An Enforced Break - Not the Best Thing to Happen, But It Does Happen Every So Often

Surprise!

I managed to finish up my very busy day on the 5th of November, just to end up in the hospital for a surprise gallbladder removal and additional bile duct procedure. I didn't plan this AT ALL, but I am thinking that this may be part of my recent fatigue, blah moods, and issues, so I am very grateful to be on the other side of all of this - minus my gallbladder and some gallstone fragments. I spent three days in the hospital and am now at home, trying to figure out what is going to happen next.

My post-procedure instructions are pretty vague - go back to work when work duties no longer cause pain. Hm. That really depends on what duties you are talking about. You can drive when you don't have any pain when braking. Okay. Go to your primary care physician within 5 days - but the doctor won't see me because it is impossible to get an appointment with them, so I'm going to have to go as a walk-in tomorrow because I need some more guidance about what I need to avoid at work. 

I really NEED to get back to work.

I am almost out of all of my time and my intern is doing her caseload without me at the moment. Now, I am not concerned about my intern at all. She's doing fine in her music therapy development, but I am concerned that other people will start to treat her as my substitute rather than my student, so I need to get back as soon as I can to make sure that her position is not abused in any way. 

So, this is the first step that I am taking to getting back to a real life - I am blogging today. I've managed to get some sit-down tasks done here at my desk, but I am already ready to crawl back to bed to sleep some more. I am navigating through either hunger or nausea (can't really tell which), pain under my jawline, continued indigestion, exhaustion, and all the follow-up information that has to happen. I am going to take a taxi today back to the hospital to pick up my car which has been sitting in the emergency room parking lot since Tuesday evening. I will either go to the doctor or straight home. It will completely depend on how well I can brake. If I can't make it to the doctor today, I will make it there tomorrow.

There you go.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more