cycling through everything on iTunes, instead of just my play list. I usually tolerate this until one of the kids nasty worded rap songs comes on and I switch it back to my Christian music. After I saw Rob Bell two years ago I downloaded some of his first pod casts and it so happened number seven popped on. I had heard it before but I had a feeling I should listen again. I believe he called it the tapes in your head. The word tape kind of shows our age since I’m pretty sure they no longer exist.

He was talking about the way you talk about yourself in your head. So he launches into a scenario where he is playing kickball with you and you catch his ball but you trip and fall and run a spike through your chest. So he cuts the spike loose and halls you to ER. I had a hard time getting past playing kickball with Rob and not calling 911. Anyway you arrive to ER and they stat page a doctor to your room. Do you want your doctor to play this in her head? I’m not really sure about this. I graduated last in my class. There are so many doctors that are better than me. Or would you want her tape to say I’ve got this. I know exactly what needs to be done. I have the skills and the team to accomplish this. Another thing he spoke about is not owning compliments but rather dismissing them or downplaying them.
Three hours after I listened to this I walked into work and my boss was talking with another gal I had never met. The unknown called me high energy and my first thought was no I’m not. And then it was if my head shook and cleared my brain and I was like I think she’s right. So I’ve been thinking about how my life does indeed reflect high energy.
For starters my job reflects this. I am scheduled eleven am until seven-thirty pm to come in and take all the new admits. They include surgeries, direct admits (straight from home or doctors office) ER patients and moms who just had a baby that ends up in NICU. This shift originally started because for a few years the hospital did away with having people on call and we were not allowed to staff for patients who weren’t there at the start of the day. On big surgery days (10 or more) this could be a nightmare with every nurse being at max capacity and yet more surgeries needing to come. I worked three to eleven back then so a lot of times they would call me to work early. So anyway I now come in at whatever time they need me. This may be as early as eight thirty or as late as three. I sometimes have all five patients within three hours. The recovery room loves me because I almost always take report when they call and have taken back to back and say send at same time I’ll make it work. The only time this is a nightmare for me is when the patients were not given adequate pain medicine during surgery and are out of control upon arrival. This keeps me running for the first few hours. Our unit is huge and really spread out so on a crazy day I can easily hit ten thousand steps in eight hours. And to think my husband likes to harass me and say all nurses do is sit around and eat chips and dip.
My activity level screams high energy too. I walk almost three miles every day for my coffee and then around the back neighborhood. It’s also my time to play Pokémon. I’m still running and always training for something. Last years fifty mile runalone says either high energy or belongs in an insane asylum.
At the end of the same day I had a patient and her husband thank me for being the kindest nurse and person they ever met. My first reaction was to dismiss the entire compliment and then Rob popped into my head and the love dare. I remembered one of the three things Brian said he admired about me was my willingness to do whatever I could to help others. And I must admit they were right. They were of a different culture and I respected that and incorporated it into my plan of care. Plus they were Heartprint patients which will always have a special place in my heart.
So over the past three weeks I’ve been trying to own it, instead of dismissing it. I must say this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. My head tape likes to go immediately to the negative and the worst case scenario. I guess I have something to work on.
Mole Moral ~ If the tape is negative, eject it, and replace with a positive one, you deserve it!
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The Mole Work Ethic

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My mom use to worry that my girls would not have a good work ethic because they did not have a job in high school. Emily’s first job was after her second year of college. She worked in a pharmaceutical factory packing boxes in Fenton. The factory closed before the end of the summer. She worked with a lot of former Chrysler workers and they all encouraged her to finish her college education. The next two summers she worked as a nanny and really enjoyed it. That job was way too challenging in my opinion. My own kids are bad enough, no way would I want to deal with someone else’s. Kayla got a job towards the end of her senior year at Swing Around Fun Town. They love her there and promoted her to lead after her first year. She still works there on breaks and summer vacation. Allyson has been at her job for two weeks now.

Emily is working out in California now as a physical therapist. She was diagnosed almost a month ago with a kidney stone. She is in a small town with only one urologist within fifty miles. She needs surgery to remove this stone but that won’t happen for another week. However, she has gone to work every single day anyway. Some days she lays down between patients and texts me that she is dying. The doctor wants her to take the day off after she has surgery and she has told me there is no way she is dong that and plans to work. It will be interesting to see how that works out. Kayla pretty much goes in extra whenever she is asked. She trades hours with people, stays late, goes in early or leaves early as needed. She worked her last shift before starting Missouri State but then the next day she ended up going in for two hours to help out in the kitchen. So her last day was really her second last day. Allyson has already worked for someone who was sick since she had nothing else going on. So I think my mom was worried for nothing.

They say with kids they really do watch what do and not so much what you say. Brian in all the years he has worked has maybe missed five days because he was sick. He did take two months off after he gave his kidney to his father because I forced him too. With that major of a surgery he did not need to be back at work lifting all of that heavy stuff. I can’t remember exactly when I went to all of my shifts being eleven am to seven pm but its been at least five years. My hours really are anywhere from seven am until five pm just depending on how many surgeries, how many nurses are scheduled and what is going on. I pretty much trade with whoever needs to switch a day. My kids are modeling this behavior but yesterday took the cake and the purpose for this blog.

The charge nurse had called around 11:30 to say she needed me. So I was driving to work talking to my best friend Meg when my mom called. I didn’t answer but when she left a message I told Meg I better get off the phone. My mom had fallen and was pretty sure she had broken her arm. There was another nurse on call, so I called her and asked her if she would go in for me so I could go see what was going on with my mother. The charge nurse decided she didn’t need her right then but needed someone at three to cover the eight-hour shift nurse that was leaving. Amy agreed to go in for me and I would take on call. So my mom did indeed break her humerus right below where it meets the shoulder. They gave her a sling and said she could go home. It was now four pm and I was on call until five so I we went up to my floor to hang out. I did not want to get twenty minutes away from the hospital and get called back in. Well sure enough at four-thirty they paged three unexpected patient’s so I clocked in and my mom hung out in our waiting room until I got off at seven-thirty. She said she took the best nap ever on the couch in the waiting room. I got her home around eight last night and opened all kinds of food and things for her because you can’t do anything with one hand. She sees the orthopedic doctor on Monday.

 

Mole moral ~ The mole kids are either half crazy or have a great work ethic, since they seem to be doing what their parents do.

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How to get a job, Mole style

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Allyson decided about a month ago she wanted a job but since this would entail her parents driving her to and from work they were no help. She decided she wanted to work where her friend Trent works, so he got her an application. Her mom helped her fill it out and then she turned it in. They called her during school the next day and since she  never has her phone with her she called them back at four thirty. They asked her to come in for an interview at five thirty. I had just left to go run so Brian took her to The Local House. It is a restaurant two miles from our house that a cousin of Brian’s owns. She comes out and informs Brian she got the job. He asked her how much money she was going to make and she said she didn’t know. He asked her what she had to wear and she had no idea. She did know she was starting the next day as a bus girl. Luckily they sent home a handbook for her to read and sign that had the dress code in it.

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She’s been working for a week now and makes three bucks an hour plus tips. She had three nights of orientation but now that she is on her own she brought home tip money last night. I told her no spending it on drugs. She actually is running a star wars game server and is using the money to pay for that. Considering she gets off of work anywhere between nine and eleven at night she is going to be learning to drive because her parents are old and need to go to bed early.

 

Mole Moral ~ When you don’t dance or cheerlead then your parents let you get a job. Just kidding everyone knows number three gets by with murder.