But it seems, for now, I'm too tired in the evening. Here is a re-cap of the last few days:
Thursday, September 27th -- I utterly broke down at work because a mom was not happy that I hade made an appointment at an alternate location since I can't get an MRI at the university until a month after the child was supposed to have it. Turns out the doctor told her they couldn't have it locally because the university's scanner is so much better. She was very strident, not necessarily abusive, but it just set me off into a crying fit (it turns out I was also pre-menstrual, so maybe that can explain the sudden lability), and my neighbouring co-worker heard it, had me unlock the door, and talked me into taking a walk and stepping away from the office. It was a really hard day. I had over 20 off-sites to schedule (still do, as every time I manage to schedule one about 2-3 more appear in my box).
The university is down to two, maybe one MRI scanner (depending on certain conditions like age, if it's with contrast, etc.) due to some maintenance, and so the other day I managed to get a cervical, thoracic, and lumbar MRI scheduled there--a long scan, easily over 2 hours--but otherwise without any of the constraints I'm normally given (it was originally supposed to coordinate with a brace pickup, but the university was too booked, so they just said any time I could get), and the first available was in the middle of December. Now in some cases, I do have an alternate place I can go to--the one I scheduled the kid in that caused his mom to go ballistic--and I was given the go ahead to go there for this one, as it's just too far out. Most of these are supposed to be same day so they can see our doctors then, and they're usually in clinic about two days a week, given that they're in surgery or at the university on other days. But if I go to the alternate place, I have to clarify a spine survey (a reduced scan) vs a full scan, and all these little details take time, especially since I try at the university first as that's preferred. And they can't do sedation ones.
Meanwhile, the baby hips are causing me no end of stress. When we ask for an ultrasound for hip dysplasia, it's usually for treatment, not for diagnosis, and it has to be without manipulation, often in a harness. These kids are extremely delicate--they can't be moved out of position at all. The university is the only place in town that does them without manipulation, and they're down three techs. The requests for these are always the same day, as is our protocol, and usually a week or two weeks out. I'm struggling to get dates before a month out, and I'm relying on cancellations to get anything scheduled. There are lots of little things that go into all of this, forms to fill out, faxes or e-mails, calling the centres, calling the parents, rescheduling, usually, as it doesn't suit someone, and then mailing letters, maps, and updating a summary, and sending the form out to a group. That's just my part. Then I hand it over to someone else who pre-certifies it. But this could easily be a more-than-full-time job alone. And it's just half of what I do--the surgery pre-certs are the main thing, and I"m struggling to get those done ahead of time because of all the time I'm spending on the off-sites. I tracked the last week of off-sites on a running total to see how many I had a day, how many I got done, etc., whether I ran into any problems. The one where the mom triggered the crying fit took about three hours total. On a good day--if I only work on off-sites--I can do about seven, or one an hour. But that's without doing the surgeries at all that day. Usually, it's two, maybe three. And they just keep coming. Plus, they have to be prioritised as they come in, as some are more urgent than others, like ones that are post-surgery the next day, or the baby hips for a week out. It's causing a lot of stress.
I've already had an episode where I went to the emergency room for hours with chest pains and headache, and they eventually decided I'd had a migraine that was causing numbness and pain down my left arm. I told that to my neurologist yesterday and he gave me a dissolving medication for migraines. But I'm sure the whole thing was stress-related. I'm getting a lot of headaches, have had some gastroenteric issues, and I've been stress eating from the vending machines, so my hA1c jumped from 7.1% a few months ago to 9.0% since I started in June. I'm going to have to start packing carrots and other healthy foods, as I'm not sure I can curb the urge to eat, but at least I can change what I eat, and my endocrinologist said that was fine.
Friday, September 28th--It was a better day. Busy, of course. I started tracking the off-sites at work. I had 26 that morning and got it down to 19.
Last weekend--my friend, the kitten, and the cat were all sniffly and under the weather. The dog and I were the only ones fine. We didn't play the game as a result, but I got a lot of rest, at least.
Work throughout the week--I just sallied forth and did what I could. Surgeries were mostly done the day before or day of. I realised late Friday afternoon that I had not sent one, and sent it in. It may be denied for no timely authorisations (most places don't due retro ones). That's not acceptable, and I know it, and it most likely will be an issue. It won't be passed to the family (we are an actual charity, not just a non-profit), but it will cost the hospital money if denied. So there was stress there. I didn't think I was doing well, but I didn't think I'd actually drop the ball entirely on one. So we'll see if they approve it. I have no illusions that they will.
Tuesday, October 2nd--So I updated my laptop to the Windows 10 October Feature Update. More on that in a minute.
Wednesday, October 3rd--That evening, I went to do a book review that I hadn't managed to get in by the 1st, and lo, my documents were all gone due to the update. No one was really reporting on it at the time, just a few things in the fora. I spent the evening seeing if they had been moved to another area, and I rolled back the update to see if they would appear. Nada. Nothing on my desktop, music, or photos had been touched, just my local drive non-cloud documents. But that included the game notes, my job hunt materials, and my book reviews. I updated back and at least I have some of that on Dropbox. The game notes were backed up a month ago, and there are just two sessions I lost, which is good, and those recordings were still on the desktop, thankfully, so I can reconstruct (over several hours). Most of the important stuff was already backed up. But I was not happy with Microsoft at all. I was also up late that night backing up my desktop, where my friend has tens of thousands of documents and pictures that he's collected and created over years, and we unplugged it from the Internet entirely.
Thursday, October 4th--News stories started making the rounds on the tech sites of the data loss issue with the update. I did find a good tool for trying to recover files, but it only recovered a few non-important files I'd deleted myself, although I did get a book review back. But either the files I'd had were just absolutely deleted by Microsoft's update, or rolling back--which even now Microsoft is suggesting,--just deleted them beyond recovery.
I did find ways to make sure the desktop didn't get the update (fortunately that machine is Windows 10 Pro, not Home like the laptop, so it's easier. We were able to plug the computer back in. It's deferred all updates for a month, and any feature updates for a year. So we're good for now, hopefully. But again, despite my best efforts to go to bed early, I was awakened in the middle of the night for a minor crisis and didn't get back to bed till 4 am.
Yesterday--We are officially out of grocery money. I'm broke in general, my last purchase being a pie for a send-off at work for a co-worker who is moving to a new department. It's going to be a very lean week until I get paid.
Today--I got some good sleep last night, and woke up to sun streaming through the window, and the cat, who'd really been struggling with the crud, obviously doing much better. I got up, got some water, took my medicine, and played with the kitten with a laser pointer, although I have to be careful because while he's up to playing, he's still got a little breathing issue from the crud he had.
Okay, that's it for now. Sorry I haven't blogged. Today is the library, pet food run, book review, and working on the notes, plus going over to our sick friend's for a visit and maybe a movie tonight.
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