Imagine this conversation:
Karen (to accountant) Hi there – I’ve printed out all my profit and loss statements for last year. I wasn’t sure if this was the balance sheet you were looking for. Does that look right to you? Do you think I need to include the receipts for the new computer software I’ve been running?
Accountant: Ummmm…are you wearing pajamas? (looking disdainfully at my fuzzy pajamas with coloured clouds all over them with the words “sweet dreams” everywhere).
Karen: Yeah – ummmm….do you think I might be audited if I have too many healthcare receipts?
Accountant: I think you have some drool on your face.
Yeah…so kind of weird right. However MOST of my professional conversations these days involve a group of doctors and nurses (completely dressed I might add) discussing important issues while I’m trying to look somewhat respectable wearing my sweet dreams fuzzy pajamas and wiping drool off the side of my cheek. To compensate, I try to look extra intelligent and thoughtful, which is difficult because I really haven’t had to think much since I’ve been here, so it’s like not using your legs for five weeks then trying to sprint all of a sudden. It’s not pretty.
So now I have started setting my alarm for 6:22, so I can at least throw on some clothes and run a brush through my hair before they arrive. This works sometimes, but it seems the team has an internal sense of awareness when you are ready for them and when you are not (much like a waitress asking how everything is when your mouth is full), so usually the days I am up bright eyed and bushy tailed they don’t show up til later. Other times, I come out of the bathroom brushing my teeth to find 8 people standing in my room waiting for me. It’s terrifying!!! Is ninja training part of the general course requirements for medical personnel? How can so many people move so quietly. With bad conversation skills, tacky pajamas, and awkward gasps of terror, you might think I am not impressing anyone here, but YOU ARE WRONG!!! Read on my friends!
My responsibilities around here have tripled (that’s right – tripled!), which is obviously quite exhausting. (In other words, I now have three responsibilities.) I have been put in charge of decorating the playroom for St. Patrick’s Day, which, for the record, is a HUGE responsibility because St. Patrick’s Day in Montreal is ginormous (I think) – they have a huge parade and everything. Obviously they wouldn’t pass on this type of responsibility to just anyone. My second responsibility is that I am the only one allowed to make adjustments to Ben’s bed besides the professional traction bed adjuster. This is a huge responsibility and requires a specialized key to do so. I am the only one to hold the key on the weekends. I have attached a picture of the “key” below. It’s obviously a complex technical tool. The third and final responsibility I have undertaken here is Ben’s “pin care”. Yeah… – I know what you’re thinking and YOU ARE RIGHT!!! That’s fancy nurse speak for “we’ll teach you how to clean the screws on your kids head”, to which I replied “why in the name of St. Peter would you ever think I was capable of that” to which they laugh. ???? Give me strength!!! Now when they come in I say “what now – you need me to scrub in for surgery?” Having said that, I do have to say that I think Ben might have the cleanest screws on the planet – yay me!!!
Anyways, as far as medical stuff goes, nothing is really going on these days. I will check back towards the end of the week to give you an update, but we are not anticipating anything new over the next few weeks. Thanks for checking in with us. We so appreciate all of everyone’s kind words and thoughts.
