This morning when I turned on my cell I heard from my husband's daughter that yesterday evening's lab work showed critical values and they were trying to find a way to transport him to the hospital, even though he had not answered his cell phone. Eventually with the help of his daughter's friend, he was transported to the hospital by ambulance, where I met him and spent the day. After lots of tests, it turned out that he needs dialysis.
It's taking my husband some time to come to terms with the realization that he needs dialysis. He declined to have it today, and said he would decided by tomorrow. Meanwhile his daughter is flying in tomorrow morning. The other option is Hospice care.
I think he realizes that he needs dialysis if he is going to be able to do the things he wishes to do, but he just isn't fully reconciled to it. This is a person who has never been to a medical doctor in 42 years, so the idea of needing intensive medical care is kind of a shock. He just always thought he would be healthy forever simply because he is a vegetarian.
I'll return in the morning.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
A Busy and Encouraging Day
Went to mandatory WorkSource orientation to unemployment claims, job search strategies, and WorkSource services this morning. Hosted by "Johnny" it was very upbeat and surprisingly encouraging. He put a positive spin on everything. I was in love with him immediately. ; >
Spent an hour in a quiet WS lobby with my papers spread out in front of me, preparing for my plan of dropping in for a 1:1 session with a counselor. I had listed many of the tasks I do in skilled nursing facilities and in nursing, and I dissected them to extract out the skills involved; then I organized the skills by type of skill [communication, dealing with objects, i.e. concrete operations, or analytical skills] and listed them out, so I could have a list of transferable skills to some other occupation. I intended to ask about what other occupations might be a good fit with the skills I have already.
Then I went to my car and ate a salad, phoned my husband who hasn't been feeling well and left a message. While I was in the car I received a call from an unfamiliar number and was invited to have an interview with a home health company on Tuesday. So that was very encouraging.
Then I went back to WS and spoke with "Kathleen" who listened to my various tales of woe and suggested a Job Fit assessment I can take online; encouraged me to stay in nursing but find a way to heal what makes this so difficult for me, and then get back to her, and recommended a new Stress Management class being held in June.
I ended up going to the Pierce County Library and found a DVD based on one of the Michael Connelly novels, The Lincoln Lawyer, which I will be excited to watch. I hope it will be as good as the book. I also requested several books by Burl Barer.
In my car at the Library I phoned my husband, who has been coughing, is short of breath, and has lower extremity pitting edema. This is a person who had been shoveling tons of gravel onto the roads at his old property for years, and was definitely much more physically fit and strong than I am. He was coming to a particular urgent care clinic south of Tacoma, so I offered to meet him there on the spur of the moment. Then I decided to just head on over to the clinic, as it was West and my home was East, so it would save gas. My math may be way off, but I have guesstimated in my head that it probably costs me about sixty cents per mile to drive, now that gas is so high. Every time I fill the tank it's about $45 a pop.
I spoke to my husband at 3:30 PM. At four I called his daughter in Massechusetts [however you spell it] to mention he was on his way to the clinic. At five I called him to ask where he was. He was still gassing up his car in Eatonville. At six he finally arrived at the clinic. At seven thirty he emerged with two prescriptions in hand and instructions to return tomorrow for his lab test results. Sounds like he has pneumonia, among other things.
This is a person who really, truly has never been to a medical doctor, has practiced a vegetarian diet [including cheese and butter and etc] so assumed he would never get sick. His daughter and I both leaned on him to fill the prescriptions and take the antibiotics. I drove to the Indian restaurant where the proprietor is a friend of his and he took me to dinner. The proprietor wanted to know if I had any sisters. I said, unfortunately they are all married.
When I returned home and checked my bank balance online, I realized my unemployment insurance that I have been so frightened would never be granted without a fight, had been deposited in my account.
Wow.
Spent an hour in a quiet WS lobby with my papers spread out in front of me, preparing for my plan of dropping in for a 1:1 session with a counselor. I had listed many of the tasks I do in skilled nursing facilities and in nursing, and I dissected them to extract out the skills involved; then I organized the skills by type of skill [communication, dealing with objects, i.e. concrete operations, or analytical skills] and listed them out, so I could have a list of transferable skills to some other occupation. I intended to ask about what other occupations might be a good fit with the skills I have already.
Then I went to my car and ate a salad, phoned my husband who hasn't been feeling well and left a message. While I was in the car I received a call from an unfamiliar number and was invited to have an interview with a home health company on Tuesday. So that was very encouraging.
Then I went back to WS and spoke with "Kathleen" who listened to my various tales of woe and suggested a Job Fit assessment I can take online; encouraged me to stay in nursing but find a way to heal what makes this so difficult for me, and then get back to her, and recommended a new Stress Management class being held in June.
I ended up going to the Pierce County Library and found a DVD based on one of the Michael Connelly novels, The Lincoln Lawyer, which I will be excited to watch. I hope it will be as good as the book. I also requested several books by Burl Barer.
In my car at the Library I phoned my husband, who has been coughing, is short of breath, and has lower extremity pitting edema. This is a person who had been shoveling tons of gravel onto the roads at his old property for years, and was definitely much more physically fit and strong than I am. He was coming to a particular urgent care clinic south of Tacoma, so I offered to meet him there on the spur of the moment. Then I decided to just head on over to the clinic, as it was West and my home was East, so it would save gas. My math may be way off, but I have guesstimated in my head that it probably costs me about sixty cents per mile to drive, now that gas is so high. Every time I fill the tank it's about $45 a pop.
I spoke to my husband at 3:30 PM. At four I called his daughter in Massechusetts [however you spell it] to mention he was on his way to the clinic. At five I called him to ask where he was. He was still gassing up his car in Eatonville. At six he finally arrived at the clinic. At seven thirty he emerged with two prescriptions in hand and instructions to return tomorrow for his lab test results. Sounds like he has pneumonia, among other things.
This is a person who really, truly has never been to a medical doctor, has practiced a vegetarian diet [including cheese and butter and etc] so assumed he would never get sick. His daughter and I both leaned on him to fill the prescriptions and take the antibiotics. I drove to the Indian restaurant where the proprietor is a friend of his and he took me to dinner. The proprietor wanted to know if I had any sisters. I said, unfortunately they are all married.
When I returned home and checked my bank balance online, I realized my unemployment insurance that I have been so frightened would never be granted without a fight, had been deposited in my account.
Wow.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Chugging Along
I spent quite a bit of time this morning on the phone with Comcast technical support, fixing my problem with slow internet connections. Finally, clearing out all history with the browser freed up memory or whatever it takes for each connection to load. So that solved a very frustrating problem which had been growing to larger proportions over the last few weeks. I think my job search, with visiting so many sites and filling out so many forms, probably contributed to the overload.
Last night I went to a lovely celebration of the Declaration of the Bab at Miss Lisa's. She had a hard time remembering the year, and we chimed in with a chorus of, "In 1844, Lord, in 1844, oh, the world passed away on the 23rd of May in 1844." Kind of a campy old song we used to sing when I was a new Baha'i in the early 1970's. We had a great celebration, which was capped by an impromptu play put on by some of the children who organized it upstairs. About a Hungry Dinosaur, the plot was short and sweet with all the important storytelling elements.
Monday I was out and about on multiple errands, including replacing the bulb in one of my Honda's brake lights, which entailed driving back to the shop after several blocks to retrieve my water bottle. What was distracting me, besides the rain and traffic, was an enormous wave of anxiety: I had decided to reapply at the place I used to work ["Heartland"] and was terrified even to drive into the parking lot. I get that way about the physical places I used to work. For years I couldn't drive past Regency at Tacoma without breaking into a cold sweat.
I did force myself to enter the lobby, and it was very reassuring to see my old friends the receptionist, the admissions coordinator, the social services director, and the rehab nurse. I also saw the person in charge of Central Supply and told him how much I had missed his organizational skills. At "Mountain View" the organization, including Central Supply, was a hideous mess. One over the counter medication or another was always out.
Anyway, I picked up an application and had some good brief encounters, and felt so much at home I was very relieved. I dropped off the application yesterday. If they do interview me, I'm sure I'll have lots of 'splainin' to do. But I'm willing to do it.
I also picked up an application at a plastics manufacturing plant in Fredrickson near Boeing, a place so secretive one must pick up the app at the guard's kiosk, peel on out of there, then return to drop it off. I have little background in the field except for the painful years I spent sewing in factories. But the friend who referred me there seems to enjoy it.
Visiting "Heartland" has awakened my loneliness for friends there. I suppose that's good news; I never used to really make many friends where I worked. But it's painful.
Tomorrow back to WorkSource for the Job Club, and Friday to a mandatory meeting dealing with Unemployment. At least it will be with humans.
Last night I went to a lovely celebration of the Declaration of the Bab at Miss Lisa's. She had a hard time remembering the year, and we chimed in with a chorus of, "In 1844, Lord, in 1844, oh, the world passed away on the 23rd of May in 1844." Kind of a campy old song we used to sing when I was a new Baha'i in the early 1970's. We had a great celebration, which was capped by an impromptu play put on by some of the children who organized it upstairs. About a Hungry Dinosaur, the plot was short and sweet with all the important storytelling elements.
Monday I was out and about on multiple errands, including replacing the bulb in one of my Honda's brake lights, which entailed driving back to the shop after several blocks to retrieve my water bottle. What was distracting me, besides the rain and traffic, was an enormous wave of anxiety: I had decided to reapply at the place I used to work ["Heartland"] and was terrified even to drive into the parking lot. I get that way about the physical places I used to work. For years I couldn't drive past Regency at Tacoma without breaking into a cold sweat.
I did force myself to enter the lobby, and it was very reassuring to see my old friends the receptionist, the admissions coordinator, the social services director, and the rehab nurse. I also saw the person in charge of Central Supply and told him how much I had missed his organizational skills. At "Mountain View" the organization, including Central Supply, was a hideous mess. One over the counter medication or another was always out.
Anyway, I picked up an application and had some good brief encounters, and felt so much at home I was very relieved. I dropped off the application yesterday. If they do interview me, I'm sure I'll have lots of 'splainin' to do. But I'm willing to do it.
I also picked up an application at a plastics manufacturing plant in Fredrickson near Boeing, a place so secretive one must pick up the app at the guard's kiosk, peel on out of there, then return to drop it off. I have little background in the field except for the painful years I spent sewing in factories. But the friend who referred me there seems to enjoy it.
Visiting "Heartland" has awakened my loneliness for friends there. I suppose that's good news; I never used to really make many friends where I worked. But it's painful.
Tomorrow back to WorkSource for the Job Club, and Friday to a mandatory meeting dealing with Unemployment. At least it will be with humans.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Puyallup Feast
In my tiny Baha'i community of Puyallup, there is one other couple and I who tend to be more active; a few other people who have other considerations. So we had Feast with just three people, and it was wonderful.
That is all.
That is all.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Onomatopoetry
Spent the day on phone with one of my nursing friends, then a credit counselor I hooked up with while I was trying to check on my application for food stamps, so on and so forth, had to spend my planned time contacting possible employers a little later in the day than I would have liked.
Completed two online applications. Wasn't psyched up for a full-blown cover letter, resume cut-and-paste and application at first. Had just been snooping around, then, "hey, that looks good [or in one case, pretty marginal.]" Nerve-wracking to answer questions online, copy and paste resume, and so forth. Funny, that's how I used to feel about paper applications in the old, old days. I don't think I could have coped with the psychology of clicking the right button and filling in the right info RIGHT NOW online, back then. I can barely do it now.
So my friend in an email was talking about onomatopoeias, [oh, dear, still the red line of doom, thought we had sorted out how to spell that] and he asked for some onomatopoetry.
Onomatopoem:
A girl who went online
Thought her work search was going just fine
Till the message board crashed
And her resume dashed--
Now her outlook is less than divine.
Completed two online applications. Wasn't psyched up for a full-blown cover letter, resume cut-and-paste and application at first. Had just been snooping around, then, "hey, that looks good [or in one case, pretty marginal.]" Nerve-wracking to answer questions online, copy and paste resume, and so forth. Funny, that's how I used to feel about paper applications in the old, old days. I don't think I could have coped with the psychology of clicking the right button and filling in the right info RIGHT NOW online, back then. I can barely do it now.
So my friend in an email was talking about onomatopoeias, [oh, dear, still the red line of doom, thought we had sorted out how to spell that] and he asked for some onomatopoetry.
Onomatopoem:
A girl who went online
Thought her work search was going just fine
Till the message board crashed
And her resume dashed--
Now her outlook is less than divine.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Like a Bird On a Wire
I haven't connected again with the Health Services Director for Classy Skilled Nursing Facility. I may attempt tomorrow. Tomorrow I also plan to attend a seminar at WorkSource on older applicants.Walking the fine line between letting them know I'm still interested, and stalking. To me, stalking means I send a Holiday card more than once in five years.
Since early in the morning, I had an extreme degree of anxiety. My tasks were to apply for at least four jobs this week. I meant to do as many as possible today. I was able to complete an application and cover letter and send out with resume, to one facility. I also wrote a letter to a dear MD that used to work in the facility I just left. Last year I had asked if she could ever give a reference to me: today I wrote to let her know I'm listing her. My anxiety is debilitating.
I mailed the application etc, plus the letter to the MD and something else, at the Post Office. Then I came to DeCoursey Park and sat with my prayer book, praying and watching ducks and ducklings for an hour or two. Eventually I did start to recover from the anxiety, between the prayers, the sunshine and ducks, and the people passing who were friendly.
I called my landlord to inform him I am out of work. I had been dreading it, even though he is a very nice guy. I just hate having to negotiate when I can't meet my obligations. He wants 50% of rent. Could be a big problem, as I still have no income as I await a decision on my application for unemployment benefits. Tonight I also applied for food stamps and anything else I can qualify for, and contacted one of my references, who works at night. I was afraid to wake her up, but able to leave a voice mail.
I made daal soup for dinner, plus an ear of corn and some spinach, and watched a PBS show on how crows are so intelligent. They showed a study they did in Seattle on facial recognition in crows and how they can pass it on to other crows and even their offspring; the battle in Japan to keep crows from using wire coat hangars as a nesting material which can short out electrical wires and cause outages; using raptors in Canada to dispel a very large gathering of crows in their community.
I like crows, and the way they play, for example in a windstorm.
Since early in the morning, I had an extreme degree of anxiety. My tasks were to apply for at least four jobs this week. I meant to do as many as possible today. I was able to complete an application and cover letter and send out with resume, to one facility. I also wrote a letter to a dear MD that used to work in the facility I just left. Last year I had asked if she could ever give a reference to me: today I wrote to let her know I'm listing her. My anxiety is debilitating.
I mailed the application etc, plus the letter to the MD and something else, at the Post Office. Then I came to DeCoursey Park and sat with my prayer book, praying and watching ducks and ducklings for an hour or two. Eventually I did start to recover from the anxiety, between the prayers, the sunshine and ducks, and the people passing who were friendly.
I called my landlord to inform him I am out of work. I had been dreading it, even though he is a very nice guy. I just hate having to negotiate when I can't meet my obligations. He wants 50% of rent. Could be a big problem, as I still have no income as I await a decision on my application for unemployment benefits. Tonight I also applied for food stamps and anything else I can qualify for, and contacted one of my references, who works at night. I was afraid to wake her up, but able to leave a voice mail.
I made daal soup for dinner, plus an ear of corn and some spinach, and watched a PBS show on how crows are so intelligent. They showed a study they did in Seattle on facial recognition in crows and how they can pass it on to other crows and even their offspring; the battle in Japan to keep crows from using wire coat hangars as a nesting material which can short out electrical wires and cause outages; using raptors in Canada to dispel a very large gathering of crows in their community.
I like crows, and the way they play, for example in a windstorm.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
