All because I think the cat peed on my poncho

My day was pretty crappy today.

Really.

And, yes, I'm blaming it on the cat.

Not Tattoo. Tattoo knows better. I think.

Onyx is this week's culprit.

Let me start from the beginning.

Last night, Dom pointed out that the sink wasn't draining right (at all) so we poured some Drano down the sink and waited.

All we managed was a slow drain.

I had drank a few beers and eaten some of Angel's homemade chili so that was a recipe for a sleep coma.

I was watching the movie "Fighting" with him and fell asleep on the couch so by the end of the movie I had grabbed my blanket, pillow and Onyx and made my way to bed. Angel stayed awake and drank a few beers and put the chili away.


Let me get on with the point.....


By morning time, I got up and grabbed my poncho from the basket at the end of my bed. The sleeve and the hood was wet. I smelled it and it didn't smell funny but I wasn't taking any chances. I grabbed it and a few other items and threw them in the washer. For some reason there was still water in the washer but ......duh....didn't think twice about it. I put it on spin to clear the water and then put in my load.


I'm in my room (harvesting my crops) and I hear this water splashing. I know it has been raining here these past few days so I figured it started raining again....hard. I peek out and it's the drain hose to the washing machine spitting out water (the machines are outside by my window). I run outside and turn off the machine but then that's when I *snapped* OH CRAP!! The water is backing up because of the sink not draining!!!

I ran into the kitchen and sure enough...I hear water splashing onto the floor and I was now swimming. BOTH sinks were full, the counter was full, the kitchen floor was flooded and I saw the water making a bee-line for one of the living rooms straight to the computer tower.



NOOOOOOOOO!

Something had to be done quick! So...I ran and woke up Angel (lucky for me he was rained out of work, not so lucky for him though).

I grabbed a blanket that was on the couch and threw it on the kitchen floor. Angel came running out of the bed, still in a buzzed haze from drinking the rest of the bud lights, and ran straight to the restroom. Then he got control of his senses and came to the kitchen. He almost slipped and fell because of the water.

He broke out the Wet/Dry Vac we have and...I got to work vacuuming the water and emptying the vac over and over.

Once most of the water was up, I had to go to work and leave Angel with the rest of the clean-up.

I felt bad.

As I was driving to work...I see these men on the side of the road with shovels filling in pothole with dirt from the back of a truck.

I'm thinking...Oh, ok, they are filling in pot-*BAM*......that's when it happened.

I grab my steering wheel with both hands and slowly drive to the next intersection. I had to drive slow...there were a million potholes everywhere. I pass the intersection and relax my grip on the wheel and automatically, my car starts veering to the right.


-

CRAP!!!


I pull over and sure enough...I have a flat!


I hit that hole and it busted my tire immediately.

I had to call my office for them to send someone to assist me. The guy came out and changed the tire to the awful donut spare and I had to follow him to a tire center where he had to purchase a new tire.

Set my whole day back by a few hours.

When I got back home, Angel was still working on the pipe that was apparently clogged due to my awesome cooking-and-pouring-grease-down-the-drain skills. He had to cut the pipe and place a new one........outside.

DAMN CAT!

All because I think the cat probably peed on my poncho!

I'm gonna get to those posts I promised soon enough.

Got Breakfast?

Lately, when I visit my patient's houses, their family members are always trying to feed me.

I dont' know how many houses I have eaten at (no, not in one day) since I've worked with this company.


I learned from one lady that they get pretty offended if they offer you something and you turn your nose up at it.

I was informed that one nurse visits a patient that we have in common later in the evening between 6-8 pm. They are usually having dinner around this time so, when she shows and they offer her dinner, she turns them down with a look of disgust on her face (this is all told to me from the daughter of my patient).

They think she is stuck-up or grossed out by the faces she makes when they offer.


NOT ME.


I've decided that here (in Mexicanville) I won't be offending ANYONE!


So...as I've said. I've been fed numerous times.


The most common is Tamales.

Because I work at my own schedule, I prefer to start work as soon as I drop the kids off at school. This way, come 2-5 pm I'm either already finishing or finished work.

I like to have the rest of the day to myself.

So....

As I said.....

Early in the morning, the majority of my patients or my patient's families are usually eating breakfast and it's usually Tamales.

One time, my patient was cooking when I arrived.

She was making Chiliquilles

with a side of refried beans.

Now, this was one time that I wasn't able to have breakfast. This lady was tearing up her corn tortillas and cooking them in her pan, she crumbled queso fresco onto it and it looked GOOD.

The couple of things that made the decision for me about not being able to enjoy her breakfast.....

1. The amount of salsa verde she poured right over the whole thing (it was about 2 cups).

2. The amount of oil she used for her refried beans (probably about a cup).

She said she was making it for her granddaughter (who is 26 yrs old) because she was on her way over with a hangover. This was apparently her hangover remedy.

Well, I didn't have a hangover but I knew that if I ate, I would most likely have some digestion problems throughout the rest of the day. I can't afford that if I'm driving all the time.

I hope they enjoyed their breakfast.

About 3 times a week my patients are offering me food.

Yesterday I gave in and ate 2 tamales. They were so good.

Two tamales won't ruin my diet.....right?

Been Busy! Just like you guys!

A lot has been going on (I know everyone is busy so everyone is excused for not posting as often as they would have liked to....everyone except those getting paid for posting...hee hee).


Anyway, I have been dealing with the kids, family and working.

WORK:

One of the Physical Therapists (PTs) that worked for the company on an "as needed" basis decided he didn't want to be needed by the company anymore so now we are down to 2 PTs. Both of them are working with the company on an "as needed" basis too. They are also working with other companies as needed so they are pretty busy.

This means that I will be getting my patient load from these 2 PTs only if they have time to accept patient evaluations from my company.

This means that I have just dropped my patient load from 6-8 patients a day to 4 patients a day (which is what I have now). I also looked at my schedule for next week and on Tuesday and Thursday I only have 1 patient.


I have to say. At a time like this...it's a good thing I'm salary.

KIDS:

Devyn just finished his soccer league. We lost everyone of our games, except the one where the other team was a no-show. Whatever. The kids have fun and he is getting better in the sport.

Angel has done half of the Christmas shopping in Corpus and I did the other half here.

Dom was told that if he completes another packet in Science and gets a grade of 90 or above, then he doesn't have to complete any more science packets (he still has 4 more packets to complete). If he does that with all of the subjects then he will automatically be passed onto the 9th grade.


He's excited and I think that is what he is going for.

FAMILY:

I have been trying SO hard to get my sister to be open to doing things more as a family. She has issues and likes to put the blame on everyone else. In case you missed it, THIS is what happened one time when she decided to put her issues first.

The last time we (her boyfriend, her and myself) decided to have a BBQ on a Saturday. Her kids had just stayed the night with mine that Friday. I figured all she had to do was come on over.

Well when I called and asked her about coming over on Saturday, she said "ohhh, I don't think we are going to go after all."

WHAT?!?

Come-on now.

For Real?

You don't want to spend a Saturday with your family even though you are STILL complaining that we don't do anything AS a family?

She did manage to come over and get her kids though.

Whatever chick.

SOOO...people. Here's my last ditch effort:

Devyn and Miah are going to be playing basketball. Just like I wanted to do with soccer (have my sister's kids come and play on the same teams and I would pay their registration fees) I want them to come and play on the same basketball teams (of course I offered to pay their fees, again).

I talked to the coach who is in charge of the whole program and he said we could get basketball underway if he can round up enough coaches (he had a little bit of a hard time getting coaches for soccer).

This is when I told him that maybe we could help him with that. I asked him how much experience he needed and he started saying "some" but ended up saying "none".

PERFECT!

I played basketball in high school and well...that's all.

I proposed the idea to my sister and explained that she and I could coach the girls team and her boyfriend could coach the boys team with our boys and Dom could be the assistant coach for him.


She's excited about the idea. Maybe this time we will be able to do something together as a family cause this shit is killing me.

Her and her boyfriend argue A LOT and she lets that get in the way of everything she needs (or promised) she would do. I told her that she needs to put her personal issues aside when it comes to the kids. Lets see how that goes.


I'm thinking about buying us all some whistles to help them stay motivated.


What do you think?

-----------------------------------------------------------

So, guess what my friends! I'm sure you all are seeing the gas prices still dropping.

Here's what we have now down here:



P.S. Dom has a new post up. Check it out HERE.

Now that he's not grounded and has a ton of free time with no school work. I will have him posting more frequently again.

Scary Experience

Just in time for Halloween. I sure hope that this is the only scare I get for a loooong time.

TRUE STORY:

Last week Friday, I was sent to a patient's house to provide treatment. This patient was new so I have never treated him before. I am used to treating elderly people so when I saw this patient I was a little thrown off. This man was in his 40's nearing his 50's.
I get to the patient's house and he lets me in. There was already a lady there trying to get some paperwork completed. Once he saw me he immediately started insisting to the other lady that he couldn't finish the paperwork right now and he continuously told her that he "really needed to do his exercises". I tried to tell the lady that I could come back a little later so that she could finish up but he interrupted and started ushering her out of his house.

Once she was gone, we sat at the kitchen table and I mentioned about how he really wanted her out of there. He explained that she had been there a couple of times before but they were always interrupted and she couldn't finish her paperwork. I told him that we could call her back and they could get the paperwork out of the way but he just waved that idea off.

I started by telling him, "So, tell me what's going on and what would you like me to help you with?"
He looked at me and then started telling me about how he has problems controlling his anger and that he was taking anger management classes. He started showing me the paperwork. Then he continued to tell me about how he was having problems with his marriage and how he has been married for 2 yrs now but his wife only comes over at noon and leaves before 9pm. She doesn't even stay the night with him. (RED FLAG) Was this supposed to be a hint?

THEN, he starts telling me about how he has sexual issues and that he was always at the strip clubs.

WHAT THA FUCK?

As he was telling me all of this I was just sitting at the table wondering WHY he was telling me this. I was only there to provide rehab in the form of exercises, balance activities and gait training.
He started wiping his forehead and saying how hot it was in there and then he gets up and turns on the A/C. He comes back and starts GLARING at me from across the table. I got an eerie chill that went down my spine.

I'm getting some really bad vibes from him and I'm starting to feel uncomfortable. Every time I look down at my paper to write something and then look back up at him, I notice that he is looking at me up and down as if he were undressing me with his eyes.

I'm guessing he's thinking that his home has turned into his own personal strip joint.

I needed to get his blood pressure and pulse so I had to get close enough to him. He was sitting in a chair and I had to kneel next to him and I could see and feel him leaning close and trying to look down my scrub top.
HIS PULSE WAS RACING.

I was getting really nervous, but I was a little afraid to say anything because I didn't know if I would say or do anything that might set off his anger problem.
He kept leaving the room and coming back and every time he did that I was afraid that he was going to sneak up on me and bash me over the head with something.
I was really starting to get scared.
He wouldn't stop looking at me.

We were halfway through his therapy and I mentioned that we needed to do some gait training with he walker. He got it out of the closet and I noticed that the handles were a little too high for him. I needed to adjust them. I got the walker and started adjusting it when he started inching himself closer and closer. I swear he could probably hear my heart. He had to have been able to because I could feel his breath on my neck. It wasn't like he was blowing out candles.

BREATHE, SHEILA....BREATHE.
And get out of my personal space you freak!

I started backing away and discreetly trying to maintain some distance between us. And his facial expression started to change.

I honestly started wondering if I were going to make it out of this guys house alive. I started looking for the exits. I told him that we were going to walk outside for fresh air.
Once outside I started looking for witnesses and waving at them so that SOMEONE would know that I was there.

I completed the therapy and got out of there as fast as I could. I didn't look back.
I had parked my car facing away from his house so when I got in and looked in my rear view mirror.....and he was peering at me through his window.

::shudder::

I drove straight to my office and told them that I WAS NOT going back there. That was fine with them. They reassigned that patient to someone else (a male) and that was that.

I called my supervising PT and told him about what happened. He said I made a good call. He didn't get that vibe from him. But he did notice that his attitude changed to being agitated when the PT told him that he wasn't going to be giving him a massage to ease his pain and that he was going to need to be doing some exercises for strengthening. He said that the patient got mad and told him that he WAS NOT going to be doing any exercises.

(But there he was ushering the other lady out of the house telling her he really needed to do his exercises when I got there)

Honestly people, I know it doesn't sound scary on paper but I was definitely getting a deranged serial killer vibe from this person. I don't ever underestimate any one's mental instability. You never know what is going on in some one's mind. I am constantly in someone else's house...alone with that person and there is always a risk involved.

Now, had this been an elderly man who was simply a perv....I could've taken him.

My First Patient

Whoo Hoo!

Tomorrow I get my first Home Health patient.
The PT did his eval and faxed a copy over to the company and they gave me a copy. The only thing is...I've been training on the PDA and the PT has his own "notebook" that he does his evals on. It isn't the same as the program on the PDA. So the patient isn't entered into the system under our program. THIS means that I will have to write my visit note on PAPER! *GASP*

Also, I was supposed to be getting a company vehicle to use for my visits. They haven't gotten me a car yet (and they knew I was coming to work for the company for about a month). So I have to fill out a mileage log. This is what I didn't want to do because I am getting dangerously close to the end of my mileage warranty. (A little over 1000 miles before my warranty runs out).

The company is sending a nurse with me to "oversee" my treatment, even though she knows nothing about physical therapy treatments. They told her in front of me "If she looks like she knows what she is doing, she probably does." We all thought that was funny. She is basically coming with me to check to see if I do proper hand washing procedures and introduce myself...etc.
Whatever, I think it'll be cool.

Anyway, I should be happy to have a patient to actually do some out of the office work. I have been in the office fighting sleep since last week. Now they have me on the computer incorporating therapy skills checkoffs with their nursing paperwork.
I guess they are just looking for something to keep me busy since they are paying me regardless.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The kids are loving their new schools.

I am loving the fact that they ALL get FREE breakfast and FREE lunch despite our income amount. How cool is that?

Before I graduated and started working I was on Public Assistance (FOOD STAMPS) which automatically qualified the kids for free food at school. As soon as I started working last year I reported my income and gave up all public assistance (because isn't that what we are supposed to be working toward?) so I had to adjust to handing out money to the kids for food or send money to the school cafeteria to cover the kids meals.

I'm loving being here over and over again.-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Angel is coming home for the weekend. I have some work for him to do. Our water pressure is really low and it's hard to take a shower when the pressure is coming out with the force of a pinched water hose. The hot water is almost non-existent and it's mostly a cool shower. I don't complain. All will be fixed soon enough.

That's it for now.
Ta-Ta

Am I being punished?

So...my supervisor came back to work today...YAY!
Boy was I happy to see him. Wedding ring and all.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not the least bit attracted to this dude. I was just happy that he came back to work to pick up half of this caseload of patients that I have been working myself to death over the past 3 weeks.

He was finally here.

I was super happy working and smiling in the patient's faces regardless of whatever alzheimic or demented remark came out of their mouth. I was so on a roll that I didn't even realize that I had worked halfway through lunch. I sat and ate and while I was eating...a bomb was dropped.

My supervisor came to me and said I might end up having to see his patients that are in assessment (this means either new patients or in a crucial time for insurance). Assessments were mandatory. I was like..."What? What are you talking about?"

He went on to explain some mumbo jumbo about registering online to renew his license to practice physical therapy................yesterday.
He blubbered something about looking online today and it states that it's not valid.
Of course we asked him if he received a conformation number and printed it out.
He continued to mumble something about printing something out but not really looking at it or reading it.

WHAT........THE........ FUCK?!?!

So here is what happened.
He got to go home at lunch and we don't really know if he will be eligible to work tomorrow or until whenever it will be that he gets his licensed renewed.
I wanted to jump him right then and there. I wanted to bust his little head in. He's a small guy (smaller than me) I can take him. The punk. He knew this date was coming up and instead of taking care of it before his 3 week vacation, he waits until he gets back a day before he goes back to work and does it.

Personally, I don't think the little bitch wants to work. He shows up in the morning draggin ass all day and by the time I leave he has barely halfway through his caseload. He's a traveling PT so he gets assignments for 3 months at a time at various facilities. I should have picked up on some type of laziness a long time ago. The first week he started with us he "got sick" 3 days into the job and was out for a week and a half.

His recruiting company needs to send someone who wants to frickin work!

Whatever.

I'm officially pissed. stressed. disgusted.

.........but, what can I do?


BAD! BAD THERAPIST!!


It's Friday Eve...one more day to get through.

I DON'T WANT TO GROW OLD!

Man!
I DON'T!

Working in a rehab/nursing home has definately shown me the many ways to grow old. So far, I haven't seen one I like. I walk around and work with elderly people all day. Some of them are great and old and crickety. Some are bitter old hags, and feisty old men, those who are just barely there and we have to go in and stretch out their limbs so they don't curl up and stay that way.
Now...see..some of, well mostly all of them are between the ages of 70 and 100 yrs old. They all wear diapers and some of them get spoon fed and some have peg tubes that go right in their stomach to feed them.
None of those is the way I want to be around that age.
If I make it to that age.
I don't want to lose my hair, my teeth, my sight,my hearing OR my mind.
My old PT boss and I would talk about how we were going to be when we were old. We decided on just being dropped off at a nudist colony. A permanent resident. We could walk around naked and just shit as we go. I don't want anyone wiping my ass for me. There's a nice pool somewhere on the premises..I'll just cruise one throught it a couple of times and I would be bathed too.
A lot of elderly don't even know how to clothe themselves.
Not a problem at 'The Colony'.
Shoot. I don't need a bra there. No underware. No diapers. NADA. All of our junk would just be hanging and swishing back and forth. We don't friggin care. Just have a buffet laid out and a couple of cot here and there. Cause I don't want to be the one who forgets where my room is. If I'm sleepy...there's a cot...gimmie a blanket and pillow.

Anyway...the reason for my rant..was cause an elderly male resident was just cursing me out today during my treatment with him. He was really in an uproar during lunchtime. Something about getting too much food on his plate and having to go to his car and get more money to have to pay for it all.
They don't pay for their food there. I mean, insurance pays it but not at their tableside.
He was confused about all of that and he thought he could just stand up from his wheelchair and walk. Not happenin. He could barely lift himself out of the seat.
I was just trying to get him to propel his wheelchair back to his room because he didn't want to do anything else. The whole way down the hall he was telling me to get away from him and swatting at me. Anyone he came into contact with was getting verbally attacked. I finally got him to his destination.
Tomorrow, he may have a different attitude. Either way, I'm definately going to treat him BEFORE lunch.



I still don't want to grow old.
To me...there's no way to do it gracefully.