To let you all know I am alive and well.............................

The plan was to post yesterday (Sunday). I got out of bed early to do just that. Being the good mother I am, I opted to first look up a bit of research for the paper my youngest has to write for the summer class she is taking. That filled the first hour of my day yesterday, then I started my morning resident care routine. Once breakfast was over I decided I could not stand the futon mattress in the middle of the living room floor one more second (this is where it landed when the youngest sat up her garage sale last Thursday). That led to vacuuming, which made the other rooms look bad... Then I noticed that the pond was low on water - lunch break (fixing, not taking time to eat) - weeding, lawn mowing, a little tiff with (my) Mister. Where-in-the-world- did-the-day-go-it-is-already-time-to-make-dinner??? Tarot homework, a few business e-mails, and sorry folks but I put food ahead of posting.

But I had a good week, in spite of being crazy busy. I instantly remembered what I didn't like about home care (dealing with people's schedules) and driving in summer construction traffic) and what I did like (the sweetest little old people and all of their little quirks). I also discovered the job is like riding a bike... After five years I wondered if I would forget anything, but the medical terms shorthand came right back and my soap notes are as long as ever (when I was in school we were scared into believing if you didn't write it down it didn't happen and if it didn't happen you could be hauled into court and have your note blown up to life size and tore apart by some cut throat attorney) Needless to say, in my quest for perfection, if someone sniffles I not only document it, but why I think they did it, why they think they did it, why their caregiver (if they have one) thinks they did it, and what each person in turn plans to do about it.

I saw one lady that was being seen after a total knee replacement. She had one tiny area of her incision that MAYBE looked a little red. She ask me about it. If this were one of my residents I would have pushed around on the area, seen if it had any puss or was open, and through some triple antibiotic ointment on it, checked her temp a couple times a day and kept an eye on it. Easy peasy... In this case I took her temp (97.4) felt to the way outside of the incision for any warm areas. Did NOT touch the actual incision because I am neither a nurse or a doctor.

While I was doing this the client was telling me she didn't know when the nurse was coming out. I can fix that, call the office. This is the same office I worked for five years ago, so the receptionist recognized me, and put me through to a supervisor. I left a message detailing the knee and the client's concerns and then called the PT I work with ( a PTA has to be supervised by a PT) and left him a message telling him what I had done. As I am leaving he calls me and tells me this client is a rehab only and she doesn't have a nurse coming in. At least I now know why she couldn't remember her name! In this case, I am to call the doctor's office directly, and speak to his nurse. This I did, and of course was told to tell the client to simply keep an eye on it. Then I had to call the office back and tell the supervisor to disregard my first message and that the matter had been addressed with the doctor's office so it was all good. And then, as soon as I had hung up from that one of my resident's son's called to go over his mom's medication list for an upcoming doctor's visit. Fortunately, I have a good memory for those things so I was able to give him a list of all the non-prescription meds/supplements.

And yes, I will confess to doing all this while driving. I really do not like to talk while I drive, but I has another sweet client waiting for me to do her PT visit and they get really upset and worried if you are not right there when you say you will be. If they get worried, the blood pressure goes up, and I discover it, have to report it, and the cycle begins itself all over again...

Hope you all had a great week and that this one turns out to be just what you want it to be! I don't expect to be that busy and will try to post soon.