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Tuesday, 26 May 2009

I'm alive

Still working days on the weekends and nights during the day.
I love being a nurse. I struggle with working with so many women and the overwhelming feeling of being back in high school with everyone having cliques they belong to. :(

I have been working out for 15? weeks, maybe longer. Go to the gym on my days off. So about 4-5x a week. Work on the elliptical for an hour, sweat my butt off. Do half an hour to an hour of weight training after the cardio. No weight loss. Meh, I have a ton more energy and have grown a few muscles and am so much stronger.

Thursday, 13 November 2008

For me and the one other person (maybe it is two people) that read this, I am considering dropping this blog. This is my only blog and while it is nice to have somewhere to write out a few thoughts it seems like I am writing in a black hole. Which is good because I feel like I have lots of anonymity but lets face it. That isn't the truth of the internet. From what I have read it seems xanga isn't long for this world.
Additionally the other reason I started this was to keep in touch with peanut butter. Meh, that hasn't worked out either.
Anyways, I am thinking that the end of December I will findd out what I need to do to get this account shut down.

Thursday, 06 November 2008

Next crazy move for my schedule is to work Saturday and Sundays 7a-7p and then pick up one night shift during the week. This craziness doesn't start for about 7 weeks or so. I will do straight nights until then.
I have the idea that weekends are less hectic than weekdays on the floor I work. So I will be able to keep up with the pace of days. Days usually has 1 less pt per nurse than nights. On the rare occaision I have four pts instead of five it is easy-peasy to get everything done. That has to be true just from the standpoint that no surgeries or cath's take place on the weekend unless they are emergent. Fewer procedures, xrays, CT's and MRI's take place on the weekend as well.
Three shifts of 12 hour nights can be rough. I usually am there by 1830 and don't get done with report until 0730-0800. So a minimum shift of 13 hours..... Add the occaisional pt crashing right at report time and you are looking at 40 hours in three days. I frequently have 4 days in a row. That's a minimum of 52 hours and I wonder why I sleep the entire next day that I have off. LOL!!! But I will often have 4 or 5 days off in row..... I won't be able to do that with the change to days on the weekend.

Thursday, 30 October 2008

The ups and downs of being a new nurse is exhausting. Best part: I am learning something new everyday! Hardest part: realizing how much you need to learn. :)
Dh is doing amazingly well. His ortho doc even commented that dh's healing so quickly was amazing. Dh is in physical therapy to help rebuild the strength he lost over the last two months and help him continue healing without surgery. The insurance company is dragging its feet on paying the hospital bills. I was concerned this could be an issue since the ambulance was sent to the only non-ppo hospital in the area.
We are supposed to have coverage for emergent care regardless of provider but you have establish that it was an true emergency. Fair enough. Unfortunately it gets stickier since dh was admitted to said hospital. In that situation how they are going to pay is going to be unknown. I think when all is said and done I have enough documentation to show need and that it was an emergent situation. We will see.
I understand the cost difference for the insurance company so I understand the reasoning for them wanting to make sure that they aren't paying every time someone calls an ambulance and decide to go to a hospital that isn't a ppo. That of course, isn't the case in our situation. Being thrown from a moving motorcycle and having multiple fractures definitely qualifies as emergent. As a nurse I think that the doc's had no choice but to admit him given the level of injury and potential for additional injuries to present (as is often the case where blunt force is involved in a trauma) but will the insurance see that as clearly as I do?

Thursday, 25 September 2008

Dh made it home and is healing. He is finally starting to go back to work for half days. Motorcycle was totalled.
Received the hospital bill yesterday: $20K. Keep in mind that does NOT include what the doctors have/will be charging for their services or the ambulance ride. All things said, I still thought the hospital total was going to be more money. I have access online to our health insurance. I am surprised to see only a few claims have been posted at this point. He was discharged on the 10th.
In other news, the unit I work on is changing the way they do our schedule. Much outrage is being expressed. My only concern is that I don't get stuck working every other day. Nights are hard enough. Flipping back and forth on a daily basis would kill me. I am considering asking to go to days and signing up for mostly weekends. I think it would work because there are enough people who hate weekends that I could probably get them to trade me for the days in question. I really enjoy the people I work with at night. That part would suck.