Becoming IMPATIENT

   After moving from Greensboro to my grandfather's house, he let us live there so we could save for our own house.  We had been paying rent for two years.  It was like throwing money out the window.  His trailer, yes I said trailer, was below my parents house.  My mom would see Kristina everyday.  Then we moved into our new house that was thirty minutes away.  She was not happy.  Kristina was two years old.

   Now since the auras came back and my mother-in-law was getting to see Kristina more, my mom kept saying you should have not moved.  You should not have moved, you should have not moved.......over and over.   My answer was "mom, my seizures haven't come back then.".  Then it was, "I know".  (Well why did you say that again?)  Becoming IMPATIENT!

   Starting to Have more "spells".  Working more weekends, but still no call overnight.  The outpatient office that was affiliated with the hospital needed a full time ultrasound technician.  No weekend work or weeknight work at all.  Not even any Holidays.  WOW!  The patient numbers were high.  It kept us busy.  I didn't like standing around.   

     What's happening?  Where are the patient's?  The supervisor comes through.  Why are you standing around?  Get busy!  Check the other departments.  I didn't know how to do x-rays.  My co-worker did. She had to help them.  I just did ultrasound.  So I had to stock laundry in the dressing rooms.  I had to put reports with the x-ray folder.  Becoming IMPATIENT!!!  

     The file room is where all of the patient's x-rays reports are.  Some places have them on disks as back up and aren't as old time as this place.  You have to sit and staple new reports to the old reports.  The two that worked in that area were so S..L..O..W..  They knew how to walk fast to their cars when it was time to leave though.  When I had to help them because I wasn't busy, they would disappear.  POOF!!  This wasn't what I was hired for!  Be glad I'm here to help you.  Becoming IMPATIENT!!!!

MORE AURAS WHILE DRIVING

     I was able to hide my seizures while I worked.  They weren't that often.  Only having six or so a month. You know, where for a few seconds I shake my hand and hope nobody talks to me.  If I respond to you then I'll drool.  Trying to respond with excess saliva in my mouth is so embarrassing.  I can hide it from patients though.

     Another fender bender.  This was at a stop light.  It was red.  I had one of my "spells".  My foot slipped off of the break pedal and I hit the lady in front of me.  The good news is that we were stopped and I just tapped her bumper.  Bad news is ticket and higher insurance.  

     I took a break from driving.  No more freedom.  Since my husband was with the fire department, he could pick me up and take me to work the days he was off.  My mother-in-law helped with the days he couldn't. She didn't mind, getting to see her granddaughter more.  We had started going to church and now we would miss one to two Sundays a month.  Three sometimes depending on if my husband had a horrible night at the fire station.  

     I hated not driving.  I lost my freedom.  I prayed to God and said I would go to church more if I could drive.  Everyday, especially Saturday and Sunday morning, I would pray.

     

Work is Getting Wierd

     After training with the traveler.  Finally everyone new learned what we needed to know about echo.  We had to tell the travelers goodbye.  Since they left, I had the pleasure of going to the other outpatient office.  I had no idea of what was happening at the hospital.  I finally found out that the previous supervisor went out on leave.  Another person took over supervisor position while she was gone.  They gave her the office job where I was when she come back. (Oh MAN!!).  Back to the hospital to push the heavy machine on the carpet.
     When I came back to the hospital the air was thick.  The boss hired a nurse from upstairs that knew how to scan.  She didn't get along with anyone.  The daily schedule was made by her, and she did not like me.  I was portable, I had to push the machine to the patient's rooms to do the scan everyday.
     The nurse and boss were dating.  There was boss in another department that we worked with, the cath lab.  My boss was sneaky and told lies about her.  Everyone believed him and so she was told to leave or get fired.  He should have been fired then because come to find out he was using another person's name.  He was stealing from the hospital.  Police came and escorted him out.  WHAT?  The next week his girlfriend didn't show up for work.
     We needed a supervisor and a tech.  The hospital asked a lady that worked at another outpatient office to take over.  Before she could do that she had to train someone to do carotid ultrasounds.  ME,ME,ME!
I was taught another ultrasound specialty without going to school. LUCKY ME!  Since I worked at the other office,  I started filling in for the other general ultrasound tech when she was off.  Now I got to do all three specialties.  The only one I wasn't doing that I loved was OB scans.  Oh well, everything else was going my way now.  NO CALL again.  I was able to DRIVE again.  The only thing was my daughter finding new friends at her new daycare.  My husband was a full time fireman now.  HALLELUJAH!

More Seizures, and You said NO CALL

     Getting no sleep can cause seizures.  That is why I thought this job was going to be a blessing.  The interview said "NO CALL".  The schedule was getting worse.  The boss was looking for anything to sign you up for.  Come to find out, the boss was going out with one of the people that I worked with.  CRAZY!!

     What crazier was that I didn't pull over in time.  I was in a neighborhood on the way to work.  Has anyone ever ran a car into a house?  I did.  Ha,Ha.  No I didn't laugh.  I only hit the porch.  The house was also for sale.  The house was going under contract that day also.  I called my boss and told him what had done.  Believe it or not, He laughed.  HE LAUGHED!!  There is another twist to the story.  My in-laws bought the car!  

     Since I couldn't take call because of losing sleep.  I started working a few hours Saturday mornings.  The other technicians agreed with this.  Thank you Lord!

     Another fender-bender.  This is somehow in His will.  Pray.

Echo.. Echo.. Echo.. Echo...and driving wasn't working

     Three years had past after my surgery.  Guess what,  I started having my "sick feeling".  If you haven't read previous blogs, I get an "aura" before I have a seizure.  The kind I have are Complex Petit Mal Seizures.  I stare for 15-30 seconds and sometimes shake my right hand.  The staring time is just long enough to have a wreck.  The "aura" can sometimes last long enough to pull off the side of the road in time not to wreck.  That is still not safe.  That one year of hell that I put everyone through wasn't worth anything.  I didn't even remember my daughter's two year old birthday or Christmas.  

     I think I went through withdrawal.  My seizures were not as bad or as often.  I was just mad.  My husband finally talked me into seeing another neurologist closer to home.  Again, she sent me to another surgeon to have another procedure.  This procedure is where a Vagal Nerve Stimulator or like a pace maker for the brain helps keep extra brain waves cause my seizures.

     Again, guess what.  The surgeon looked at my MRI and CT scan.  The surgeon didn't take everything.  WHAT?? HE DID NOT TAKE EVERYTHING???  I didn't hear anything after that.  I just cried while being mad at the same time.

echo...echo...echo...School Returns

     Now it is time to open another door.  A job that is closer to home, no call, and getting paid while learning a new ultrasound modality.  After performing general and OB/GYN ultrasound for 6 years and having to learn something new, I was excited and hesitant.  You scan with your left hand because the patient is facing towards you.  I'm right handed.  The manager hired another person that had to be trained.  I wasn't alone. Thank you Lord.  That made me feel less hesitant because there was someone there without any ultrasound background.
     After I worked my notice, HALLELUJAH, this was the last night driving 45 minutes home.  Unfortunately I wasn't going to miss anyone.  Was that because of the change in my personality due to the surgery?  After all I was there for five years. They probably felt the same after the way I had changed.
     Wow, it only took me 25 minutes to get to work!  Now it's time to go in and try to remember new names.  That was also a problem after my surgery.  The echo lab didn't have much space to work in.  To save time and be able to get all the patients scanned that had a requisition.  We had to do portables.  That is where we pushed the heavy ultrasound machines to the patient's room for the study.
     The hospital where I went to work was affiliated with other outpatient offices.  The staff would go to two of those outpatient offices.  After a couple of weeks, I got to scan with another technologist at one site.  He taught me a lot.  There wasn't anyone to stand in front of the screen except me.  I would scan after him to see if I could get the same images.  He would also quiz me.  Pretty soon he would be getting paid to sit back and relax while I was scanning.  That was fine with me.  I enjoyed doing echocardiograms.  I'm not sure why, but my bad side from after the surgery was finally starting to change.
   
       

Working Those New Hours

  I haven't blogged for awhile.  That sounded funny.

  Working 11:00a - 8:00p, well...I liked sleeping in.  I had more time with my daughter.  She was two years old then.  It was odd picking her up from the hospital's child care that late.  She was the only child there then.  Of course instead of taking a cigarette break when I came to work, they went to lunch!  Why?  I didn't know what was going on in the department when they left.  My luck the ER would go crazy.  After changing my schedule, the supervisor changed the patient appointment time slots.  The time slots for two techs in the morning before me coming in were scheduled one patient per hour.  Now, after they left at 4:00 in the afternoon I had patients every 30 minutes. EXCUSE ME!! ONE ULTRASOUND TECH patients every 30 minutes scheduled, not including ER or inpatients that had to be done that day!  That made me hit the boiling point.
   I don't know if I mentioned after the surgery I called myself "the other Roxanne".  I know I mentioned not remembering Birthdays and Holidays, but I was also a MONSTER!  I don't know if anybody else had that happen to them after brain surgery, but it's awful.  Thank God it only lasted for around a year and a half.  I have a wonderful husband to stay with me and put up with that.
   After working those hours I finally found a position that was closer to home and NO CALL!
Along with no call I will be trained to do echocardiograms!