On Friday I tried to get a doctor appointment because I knew how sick I was. They could not fit me in but they told me to go to the clinic associated with their office in the same building. I went, told the doctor all my symptoms and requested a cough syrup to help me sleep and let my house mates sleep. I also told him all my symptoms for the bronchitis. He prescribed the cough syrup but did not tell me (or note it anywhere on the papers he gave me) that he prescribed antibiotics. I went to pharmacy to pick up the prescription (good thing here was news that co pays with the new insurance are only $5, yippee!).
Fast forward to Sunday when I knew I was sicker than ever before and had a fever. Managed to get an appointment on Monday with my own doctor who walks into the room and says, so the antibiotics you are taking are not working?.....um…What antibiotics? The doctor I saw on Friday did not give me anything. Turns out after reviewing my files he decided to prescribe some but NO ONE called me or told me. So here I am very sick and barely moving around, trying to get in to see her when it could have been taken care of by a phone call. His excuse? I figure she had not picked up the syrup yet. Right, I can’t sleep or breather without coughing, let me wait 8 more hours before I feel better. I stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday. I am trying to go Wednesday but don’t expect to spend a whole day. My doctor said she will bring this up at the clinic meeting next week because this is something that has happened before. Oh and my fever on Friday? 101.1, on Sunday 102.9 and 102.7 Monday when I say her. Had he read my file he would have seen the previous notes by my doctor. I am so angry. I could have been a lot better instead of being sicker than I have been the past two years. I may not want to visit that clinic again of this is the kind of service. I mean, all he had to do was open my computer file and there it is, everything about me for the past 10 years.

going to be now as i need as much sleep as i can get. toodles!

It has been an interesting few weeks since I last wrote.

First let me say that I have missed catching up with all of you and the blogs. I fear I will have lots of time to read them over the next couple of days as I am home sick, more on that later. Welcome to all the new bloggers!

I left my old job and started the new one. I love it! The people (several of whom I worked with at the old job) work with me at the new one and gave me a wonderful welcome and just made it feel like family. I love going to work, have no problem getting up when the alarm goes off and will start back to the gym in the AM before work once I am not sick. It is so nice to be working someplace where they use your intelligence and believe in you.

I had not realized until I was leaving the last job how much that place had beaten my self esteem into the ground. It is nice to realize that I am an intelligent smart person and to have it recognized. It is also nice to catch an error in a major document your first day of work that might have cost your agency millions of dollars in the event of an emergency. It is always nice to make your first impression with the bosses a good one. The other people at the job are very nice and I am going to enjoy working there.

The only downside is a woman who sits next to me keeps remarking on how young I am. Her first words out of her mouth (and I kid you not) when she picked me up from the lobby on my first day was hello, boy you are young to have this job. (She is right I am about 15 years younger than the next employee but I worked HARD to get here.) Her comments about my age just increased when she read the biography that was sent out by the HRM in our agency. She made one last comment about my age when I wore jeans to the office my first week there. Think dark jeans with great shoes, a professional shirt and jacket and a very polished look. Picture me hearing 10 times a day, including when she introduces me to people that I am so very young to have this job. She mentioned: oh jeans your first week? I would not be caught in jeans my first week at a new job. I just replied: well as you mentioned I am very young and we are of different generations. C’est la vie! But she got the hint and has not mentioned my age since.

She has made it clear she wants to get a promotion from the glorified assistant level, but truly, she is clueless about how to work with people, does not censor herself, she puts herself into every conversation, and generally drives everyone around her nuts. I was warned about her before I started but did not believe it. She also narrates what she is doing. “Now I am calling Roger, asking about the XYZ file, dialing 555-1212, etc.” Thank god for my I-pod and loud opera in a foreign language. It blocks 90% of her narrations.

Somehow between the new job and seeing my sister and her family last weekend I got a cold which in two days turned into bronchitis. Now I am on the watch to see if it turns into pneumonia. I am very susceptible to getting sick with lung issues since the winter I came home from Moldova. I had to finish out the week (big emergency management exercise at work I was evaluating) but am home and bed bound for the weekend. I hope to be better by Monday as I have to go in to finish a project and then I have a day off Tuesday to make up for missing my regular day off Friday. Getting a 9-8-80 work week is just wonderful and if the governor goes through with the one day a month furlough (where state employees get one more day off without pay and lose a little less than 5% of their salary a month) I will have almost 40 days off a year without using vacation. How nice is that? I might never have to take a vacation day unless I want more than 4 days off in a row.

Now that the new job as started I feel like I have gotten my life back. I leave work and have energy and want to go and do something and enjoy it. I have spent more time with friends in the last month than probably 6 months because of how I was feeling for the past year. It is nice to feel like my old self and have friends recognized it and me as the old me. It feels nice to be back.

My niece did amazing at her first state gymnastic competition. Such a wonderful thing but I missed it as I am home. Yeah for her.