Opportunity and change

Today my supervisor came up to me and said, "I'd like to talk to you about something." I immediately wondered if I had done something wrong but it was quite the opposite. She told me that a higher-up in our I.T. department had come to her asking if I was part of her staff. She replied, "Yes, is there some sort of problem?" The woman replied, "Oh, not at all! In fact, we were wondering if we could borrow her to do a training module with our medical records staff in Lebanon to prepare them for training physicians on the electronic signature process!"

Um, wow!

They want ME! To train THEM!

So, next Thursday I'll go to my regular job from 7 to noon and then I'll drive over to Lebanon to train them on E-signature. I'm very excited and a little nervous!

*****

I got a call from the Home Health nurse while I was at work today. She wanted to update me on a couple of things. Apparently while she was at the house this morning Dorothy had a really bad choking spell (Natalie said it was the worst yet) that lasted several minutes. I'm glad she was here to see one of those spells. She said they are looking into getting Dorothy on a low dose of oxygen to kind of "supplement" as her lungs get weaker.

They also said we need to increase both her water and food intake. Dorothy pretty much doesn't eat anything by mouth and only drinks to keep her mouth/throat moist. She already has four 8-ounce cans of food a day and around 1,000 mL of water a day. They want us to increase this to five cans and 1,500 mL of water. I struggle with this a little bit because some days it's hard to even get four cans in her. In order to up the water intake we mix it with the cans but the more liquid goes into her stomach at a time, the more full she gets and the more her stomach expands and her diaphragm gets smushed and she becomes short of breath. Maybe the oxygen will help this but I kind of feel like it's a catch-22 sometimes. *sigh*

On a more positive note, a fourth caregiver was trained today. I finally feel like we are fully covered and that if something comes up I can make a phone call and be covered. I live here and do afternoons/evenings/mornings/weekends. Natalie is here during the day and does an AMAZING amount regarding appointments and dealing with other aspects of Dorothy's care (calling places, etc.). Pat comes on Saturdays to give me a bit of a reprieve. And today Natalie trained Jenna who will work Tuesday evenings and also be our daytime sub. I'm excited about Tuesdays because as things are now, I am supposed to get that evening off. However, by the time I get home, take a short nap, get Dorothy fed and help her use the bathroom, it's after 6pm. If I want to get a decent amount of sleep at night I get little more than two hours off. With Jenna here I won't even have to come home after work, I can just begin my night off from there. :) I'm excited about that and I haven't told Steve yet. (So Steve's parents, if you are reading this, DON'T TELL HIM!) I'm anxious to surprise him next Tuesday by showing up at 4:15 instead of 6:45. :)

*****

I'm feeling a little tapped dry right now. I'm sleep deprived and PMSing which, unfortunately, means I don't have any extra patience. There is a woman who spends a ton of time at the house and she is VERY hard for me to deal with. I feel like she creates extra work for me when she's here and that can be frustrating. At one point it was agreed upon that she could come on Tuesday evenings (because I'm not here) and Fridays and Saturdays during the day. To her, this means that she can show up at 10am and stay until we go to bed (after 9pm). Then I had a dance class on Thursdays and she weaseled her way into that night as well. Then she started showing up on Mondays (I still haven't figured that one out). All of this means that she is often here 5 out of 7 days and I'm overwhelmed.

Heather is coming down tonight and I am VERY excited about that. I get to come home from game night at my parents' (at whatever time I want!), switch off the baby monitor, crawl into my own bed and SLEEP UNTIL I WAKE UP! :) I am in desperate need of that. It's the best way for me to recharge.

Then tomorrow afternoon I'm thinking about going to Woodburn to go shopping. Because hey, I need to look professional for this training module that I'm doing. :)

Happy weekend!