A Day in my Life - April

I'm so happy to see April arrive this year.  It really doesn't look like Spring here, but I know it's coming.
Here's how the first day of April went for me.

Here I am on my way to work.  It's 7:40 am, it's 29 degrees and there is a light dusting of snow on the ground.

About half way to work here. We live closer to Lake Michigan and get more snow.  Just 15 minutes from home and no snow on the ground here.

Here's my cubicle at work.  I get to work about 8:15 and I start at 8:30.  

I put my things away, eat my overnight oats for breakfast and get signed into the various things I use on my computer.
I have to sign into a charting app that lets me look up any patient that is in our network.  This covers 2 large hospitals and hundreds of doctors offices.  I have to be able to look up meds, orders, labs, notes, hospital visits...   And then I have to be able to put in orders for all those things, make a telephone encounter for anyone who calls in...  It's been eye opening to know what all goes on behind the scene.
I also have to sign into a phone system.  It routes calls to each person in the office, sending the call to the person who has been off the phone the longest.
We also have something called right fax, which sends faxes to our computers.  These faxes come from facilities that may have a medical concern about a patient, they can be labs, papers that need dr signatures, reports on our patients from other doctors, or prescriptions that are needed.

I've told you before that we are blessed with these large windows all around us.  We are tucked next to a golf course, so the scenery is nice.  On this day the sun came out for a bit, but the sky stayed dark.

We each get a different assignment for the day.  It may be labs and tests, or nurse follow up - which is getting all those faxes from facilities and notifying the dr and doing death certificates.  It could be the in basket, which are requests from the Dr's about getting equipment for people, setting up power of attorney paper work, or maybe its prescriptions - refilling scripts for people who call in our pharmacies that notify us someone needs something. 
On this day, the phone was especially busy. I wasn't able to finish something I was working on, before that phone would ring again.
One of the calls I took was from a man in an independent living facility.  He knew the Dr was there that day and was requesting to be seen.  It was 10:15 am and he said he was available for 12:30 to 2, and then again after 3:30.    I sent the message to the Dr, and then the man called back to say morning was ok, but he had to go to lunch at 11:30.  I had just sent that message off, when he called again and said he could go to a late lunch and could be there until noon.  :)
The Dr did fit him in!
If you are a frequent caller to your Dr office, you can be sure they know you!  And there are those who we love to talk to, and then those who we cringe when we are so blessed to be the one who got that phone call!

One of our medical assistants is moving, so we had pizza for her farewell.

Here's a cool thing about our desks.  We can raise or lower them, so when you get sick of sitting, you can raise it and work standing up for a while.

You are going to think we do nothing but eat, but I promise this is unusual!  A vendor brought in these cookies in the afternoon.  They were very good, but we cut them in half, because they were big!

Look who came to my work!  Alaina and Ruby were spending the night so they came a little before 5.  They got part of a cookie as a treat while they waited.
And they did have to wait, because shortly before we were supposed to be done, some people called with urgent needs for prescriptions - including some narcotics which take more time to fill, and someone who had taken his mother to Florida and needed the scripts called into a pharmacy down there.  Sigh....  This is a common Friday night occurrence.

Here's all the papers that had to go into the shred box, that had requests, or needed to be signed, or scanned in...   It was a busy day and we finally left about 5:15.

We met Bob at Red Robin and had some yummy burgers, the girls had mac and cheese and said this was now their favorite restaurant.

This is the fields on the way home.  It's been raining so much that there is water just setting on the fields, the ditches are full.  I wish we could share with some areas that are so dry!

The girls were excited to get out our Wii and play some games.  Here they are bowling.

After that they had their customary crackers and cheese and watched a movie.
Another new month, and another good day!

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

 I made pasta for supper last week, and made a new recipe to go with it.  It's cheesy garlic bread, simple to make and very tasty - soft on the inside, crusty on the outside and full of flavor!

Easy Cheesy Garlic Bread 

1 Loaf French bread
1/2 cup salted butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 cup Colby jack cheese, shredded
1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
chopped parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut your French bread loaf lengthwise and place on top of a baking sheet.
In a small bowl combine softened butter, garlic powder, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning. Spread evenly on each side of the garlic bread. Top with Colby Jack and mozzarella cheese.
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until butter is melted an bubbly. You can also broil the top for 1-2 minutes at the end to give it a more crisp top.
Garnish with fresh chopped parsley if desired.

• 1/2 cup salted butter softened
• ▢1/2 teaspoon garlic powder3 garlic cloves minced