A Day in the Life...

I slept like a log last night. A long weekend of birthday celebrations, neurotic dogs, and overnight company meant very little sleep until last night, when I was out for like 10 hours straight. (This is HUGE for me--I rarely sleep more than 6 in a row.)

So I awaken to Decker's cold, wet feet in my face, and I offer him the dry food dish near the bed, and try to stop Eddie from stealing it (cat food is like crack to dogs), and then I offer a separate serving of dry food to Cinnamon, and the pouring wakes Tolliver who was sleeping in the laundry basket, and he stretches and comes over to me for food, and this also draws Eddie again, who must be fought off, but then I can finally get up and take a shower, and I use my new shampoo that I made myself, and it feels good, and I then dry off and go back to bed (my morning ritual) where I sleep deliciously until I must get up, and I put on a robe, get the coffee going (no car means no BT), but also serve up the wet food to the cats, fighting Eddie back from those dishes now, and a separate bowl for Rudy in his cellblock, where I have to move the chair that's blocking Eddie, drag Eddie back out with me, and put the chair back, when I finally get dressed and try to enjoy my coffee without ever tripping over Decker who is winding around my feet all morning because he has lost his sense of smell and loses track of the cat food even while he's eating it. And it's just now about 7:45.

My work day starts slowly when I get in to the first 25 emails and 7 voice mails, and I'm trying to attend to each one in turn, when socialworkernumber1 calls to say she's running late for our 10 a.m. meeting, and then she's there and we're talking about ways to change the clinic, start a community support team, keep up with documentation and billing and new laws in the state and shift caseloads and team more effectively with residents and see more patients and meet their needs and work the system and get paid and bill and work and see and do and document and bill and... then it's noon and I grab my lunch and my water and my fork and my notes and my notebook and my calendar and we go up to a meeting of more social workers where we talk about changes in the system and changes in the clinic and I add three things to my to-do list and we each chunk up a big task to do more things and then the meeting is over but there are more decisions to be made about billing and doing things for patients when no one will pay and more things to add to the to-do list as we talk in an impromptu circle away from the table as I'm trying to get out the door.

And then I have to be at the other clinic in 35 minutes which means I have to collect all the things I need to do all the things on my to-do list at the other clinic so I can carry it all with me and I'm trying to leave when womandoctor stops me about a new patient and mandoctor stops me about an old patient and frontdesknicelady stops me about my schedule and crisisworkerlady stops me to see how I'm doing, and then I realize I don't have something I need, so then I'm digging for my keys and back in my office when VERYniceresearcherlady tries to stop me but I can't, and I'm off, only I'm borrowing socialworkernumber1's car, which is parked in parts unknown, and it takes me 25 minutes of walking around to find it, during which time I'm talking with a patient on the phone who is worried about many things, and I'm listening and trying to help until I finally find the car after walking around in circles and up hills and down huge staircases, and finally I'm in the car when the crisis phone rings while I'm on the phone with the patient as I'm pulling up to the clinic, and it's almost 2:00...

when I rush in to talk to bigbossmandoctor and residentmandoctor about the patient who maybe shouldn't drive and also about the new patient coming in at 2:00 and then I meet with a patient for an hour about things that plague her and then when I open the office door, the new patient and her family are in the hall and I meet with them about medicines and then I am late to pick up the guy I am taking to VR but I have to stop and talk to administratormanagerlady about the demographic make-up of the patients in the clinic, and one of the patients in the waiting room knows me well and is trying to chat with me but I have to be kind of quick because I am late and I jog to the car while checking my voice mail--11 new messages--and then I drive to my patient's house, where he's waiting outside (I'm late) and we go to VR where we're met by reallyreallyniceVRguy and we talk with him for an hour before I take my patient back home, where we schedule the next visit--in two weeks--and I call socialworkernumber1 whose phone is dead, but I see that my mom and Bill have both called to make sure I have a ride home, and I try socialworkernumber1 at two different numbers, one of which I must get from the crisis phone I'm carrying, and I reach her and we make arrangements, and she "powers down" and agrees to meet me outside when I call my mom back to let her know I have a ride and then I'm there and socialworkernumber1 comes out and we head home, discussing the changes in the clinic and the politics of the department and how much we love the residents, and how to help them more, and it's a little after 6:00 when I get to my mom's house for shrimp and pasta and can call Bill and let him know I've made it home, mostly, where Tony has been working to figure out how to get my car fixed.

And I get home and call back the patient who was interrupted by the crisis call and check the voice mails again--none of which I've been able to respond to, but also none of which sound like emergencies--and I set to the emails that have piled up as I haven't been in front of a computer since 10:00 this morning, and I MUST knock out some of the things on that to-do list from the meeting because they are due tomorrow, and I look at my calendar and see that tomorrow I have 8 patients and a team meeting and one of my emails is from my boss checking in, so I call her and we discuss my schedule, which is booked solid--including lunch hours--all week, and I'm feeding the cats and the dog and giving a pill to the newcat and remembering a big thing that I MUST do by tomorrow but just can't bring myself to do, but it's 9:10 and I have to try and knock it out...