Lazy Sunday (finally!)

This is going to be a monster post. You might want to get a beverage and perhaps a sandwich.

This week has been unbelievably brutal. I worked all day yesterday and haven't taken a two-day weekend in five weeks. But instead of telling you how tired I am and how all I do is think about work, I will start with the POSITIVE, AWESOME things going on!

See? Still pushin' that optimism!

1. I threw my name in the hat for the formal mentor program through ACHE and I was contacted by a CEO from a large hospital in Mesa, Arizona. I was accepted into the program and our interests seem to match. I am thrilled to work with an unbiased mentor who's been in the field for 40 years.

2. I have a dinner appointment scheduled with the mentor Elvis found for me in the Muppet system. This isn't quite so unbiased, but this mentor knows Muppetville well. Again, a good perspective for me. Very excited to have another pair of informed ears with whom I can kick around ideas.

3. I am developing what I feel are life-long relationships with three key individuals from St. Fozzies. We are buoying each other when it matters most.

4. I am one week into my new departments and they are an absolute pigsty. I am already restructuring one of them…and I greatly enjoy this part of my job. I break out my markers and huge sheets of newsprint like the cool person I am. However, because of the insane increase in workload, I have a meeting with HR to *seriously* suggest a pay raise and/or title change. If I get another "no," I will ask my VP of HR if she would be a professional reference for me! That should get the point across.

5. I'm soon departing for Fargo, North Dakota for six days to visit one of my best friends and her new baby. My flights are so weird; I route through Denver. While I'm thrilled to see Bewley and her hubby and spend time with Bew, I'm also happy that my cell phone should not work well up there and my pager will not work at all. Oh, darn. Rats. Can you tell how bummed I am? This is a well-timed break and I cannot think of a better way to spend a week. What's funny is that the weather is going to be better in Fargo than in the Chi.

6. Yesterday was Jack's birthday and we celebrated with our friends, Vera and Victor. They're foodies and always have the best food, wine, and spices at their house. After noshing on a table full of appetizers (stuffed olives and baby peppers, prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe, Italian salami, and butterkase cheese) Jack and Victor started a bonfire in the 48-degree-and-rainy weather. Vera and I nursed a bottle of delectable chardonnay while slowly preparing dinner. After feasting, we all went out to the bonfire. Worry not, Victor erected a lean-to for us so the women could stay dry. It was actually quite warm in there and between the pitter-patter on the roof and the hypnotizing fire, I was completely relaxed. I felt my stress slide off my shoulders and my stomach unclench...and I could have napped in that dry little lean-to.

But as I let my plexi-glass shield down, my immunity must have gone with it because I woke up with a raging sore throat this morning. What better excuse to spend the day in sweat pants?

So while some things are going well, I've had some tough, "real life" hospital experiences this week.

On Wednesday, I made the two-hour trek to Purdue University for a system wide management update. It was a good conference and believe it or not, my first time on the Purdue campus. Go Irish!

On Thursday, I had to write up two of my highest performers for crappy attitudes. You can be excellent at your job, clinically, but if you don't have a good attitude, you're not meeting expectations. So that was tough, but I'm still of the mindset where people write themselves up. They also fire themselves. I'm just there to enforce it.

The funny thing is that my office has become the cry room. Every one of my managers, even the two I *just* inherited last week, have cried in my office. I don't know what I do to people, but it's becoming a near-daily event that someone cries in my office. I am starting to feel as though I need formal training in counseling skills.

On Friday, I hosted my first Muppet corporate meeting. From attending corporate meetings up at Muppet corporate, I learned that the number one priority is to start and end on time. I earned the nickname "Time Gestapo," but if that's the biggest thing that happened, that's great!. The meeting was fruitful and I think everyone had fun.

After the meeting, I did my weekly patient rounding up on our Telemetry floor. A patient was yelling for help and I walked by her room to see if she was okay. She was trying to get out of bed and had a 'fall' sticker on her door. An RN was on my heels and quickly tried to get the patient back in bed. The patient suffered from Alzheimer's and thought we were breaking into her home (she did not believe she was at the hospital). The RN and I repositioned the patient and I moved onto the next room. A few minutes later, I heard the RN trying to get the patient back into bed (she had gotten herself up and out of bed in the span of 2-3 minutes and was quite irate that people were in her "house"). They ended up having to put restraints on the patient and it was just so sad. I hate Alzheimer's; it's a terrible disease.

The next patient I visited was about to have an leg amputation because of raging, unmanaged Diabetes. He was down-in-the-dumps depressed (understandably so) and he wouldn't even raise his head to look at me. So I threw caution to the wind and sat on the floor so I could be below his eye level. He opened up a little and all I could do was listen to his worries and fears. Before I left the floor, I put in an order for a spiritual care visit, but I felt terrible for him, too.

It just goes to show...things might really suck, but someone always has it worse. For instance, if we all stood around a football field and threw our problems into the middle, we'd see what everyone else is dealing with and most likely, pick our own problems back up again.

So it was with a heavy heart that I left the hospital and drove to our annual Employee Recognition Dinner. I had 9 employees being honored for their years of service and I wanted to be there to support them. Jack was there, working the event for Marketing. We were separate the entire night. Hoping he was okay and with a group during dinner, I quickly scanned the ballroom to find him. Apparently, he upstaged me because he was sitting next to Elvis, at the 'head table' with Nurse Jackie and EVOO. Guess he was in good hands! I sat with a bunch of nurse managers; folks I am working with to fix hospital throughput. I figured the teamwork vibe could only help us!

And with that, I conclude my uber-long Sunday post. I'm going to start packing for Fargo, start a new novel, and nap. How is YOUR Sunday?