You know when you have one of those days where it seems like nothing else could possibly go wrong? One of those days where you make every mistake there is to make, and you think you can't make any more, and then you do? Well that has been my day today. I can not do anything right.
I have been sick now for the last 6 days with a terrible cold. Normally if I am feeling like this, I take a day off of work and try to rest and recover . . . But not this time. This time it has been go, go, go. I need the hours, I need the money, and I need my PTO. There is no time to lay in bed and sleep. No days off to let my body fight the illness. There are simply not enough hours in the day. So instead, I just keep doing and doing, and that is not good.
I got home late last night from Fargo. My cold was still pretty bad, but since Jesse and I planned for so long on spending the day in Fargo, I needed to go. I was doing pretty good until around 7:00 at night, then I started to get exhausted, and I coughed . . . A lot. Almost the whole way home, it was pretty annoying. Needless to say, when I woke up this morning at 5:00 am, I was really dreading my 12 hour work day. Normally my weekend shift would only be 6-8 hours, but greedy me wanted a little weekend bonus incentive, so I picked up an extra 6 hours both days. Silly, silly me.
When I got to work, I clocked in at 6:00 am right on the dot. That seemed to be where I went wrong. I am ALWAYS early, at least 5-10 minutes. I like to give myself a little time to chit-chat with whoever worked overnight, and round up some things to do. I was scheduled on 2nd floor all weekend, and 2nd floor is usually pretty mellow, but not today.
Right off the bat, I made a mistake. A BIG whoops. Now I am not going to HIPPA anything, but basically it came down to the fact that I did not verify enough information with a patient who was having some IV Therapy. I thought he was someone, he ended up being someone else. Turns out, the paperwork I gave to the nurse was on the wrong patient. Yeah, not good. Well done, Sarah, well done.
The nurse was not thrilled with my mistake. She came over to my desk and confronted me about the situation. I admitted that what happened was absolutely my mistake and I assured both her and myself, that I would not let that happen again. No matter how many times the patient grumpily tells you that "everything is still the same, I'm here every day!"
After that little mishap, everything else seemed to go wrong. I was putting the wrong doctors in on the wrong patients, admitting and discharging at the wrong time, stickering the wrong papers . . . Oofda, it was a rough one. I don't know how many times I thought to myself, "why the heck did I get out of bed this morning?"
The only thing good about a 12 hour work day, is getting a 1 hour lunch. Since about 8:00 am, I was looking forward to my hour lunch, not because I was hungry, but because I was so stressed. I really needed an hour to sit back, clear my head, and get myself back on track. I do not make mistakes like this, ever! Or, at least not more than once. Unfortunately, the person who was on call, did not know that I was working 12 hours. Not only that, but she also didn't know that if someone works over 8 hours, the one call person has to come in and relieve them. This is where my act of kindness came into play.
When I called her at 11:00 am to ask if she knew she was supposed to break me, I called knowing that she probably did not. I could hear people in the background chatting back and forth, and I knew that she was probably not in town. At my job, we are allowed 45 minutes to get to work if we are called in. I told her that if she wasn't in town, not to worry about coming to to break me. I haven't been feeling well, I was not hungry, and I didn't want her to have to come back just for an hour. She assured me that it was no big deal (she was indeed out of town) for her to come in if that is what's supposed to be done.
I made clear to her that she could enjoy her day and that if the 3:00 pm person could not come in a few minutes early, I would call her back and let her know. Luckily, my 3:00 was able to come in a little early and give me a little 15 minute break. It was not the hour long break I was looking forward to. I did not get to relieve any stress or clear my head. I went back to work, and still made mistakes. Luckily, not any big ones, and I usually caught my errors, but it is still frustrating.
I think that everyone deserves days off. The co-worker of mine who was on call for today, already works a full time job. In fact, we have three employees in my department that have a full time job, and on top of that, they work here. How do they ever find time to have a personal life? I understand that our on-call shifts are first come first serve, and if you take it, you have to be around. However, I also understand that everyone needs a break and everyone needs to spend time with their family. My parents always, ALWAYS taught me that family comes first, and I am a true believe that family does in fact come first. Even after my terrible horrible no good very bad day, when I was ready to fall apart, I made sure that someone else was able to to keep their day together.
Sarah
I think that it must be incredibly tough to get older. I remember the days when my own grandmother seemed to be totally INVINCIBLE! It was as though she could bake, sew, attend activities, be active in church, and raise more than one family all at the same time. She was like the Energizer Bunny on steroids. She could do it all. And then one day, it seemed as though overnight she began to slow down. It was hard because I don't think that anybody really wants to admit that their loved ones are getting older. I think it is also hard on the one growing old. I can only imagine that there is an incredible sense of loss at not being able to do the things that we once used to do so effortlessly. I think that getting old must be difficult . . . sigh . . .
Today, I am under the weather, much like my baby girl. I am way too old for it, but seem to be plagued with ear infections over and over again. Ear infection . . . antibiotics . . . yuk! However, today I had planned to do a little helping with some baking for an elderly woman that I have become incredibly fond of. She has opened her home and her heart giving me a place to roost a bit when I feel lonely. And . . . I have managed to learn a lot about living and life as she is truly wise.
The day began by putting up some lights outside that needed to be woven into her garland. It was pretty nice out today, so it seemed like a good time to get the "job" done. She donned her coat and headed outside to guide me a bit. Together we worked side by side wrapping the long length of lights through the short strand of garland. Then we used twisty ties to attach it to her railing. Her hands would not move right and she struggled a bit, but she was able to get some of them done. I think she might have been a bit frustrated as she told me that her hands just didn't work the way that they once did. I sighed and said that I could only imagine it must be difficult.
A bit chilled we headed into the house where her grandaughter, my friend, had fixed some breakfast. We sat down, chatted, and decided what treats were were going to fix first. Today I learned how to make flatbread, Sally Ann's or Aunt Sally's, and crispy sugar cookies that are to die for. I discovered that if you use warm water on your scissors, you really can cut marshmallows. I found out that you really should let the pan cool before you put more cookies on them, but nobody does. I learned that you actually do NOT need a tsp for measuring. AND best of all, I learned that some of the best gifts are unexpected.
Today was a precious gift for me. What began as a time for my friend and I to help her grandma, turned out to be a day for us to learn about life and to discover new things. We listened, talked, and laughed. We tasted, tested, and shared with others what we had made. And as she sighed and said that she would not be writing Christmas cards because she was just too tired, I realized that she might be a bit sad for the times of the past. However, for today, she sacrificed her time and energy to assure that a piece of her past will be a gift to our future.
If you have blessed with a grandma or a great grandma, take the time to be with them. This was a reminder for me to go and visit mine . . . good deed for the next week.
Hugs and Prayers for Soft Grandmas, Grandpas, and the Old and Wise,
Sheila
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