Month: November 2023

Work Stuff

Dream Job? To Be Determined …

Karen

I’m no longer a medical assistant.

Is anyone shocked? Certainly not me.

So, here’s what happened –

I was very happy in the Spine Care Clinic. I worked with Emily, the most awesome nurse practitioner you’ll ever meet, I was back to scheduling patients for testing and was rooming fewer people, which I loved. So, why the change?

It was actually an accident.

A friend at work got a new job, a work-from-home job. I’ve always been interested in that option, let’s be honest, I feel like MOST people are interested in that option, so, out of curiosity, I picked her brain. I said, “Yo, Carrie, tell me about your new job.”

(Yes, I said it just like that because I like to pretend I’m hip and cool to keep up with youngsters).

And she told me. It was for the precertification department – this department is responsible for making sure diagnostic testing: MRI’s, CT’s, Ultrasounds, Echocardiograms, surgeries, have been run through the patient’s insurance and the insurance either approves, or denies, the requests. And the job is 100% from home, though, if you lost Internet/power, they will expect you to go into the office, which is fair.

(Which has already happened to me once. Our entire neighborhood lost Internet so I had to go into the office for a few hours until it came back on. It was really awkward because I had to find a cubicle that wasn’t being used and it was so quiet that I was too embarrassed to make any phone calls because everyone would be able to hear me. Don’t recommend and hopefully, don’t have to do that again any time soon).

I was intrigued. One, because it would be cool to work from home and Two, I’ve done this kind of job before waaaay back when I was a scheduler so I knew what it entailed.

And then Carrie told me there were looking to hire more people. I sat on the information for a bit, weighing my pros and cons and thought to myself, “Self – why not give it a shot?”

But I didn’t think I had a chance for two reasons:

  1. I have crossed paths with the supervisor in the past and let’s just say, I was my usual obnoxious self. It was back when the precertification department was just starting out and I was asked for my “professional” opinion and by gosh, I gave it. Pro tip: if you don’t want to know my opinion, don’t ask for it.
  2. I didn’t think there was any way they would match what I’m currently making. I’m already almost to the top of my pay tier and … I just didn’t think they would match and I was certainly not going to take a pay cut just to work from home.

But I was curious. How did this work? How did they keep track of productivity? So I said screw it and applied. I thought, “what could it hurt? They probably won’t even call me.”

They called me.

And I interviewed.

And not to be a jerk, but it was the most informal interview I’ve ever been on. Not because the women who interviewed me, (which, by the way, that one supervisor I’ve crossed paths with was one of the women), but because I just didn’t take it seriously because I was convinced it just wasn’t going to work out. They asked me the usual crazy interview questions, but one really stuck out, “tell me a time you received negative feedback and how did you handle it.”

I hate these questions but I totally get why they ask them.

So, once again, I was honest. What do I have to lose, remember?

“This is going to sound weird,” I said, “but I never really receive negative feedback.” Their eyebrows rose and I thought, “well, that sealed the deal, I’m not getting the job.”

Then we got to the part where they asked if I had any questions. I smiled, nodded, and pulled my list out of my purse. It was a literal list. Their eyebrows rose again and one of the supervisors laughed and said, “Oh, she has a list.”

I asked my questions. They didn’t really answer them to my satisfaction but that’s okay, I got the gist.

The whole interview, I smiled, put on my professional face and jumped through the necessary hoops thinking to myself, “I really hope this supervisor doesn’t remember me.”

She remembered me.

As the interview was wrapping up, she said, “it was nice to see you again, Karen.”

Gah.

I left thinking, “welp, I’m not getting the job but at least I practiced on my interviewing skills.” Not exactly a win, but certainly not a loss.

I went home and enjoyed my evening.

The next day, I received a call from the hospital, a generic number, and I NEVER answer my phone if I don’t know who is calling. If you want to reach me, leave a message. If it’s not important enough to leave a message, I’m not interested.

They left a message.

It was from human resources and they were congratulating me on getting the job and on my transfer.

TRANSFER?!

I called them back. They were not only offering me the job but they were going to match my pay and I would get to keep my benefits.

Well crap.

I was shocked. I honestly didn’t think I had a chance. And I honestly didn’t think they would pay me the same amount. And then I got angry because I was a medical assistant and they were willing to pay me the same amount to work from home and deal with insurance all day!?

Call me crazy, but it just didn’t sit right with me. I know there has been a lot of talk about the hospital not really valuing their medical assistants but this just hammered the point home. I had also heard that medical secretaries and registration people made more than medical assistants, too, and I can now confirm that.

It was an eye opener and I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed in the hospital. No wonder they can’t keep medical assistants! It’s a hard job because you’re literally in the middle of everything – you’re trying to do what your providers want, be a friendly face for the patients and be a helpmate to your nurses. You’re pulled in all different directions and for what? Less pay than a desk job? No offense to desk jobs … but … wow.

I agonized over taking the job. Coincidentally, we went on vacation shortly after getting the call so I had some time to think it over. I did speak with E, my awesome nurse practitioner, about the opportunity so she knew I was thinking about leaving. Kevin and I drove to the beach the next week and camped, (I’ll try and write about that in a later post – so much to catch up on!), and I sat on the beach, stared at the water and grappled with my conscience – should I take the leap into something new and challenging? Or stay with something I knew, inside and out, was very good at but was bored with.

I made a list of pros and cons and talked Kevin’s head off to where he finally just said, “make a decision, already!” lol

The ONLY reason I would stay was because of my nurse practitioner. She has struggled to get a good crew and now that she finally had a good crew, I was thinking about leaving. I HATED to do that to her because as I’ve mentioned several thousand times, I adore her and think she is one of the best people I’ve ever known in my life.

And I’m old – that’s A LOT of people.

But ultimately, I had to do what was best for me. And I was bored. I was ready for a new challenge and I’m quite sick of dealing with the public. I’ve done it my entire life, I was ready to have a more relaxed work life. Something with a little flexibility. What if – hear me out – I could work it out that I could work on the road? We could take camping trips, months at a time! Kevin is weeks away from retiring so he would be free to make that leap … it’s a wild idea and we would have to set up mobile StarLink for the Internet connection, which is expensive but not impossible. It’s a pipe dream but who knows! I’m definitely not saying it’s impossible.

So, when I returned to work after our vacation, I put my notice in. The hospital told me that it was tradition for medical assistants and nurses to give four weeks notice so, I made the leap; I was down to my last four weeks of being a medical assistant.

That was a difficult conversation to have with E, I may have cried a little bit, but I just knew if I didn’t do it I would regret it and who knows if this opportunity would come back around.

My new supervisor started the ball rolling about obtaining permission to work from home and the IT department soon contacted me and I picked up my computer, two monitors, a mouse, keyboard, headset and webcam. I brought it all home and Kevin “helped” me set it up, (i.e. he did everything) – I was ready to go! I just had to complete my time with neurosurgery and I would begin!

It was SO FREEING to know that I wouldn’t have to deal with the office drama, the strong personalities and the whining patients anymore. I was closing one chapter and opening another. I’m predicting this will be my last job before I retire in five-ish years and I could not be happier.

I’ve been doing my new job for about one month now and I’m bored out of my mind. I don’t have any regrets leaving the clinic, I’m still very happy that I don’t have to deal with office drama and whining patients, but they haven’t assigned me a group to take care of and I’m soooo bored.

So how this is set up is as follows: there are groups of people who take care of MRI’s, CT’s, Ultrasounds, ECHO’s and Surgeries. And within each of these groups you have one person who takes care of the A-D’s, the next person the D-M’s, and so forth. We call them “alpha” groups and this helps divvy up the duties so there’s never too much work for one person. And since I’ve done this job before, my “training” period was mediocre at best because quite honestly, I pretty much know how to do the job already, I just needed to makes accounts at various insurance companies so I could sign on and DO the work.

Once that was done, I had nothing to do because I wasn’t assigned a group. I wasn’t too surprised by this, though, because when I spoke with my new supervisor after accepting the job she mentioned that they wanted me to be part of a group called the UAT. This stands for Urgent Action Team. This team takes care of stat and urgent requests so it’s fast paced and can be a little stressful.

Perfect.

However. There is an outside group that has been contracted by the hospital currently doing the job so that leaves me … where, exactly?

This group’s contract expires in February – FEBRUARY! I’m going to be dead from boredom by February so in the meantime, I’ve been asked to “help” out. Which I take to mean, steal work from other people’s alphas, which I’ve been doing and feeling pretty guilty about, quite honestly. But what choice do I have?? And I need the practice because when we take over the UAT team, I will need to work fast and have all of my resources at my fingertips. I’ve been lurking and watching how the current UAT works their messages. (we call them flags) but I’m itching to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.

A girl that works in MRI’s had to take off a days to attend a funeral and she sent out a blast asking if anyone could help.

I had to count to ten before I replied with, “I can help!” I didn’t want to appear too eager but I’M EAGER. So these past few days have been awesome because I have purpose! And it’s been fun juggling the work load – I get to prioritize – I’m such a geek. But when she comes back, I’ll be back to following the pack and scrambling for crumbs, (like a rodent). *sigh* We’re supposed to have a meeting soon and I hope it helps gives us direction while we’re waiting for the current team to take a hike. They hired another girl for our team but she doesn’t start until the end of December so that sort of tells me they don’t really have anything for us to do until at LEAST that time period.

Shoot me.

I just need to chill and enjoy this calm before the storm because once we get going, I will be wishing for some down time, I’m sure. But until then, I’M BORED.

They are holding an End-of-Year party on December 14th and this will be a chance for us all to get together and put a face with a name. It’s sort of weird to work with a large group of virtual people, (there are about 75 of us). We use Microsoft Teams to communicate with one another and I do have a phone number through a phone company at the hospital via my computer that I use my headset for. It actually works pretty well and I’ve been impressed.

I am planning on going to the party at this point in time but honestly, it sort of depends on how I feel closer to the party. It’s a drop in/out casual sort of party which is exactly up my alley but it would be cool to meet my future team mates face-to-face.

It’s also exciting to be a part of something new and different and to get in on the project from the ground floor. I think the UAT will be a good fit for me and my personality … I’m just eager to get started!

So that’s it. That’s what’s new in my working life. I stay home everyday and though it is a bit lonely, overall, I LOVE it.

I’ve talked your ear off long enough.

I hope you have a great day and tell me, what is new in your life?

Reflections

October 2023 Reflections

Karen

(My Reflections posts are more stream-of-consciousness kind of posts so I apologize up front if some of what you read doesn’t make sense. But this is me we’re talking about here so … are you really surprised?)

October 1:

Trying to recover from our trip to Florida. That was a lot of driving. But that’s always how it works with me. It takes me a few days after coming off my adrenaline high to fully recover from stuff like this. I did go for a walk at the school, though. Not sure if that was a good or bad thing – I was pretty wiped out the rest of the day. But I got my 10,000 steps in today so I’m choosing to focus on the good. I’m pretty proud of myself for keeping on top of my walking – we’ll see how long I can go before getting burned out. Finished my typical chores – laundry, bathrooms, floors. Listened to the World Jigsaw Puzzling Championship on my phone while I worked on my latest diamond painting. (Harry Potter).

October 2:

The day has arrived. Do I turn in my resignation or do I continue doing what I’m comfortable and confident doing? I’ve had a week to mull it over … and over … and over… I finally threw my hands up and cried uncle – I turned it in to my manager. Quite frankly, I’m sick of thinking about it. I am spending more time and energy thinking of reasons why I SHOULD’T do it as opposed to why I should and I think that’s my answer right there. As mom said, if I don’t try it I will probably kick myself later for it. And it’s not a permanent solution – if I hate it, then I’ll find something else. It’s time for a change. I just “celebrated”, (I use that term loosely), my 12th year with this clinic, I think it’s time for a change. You can read more about today here. All I can say is that now that it’s done, I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders and I feel … light. That’s got to be a good sign, right??

October 3:

The dynamic is already shifting. Conversations are being held in front of me without including me. It’s weird and sad. Though, of course, I totally get it. My co-workers have to come up with a plan on how to fill the (substantial – ha!) hole I will be creating when I leave. My manager has already posted my position, which he should, but still … weird and sad. Another one of my co-workers came up because she heard a rumor to ask if it was true. I told her it was true, I’m leaving. Though she says she won’t say anything, come on, OF COURSE she’s going to say something. I have yet to send out notice to the clinic. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. Sending out a notice feels so FINAL. And I’m nervous about this new job falling through though I’ve got emails and I’ve signed documents to make it happen, it just doesn’t FEEL real yet. I can already feel myself pulling away, not being as committed to my job as I once was. We’re in this awkward stage now and I just want it to be over, quite frankly. Ten more days to go!

October 4:

Walked in to new phones today. It was absolute chaos trying to figure them out. And then the voicemail didn’t work so we’re scrambling to get help from the tech people to fix that aspect of it. Overall, I like the new phones. We have the ability to silence the rings and the ring itself is a lot less obnoxious. Picked up my computer equipment for my new job today. I picked up two monitors, the computer, a headset, a webcam, mouse … now I have to clean off my very messy desk to make room for all of this! But this is the first time I feel like this new job change is going to happen … not sure how I feel about it, quite honestly.

October 5:

I can feel myself checking out. I sent out a notice that I was leaving so now everyone knows. Now that everyone knows, I’m ready to MOVE ON. They have a replacement already lined up and she will hang out with us next week. I’m trying really hard not to mentally tap out but it’s getting harder and harder to stay present and just … care, I guess. Thank goodness we are going to Arkansas next weekend. Eat up more time before I can leave and start my new adventure. Cleaned off my desk tonight. It was a disaster but now we can plan on how to set up my new equipment.

October 7:

Met mom at the craft fair today. I arrived at Noon but didn’t actually get to mom until 12:45. The placed was PACKED. Absolutely no place to park so I ended up parking about 1/2 mile away and walking back to the event. It’s been a BEAUTIFUL weekend though so it was a nice walk, to be honest. Temps were cool enough for a jacket and not a cloud in the sky. I can see why so many people showed up. I took mom Chick-Fil-A for lunch and we gobbled it down in between customers. My mom has made BANK on her booth and is nearly sold out of merchandise. My mom doesn’t do craft fairs for the money, though making her money back on supplies is good, but she truly loves crafting and gets a lot of enjoyment out of it so she would make her crafts regardless of whether she could sell it – she would just end up giving it away. I was amazed at the number of people that remember her from years past and mom told me she’s been doing that particular craft fair since 2012. What?!? I had no idea. And that makes me feel guilty that I didn’t know that about my own mother. Where have I been?! I sat with her the rest of the afternoon and left at 4:30, (she took a quick pee break and I was scared someone would want to buy something while she was gone. And not because I couldn’t handle it, of course I can handle it, but I would have to be ON, have to put on public persona, which doesn’t come naturally but it’s something I can, and do, every day. I just wasn’t in the mood to put it on that day. Mom is in her element though and she LOVES people, she’s extroverted, and she truly loves doing the craft shows and really, that’s all that matters.

October 8:

Got my Sunday chores done and then headed up to the craft show to sit with mom. Once the show closed at 4:00, I helped her pack things up in her truck and we had everything broken down and packed by 5:00 PM. Hopefully, she won’t try and unload her truck tonight and get some rest. She didn’t sleep very good last night so I know she must be exhausted. She made a lot of money, even more than last year, so she was pretty happy with that. Customers really seemed to like her crafts – and why wouldn’t they? She makes some really cute stuff. She went ahead and signed up for next year’s craft show, too. She has been doing this craft show for so long that she knows a few people and I cringed when they said they were signing up but who knows if they would actually be alive to participate next year. I know what they are saying is factually correct, no one knows if they will live to see tomorrow, but still, it made me uncomfortable and sad. Kevin wasn’t here when I got home – he is over at his folks’ house. His parents have been sick and his dad hasn’t been eating. Kevin said he was unresponsive at one point and his blood sugars are high. He hasn’t eaten much in the past few days due to being sick and that is likely the reason his blood sugars are up. I don’t know what they are going to do but they may have to take him to the hospital if they can’t get him to eat anything. Worried.

October 9:

Today is my parents’ anniversary. Mom is very sad and that’s all I’ll say about that. I gave up my desk and my keys today. The new girl has a new desk now and I’ve been delegated to the corner. I feel so … disjointed and displaced. I have six more days to go before my last day and honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll be training the new girl, of course, but I’ve sent out emails asking people to redirect where they send messages so I can hopefully leave with nothing on my desktop. I feel sad but mostly, I’m just ready to move on. Now that I’ve made the decision, I’m anxious to move forward. Kevin’s dad went to a holistic doctor today and received fluids, vitamins, antibiotics, and Ivermectin. Hopefully, that will make him feel better; I’m sure his body is thanking him right about now.

October 11:

Kevin’s dad is not doing well. He is refusing to eat/drink and his blood sugar is 300. It’s not looking good. Kevin and his sister decided that they needed to take him to the ER so they called an ambulance. I met Kevin near the cafeteria since he couldn’t find a parking spot and showed him where the ER was. I didn’t stay, Kevin’s dad could only have two visitors at a time, but they did all sorts of tests on him and they think he might have had a stroke. They are admitting him and will give him fluids and some antibiotics to try and help him get over COVID. We’ll likely know more tomorrow. We canceled our camping trip.

October 15:

Kevin’s dad is still in the hospital. They’ve done an EEG, an MRI and a lumbar puncture (LP). The EEG came back abnormal but the report said that it was most likely due to the fact that he hasn’t eaten for nearly a week. The MRI also came back pretty normal, given his age, and it confirmed that he had not had a stroke, which is what everyone was thinking. The LP results have not come back yet, he had that test late yesterday so we’re still waiting to hear what that shows. Kevin’s dad has been very stubborn and has fought hospital staff every step of this way. We’re not sure if he’s trying to tell everyone that he doesn’t want to be there, (who WANTS to be in the hospital), or if he’s not aware he’s even being combative. He’s still non-verbal though he seems a bit more cognizant than he was when they admitted him. He continues to rip out his IV”s so they have had to put mittens on him to prevent him from doing that. Not ideal, but they can’t help him if he doesn’t allow them to help him. Kevin has been picking his mother up at at 7:00 AM and taking her up to the hospital. He’s been up there with her all day for the past two days. His dad seems to really respond to Kevin and he’s been able to help his dad eat a few bites. His blood sugars have come back down, which is a good sign. His dad is not mobile and hasn’t left his bed in about a week so if/when he gets up, he is going to be very weak. My biggest concern at this stage is what they are going to decide to do with him once he’s discharged. His mother is not physically capable of taking care of him by herself.

October 16:

Been home all day. We were supposed to be in Arkansas looking for diamonds but we canceled the trip due to Kevin’s dad. I checked my work email and the Teams messages – I’m looking forward to being taken off these lists. I’m so ready to move on. I worked on my office today, organizing things and getting a game plan for my new work shift. I plan on walking 3000 steps before I start the day, then walking to about 8000 at lunch. My goal is to get 10,000 steps each work day. Kevin’s dad’s health has gone backwards. They did another brain scan on him and he wasn’t cooperating so they gave him an antipsychotic to help him relax, I suppose, and Kevin said he was talking gibberish today. They told the hospital staff that he’s not to have any more medication. I just don’t understand why healthcare goes from zero to 90 in seconds flat. As opposed to giving Kevin’s dad a sedative to get him through the procedure, they jump right to a powerful antipsychotic drug. Disappointing and scary. It also proves that if you have a loved one in the hospital, they need someone to look after them. You can’t fully trust the staff to keep things straight. I hate to say it, but it’s true.

October 18:

Good news! Kevin’s dad is awake and responding! He’s not able to talk very clearly, but he’s aware of what is going on around him and he’s asking for milk. An Occupational Therapist got him to sit up and stand up a few seconds today so we’re making progress! Kevin and his sisters agonized over whether to place a feeding tube as he’s still not getting much nutrition and they placed that today. They had to wrap Kevin’s dad’s hands into “mittens” so he wouldn’t yank it out, but we’ll see how he responds to that in a few days. They are looking for nursing facilities to take him as Kevin’s mom simply can’t take care of him by herself. This is the first ray of hope we’ve had in a week. I went to see him after work today and his color looks better. He’s back on his regular medication as we think that may have been one reason he went downhill so fast – there is a certain medication that you have to wean off, you can’t stop cold turkey, and when he got sick and stopped eating and taking his medications, we’re thinking now that threw him into a spiral because he was going through withdrawals. The family is hopeful and we’ll see how this shakes out in the next week. I’m bored out of my mind. Today was my first day back after my “vacation”, (we had to cancel due to Kevin’s dad), and I got a taste of what it will be like – and I’m READY. I have three more days of being an MA and then I can move on to my new job. I’m practically itching to get out. I’m not even sad – I’m just READY.

October 19:

Heard from my supervisor today. I’m going into the office Monday and will train with a team lead. Since I’m already familiar with getting around the programs, we’re going to reassess and see if I can start working from home on Tuesday – it really depends on how it goes Monday. They are going to assign me to a new group they haven’t even revealed to anyone yet – some sort of Urgent Team – and I’m really excited about that. I THRIVE on multitasking – it challenges my brain and I’m really good at it. Until this group gets up and running, I will be working on getting MRI’s approved. So. This tells me that I need to get all of my ducks in a row and make sure I have all of my resources at my fingertips because if I’m going to be called upon to work urgent cases, I’ll need to move fast. I am so excited to start!! I feel like Emily has been cranky. I think part of it is because I’m leaving, or perhaps I’m just telling myself that because it makes me feel important. I’m trying not to be too excited to leave around my co-workers but they all know that I’M READY. Looking seriously at the Kindle Vella project again. I think I might turn my focus on writing for that project and see what happens. I’m not doing it for the money but rather, I’m curious to see how people would react to my creative writing. More on that soon .. I hope. Depends on how much time this new job really takes.

October 20:

Today marks the end of an era. Today was my last day with the neurosurgery clinic. It was uneventful, which was perfect. I didn’t want any sort of going away party or any sort of attention, really. I said my goodbyes to the people I worked with on the 7th floor for the majority of my career and with that duty done, I could focus on the gals I’ve gotten close to this past year. I’m going to miss them. They are good people and I’ve gotten close to Melissa and Emily this past year. The new girl, my replacement, who is awesome and I think will do a good job, made some soup and someone else brought in Buffalo dip and a veggie tray. We all had lunch together and then we had cookie cake. The rest of the day, I completed some loose ends, packed up the rest of my stuff and then I left about an hour early. Walking my route back to my car was .. surreal. It was the last time I would walk that route. I will never be back in the clinic setting. Heck, I never wanted to be in a clinical setting to begin with so I think doing this job for 12 years was enough. I was sad, but mostly excited. I’m ready to move on. It’s funny, but if I hadn’t applied for this new job I would still be happy to continue doing what I was doing. But now that I made the jump, I’m wondering why I didn’t make the jump sooner. It just goes to show that you can get some caught up in a rut that you don’t allow yourself to see what is on the other side of that rut. I go into the office on Monday to be shown the ropes but my supervisor seems to think I should be able to start working from home on Tuesday so I’m assuming that means there isn’t a whole lot of new that I need to learn. I’m feeling nervous, excited and relieved, quite frankly, that I don’t have to deal with patients anymore. It’s exhausting.

October 22:

Mom came over on Saturday. We grabbed some lunch at McAllister’s and came back to my house and watched a few episodes of Survivor – we’re on season three and THANK GOD Lindsay was voted off. Sniffling brat. Then we chatted and caught up on what happened the past two weeks, (we haven’t seen each other for a few weeks), and worked on crafts. I worked on yet another diamond painting, (I’ve been obsessed – it’s so relaxing!) and mom worked on some cute plastic canvas snowmen that she will put a fake votive candle in and sell at her Christmas booth in December. Once she left, Kevin’s dad’s progress went downhill fast. He started hallucinating, took his clothes off and fought the nurses. He had to have a sitter the rest of the night and the next day because he couldn’t be trusted to be by himself. They ended up putting a PICC line in because he ripped out yet another IV and he simply didn’t have any veins left to tap into. He is also still wearing mittens. The family is honestly not sure what to do with him and this just proved that he can’t be trusted to go home and under the care of Kevin’s mom as now we can’t trust him not to hurt her. He wouldn’t do it on purpose but unfortunately, his mental clarity is, well, not clear. The doctors want to keep him on the feeding tube a few more days, he’s still not eating unless someone makes him, and if he doesn’t improve, they will likely put a PEG tube in and discharge him to a nursing facility. This whole thing has been a nightmare for the family an there are no clear-cut answers to what to do next. Kevin’s dad has moments of clarity and he’s talking, though it’s hard to understand the gibberish, but he seems to know what is happening though he doesn’t seem to know that he’s in the hospital, or he’s simply in denial, again, we just can’t tell. The family is exhausted and a decision will have to be made soon.

October 24:

First two days of my new job are done. I went into the office yesterday and as to be expected, it was super awkward because I didn’t know anything nor anyone. It’s so disconcerting to go from a job that you know everything to a job where you know nothing. Though, that’s not entirely true – I did a bit of this job when I first became a scheduler so I know the basics. And it helps that I know the system and quite a bit about insurances. The girl that is training me is very nice but is so slow. Maybe she’s going slow because she doesn’t want to overwhelm me, (not going to happen at this point) or maybe she’s just a slow thinker/talker, but I was pretty bored my first day. But to be fair, training is boring for all parties – I’m sure she was just as bored. To make matters worse, I pulled a muscle in my back, (who knows), so I was quite uncomfortable all day and since we sat all day, I was QUITE uncomfortable all day. But the pain kept me awake, so there’s that. I spent the day setting up accounts with various insurance companies and learning work flow. Today, I got to stay home and my trainer showed me the ropes on Microsoft Teams. It was AWESOME to stay home and do that. We started at 7:00 and quit at 3:30. We’re doing that again, tomorrow. I would like to go ahead and do a few of the precertification requests and she watch me because I feel like I’m ready, but I don’t know what else they have planned for me so I’ll be a good girl and keep my mouth shut. But I’m READY.

October 28:

What a week. It went well and I’m already working on some precertification cases on my own, which I think is pretty good four days in to my training, but it was an intense week of concentrating and focusing on the process. Let’s be honest, most people do not know how to train other people. Trainers assume, unconsciously, that you know what terms are, that you know what type of work you’ve been hired to do … to see the roadmap to a work conclusion. And I can assure you, new people do NOT see, nor think, that way. I would like to think I’m a good trainer: introducing the basics and explaining the WHYS behind the things we do, but most people do not approach training that way so it’s a race to find patterns and to figure things out for yourself. Reading the fine print and in between the lines. So, it was a mentally taxing week and I was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep last night. But I’m making progress. I’m a little nervous about next week because my trainer is taking some days off and I’m basically on my own. Sure, I have a person to go with questions, but let’s be honest, this go-to person most likely does not have desire, nor the inclination, to really go in depth with me so once again, I will be reading the fine print and in between the lines. That’s okay, I’m a fast learner. But it was fun to work from home and I think I’m going to enjoy it, but I was already getting cabin fever by Wednesday. I’ll write more about my work-from-home experience at some point. My father-in-law (FIL) is home and comfortable. They moved a hospital bed into his bedroom and they set up Hospice to come out a few times a week to bathe him and help make him comfortable. The boys and I met my husband over at his house last night for pizza and it was a great visit. My FIL really perked up and actually ate more than he’s eaten in the past two weeks, COMBINED. Going through this experience is humbling and really makes you think about mortality in general.

October 31:

Happy Halloween! Bah humbug. I am neutral when it comes to Halloween though I lean more on the side of, “WHY??” A night to dress up like an idiot and scare people? I’m out. We won’t be turning our porch light on tonight – we haven’t participated in Halloween in years and the last time I dressed up was when I was in clinic with my doctor, at the time, and I was peer pressured into participating. Okay, that’s a bit harsh, I actually had fun but unless I’m MADE to participate, I’m not interested in Halloween. My trainer has been out this week so it’s just been me, myself and I. She gave me plenty to do and I’ve actually been pretty successful in getting some diagnostic testing approved. It’s slow going, but I’m getting the hang of it and I’m already bored. HA! It will be the same thing, over and over again, but it is interesting to do a little research, get some medical background so that I can submit the request through the patient’s insurance company. I’m working on getting MRI’s approved, for now. I think they started me on the easiest group, to cut my teeth on the process, so to speak, so we’ll see what group they finally assign me. I’m hoping to have a more permanent home and a team of people by the end of this week or next week. FIL has been sitting up and eating a bit. Still not like he needs to and he has moments where he hallucinates and calls people by the wrong name, but he’s home, comfortable and things are starting to settle down for Kevin’s family. They have Hospice come out a few times a week to monitor him and clean him up a bit. I do worry about my MIL, though, as she’s really not getting any sleep and I think it’s making her delirious.

And that, folks, was my October.

Tell me what’s going on in your life?

Thanks for reading!