Frustrated and Irritated!!!

What a day! My tolerance level is low...I can feel it. First off, I was supposed to call a patient this morning with her lab results that we drew yesterday. Well, our pneumatic tube system (the snake in the wall that sucks tubes through tunnels to different departments - like the drive through at a bank) was down - not working on and off for about 18+ hours. I bet you can figure it out from the preface of my introduction...yep! Her lab samples were LOST! Lost in pneumatic tube space! UGH! Let's keep in mind that this was a one hour glucola that the patient really wasn't excited about doing in the first place. So, I tried to contact her to let her know of the unfortunate mishap and now we are playing phone tag...I was totally frusterated about that FIRST thing this morning.

Then, today was a specialty day at work. Which, in simple terms means: we have a specialist come to our facility to provide a service that we don't offer. So, the doctor meets with the patient for the comprehensive exam and then the patient has a "follow up" appointment with a provider from the care team to review the findings of the specialist and make a care plan. Well, charts were a HUGE issue here. The chart needs to be available to for the specialist visit, but then also needs to get to the follow up provider. So after multiple phone calls to the chart room, chart runner, previous department, etc. I waited over 1 1/2 hours for one chart. Well, it really wasn't about ME waiting, but more so the patient. I was so tempted to just walk my little hiney down the hall and one flight of stairs to pick up the chart myself. Of course, that goes against my company policy and I would be doing a no-no. Yet, my patient wouldn't have had to wait...

Then I get home, and my lovely children are schmoozing on the couch, watching tv, being lazy, basically. Mind you, two of my three kids have failing grades in their academics. OOOHHHH....take a deep breath, Heather, breathe. And there are only 3 weeks left until the first quarter grades come out. Yes, keep breathing! This is really out of my control, I know this. Please don't let my blood pressure rise...breathe. Okay, so I know my kids ultimately suffer the consequences of their own academics. Damn! What am I doing wrong?

1064 Balloons and a Birthday

Birthdays are a celebration of life. Yes, they are! I stole an idea from one of my teenage daughters friends (well,I did ask her for permission) to brighten my mothers 59th birthday. To my recollection, my mother has never been the subject of a "Surpise" party. So I took an annual leave day off work and let the children skip school for the day and we pulled off a fantastic surprise!

At the end of the preparation, we had filled my mothers living/dining/kitchen area with 1064 BALLOONS! I had made a pot of chili in the crock pot, bought a deliciously moist chocolate cake, a few gifts, of course, and gathered the beautiful grandchildren for the festivities. Now, we just had to try and patiently wait for Nan to come home from work. She had no clue what we were up to and so she took her sweet little time coming home. But, finally...