I know this is late. I’ve been working.
What did you do this week?
41 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, May 26,2021”
Comments are closed.
Argh Ink
More than you ever wanted to hear from Jenny Crusie
I know this is late. I’ve been working.
What did you do this week?
Comments are closed.
I’ve been working on clearing out and cleaning the garage, so I can set up space to work on my resin projects until winter.
Nothing creative comes to mind – but I was more than busy organizing a little virtual conference last week. And although I’m technically on holiday since yesterday, I also edited (read: re-wrote) the blog entry regarding the event today, because the social media colleague couldn’t attend and though others from marketing stepped in, some major points were missing.
When checking my in-box I also answered some mails that the colleague substituting me wouldn’t have been able to answer without checking with me first.
It’s kind of annoying the none of us can really be substituted and apart from the most urgent stuff work will just pile up during the 10 days of vacation.
And the nice thing was that there was one thank-you-mail from one of the professors attending on Friday, telling me “I loved it!” (even better: this was coming from the prof over whose delightful accent I almost swooned on Friday).
Brightens up an otherwise rainy day 🙂
I’m fine now, but from Sunday to yesterday, I was working on getting out of the hospital! My thyroid went berserk and caused some concerning issues, so they stuck me in the hospital, and the docs wouldn’t listen to me so I could get my own endocrinologist to treat me. Nurses were all wonderful, but the docs were horrifically bad — did tests, gave me meds without discussing them (one of which I shouldn’t take because it makes me dizzy), and never gave me test results (even though some of them were abnormal)! I didn’t even get a diagnosis until I had signed out and was able to read my discharge papers! So, so angry.
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and be treated (in a clinical trial) by a world-class doctor, and he’s told me on various occasions, “If a doctor won’t listen to you, fire him.” Except there was no way to fire the only doctor overseeing ICU patients, short of leaving AMA, which I got really close to doing! The only time I got to talk to the ICU doc was when he introduced himself to me at the time of admission, and the only thing he wanted to talk about was my rare disorder, showing off how much he knew about it (all of it wrong), and NOT ONE WORD on what he was supposed to be treating me for. Yeah, still angry. Which isn’t good for me — I’m supposed to be resting.
For the foreseeable future, I’ll be working on catching up on my sleep after not being able to sleep for three nights in a row!
Bear hugs to you, Gin! What a horrific experience.
Oh no. So sorry you went through this. Glad you are recovering! That doctor is dangerous because he did not listen to his patient, and did not pay attention to contraindicated medication. Rest and recover!
When I was having problems with drugs that I am not technically allergic to, but should never be prescribed to me, the nurse advised that we list all the problematic drugs as allergies, because then they would be listed in a more prominent place and harder to ignore. Perhaps you could go back and talk to one of nurses and see if he or she has any other suggestions about how to circumvent the policies that are endangering your health.
I know that the last thing you want right now is to give this hospital any more space in your thoughts, but if you don’t file a formal complaint and perhaps threaten legal action, this will happen every time you set foot in the emergency department. Get someone with access to legal letterhead to tell them if they ever refuse again to work with your endocrinologist you will sue their ass.
Thanks — I love the suggestion of listing my “can’t take but not technically allergic” stuff in allergies!
I’m going to make sure I never set foot in this particular hospital ever again. I long thought I should have a medical alert bracelet that says something like “fatally allergic to X Hospital.” Only went there because I felt terrible and wasn’t sure I could safely drive to better hospital 30 miles away. If ever faced with that issue again, I call an ambulance.
The ambulance will take you to the nearest hospital unless they have diverted traffic to another trauma center due to overcrowding. Perhaps you should set aside some money for a car service. If you feel bad enough that you can’t safely drive, you won’t have the concentration to sort through your options. Research your options, type up a list and put it in an envelope with a prepaid card to pay transportation and let a friend know where to find it. Hopefully, you will never need to use it. But imagine how much better you will sleep, knowing that you’ve done everything you can to prevent a repeat.
Good idea.
Yeah, it stopped the residents from putting my Mom on stuff that made her cough up blood. Her next trips to the hospital were much better. And the nurses know what works in real life, not just on paper.
Yikes!
The nurses at the hospital were all fabulous. I trusted them, just not the docs.
This is all hospitals. I am related to many doctors and it’s a rare one who doesn’t believe that they’re god. Trust the nurses – they’re the ones who will keep you alive.
I’m sorry you had to go through that Gin. Glad you’re home now.
This week I’m working on bronchitis, and even though I have listed my reaction to corticosteroids as an allergy I had to argue with my NP (She _did_ listen) when she wanted me to take some for the swelling in my ears that she found. The fact that it keeps me awake for 48 hours–and I start hallucinating at 36–means it will do more harm than good. Fortunately the last time someone talked me into taking some, twenty years ago, it also gave me a rash on my legs, which sends my pharmacy into fits even if it doesn’t warn off the doctors.
Persevere!
Yikes!
I used to get prescribed sulfa drugs all the time despite having it listed as an allergy. Fortunately, I don’t get an anapylactic reaction, just swollen joints, so it’s only annoying, not fatal, but I learned to double-check new scrips to be sure they weren’t sulfa based.
Turns out, there are two subcategories of sulfa drugs, and I’m only allergic to one of them (no way I’m going to try to explain that on medical records). In twenty years of taking a sulfa drug that’s in the class I CAN take, I was only once, about 19 years of taking it, asked if I was sure I wanted the refill, because of the sulfa element.
Or could you have a friend take you? I second the idea of sending a formal letter of complaint to the head of the hospital, if only to save someone else from having your experience. You can also CC the AMA.
I hope you’re feeling better now and have been able to talk to your own doctor.
That is terrible – especially given that you are a person who knows how to advocate for yourself. Hope you can get the sleep you need.
Sometimes I can’t help wondering why some docs become docs when they are so clearly not fit for the job… It sometimes seems like some of them are set on making life a hell for their patients rather than helping them get rid of the hell they’re already in.
I’m glad to hear you’re safe back home. Hope you’ll get some well-deserved and well-needed rest after an adventure like that. Get well soon!
Oh, hell, Gin, I’m so sorry. Glad you’re out of there, but I hate docs like that. I had one doctor who made me cry on purpose because I was in the hospital with stage 3 cancer and I never cried. He yelled at me until I broke down, but as soon as he left the room, I stopped. The nurses looked like they wanted to kill him. I love nurses.
That’s shocking!
My mom was treated negligently in the hospital. I wrote the State of CT, the president of the hospital, the head of nursing, I can’t remember who else. I demanded a meeting and met with two department heads. They apologized for the poor treatment and put my mom’s name on a list of cases to be reviewed. They explained what their first steps would be in correcting the situation. I seem to remember that I received at least one call from the State of CT about how hospital inspections work and that my mom’s case would be included in the next inspection.
At the end of the year, the State sent me that review that followed through on all the reported cases of complaints by patients or their families. Although no patient was named, my mom was easy to spot. I was surprised by some of the other complaints.
Gin, I wish you had an ally, a family member or friend or whatever, who could write the same sort of letter (it was a single letter) to the authorities. My mom was in no shape to advocate for herself.
Yes to the allergies list. Your allergy list goes on nearly every bit of paperwork that is generated about you. I did allergy lists on easily 90% of the files I did and most of the rest had mentions of them.
Also, file a complaint with the hospital and your state college of physicians and surgeons. Giving you a contraindicated medication means he needs a letter on his file. Also, you should let your endocrinologist’s office know about how you were treated and the meds you were given so they have a record of it.
When Paul had his last heart surgery, he went into very severe AFib when we were in the discharge class (the nurses wouldn’t let him walk the 20-25 feet to his room) and the resident in charge of him wasn’t being very effective in getting his heart rate down with meds. He said several times for the resident to get in touch with his cardiologist (in the same hospital) and he wouldn’t (3rd year cardiothoracic residents know more than 25-year, department-head cardiologists apparently) so Paul just texted his cardiologist’s PA and the next day Dr. Taylor was in his room checking up on him, giving the nurses new medication orders, and reminding the resident just where he was in the food chain.
It’s hard to get someone to listen to you when you are in the ICU, but you have your power back now. I’m so glad you are feeling better.
I am working on Day Job. So much Day Job. Was supposed to log in to a zoom social event for my group at 12:30 and had to blow it off. Back to the inbox now.
Some days, just getting out of bed is work enough and I hate it.
Mostly I am trying to do all the exercises my psychologist drops on me to kick this depression’s arse, but I’m not very motivated and very tired, so it’s…a challenge. I only feel like I am accumulating mental disorders and strange psychosomatic unexplanable stuff like nobody’s business and it makes me sad, frustrated and discouraged.
I did play video games with two friends last Monday though (via internet) instead of saing no for the quadrubillionth time, and posted one of my latest projects to Instagram, AND I’ve read almost 4 Jenny-books since Thursday. Gotta start somewhere!
Crazy question–have you had your thyroid levels checked? I’ve been fighting horrible fatigue (even for me, and I’m always tired because of the fibro) and increasing depression for over a year. Turns out I have low thyroid levels. 5 weeks into treatment, I have a little bit more energy but my depression has miraculously lightened substantially. If we hadn’t done routine bloodwork, I would never have known.
Not a crazy question at all! It’s one I always ask my friends struggling with the onset of depression, because depression is quite common with hypothyroidism, and hypothyroidism is way under-diagnosed, despite it being a very cheap test.
I’m at the “day” job, now. Leaving early. Suffering from rectal glaucoma*. (*I can’t see my ass staying until midnight.)
Vaccinated and learning to be back out into the “world ” starting earlier this month and this week included a trip to the grocery store and volunteering for the first time at the Local arts Council Gallery. Painted for two days and am now prepping to small farm for a family invasion of up to seven family members a year and few months since we last did this, I am beyond excited. All of this hoped to be earlier but glad we finally are here, This is the part that I missed most is hugging my people………so grateful for all of this
This is a combination of Working and Happy, because the cicada emergence has finally reached my neighborhood, and they’re appearing everywhere. The big challenge is that our huge street tree was cut down by the County last fall, so the Big Party Tree is just not there, and all the young cicadas are desperately climbing up anything they can find, including small weeds, trash cans, bird perching branches (dead, but still useful) and garden implements like shovels and rakes and brooms.
I feel so sorry for them that I now have a morning, noon and evening routine of exploring the yard, finding cicadas in dangerous/unfulfilling places, and gently grasping them and putting them on the trunks of small but workable trees. I love the cicadas, and want as many of them to live, sing, and benefit the environment as long as possible. So I’m kind of tired but very happy.
Adjudicating primary election ballots. That’s all I do and all I will be doing for the next week and a half. Assuming the equipment gets hr=ere and gets set up and doesn’t break down. And then I’ll start on transcribing minutes from the adjudication and a couple of Board meetings. This too shall pass.
Went running. Did 1/4 of the work I need to do today. Unfortunately, running used up my willpower.
Oops.
Recovering pretty well from night before last, when we had a Power Outage just after 10 pm. I drove home by a roundabout way to see how far the outage extended (not too bad) and as I was getting out of my car in front of my house up drove three large PG&E trucks, practically radiating haloes and flapping angel wings. They circled the intersection — I have a corner house — and by the time I was inside, my power was indeed back on. However, the outage did Something Interesting to my alarm system, which duly went off at two, three, four, and six-thirty am. I think it’s back to normal now — we can but hope — because it only went off at one forty-five this afternoon!
Other than that, light Elder Shopping day, with the only inconvenience being no parking anywhere close to home. Luckily I had only one sack of freezer groceries.
I have been an utter disaster at work for the past two days, but one wonderful thing about my job is that there are no ongoing tasks and every day really is a fresh start. So with any luck I will remember to drink something caffeinated before my shift tomorrow and will be better at everything. Nothing but good times ahead.
Working on the garden! Have planted many of the new landscape arrivals and have many more to plant. Veg/herb garden about half planted. It’s looking pretty glorious despite the whole patio being basically a potting bench right now.
I’m setting up my new Mac. Had a snafu with the monitor (repeat after me: USB3 is completely different from USB-C; and it’s USB-C that’s almost identical to Thunderbolt 3); but turns out it’s fine to connect it via HDMI (I completely baulked when the ?French monitor chat person started talking about DisplayPort connectors).
Apple had told me I had to transfer my data via wifi, so I did this but was taken aback when the Macs announced they were going to take 24 hours and 40 minutes to do it. Got onto Apple: turns out connecting my back-up drive via USB would’ve been better, but that having started the transfer I shouldn’t interrupt it. So I had to avoid the internet for the rest of the day. Did some weeding, which calmed me down.
It’s sunny today, and I’m going to sit in the garden and read my new Mac book before going any further. And I’m going to ring Apple more, rather than trying to sort things out on my own. The Macs have finished the transfer early, but there are a few files they weren’t happy about, so will need to sort that. Then see if there are drivers for my printer and graphics tablet; and buy or subscribe to the updated software I need (there was no point in transferring any apps across; none of them would work).
I, too, need a new Mac. Your story and others like it are why I have been avoiding it for more than a year.
I think an iMac (or a laptop)would be a lot easier; it’s their migration to this new M chip that’s complicated things for me, given I suddenly needed to buy before the big iMacs have been updated. The fact that it’s four years since I’ve updated anything; and that I’ve got 1.3 TB of data to transfer didn’t help. But I’m getting there. And the matte black of my BenQ monitor is rather handsome; the bonding process has begun.
Got the rest of my garden in last weekend in a huge push. I’ve been cleaning and tidying inside, which is making me twitch less. Made a few pieces of jewelry because after a year of virtually no sales because of Covid (who buys necklaces or earrings when they aren’t going anywhere) it has finally started selling again. I am going to do a jewelry making push for about a week, and then I start work on the next Llewellyn book.
I’m also starting a serious search for a Virtual Author’s Assistant to help me with promotion and the small amounts of self-publishing I do, among other things. The problem is, I need an assistant to help me find an assistant.
Hey, I have a writer friend who has a VA she really likes. Want me to connect you? I’ll DM you in Instagram, in case you don’t check back here.
I’m on the same VA hunt, Deb. I’m interviewing 2 this week. Would love to hear if you find someone who works out well.
Paint by numbers is an excellent thing to do while listening to “What Abigail Did that Summer,” which FINALLY came out in audio.
Also work-work is still good.
Also Flowers!!!!!
I’m happy can you tell?
I ran 2 miles this morning followed by a dip in the pool. (It was a beautiful morning.)
I’m doing edits for Wilde Temptation. (Can’t wait for it to release in September!)
Need to work on my newsletter.
Tonight is Karate.
I worked in the yard for seven hours on Monday, punted from Sunday because of extreme heat here. I haven’t done any significant yard work myself for several years due to terrible pollen allergies (and chronic hives that are exacerbated by those allergies). But there were half-dead bushes that needed to be uprooted and transplants of bushes and flowers that were necessary because our shade cover has changed as we’ve (intentionally) allowed the forest to encroach on our yard, and weeds galore to be dug up and hauled away.
We’re also trying to transition to a clover lawn because we don’t have enough daily hours of sun to sustain grass. That will require lots of seeding and watering, but that’s a fall task, so for now, I have retreated back inside the house.