Sunday, July 11, 2010

Homestudy

Our foster certifier will be here most of this coming Friday afternoon. This will be the first time we have met with her face to face. This is the start of the homestudy, my guess is that she will come out one final time before placement and that she will make us go to her office in the next couple of weeks so we can be interviewed seperately regarding what our foster/ adoption instructor calls the "sex,drugs, and rock & roll" questionnaire. We have 3 Thursday evening classes to finish, that wrap up on August 5th.

My emotional bank account at work is running pretty dry. I am an activity director at a large nursing home, and we have some very challenging residents at the moment. These are not sweet old men and ladies, these are physically disabled folks in their 50's and 60's who are also mentally ill. They manipulate, lie, try to get you fired, and are physically violent, and Im just feeling burnt out! I have been doing similar work for the better part of 11 years and have never had so many buttons pushed. Four more weeks, four more weeks. Luckily I do have the support of a great mental health team at work who know that I have more 1 on 1 interaction with the residents than almost anyone else in the building, and they give me helpful coping tips.

I took a taxi home from work on friday night and somehow left my credit card in the cab. It was stolen. The credit card company phoned yesterday afternoon to say that there had been some shady looking charges made over the course of friday evening and saturday morning. 600 dollars worth. Of course we had the bank cancel the card and I filed a police report. An officer came out ten min. after I phoned. It seems that the culprit is not very intelligent and made purchases at major department stores and drug stores where there are video cameras. We wont have to pay for these charges but its still rather upsetting. The credit card company will have to pay and they will be the ones to press charges should it go to court at some point. I hate to think it was the cab driver.. ugh.

Not much to report as far as this femara cycle goes. Cycle day 11 with a lilly white OPK. Side effects not to bad this time around, except for one day of splitting headache and a couple of hotflashes. Maybe slightly more irritable than usual, but that could also be attributed to the 100 degree heat we had for a few days.

3 comments:

  1. LOL, I like the "sex, drugs and rock n roll" interview:)! That's how it feels! Good luck, what an exciting step for you!

    So sorry your work is so emotionally draining. Mine is also, and some days, it's hard to even get home from work without falling asleep on the way!

    Good luck with your femara cycle!

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  2. Man, your job sounds like hell on wheels, I don;t know how you do it. I have done in-home care work for spinally injured people, and also nursing home work as an occupational therapy assistant, co-ordinating activities for a bunch of dementia residents so I can *almost* imagine how hard your situation is. You must be one strong lady! And I am more pleased than ever that you finish up in 4 weeks!!

    Sorry to hear about the credit card palaver. That sucks big time. Sending lucky vibes for the femara...xx

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  3. @ faith, thank you :)

    @ panama hat, i didnt know you had been a physical therapy assistant. I went to massage school a few years ago and worked with some physical therapists at a nursing home as part of my training. I have also done in home care for people with Parkinsons and dementia. Some of my current residents have dementia, but more often its psychosis or some sort of personality disorder. its a lock down facility,for people with severe behavioral issues. Hats off to you for having done similar jobs. I do enjoy myself a lot of the time, just having a rough patch!

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