My neck has been hurting quite a bit, and it's making pain and parasthesia going down through my arms, which has been quite annoying. So last night I took my dose of muscle relaxants I keep just for such an occasion. Tizanidine is really mild, and they're only 4 mg pills, but I take three at a time as directed. Usually when I take them, the next morning I wake up early and refreshed, ready to go. Not this morning. I was sluggish, kept falling asleep and hitting snooze. I start my alarms (there are several) at 6 am so I can get up by 7 am at the latest. It takes 15 minutes for me to shower and 15 minutes to get ready, then a 10 minute drive and 20 minutes between walking to the bus stop, taking the shuttle, and walking from the bus stop at the University of Kentucky emergency department. So I realised that I was, indeed, going to be late when I finally crawled out of bed just before 7:30 am.
I took a shower, got dressed, grabbed my lunch, got in the car, took my COVID screening on my phone, and texted my supervisor and my manager. Then I drove carefully to UK's Orange Lot. Right as I was getting ready to go through the second roundabout, I thought about combing my hair (I drive with both windows down), and I realised that I didn't have my comb, or my crossbody purse, just my backpack (and yes, there's a brush in the backpack, but that's beside the point.) So I told me, that's fine, just don't get pulled over or get into an accident, as you don't have your licence with you. I'm pretty poor right now, as it's right before payday, so I wasn't planning on spending money at least, and I did bring my lunch. All good, right? I had my phone and my receiver for my continuous glucose monitor.
So I parked and was getting my jacket on (it was raining a bit) and then it hit me. My badge was in my purse.
Yesterday I'd put my badge holder on a new lanyard one of my co-workers brought back from the beach. Because, unlike the one I usually use, it has a reel and snap joint for clipping in onto the lanyard, I'd decided to keep it in my purse rather than put in on for the trip, because I didn't want to take a chance of losing it at UK. It's $15 to replace the suckers. The reason for that is they double as a proximity card, so in addition to clocking in and out, they get us through various locked doors (and my office happens to be one you have to badge into) AND you can't get into the computer and get to all your files unless you have yours. And of course, then I left the whole purse, which is only big enough for my wallet, keys, lip balm, hand sanitiser, and glucose tabs, really. I'd left it on a stool near my bed at home. But if I'd gone to work, I wouldn't have actually been able to work, and I'd have to fork over money I didn't have to get a new one.
I called my boss and basically asked, since I was already going to be late (although it would have been maybe by five, ten minutes tops) if I could go back home and get my badge, and she said that was fine. So I got back in the car, went home (obeying all traffic laws) got my purse, made sure my badge was in it, drove back (which was interesting, as a jogger crossed against our green turn light and some yahoo in a truck in the oncoming lane decided he was supposed to go, too, so he ran a red light, nearly hitting the car in front of me, who had yielded to the jogger, who looked to be in his 60s and was certainly old enough to know how to cross a street and obviously just didn't care).
I got to work 45 minutes late, but got started on my work, and actually got a bit ahead today, so it was a pretty decent day all told. But it was a little sketchy there for a bit.
Tomorrow I need to really be on my game because I have a meeting at 11 am and I have to prepare a couple of spreadsheets. The other person who reads the material won't be there tomorrow, so I'll read both weeks of summaries. I've gotten very good at pronouncing the word 'hemiepiphysiodesis' due to this meeting. Wednesdays morning are usually me preparing for it, as she does her part the afternoon before. After the meeting, I plan to get as far as I can on authorisations (I have a couple to do for this week, and then it's on to next week). I'd like to get a minimum of two to three weeks out this week, and preferably a month out, and then fill in the new visits or added ones. I also need to work on some denials and do some housekeeping in terms of putting data into other spreadsheets so I can file some paperwork. That doesn't all have to be done tomorrow afternoon, but it would be great if I could get some of it done this week. I've been working really steadily and my days are certainly full; there's never really boring downtime some people have in their jobs. There's always a lot to do. But since we shuffled our duties between a co-worker and myself so she both schedules and authorises offsite imaging and I authorise surgeries and office visits, my anxiety has gone way down. Scheduling was a juggling job that kept me constantly worrying about details of whether something would work, and it took a whole lot of time. I hope she's doing okay. We back each other up, though, so the other day I did both jobs and it wasn't too bad becuase it was a little quieter on the offsite front, at least, and I only had to schedule the urgent ones.
I guess I should sign off here. I will try to write more. I've been listening to Pandora, but I have a book I'm reading (or, as my roommate puts it, a computer file, as it's a Kindle book out of the library) that is fiction (something I've been struggling to read of late), over 300 pages, and I'm over halfway now. It's called The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick. It's about a widower who finds a charm bracelet of his late wife which turns out to lead him on an adventure learning more about the woman he loved and the life she had before they met. I'm really enjoying it. The writing is very pleasant and the story drew me in. It's taken me a couple of weeks to get this far, as it's hard to make time, but I checked it out again so I have it for another two weeks. Yay! Hopefully I can finish before it's due.
Oh, I got to do a librarian thing today, finding out some information for a co-worker that involved calling an oral history centre and finding out how to access their materials. It was fun. That part of my life seems like it's in the past now, but it's still nice to be able to do things like that occasionally, plus I learned about some resources I didn't know about.
Okay, I really am going to sing off her for now. Good night.
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