Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Hello, is there anybody out there?


I haven't blogged in a while. Did you notice?

I haven't been in seclusion, like Syd, don't worry. It's just the job.

Truthfully, I've been a tad nervous to even talk about work. I learned at my last job that things like this don't stay anonymous for long.

Then, too, are my hours. I'm working 9-5(well, 8-4:30), but sometimes that translates to 8-5 or even 8-6. Plus the on-call. It's not as bad as taking call for an OPO, as in I don't have to leave my house at an ungodly hour and drive to Nowhereville Hospital. On the other hand, when my call is over, I'm still expected to show up at work at 8am, looking freshly pressed, pretty and ready to put in my 8 hours. When I get home, I act like a mom for a few hours and then put Pooter to bed. Often, I fall asleep with her. If I manage to stay awake, I have to share our (now)solo computer with the husband. Then, on the rare occassion I have the computer all to my self, I'm more likely to mindlessly surf than come up with some snarky post. Weekends, I'm doing the mom thing and/or cleaning.

We did have a tremendous Christmas-I love spending Christmas with a 4 year old. She got a new dress and gasped "Just what I always wanted!" Where does she get THAT from? Last night she watched "The Wizard of Oz" for the first time. We had already been reading the book, so she was a little familiar with the story. "When's that ole tomato going to get here?" As in "tornado". It was too cute to correct.

Work has been blessedly slow for the past few weeks. Only the newly transplanted schedule appointments on Christmas or New Year's eves, because they have no choice. Actually, on woman missed her first 2 post transplant appointments and we had to have a little talk because THAT CRAP don't fly. It's been brutal at work. We are busy enough that if I or the other post transplant coordinator are out for even a day, we get backed up. I was sick 2 weeks ago and then took off one day to go to Pooter's Christmas party at school and I'm still catching up. Then we had 2 patients die right before Christmas. It's been stressful all around. I'd have dozens of things to post about, but I fear I'll be canned if I write about any of it, so there you go.

Suffice it to say, we are building our program. That means everyone is working their fool heads off. The Pre transplant side has been working REALLY long hours, cleaning up the waiting list, bringing in new and re-evals and generally expanding our waiting list. This means that in a year or two, we are going to be hopping. We've already seen the results in post-a lot of people who were status 7 were reevaluated and made active and then got immediately transplanted. Sept and Oct were busy, busy. These folks are just coming up on their 90 day mark and most are doing great.

Anyhoo, if I can figure out where this blog is going, I'll post more. God knows, I need to vent, but that's not possible, again I'm afraid of being "outed" at work. Ah, well.

Happy New Year.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello from CA, My husband is currently waiting at Stanford for a kidney/pancreas transplant. It has been a frustrating experience. We never hear from them, the attitude is don't call us, we'll call you. He has been waiting two years so far. The last time we went to the center was two years ago, pre dialysis. We send in a blood sample every month and that's it. Is this normal?

I have enjoyed reading your blog in the past because it gives a inside window to the other side.

Unknown said...

Good morning TC,

Great to see your post! I truly believe that many patients don't have a clue how busy tx coordinators are on an every day basis. As I speak with some patients, they like to paint the picture that the coordinators are sitting back "there" filing their nails or drinking coffee and waiting for (only) them to call with an issue, problem, silly question.

If you need to "vent" about the job or patients, this is a good place to do it.

But, I also know how difficult it can be to write about patients in a generic way.

We are hearing, waiting ..... if/when you have time to write.

Happy New Year & God Bless!

rlbates said...

Yes, I noticed. Happy New Year to you!

Robin said...

No worries. Good to hear from you.