Feverish Friday

Caution: Very Angry Rant ahead...and some true confessions.

I feel extremely manipulated and taken advantage of by my job. Being forced to work on my scheduled days off, being told I have to work rotating weekends now even though that was not in my contract, and the complete and total crap I have to put up with day in and day out. The constant phone calls...yes, I am talking about being called five times in one day after you've already talked to this person face to face about the same exact thing they're calling you about. And the kicker was I had a full schedule yesterday, including going out to one of our group homes and doing a visit there. Now, I absolutely love my patients, especially these two. It's a treat for me to go out and get hugs and have sweet, enjoyable patients (for once, lol). However they go to a work program during the day and thusly, you have to go out late in the afternoon to accomedate them. Now, I had already been working since 7:30am and we're approaching 4pm without a break or a second to breathe.

So, I am at that visit and I get a frantic phone call from my boss telling me that I have to go out and see another patient tonight. I'm contracted to 6 visits per day and at this point, I had already had SEVEN visits. Which takes a lot of time and effort, believe me. Intense wound care, assessment, calling doctors, calling in refills on prescriptions...and that's not even dealing with patient and family issues. Which is a whole different story I won't even go into. I'm over my alloted visits for the day AND for the week, so technically any visits above and beyond that are per diem and I'm supposed to be able to refuse if I want. And at 4:30pm on a Thursday when I was trying to meet my mom so we could go to the Farmer's Market is NOT the time to be calling me to go do a visit. I was not on call, I'd done my work for the day...and I was also almost 45 minutes away from the patient who needed to be seen.

Needless to say, I had to go out to see that patient, I missed the Farmer's Market and I enjoyed a tension headache and pounding rage for most of the night. The ridiculousness of having a job where I've already worked a 9 hour day without a break and am being forced to cancel plans with my mother because of it...I just can't be doing that. But I took a deep breath, my mom and I sat and vented for a while and then we went out to dinner.

I need to get my behind back in gear. I ate really well on Wednesday morning and afternoon but in the evening I was still feeling sick and the only thing I wanted was wonton soup. Well, I got it and I allotted it into my calories. And I stayed within range, just went a bit nutso overboard on the sodium...I can't help that they drown soup in salt, lol. And on Tuesday I had a normal breakfast but I was so busy I didn't get a chance to have lunch...so my mom and I went out to dinner. I had a beer, I ate a portabello mushroom sandwich which I already know is pretty good on calories/fat etc, but then I had onion rings with it and I mowed down a piece of cheesecake. Damn freaking stress/emotional eating...I knew what I was doing too. I just...it made me feel better to put that junk in my body. UGH. Then I was mad at myself...

So today I'm back on plan. I have been eating my Jenny Craig food for breakfast/lunch and dinner, I've been drinking plenty of water and just relaxing. It's Friday. I am not on call this weekend. I will not be answering my phone. No, not even if there is a plague. :D

Sorry for ranting, I'm sure no one wants to listen to me bitch and moan about my job. I just feel so taken advantage of. I have a VERY heavy load of patients who have a LOT wrong with them. And I feel like there's never any break. I wake up in a panic sometimes worrying about whether my patients are okay...so I never give myself a break either!!

My goal for this weekend is to eat right, get some exercise, relax, and enjoy myself. I have a meeting tomorrow for my Ireland trip, which is exciting! And I'm looking forward to it! My new sweaters came from Target and they are SUPER CUTE! YAY!

Have a happy, safe weekend everyone!