My recent bone scan shows my bones are thinning. As if my thinning hair wasn't enough. Ugh!
Via WebMD: What causes osteopenia?
Bones naturally become thinner as people grow older because, beginning in middle age, existing bone cells are reabsorbed by the body faster than new bone is made. As this occurs, the bones lose minerals, heaviness (mass), and structure, making them weaker and increasing their risk of breaking. All people begin losing bone mass after they reach peak bone density at about 30 years of age. The thicker your bones are at about age 30, the longer it takes to develop osteopenia or osteoporosis.
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It is startling to see the words "middle age", or be told by your retirement planner that, "So, if you retire in 13 years...". The funny thing is that I don't feel 50. Nor do I look 50. When someone says, "This was before your time", I say something like, "I am older than I look" or "My grandson will be 5 years old soon". To which they reply, "You're not old enough to have a grandchild", or "NO WAY!" and I start laughing.
One woman in the front office, where I am currently being held hostage instead of doing patient care, is 3 years older than I am. She actually looks her age. Not in a negative way though because you can tell she has never smoked and has always taken good care of her skin. Anyway, when I mention something - music, movies, etc. - she will mention something similar. Except she will say, "You're too young for this...", which always cracks me up! When I tell her (again) that I am not much younger than she is, she cracks up and tells me, "I keep forgetting because you look so much younger!"
I really do like where I work. It's just that I have always been in the back office taking care of patients. To be stuck in a chair all day either checking patients in or out, answering phones, which are truly relentless, and scheduling appointments. I am not a "sit in a chair all day" kind of worker and I haven't been since I left a crazy accounting job the automotive sector.
I was in the back office for a couple of weeks when I started, then moved to the front office for training. I have been there ever since. The woman in charge of training me at the front desk was a horrid woman to receive ANY training from.
In addition to her reeking of cigarette smoke (like she bathed in it), her smokers cough (she probably has lung cancer and she hasn't seen a doctor about the lingering cough), and a voice that SCREAMS smoker, she was a complete bitch to me and only me. Everything I did was either flat-out wrong or not "her" way.
Because we are part of a union she had been "grandfathered" for two fifteen minute breaks every day. She didn't miss a single one and always returned smelling like an ashtray.
The ONLY light at the end of THAT tunnel was the fact that she would be retiring not long after she started training me. YIPPEE! So the remainder of my training with her I kept my mouth closed and did things "her" way when she was around. She never talked to me in a normal voice; she screeched at me and criticized everything I did instead. For the people who know me, they know I cannot do ANYTHING when somebody is yelling at me. She would yell and any words that came out of her mouth could not be heard because I blocked her out the best I could. The fact that she stood 5' tall and weighed next to nothing kept me entertained because I was thinking of all the ways I could torture her.
When I say she never talked to me in a normal voice, I am not joking. She had a normal voice for the other gals yet not me. There had to be something about me she just didn't like, so she treated me like a piece of dirt. Maybe she had read my mind and knew all the ways I wanted to make her life miserable? In the end, this woman had trained me incorrectly on several things - this info coming from my preceptor after the fact.
She retired at the end of May and the front office has never been so quiet and pleasant for me. Except for another long-term employee. She is pleasant a high percentage of the time, yet she has purposely given me incorrect information. One of those instances had me sitting in the principals office. That was the first time her wrong information really caught my attention.
At first I thought it was simply a mistake, yet the second time she was wrong, and the third time...yeah, there was a pattern forming. Now I don't ask her any questions at all when my preceptor is not around. If I can set aside whatever I have a question about, I do. Then I ask my preceptor about it. If it is something that can't be put aside, I do the best I can and send my preceptor a note about it.
Overall I love the hospital system I work for. When I have six months of employment under my belt, I will be looking to change departments where 95% of my job is spent on direct patient care. The other 5% will be spent prepping and rooms, and paperwork NOT related to the front office! (In a perfect world of course.)
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Last night I helped serve dinner at the first shelter I stayed at and it was nice to see a few familiar faces and to celebrate a friend moving into her own apartment soon. It doesn't bother me to go back there and help out because it was what I needed at that time. I was able to stop and get my head on straight(er) and to try to put plan of action together. For that, I will be forever grateful.
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