My New Office and other Ramblings

I was so busy being excited about starting Weight Watchers that I completely forgot to blog about my new office. For those of you who don't know, I used to work in a hallway that had a counter top mounted on the wall. There was no privacy for me to do my phone calls except for this sad little folding door that was put in and that everyone opened and closed constantly. I know that our patients couldn't tell that I had no privacy but it was concerning to be speaking with someone about their recently diagnosed Chlamydia when the whole waiting room can hear you. Also, DJ, our biller, was stuck in this tiny corner where the copier was and which made her totally claustrophobic when someone would have to fax or copy. So, we finally bullied our boss into letting Deb (our LVN) and I move into Exam #3 and DJ to move into my old space. It is great for her because she does not make as many sensitive phone calls. So now I have a room with space to spread out and an actual desk. Also I have a real door that closes so if I am talking about sensitive things, the whole world cannot hear me. Plus, there is the added benefit that I cannot hear anyone else's radios. Before, I would have to listen to our Medical Assistant's rock or metal and then DJ's liberal political talk radio. Neither was really that bad, but DJ used to listen to this one show in the afternoon and the guy sounded exactly like Lewis Black and his voice would just grate on my nerves. Now, I am in my little office, listening to my quiet indie rock which does not disturb the patients I talk to and I don't have to listen to competing radios anymore. Yea for me!

Speaking of my job, I realized this week that I have two aspects about my job that I absolutely hate to do and put off as much as possible. First, I hate hate hate doing pre-certifications with insurance companies. They are very stingy with what they will actually let you do and they are pretty sure that no one actually needs to stay in the hospital. Last week, I had one insurance company calling me constantly to see if I wanted a hysterectomy to be an outpatient surgery with observation stay. That means that the patient cannot stay for more than 23 hours. For a freaking hysterectomy! I know that the surgery no longer leaves you with a giant scar in some cases but, seriously, kind of a major organ being removed. Soon, they will really want the patient to not even come into the hospital at all. Couldn't they perform surgery at home with a handy-dandy operation kit. Second, I hate telling people that they have STDs. This is a big part of my job and some people handle it well. What I hate is calling a girl who has just had her first pap smear and telling her that she has HPV and Chlamydia. Plus, Chlamydia and Gonorrhea have to be reported to the Texas Department of Health, so, as you can imagine, that goes over well. I actually had a girl ask me if she was going to be on some kind of STD list where people could look her up and see what she has. That would be a really long list! I deal with at least one STD everyday and I only work for two docs if it gives you an idea about how many people out there have something. These things are not things that will change but they are not my favorite parts of my job. Other parts are better, like getting to tell women who have been trying to get pregnant that they are and such.

Finally, away from the unpleasant tasks of my job, Mom and I went to our first Weight Watchers meeting on Saturday and it was good. We are both really pumped about losing weight and getting healthy and so far, things are going well. I even got up at 5:30 this morning to go to the gym. I was only able to stay and work out about 20 minutes because I was a little slow getting moving this morning, but that will get better with time. I have some nice healthy dinners planned for this week and I am going to try to avoid or at least eat less of the delicious goodies that the drug reps bring into our office. Mom and I are going to take pics this week and I will be posting those along with our first week's weight loss. Thanks to Holly and Mom for the notes of encouragement!