Sunglasses and Sunscreen

No, it's not another "I'm-leaving-my-life-and-hopping-on-a-plane-to-the-Caribbean" post. I AM leaving and hopping on a plane to south Florida next week, but that'll be another post.

Teehee.

I'm laden with sugar, caffeine, and that singular adrenaline that washes over you only when you've accomplished something huge.

I was sitting in the typical senior leadership meeting this morning, trying to wrap my brain around value-based purchasing and upcoming bundled payments from CMS. And then my phone kept vibrating. Usually, that means I'm being inundated with emails. I couldn't help it...what if it was my mom? Jack? Therese? What if someone was terribly hurt and needed me right then and there?

So I succumbed to the temptation and logged onto my phone in the middle of the meeting. This is generally frowned-upon, but more and more lately, people are just emailing on their Blackberries while other people are TALKING to them.

I didn't find that anyone was hurt (thank God). Instead, I had six emails from IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement), that all of the patient safety storyboards I submitted on St. Fozzie's behalf were accepted for exhibition at the annual conference in December! I wonder if my face betrayed the fact that I received great news. I sat on it until it was my turn to update everyone during the round table discussion. I broke the news and Sister Lourdes actually squealed!

I received a round of applause (which caught me off guard). I shared the news with the key staff in Quality Improvement, Emergency Department, and Cardiology. Everyone was so happy and excited about it.

Then I rushed off to Ethics Committee and got sidelined by a new medical resident who wanted to talk ethics. I'm a sucker for this, so I stayed and we hatched a plan to integrate the medical residents into Catholic bioethical formation. As I walked back to my office, lunch balanced precariously across my portfolio, Sister Lourdes ran up beside me and grabbed my calendar. She penciled in "Orlando" in early December. St. Fozzie's is sending me and Carrie, the clinical informaticist, to Orlando to present all the posters! EVOO agreed, telling me to "go and learn it all."

I'm just so excited, but not just about going to Florida in December. It's deeper than that. In this blog, I've decently refrained from putting down my former boss at Muppet Corporate. I became quite accustomed to my former boss trying to cage me and keep me in a tiny box. She denied me responsibilities, kept me from conferences, refused my request to join a Six Sigma team, and even urged me to "not take school so seriously."

When opportunities like this happen, I'm recognized and rewarded for my hard work, and they actually encourage me to go out and better myself, it still amazes me. The contrast is unbelievable and I'm so grateful to my mentors at St. Fozzie's who are constantly pushing me (hard) to better myself. Did I mention that my first Six Sigma class is tomorrow? It only took three years to finally get into that class!