Friday, February 11, 2011

Long time no write; just busy

I can't believe that it's been about 3 weeks since I've posted here. I've just been so busy preparing for my upcoming course. I am amazed that I will finally be learning to perform "Complete Decongestive Therapy for Lymphedema". I have wanted to do this for so long, it's incredible that it's around the corner, that I'll finally take a flight a week from tomorrow and will be studying about 10 hours a day for 11 days. Yippee! It's no vacation - that will come in April - but it's a change of pace and immersion in a subject that fascinates me and gives me a chance to make an advance to my career. Pretty dang satisfying.

And it's why I haven't written in a while. I've been studying daily. There were a supposed 30 hours of pre-study and a required test to submit; I finished it all last night in a total of about 20 hours. With my job taking up about 40 hours a week and all of the other things I do...preparing meals, shopping, doctor's appointments, work outs...it was hard to squeeze in the study time, but it was interesting and most of it was review material.

My schedule should now settle down a little; I'm done with "expansions" and pain is way down. I feel much better now that I'm not taking those nasty drugs regularly, but tonight pain is a bit up, so I may indulge in something to help me sleep. I've been very tired, partly due to pain interrupting my sleep earlier in the week, partly from my studying and partly as a result of dealing with the weather. Wednesday we had a snowstorm that hit in the afternoon; everyone ran for home creating a gridlock in the city that lasted for hours. The streets weren't bad to travel if you could get to them, but I spent 20 minutes getting out of my parking lot into the lot next door for gas, and then another 40 minutes getting around the block to return to another parking lot and go back to my clinic as I realized the futility of trying to get home.

Some news reports were stating the the streets were slippery so I figured it was going to be an icy night and that traveling home would be impossible. I clocked back in and caught up with a bunch of busy work that I had not had a chance to handle. Found some left overs in the fridge, drank some cocoa and tried not to sulk about it. But at 9 pm one of my coworkers said that she had recently been home and back to the office and that she lives near me and the roads were safe for careful travel. So I packed it in and got home about 10 pm. It was slow, and it was stressful, and I sure was glad that I did it rather than join several of my coworkers in sleeping at the office. Luxury accommodations by Vanderbilt standards, especially compared to what was available to the hospital workers who were stuck, they had makeshift dormitories to stay in, but home is always best. It did mean another stressful drive Thursday morning, but by 2 pm, most of the snow was gone. Today was a piece of cake. I'm tired again today, but hoping that I'll catch up on some rest this weekend, when the weather is supposed to be a balmy 40-something degrees.

Dave and I finally purchased our tickets to take the vacation that we have dreamed of for years and we'll be going to Rome in April. Life is good. Anyone got any ideas about good places to stay or eat?

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