New job, out sick

I started my new job in the ER on the 28th, and it was like coming home. It took me a while to gain some proficiency on the computer software, but the patient interviewing skills were still there, and the whole ER atmosphere is the same. I always loved it and I love it still. The job is much more varied in some ways than it was in the old West Valley ER, and less so in other ways. After all there, are 7 different zones in this ER, each mostly with its own registrar at any particular time, and you mostly just do what is wanted in that zone. In some you only do bedside registration, in a couple the nurses bring the patient to you to register before they are discharged. There is even one zone called Quick Reg that I haven't worked yet where you only put in demographics and what the reason is for coming to the ER, and not allowed to ask anything else. Other zones then follow up on the info you got AFTER the patient is seen by a doctor.

After 2 full weeks, I was finally beginning to feel like I was actually contributing instead of just lowering other peoples' productivity, and then boom, Sunday morning I woke up so sick I could barely raise my head. Cough, fever, congested lungs, etc. I had worked a 12 hours shift on Saturday with what I thought was a steadily worsening cold, but this is much worse than a cold. Chances are pretty good that I am now recovering from the swine flu, since I got a seasonal flu shot the second day after I started. I wasn't scheduled to work Sunday, but I WAS supposed to work Mon, Tues, and today, and I have had to call in sick every day. You can't go back until your temp has been normal for 24 hours or 7 days have passed since your first symptoms, whichever comes later. I am not scheduled to work tomorrow either, but will have to go to Occ Health at work before I can go back to the ER on Friday at 4 PM.

It has been a truly miserable 4 days so far, but I really am on the mend. I even climbed the hill and watched DH feed the chickens tonight, after not leaving the house since Saturday. I bet I have slept 3/4 of the entire hours since I first got sick.

DH is becoming a little sick, but his immune system is much better than mine, and he should be fine. I expected to get sick about 2 weeks into the ER; everybody does, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. Oh well, I'm alive.

Look at the good side; now I don't have to worry about lining up to get one of the precious vaccinations when they finally become available.