I'm BAAAAAAACK!

Haiti in a few words: WHEW! Sad. Hot. Smelly. Hard. Unbelievable. Inspiring. Frustrating. Beautiful.

More when I've had a chance to gather my thoughts. This was a toughie.

xoxo

GGRN

Haiti, here I come!

See you all in a few weeks! I'll be leaving in the AM and won't be back for sixteen days--at which time, I will be home for a day, but then will leave again for a nice beach vacation with hubs and friends.

I'll post my stories and picture when I get back, don't worry!

xoxo

GGRN

No, thanks!

I got an email today from a nice lady who offered me some HawthoRNe DVDs for my hospital's Lending Library! All for a review on this website and publicizing the release of the first season's DVDs!!

Firstly, my hospital doesn't have a lending library.

Secondly, no thanks. I watched some of the episodes when it first came out on TNT. For those of you who don't know, HawthoRNe stars Jada Pinkett Smith as an "inspirational nurse director who struggles with the balance between family and career." And no, it's not a comedy!!! She "struggles to hold the middle ground in a battle between bureaucratic administrators, heartless doctors, and apathetic colleagues that are caught up in a system that's forgotten whom it's there to serve." zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzwha? I dozed off there for moment. Oh, wait--the New York Times called her a "spitfire who tramples over rules and regulations to reach her goals." Yeeeee HAAAAAAA! Sign me up! NOT!

The pilot opens with HawthoRNe racing to the rescue (at 5 am) of a suicidal cancer ridden young man who is on the roof of the hospital. Her hair is crazy. She forgot her ID and races past the guards to burst out onto the roof, begging the young man to step away from the edge.

He has the best line, however: "Last night my toilet bowl looked as if I filled it up with a really good Cabernet."

That's good, because it will go really well with all the cheese from the rest of the damn show.

Haw haw haw.

No thanks. But if the people at ShowTime would like to send me some Nurse Jackie videos, bring em on!!

NEW TOY!

So, after much bitching and moaning and an actual Indian burn given to the nurse manager by the woman who organized this Haiti trip, I get to go. Whew!

And it's a good thing, because my new pulse oximeter got here today!!!

I'm driving my husband and our friend Chris crazy with my joyful dancing and constant checking of their pulse oxes.

I love new equipment!

Haiti trip down the drain?

So, for over a month now I've been trying to get the time off for this trip. It's in two weeks. The nurse manager of the ED and the nurse supervisor (the one who doesn't like me) have verbally said they don't see any problem letting me go. I've submitted multiple paper vacation requests, which all seem to disappear.

But I'm still on the schedule.

I've offered to switch days. I've actually found per diem and part time nurses who are willing to cover some of the days--the ones where staffing is really low. I've haunted the nurse manager (who I think has one foot out the door these days) and written emails and done everything I can think of.

And I'm still on the schedule.

I'm getting up early in the morning tomorrow to be there when the two of them come in, and will demand an answer--in writing. I'll be horribly embarrassed to tell the IMC, who is sending me to Haiti, that I can't go, but if the answer is no, so be it. I can't just not show up for work--I'll be marked absent, which is really bad. I have no paper trail that proves anything: I've submitted copies of vacation requests, but I don't have one that is signed, proving I can go.

What's insane is that no one else will be on vacation from my shift during that time period. I'm also the third-most senior person on my shift, so no one can beat me out anyway. I have over three months of vacation time saved up. What the fuck is going on?

I really feel like I'm getting screwed.