Long time no Blog

It has been over a month and I have been trying to be a better blogger. However on April 30th my family had to deal with something that we did not see coming. My mom passed away. A doctor who was consulting on her case is looking into her death, he thinks that her primary was negligent. That could take a while with going thought the files so we have to wait.

She died of an infection that she should have been able to fight off with antibiotics. I think that this is all can write about now.

Money Money Money

The state has a surplus of money this year to spend so as they haggle and talk over what is going to be done with this money there are many groups and organizations fighting over it, how to spend it what to spend it on. Much of the state is in need of road and new drainage work. The main city here wants much of the money to be spent on a new basketball stadium for the Sonics. I have never been to the old stadium I doubt that I will go to the new one.

This spending money on a private organization that a majority of the people will never use is in my opinion not a very good idea. The state is also being petitioned by a group that is asking that part of the money be spent on elderly care. This is what I care about this is where I work. I go to long term care places to work and many of them are not up to the standard that most people would put their pet in. I know of places that are loosing money so much to the point that the staff has not had a raise in many year. That the daily food allotment for each person there is $2.49 a day. Can you feed your self 3 meals a day plus a snack if you are diabetic on under $2.50 a day. I know that I can't. Much of the equipment is so old that it costs more in repairs than to buy a new one. However, buying a new bed or lifting machine will take money way from the other needs. It is like in our world of the US. the elderly are forgotten. Lost, not cared for.

Now I will admit that not all places are like this. There are places that have the money, and the staff that cares for the patient. Those are usually nonprofit or are private pay where a semi-private room costs into the thousands a month. Not, many can afford that. So what should we spend the millions on that are hanging about. A building for a basketball team, that already has one that they don't want because it is old. Or, on the elderly.

Arrrgggghhhhh

That title does not make me feel the least bit better. Do you want to know why? Well, probably not but I am going to get it off my chest anyway. At work we had one person doing the staff rotation. Now we have 2 and they are not talking to each other. So I get to work on Friday to and I am to be on two halls at the same time. Now, one person finds this amusing and the other is a pissed off about it as I am. Then last week they have me marked down as a no call no show. I was at my other job in Longview, I knew that I was working there, they knew or I told them that I was not going to be in town that day. So how am I to be in the two different towns at the same time. Working in heath care sucks.

The Sad

I am saddened by what happened at Virginia Tech. Death, unexpected death is never something that is easy to handle. Even for those who see death on a daily basis it is not easy. My heart and energy goes out to those who are effected by this. I am not one to ask who is to blame, I do not blame the government, the gun manufacturer, the school, or the man's parents. I am one who believes is that soon to be extinct now on the endangered species list. That is Personal Responsibility. There are some exceptions to this thing called Personal Responsibility. I know that the ALL GREAT AND POWERFUL news is saying that the man had some mental health issues, that may be true. It maybe that he gave into the pressure, the anger or whatever it was that was tormenting him. I for one who has gone through a server depression fell sorry for him. I know that he felt alone, misunderstood, angered and very unwell. This is just a tragic event that someone, somewhere will take and run with it to further their own gains. They will just not let the families, friends, loved ones and yes the pets mourn. They want to see the suffering to get others behind them on whatever it is that they think they can best squeeze out of this. That to is sad.

Not Cancer

For those of you who find yourself reading this lolly blog. My mom does not have cancer. It took nine days in the hospital, a collapsed lung, and a biopsy to find out that she has Valley Fever. So 8 months to a year on some pills and a little help with her malabsorption she will be healthy again. For those of you who don't know what Valley Fever is go and look it up. We are teasing her about the 'shrooms in her lungs. The doc did say that they are not special 'shrooms.

Work and more work

Work that is what I do to get paid. I work anywhere form 4 to 16 hours a day. With mom in a funk about having cancer and not wanting support from anyone other than her kids it gets to be a bit stifling. I leave work to come to work where I don't get paid.

Mom wants me to wait on her hand and foot. Like I don't get enough of that at the nursing home and the hospitals. I feel like I don't have a home anymore. Just 2 nursing homes that I go between.

Death it is

Well, the results are in. Mom does have cancer it is in 3 places and has metastasized ( I know I spelled it wrong). So now she is laying on the couch getting us to wait on her hand and foot. Like I don't do this enough at work. I am going to start working 6 days a week or even pull doubles so I don't have to deal with this crap. That sounds bad but I did not get into heath care to take care of my family I got into it to take care of others. This is pissing me off royally.

The Boy wants to have a friend over on Monday as it is the last day of finals. Mom is bitching about that. Well, this is not her fvcking house. I pay rent, power and buy the food. My bills have all doubled sense she moved in. Not only that but I have gotten behind on paying things that were not behind before June. I know I am bitching about things. But it needs to be done, it helps me keep my sanity.

Life and Near Death

Mom went to the doc on Tuesday of last week for a check up. During the check up they took X-rays, on the X-ray the doc found a spot on her lungs. So this Tuesday she went and had a CAT scan for a better look. Mom thinks that she has cancer and is going to die. She goes to see what the results are today.

Sense last week mom has been moping about, lying around on the couch and not doing much else. It is like she has decided to die even with out hearing the results. There might not be anything wrong with her, it might have been just a mess up in the development process. Then again it might not be. Mom has been a 4 pack a day smoker for over 30 years. We won't find anything out for a few more hours. So I am going to watch a movie and do some cross stitch.

Borrowed from it Comes in Pints

I have a BIG FUCK OFF and I need to get it out. SO FUCK OFF HEATH CARE SYSTEM... I work in heath care nursing actualy and I cannot get heath insurnce, weekends off or holidays. So fuck off to all the people who hear what I do and think I have it made. Fuck Off to patients who dont listen then reinjure themseves and blame us. FUCK OFF to call lights, to idots who dont understand that pills do not cure all. FUCK OFF to doctors who get medical for free, when the nurses who do most of the work cant get shit. Fuck off the the patients who think they are the only sick people in the hospital- nursinghome. Fuck off to people who dont understand why sometimes I have to work nights. I would love to close the hospitals down at 5pm and let all the drunks who drive and hit trees lay there until they reopen at 9am. DONT THINK THAT WILL WORK.. FUCK OFF to the state government who makes it so that we have no recurse when a patent comes at us with weapons yet when we put up our hands to protect ourselves we get charged with assult. . . There is alot more I want to say but I have to get in bed to get to work.

Here is the link to It comes in Pints http://www.secondbreakfast.net/

Dont have one for today

Well, I have been out of blogging for a while. I took a week and spent a few days in Los Vegas and had a blast. My girlfriends and I meet at the airport we all arrived within 30 min of each other and left the same way too. So that none of us had to be alone for long. Oh it was a fun trip. The one and only downer about is was that Bluelady had to be in meetings all day. So she was only able to come with us in the evenings. But what fun we had in the evenings. We say Phantom of the Opera, the lions at the MGM being fed, and saw some drunk women in a bar dance. NO they were not us. There was so much to See and to do I wish that we could have had more time there, more to do, to talk about, to share. I miss Blue and Windy. It was a great trip.

Life is The Blues

I am watching Blues Brothers 2000 and I know that it is not the one that most people like But I love the Gator Boys at the end. I am not sure but I think that is Charlie Musslewhite playing the harp. I did not see him but it sounded like him. OK so I happen to love blues and blues harp is the best. It is fun to play too.

But that is not what this heading was to have been about. My brother has put in notice for his job, he has not gotten a raise in over a year and the boss hates him. I can understand why he wants to quit but he is staying with me. I don't want to end up supporting him. That might happen if he does not find a job soon.

Halloween and possably getting fired

My work is having a Halloween costume contest. Now for those of you who don't know I work in long term care and rehap for physical thearpy. So I am going to make myself into an old lady and become a patient. I am going to get latex face makeup and add wrinkels, some bruses so that it looks like I fell and landed on my face. Some bandages in places, and borrow a wheelechair. I am alos going to make my hair white. It ought to be fun and if I get fired so what it is not like I have another job well I do have another job.

I think that this will be the best costume ever. I mean being an old lady in an nursing home. That will be cool.

Ch ch ch anges

My best friend has moved from her home to a new state and for her I am glad. For me not so much so. It is not that she has moved away from me she lives on the East Coast and I live on the West. What it is, is that she will not have a phone for about two weeks. I call her every morning and we talk at least twice a day. We are going to be suffering here at least until the phone gets turned on.

Another change that is coming up I might in January be going back to school. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. It has been a while sence I have been in school so I have to start over with the prereqs. That will not be fun but it is understandable. The one thing that I will have a problem with is if I go into nursing. This state requires that you take a CNA class, I have been one for 20 years, and they wont let us test out of it. That to me is a waste of money and time, both mine and the teachers.

Passwords and computers

I have not been able to post in a long time. First my computer recived a virus, nice right? Well, not really by the time I got it fixed it was to late to post my post on September 11th. Not only that but because I have not been able to log on in forever, I forgot my password, not just for here but for other things that I have on here. One day I will be smart enough to make and keep a list of what password goes with what link/site/program.

I have had to reload everything from programs to drivers. I dont know how I got them or if someone gave them to me.

Resignation

Well, they did it starting on the 6th of August the hours are being cut at MJ. Not only that but they have made us all reapply for our jobs. They are taking away the set days that we now work and putting us all on 4 on 2 off. Now for those who are single parents out there it is quite difficult to have a kid or more than one kid and only one weekend off every six weeks. So I had to go on call, I will give up my benifits to be able to work when I need to and yet have the time off to spend it with my kid. So I am now looking for a job that will take me off nights, I have been working them for 3 years. It is time to get back on where I have a life. I know this is short but it is late and I need to get the kid in bed and I need to get in bed too.

ANGRY

I am really teed off. Mjs is trying to fire us all and we are waiting for the union to see what they can and cannot do. Our contract states that we have an 8 1/2 hour day getting paid for 8. They want to take us to a 8 hour day paid for 7 1/2. That is against the contract. They are also trying to put us on a 4 on 2 off work day. That means that we are getting one weekend off every 6 weeks. I have put in my time and will not work weekend again unless I want to. They are also trying to take away the weekend bonus.

I know they are trying to run underbudget but that is not going to happen by doing this to the CNAs. They need to look at the nursres. The ones that work evening shift are there for hours after the shift ends saying that they are charting. What they do is the chat and tell jokes on the clock until 3 am. That is racking up big overtime money. So we are waiting to see what the union Lawyer says on this one.

We have to reapply to our jobs not even sure that we will have the same shift that we now have. And that wonderful paper is due in on the 30 of this month. We found out all about this on the 23 they gave us alot of notice. If we dont have this in on the 30th it is concidered a voulintary resignation.

What do you think about this.

This has my sister very angry. I do agree that if you expect a kid to do something they will do it.

"I would like to see it that if you don't have your HPV vaccine, you can't start high school," said Juan Carlos Felix of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, who leads the National Cervical Cancer Coalition's medical advisory panel."

Read the whole artical here. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/30/AR2005103000747.html

I understand about wanting to protect people from getting cancer but I would think that not having sex would be the way to go. Who knows what they long term effects are going to be. Sure they might have found a cure that works now, but what are the long term effects.

After Death and Double Shifts

At Mj's a patient recently died. She had no family who came down to see her and she died alone. When her obit was printed it was all about the company that she worked for. It was started for by the grandfater, then the father and now the son. She had worked for all of them, never taking a sick day, never taking a vacation. I find that sad that her job was her life.

I worked a double shift several miles from my home. The drive was the best part of the experance. I started out on one wing and worked all of them. The care at this place was not the best. One of the regular staff that I worked with did not do cath or peri care at all. The place smelled like an outhouse. I will go back if asked because the money is good, and I think the people there deserve good care. I managed to get someone to eat who normaly does not eat. I spent time with her so that she was not fed at the speed that military men eat.

I know there are worse places than MJ to work. At MJ my complant is not the care but how the staff is being treated. There is a great big diffrence in that.

Neglect

Working in long term care you have things that you must do that not only makes your job easier but it also makes the job of the person following you easier.

Right now we have a wing that is got a lot of full care people on it. These people cannot get out of bed for whatever reason. So they have catheters, and bedpans. Some are incontent. Now when you get to the end of the shift you are to have the catheters empty, the trash picked up, and things just generaly neat.

Last night was not the case. There were people not in bed but on top of them, soaked with poo and pee. This reflects on all shifs as neglect. It is not fun going into a room and a patient that should be clean and finding dryed poop on them. That is not good care.

Also when asked about someone that you should have taken care of for the past 8 hours if they can walk you should know the answer. Not say "I guess they can they have been charting that she does". Not good.

Happy F(*&ing Birthday

Today is my birthday and I have gotten flowers dielivered to me for the first time ever. I also got a Tshirt and a cd. But that is not what I want to talk about. In the mail today I recived 2 items from my work. One was a birthday card with a ticket for a free meal to be eaten on my shift only good through the month of June. Can anyone guess what is wrong with this? I work graveyard shift, the KITCHEN IS CLOSED!!! So I have a useless meal ticket.

The second was a Dear Employee letter stating that they are cutting our hours from a full 8 to 7 1/2. So they have cut my pay on my birthday. That acctualy does not come into effect until the 11th but still that sucks. They think that we are going to be able to give the same amount of care to each person. That is bull. That half hour overlap was to get and give report on the patients. How can we know who or what we have to deal with if we are no longer getting report. That is lack od communication and that is very dangerous.