Good intentions

We know exactly where good intentions get a person! Here's a brief update of my life since conference



So #AOTA12 goes down in my book as being the best conference yet. I had a terrific time, enjoyed presenting, and LOVED meeting so many folks in the flesh. I returned and felt like I was hit by the mayhem hammer. It was as if 80% of the stress for my job had saved itself for the last 10% of the year. UGH.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my job, but the stress did get me down that first week back. Lots of meetings (many reeval-shares) and even some new additions to the caseload at this late date made organizing my schedule like completing a logic puzzle. (There are 4 Wednesdays this month, John Doe has to be seen 3x but there are 2 meetings on the opposite side of town and the other IEP team member is only free before 1230... etc )

I regained my footing, only to get completely schnockered. I thought I had a sinus infection, and then it seemed to be a teeth-only problem. I spent days with orajel and ibuprofen, got a very inconclusive diagnosis from my dentist, and really just have to wait out the pain. As soon as I start to feel any better in my mouth (9 days) I catch a cold. Ai ai ai. I am so sick of my puree/mechanical soft diet, and so sick of feeling lousy. /end rant.

I also took this past week to finalize preparations for the summer. I will be doing some prn work at a local hospital and I am also starting as an independent contractor with the state early intervention system. This has necessitated getting a second OT license, tons of paperwork, 2 more background checks, and essentially starting a small business. Some of that is exciting (PO Box! business cards!), some is tedious, but it's all finally done. (sidenote- remember how they have the scaled points for how stressful different life events are? Do you get cumulative points for repeated stressors? because from July to July, I will have worked at 5 different jobs. Not that I'm proud of that but can you understand the reason I feel a little insane?)

The school year is wrapping up, and I am sad about that. I have mixed feelings about returning to the hospital and essentially no time between the jobs to process this change. I will take a couple of weeks off (the beauty of prn work) to go to the beach and may get to do some reflection there, but I can't promise it will be work related. haha. I do have at least 7 entries started and hope to get some of those done soon, pending decreased pain and such. Hopefully this little hiatus has not scared off any new readers... this is why I use RSS for following blogs that I read, so I don't waste time checking for updates. All us blogger people need a break now and again ;)