Sunday, June 29, 2008

Work Situation

Okay so here is the whole work situation so I don't have to put it off anymore.

I work in a small cardiology office. We have 4 doctors with about 20 staff. I am a RN for one of the doctors who is really cool, but anyways. I approach the administrators on April 11th, the day after I find out I have to have my RPAO. They ask for me to put off my surgery til July due to the fact that one of the doctors would be leaving for maternity leave in July for 3 months and they would pull her nurse to my desk until I come back. Well ok! Not so bad sounding until I go in and tell them my day is scheduled for July 1st and I'll be non-weight bearing for 12 weeks, but my OS stated I could go back on light duty on 8 weeks. Well, they then sit down and tell me the following:
1. I have to file for short term disability which is only 72 days and weekends ARE INCLUDED!!!!
2. Well now they don't think that the doctor leaving for maternity leave is coming back and another doctor is retiring on Sept. 30th. The trick with this is, there will be too many nurses, so if I reach day 73 I'm technically terminated and then rehired, but since there won't be two doctors there, they will not rehire anyone and let someone go. So in other words, I have 72 days to heal.........PERIOD!!!!!

Is that screwed up or what????? Anyways. I decided to keep my date of July 1st. I've been progressing worse with the pain and in the last two weeks have complained in passing that I didn't sleep good or that I hurt. I've gotten the following comments from ADMINISTRATION.....
1. You can sleep in a couple of weeks all you want, so don't complain now.
2. Why are you so worried about this?
3. Quit being silly.
4. Why aren't you just doing your pre-op here (I took 1 hour of vacation to leave for my appointment)

Well it sucks. I would love to go back at 8 weeks, but they have point blank said they don't want me back unless I can do my job. I didn't get tomorrow off due to the fact that another nurse has been out for a hysterectomy and the lead nurse (which is a joke) is taking her about 12th day off this month and refused to switch!!!!!!! I have to work until 5:30 tomorrow and then drive 30 min. home.

I don't think it would be that bad if they were supportive, but I told the NP about this on Friday and she couldn't believe it and said due to my state of mind that I don't really need to work the whole day. I'm thinking about putting a block on my room so no one can call in and restricting visitors. I don't know yet. My husband is pretty upset so he might fly off the handle anyway. I just don't understand how unsupportive they are.

T-Minus 2 Days

Okay, so I have the rest of today and tomorrow to go. I'm not feeling all that great today. I've been leaning to my left and now my left feels like my right. Oh well. I guess that'll just mean that I'll fix that one quicker than I was planning on. My family has been great today as well as my church family. I went to church this morning and my mother and grandmother went with me to the altar and the preacher said a prayer for me and I quit crying and realized it's in God's hands on Tuesday. It still doesn't mean I'm not scared crapless, but I know he'll do what's best for me. I finished everything in the house, but still feel like there is stuff to do. I've been taking Valium as prescribed and that seems to keep me from breaking down and crying every two minutes. It's just scary. I'm not trying to sound like a cry baby, but I'm just scared. It's something I've never been through. I know I'll do fine afterwards, but I just want to go to that point. I still can't believe I have to work a whole day tomorrow! They are ridiculous. I've packed my bag with the help of all the wonderful women on the hip forum on yahoo.
Here's what I've packed:
No Rinse shampoo
Several pairs of loose pj/lounge pants
several t-shirts
underwear (just in case I'm able to wear them)
1 book
short term disability papers
handicap placard
extra throw blanket
toothbrush

That's it right now. I'm sure I'll find something else to cram in my bag. I didn't sleep well at all last night, so I decided not to take a nap today and am about to take a Benadryl to help me sleep tonight. I've set up my over the toilet thingy and am hoping that my husband quits putting off my shower chair (he promised to put it together.) I have to work all day tomorrow so I'm going to get ready for bed now.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Pre-op Appointment Today

Today I went for my pre-op appointment today at Duke. It wasn't so bad, minus the small meltdown I had with the NP. She was so nice. So here's the run down of today's appointment.

I have to pay $2100 out of pocket as of right now (Good luck coming up with that)
I didn't have to do an EKG or anything. They just took about 6 vials of blood. Not so bad, huh?
I told the nurse practitioner that I was really nervous due to the fact I've never had anything and then she asked was I sleeping and I told her no! She asked was I hurting. I said constantly and then I started crying about the whole job thing and she instructed me to do the following:
1. Take some Celebrex for the pain........supposedly it'll make post-op pain not quite as bad!!!
2. Take some Oxycodone if the Celebrex doesn't work.
3. Take my valium as prescribed and not to just keep staring at the bottle.
4. Take 1 1/2 - 2 valium the morning of my surgery.

She was super sweet and I couldn't speak highly enough of her. She listened! That's more than anyone besides my partner at work and family have done. She states that it just won't be that bad! She says that my insurance pays for 5 days, but as healthy as I am I could possibly be out in 2-3 days. They will get me up the day after surgery. My surgery is predicted at 3 hours. That's not as bad as I thought.

The main thing for me the NP said was to take care of me, try to get as much sleep as I could and don't work anymore. Good luck with that! Those freaks that are my office won't let me off at all on Monday. She says that I need to take care of me and relax some. Tomorrow I will prep the house as much as possible then Sunday is nap and rest day!

I've already taken my Celebrex for the day. No real difference yet, but I do feel more relaxed. I'm about to take a nice long bath and get ready for bed so I can get up early and finish everything around the house and then get ready to rest.

I'll keep everyone posted!

T-minus 4 days!!!!!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

9 Days to go - What I've done to get ready



Well I'm down to nine days and I'm a little more nervous! I'll list what I've done so far to get ready.




CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN (the oven, fan blades, couches steamed cleaned, washing everything)


Purchased a shower transfer bench from Amazon

Got my temporary handicap placard from the DMV for 3 months

Got the dog cleaned!!! (She was gross)

Redid the main bathroom that I'll be using.

Purchased a hip kit from Amazon as well.
Got my magazines ready for the hospital. (I figured from everyone else' post that I won't be really focused on reading a book)
Got my short term disability papers ready for the orthopaedic surgeon so we can afford brand name beenie weenies when I'm out of work!!!!
So far I feel that I've gotten a lot done. I'm doing my main cleaning of the house next Saturday. I'm getting scared about it now. The fact that I cleaned the bathroom floor this morning on my hands and knees scared me when i realized I don't know when I'll be able to do this again. My family has been great. I'm in pain pretty much all the time and can never get comfortable so I'm ready for the PAO in that respect. Well I'm off to do more stuff to get ready.