Our updated Life

I figured it has been a month so I better go over what has happened:

1. Brad finished his second to last semester at BYU and did amazing on all of his finals! I'm so proud of him, especially since he told me that it was his hardest semester so far.

2. We moved. Hallelujah! Yup we moved out of the house and away from busy 800 N in provo to 11 blocks south. We are now back in an apartment complex and loving it. We have a counter in the bathroom for the first time in our marriage, we have a garbage disposal again, we are living without cable, and are getting great calf muscles from hiking up the stairs. Plus, we are now in a regular family ward which is kinda nice.

3. We sold the honda! Well, Brad did. We are so happy, cause that is one less thing to worry about, a car with a radiator that we did not want to pay to fix.

4. Work is still crazy, but we have more staff.

5. Brad got a job working for Orem City in Parks and Recreation. So he is getting super tan from working outside, while i'm pasty white. Boo, but we are happy and now he has something to keep him nice a busy.

6. We started a trial of netflix and we love how movies are streamed to our wii! It's awesome. So we can watch a ton of stuff from that while waiting for the next movie to arrive in the mail. The only hitch is when the internet is being dumb (which unfortunately happens a lot lately).

7. Oh yea, I had my birthday. It was fun, Brad got me some new scrubs, and avatar, and some new running shoes that I wear to work (and might go running in...). My mom-in-law got me the last 2 books for the series I have been reading - Father of Our Fathers. So I finally finished those! And my grandma sent me a rug that my Grandpa Cramer had made. I LOVE it!!! My grandpa did a lot of crafts after her retired and I have always wanted something, so this is great! Now i just have to decide where to hang it and then I will always think of him. I just love my grandpa so much, so a rug with an elk on it gets to hang on the wall!

So, we have been busy, we feel pretty moved in to our new place and just got the swamp cooler turned on today, which makes Brad very happy. Plus, in exactly one week we will be driving out to California to spend memorial weekend with my family! I'm so excited! I need a vacation bad!

The Forgotten Merger

"The girl you spoke to must have forgotten about the merger."

Yup that was the funniest thing I heard all week at work! The situation was the Mandy had spoken with a patient who wanted to reach Intermountain Pain Specialists' billing. Mandy told them they had the wrong number. After the phone call she asked me what Dr. George's (the doc who merged with us) office name was and I told her Intermountain Pain Specialists. Then the patient called back again and spoke with Whitney, who said that hilarious line. I bust up laughing and couldn't stop.

Merger? Wait a minute, that's why it's been so crazy and we have all these new providers, patients, and billions of drug screens we are doing?! Who woulda thought?!

I love my co-workers and the funny things we say. I'm so glad Whitney said that, cause laughing is so much better than the crying I had done before from all the stress of work. On Wednesday, Mandy and I were the only MAs and it was the craziest day ever. I told Cassie today that it felt like our work/patients/etc. was a big ol bus, and Mandy and I were the 2 little bicycle wheels trying to support the whole bus. Laugh at me, but that's how it felt. Dr. Ockey today pulled me aside and was like, "Elly, it is going to get better." When I told him that I hoped it would, he then assured me that it was going to cause we are getting 3 new exam rooms (which will help with the room issue) and 2 new MAs (which will help lighten the load). I just wish it was all done now...But Dr. Ockey did tell me that I'm awesome. He had stopped his meeting with our office managers when he saw me running around (yes I literally run/sprint down the hallway in our office) so that they could help with the crazy rush we were experiencing. So I hate my job cause it stresses me out, but I love it too cause I do work with awesome people. So, now I just have to hang on until re-enforcements arrive and laugh about forgetting the merger.

Mergers are good right?

So, my life has been so crazy between class and work. And just when I was feeling like I could handle that, the merger happened.

I work at Utah Valley Pain Management in Orem. Our staff included one doctor, 2 PAs, 2 Nurse Practitioners, a psychologist, a physical therapist, a Physical therapy assistant, 4 medical assistants, 1 receptionist, a bill specialist, a authorization specialist, and our office manager. Within 2 weeks and this merger, we gained a second office manager, an MA (who was fired a week later), a new authorization specialist, another receptionist, 2 new PAs, and second psyschologist, with a second doctor coming soon. What does all this staff add up to? Crazyness!

I guess I should explain the merger. So there were 2 different pain management clinics in orem: ours, and Dr. George's office (Intermountain Pain Specialists). Well, Dr. George, due to health reasons, decided to retire and wanted his patients to all come to our clinic. So, we took on his 2 PAs (physician assistants) and some of his office staff, as well as all of his patients. Now, my clinic is part of a group of radiologists/doctors who work at IHC hospitals, Utah Valley Imaging, Intermountain Vein Center, and Interventional Radialogists. The COO of our group came and talked to us about this merger and was totally excited about the growth and good things this would be for the whole group. Well, he didn't seem to mention that we would be crazy and short staffed and busting at the seems even more then we were before.

So here we are, after week two of the merger, and it's crazy as ever. Dr. George's office did things a little differently (like paper charts! ugh what nightmares). So they are once again remodeling our office (which means changing physical therapy's side of the office and giving them less space to do things...poor guys). Plus we have had to train all the new staff, get the new PAs adjusted to our policies, done a billion urine drug screens, fired staff so we are even more short staffed, etc. Before the merger, a busy day would involve like 15 drug screens. Now we do like 30 a day, most of the time we are doing a bunch at the same time. We have to get vitals and drug screens on all of Dr. George's patients. Craziness. Most days I come home so frazzeled and worn out. Poor Brad. Since the merger, I have gotten 4.5 hours of overtime, and I'm definately not trying to get any! I just don't have enough time to finish everything in a day. The phone is always ringing and even more patients need to talk to MAs, get prescriptions, drug screens, etc. And guess what, we haven't gained any extra MAs (since the new MA from Dr. George's office was fired). Even the providers say we are way understaffed. For having doubled our patients, we should have doubled our office staff, and we haven't. Oh well, job security right?

So yea, the merger is good...good when you have no life you need to get back to and don't need sleep, or you can easily manage stress and feeling stretched way too thin. Monday I felt like someone had asked me to run a marathon faster than I ever have and then they shot me in the foot and told me to get going cause I was waisting time. Oh boy, at least its the weekend, and the new PAs are getting the hang of it all. Plus, Paul will be gone next week, so that's less providers to worry about. Happy day. I love my job, just not so much these past two weeks.

So my exciting thing of this week happened on Wednesday at work. I was on the phone with a patient and Cassie was standing in front of my desk. So when I got off, she told me that the patient she just roomed had questions about his meter and she figured that I would be the best to help with that. So I was just like, sure, I'll give it a shot and see what I can do. I walked into the patient's room and he told me that he just got this meter that morning and could not figure out how to work it and the test strips. Well, he happened to have a similar meter to mine and the exact same test strips. So I told him how to use the test strips and where to put the blood (with the free style lite test strips it goes on the side instead of the bottom).
I asked him if he had a one touch meter before (where you put the blood in at the bottom of the strip) and he told me that he did. I then explained that the free style lite were great because they require less blood and give you more time to get all the blood you need for the strip (this is a big deal, believe me). So he asked if I could help him test his blood sugar, and he poked his finger and I put the strip in and then put it up to his finger so the blood was sucked in (wow that sounds kinda gross...). He thanked me for helping him out because he hadn't been able to test it that morning as he could not find out how to work it. I told him it was no problem.

Well, that was the most fun ever! My passion is diabetes and I wish every patient had diabetes related questions. I know a whole lot more about that than pain medication and procedures. So, it was 5 minutes of my dream job of being a CDE (certified diabetic educator).

A picture montage from December (mostly)

Here are some pictures from the Holidays. I didn't take a whole lot, but here are some.

Nothing says Merry Christmas more than a big decorated tree! Such an improvement to our little 3 foot tree. I love my in-laws!

My mom made us this placque, which I have been asking for, and in a goofy moment, we decided to take mug shots with it. I would like to think we don't look this bad all the time.

I love Temple Square at Christmas time!

This was Brad's goatee he decided to grow during the winter break. His goal was to keep it until we visited my family, but I'm pretty sure he shaved it before Christmas. I thought it was funny looking and he hates how itchy facial hair is.

This deliciousness is the marble chocolate cheesecake I made for Valentines day! It was delightfully yummy! I got the recipe from my friend Anita Draney.

Stress, Its a Killer

On monday I went to for my check up/lab work with my doctor and we talked about things that could be causing my blood sugar to be low. We came to the decision that it was stress. I am stressed alot. I just feel like I have too much on my plate and am spreading myself too thin. Poor Brad only gets to see a worn out stressed version of his wife. But, since seeing the doctor, I decided to try and work harder to calm down, breathe, and not stress out at work or my class. Well, this week was just awful. At least twice this week I almost marched up to my office manager and told her I was quitting. I have been so overwhelmed and over worked this week with people being sick or having time off. It's just that my job is demanding. If the phone rings and a patient has a question, an MA has to take it. When someone needs a pill count, a UA, to be roomed, a provider needs a report, or a procedure to be scheduled, etc. that is all part of my job. So when there were never more than 2 MAs at work, it was nuts, to say the least.

Basically after starting out the week with a crazy busy presidents day (of doctors appointments and work) it only got worse. You know its bad when our slowest day (Thursday) never gets slow. So by the time Friday came around, and I was not getting a lunch break because I had too many questions to take care of and the phone wouldn't stop ringing, I was ready to quit. I had to go back and clean rooms and get control of my emotions cause I started crying from being so overwhelmed. Granted my blood sugar wasn't the greatest, so that probably aided in the break down of my emotions, but I was fried and couldn't take any more. Now, I didn't quit, cause I need my job. After I got my breathing under control I just went right back to my list of things to take care of and the rest of the day finished out okay, for the most part.

So this weekend Brad has been focusing on what will help me de-stress and relax. I got a lot of sleep, have watched a lot of olympics (which unfortunately has mostly been curling...how is that even considered a sport?) and we were able to hang out with a lot of friends this week as well. On wednesday, all of us Rocklin girls got together because my friend Katie had flown out to visit from California. So everyone and their spouses came over and we ate food and talked. The girls had so much to catch up on that we didn't even play games, we just talked and ate. Meanwhile, the boys watched the olympics together. It was so good to catch up and see everyone though. Then Friday, we went out to sushi with Brad's friends, Dan and Joni. We learned that Asukas no longer has all you can eat sushi, so we headed over to Sukuras. They actually have a bigger selection of sushi, waiters who speak english, and a better appearance overall, so Brad was happy. And I ate chicken teriyaki while everyone else enjoyed there uncooked fish and seaweed.

Saturday, we relaxed, went to Hilary's wedding reception, and went to Red Robin and bowling with Madison and Joni. It was so much fun, and I was once again a horribly inconsistent bowler, but we laughed and enjoyed seeing each other. Plus, we all got to eat a ton of fries and ranch! Yum! Plus, it was just fun to see our Ute friends and here how the wedding planning is going. So I have officially recovered from a crazy week, and I so hope that everyone is at work this week and that it is not as crazy otherwise I might just loose my head. I still would love to have a vacation though. A cruise would be so nice right now!

Sore Teeth and Narcotic Induced Nausea

So ever since I saw our last dentist, Dr. Moody, my teeth have been killing me to some degree. So we switched dentists to Dr. Payne, who all my co-workers recommended. Despite the name, Dr. Payne has been really good. Dr. Payne had me try sensitive toothpaste to see if that did the trick for my painful teeth. After this didn't work, and the pain only got worse, I went back in and he did an evaluation of the trouble area. After an x-ray and several different tests, Dr. Payne told me that he thought I had a tooth that would need a root canal. He explained that the filling in it was pretty close to the root, which can affect the root and cause it to be painful and start to die. As that tooth felt no cold when he did a temperature test, it seemed pretty clear that the molar was no good. He made some adjustments to my bite and then told me to see if that did the trick, otherwise I would probably need a root canal.

Well, the next week I unfortunately came down with a cold. All of the congestion caused a lot of nasal pressure, which in turn made my tooth hurt like the dickens. After a night of crying due to the agonizing pain, I called the dentist and went in again. Dr. Payne explained that congestion can put a lot of pressure onto the roots (and as the problem tooth was in my upper jaw, it probably was getting pressed on a lot). So he prescribed an antibiotic to help clear up my sinuses and some Lortab for the pain. And wonderful Dr. Payne told me to call him if it still hurt a ton and he would do the root canal over the weekend. Well, almost immediately the antibiotic helped! It was wonderful. Within a day of using it I was feeling much better, cold wise and tooth wise. However, I did notice that biting down was uncomfortable for 2 particular teeth : the problem tooth and the tooth right below it. So, after a week, the dentist office called to check up on me and I told them about my bottom jaw hurting now. So I went in again to have my other tooth looked at. And guess what?! After an x-ray, Dr. Payne showed me that there was an infection under the new problem tooth cause on the x-ray it was all dark under the root. He told me the only way to fix that was a root canal. Wonderful! So the upper problem tooth didn't hurt, but now the one right below had an infection.

So yesterday I went in to have the fabulous root canal. The actual root canal wasn't bad and Dr. Payne gave me an ipod with every type of music on it to listen to. During the root canal, while drilling, he told me that a healthy tooth will have a lot of blood. Then he told me that for my tooth there wasn't a single drop. That indicated to him that this tooth has been bad for a while. He was surprised I hadn't come in sooner. Well, after an hour of killing the root (which Dr. Payne told me aren't even really necessary or helpful to the teeth) Dr. Payne told me that I was good to go. He then prescribed me more Lortab because he was concerned I would be in a lot of pain due to the fact my tooth had been so rotted.

Well, I took a Lortab with lunch to help with the soreness as the numbing wore off. All yesterday my stomach was not feeling good and I thought I was going to toss my cookies two different times. I didn't think too much of it and today when my tooth was hurting again, I took another Lortab. Well, then I got a headache and just felt gross. I spoke with one of our nurse practioners and some of the girls at work, and found out that this was pretty normal. All the girls I work with don't like Lortab and don't think it works for anything (except maybe bone aches). Well, all I can say is I don't understand why some of our patients overdose on this stuff! There goes my career as a narcotics addict!

Oh well, hopefully this root canal does the trick and my teeth stop hurting.