My next house assignment

Tomorrow, I'll be starting a two-three month rotation in the Respite house. Respite is an interesting place. It's a kind of a cross between a youth hostel and a nursing home. Most rooms have normal beds, but some have hospital type beds. All have a dresser and lamp. Some are double occupancy for friends or family to be together. All consumers have some type of physical or intellectual disability. They stay for a few hours to a few weeks. The age range is 6 yrs to 86 years. And there can be up to 8 overnight plus 8 hourly consumers in the house at a time. Staffing is different too. For any time there is a consumer in a wheelchair or 4 or more consumers, there is at least one other staff member. :) As July/August are two of the busiest months of the year....there should always be a couple of us there. :) I'm looking forward to it.

Updates on life

So I'd kind of forgotten what life on the prairie was like. Or at least the weather. :) This week was a reminder. HOT!!! With fast moving p.m. storms. Yep, really reminds me of South Dakota weather patterns. Which after 9 years in MN, I'd forgotten. Although...hearing the weather person say it's going to be a hot day...29 degrees, just sounds odd. 29? Shouldn't I be wearing a parka and gloves? No? A swimsuit and wraparound skirt? Oh, yeah Celsius. ;) But I've come up with an easier way of figuring C to F conversion then 9/5C + 32. I round to the nearest 5, (IE that 29 degree day becomes 30) and figure out how many 5s are in that number. So for our example that would be 6. Multiply by 10, and add 30. (Yes, I know it's off a few degrees. But I can do that in my head quickly and know how to dress in the morning!) In the example...I get a 90 degree day by my method. The real method gives 84.2. So yes, I'm 6 degrees off, but at least I have an inkling of what the day will bring. And that day ended up being 32 degrees which was 89...so I was really close. I've discovered something odd about weather forecasting up here....it seems to be more....accurate? Or maybe it's more pessimistic. I've not seen a "partly sunny" day. But lots of partly cloudy ones. And temperatures seem to be guessed at lower than higher, so you maybe pleasantly surprised when it's warmer, but not disappointed when it's cooler.

The bad part to the warm weather of the week is the apartment isn't air conditioned. Not even a window unit. So it's been a bit...hot here.

Update on medical stuff....I had the ultrasound of my kidneys done on Thursday. Wow! Fast appointment. I got there, presented my card, sat down and opened a magazine....and was called. 10 minutes early. Taken back by the man who was doing the test and got started right away. Hmmm...he did the right kidney first, then the left and while doing the left he says "Are you in pain? Am I hurting you?" Ummm...no. Should it be? I hate comments like that. I know I have a freakishly high pain threshold. When I hurt (not just ache like the arthritis does or my cramps do--oh wait--most people consider that pain), I know I'm in serious trouble. As in..Excuse me, but someone needs to take me to a medical professional right now! But no more cryptic comments, the results will be in Dr. K's office midweek, but he doesn't have an appointment available until July 8th. So that's when I'll hear something...although I am assuming that if something is really wrong....he'll probably call earlier. I've been told he does that.

Some other odd things I've noticed about life here on the great Canadian prairie. People are super polite. Not just MN nice, but actually polite. Please, thank you, ma'am, sir, excuse me are still heard here. It's nice, but odd. I tend to use those anyway and stuck out a bit in the states, but here I just fit in.

There are fewer types of some products and more of others on the shelves at the stores. Example: Much fewer types of pop. No flavored Coke/Pepsi, only one type of Dr. Pepper, fewer choices overall. But wow the flavors of potato chips! Dill pickle, ketchup, sour cream and cheddar cheese, and all the ones typically found in Cub foods back in MN.

Still adjusting to all packaging being in both English and French! And remembering more of my French each day. Not that I use it, but seeing it, reading it, and hearing it on TV (there are entire channels that only broadcast in French here--and some shows are voice over from the English...which is kind of fun to watch. :)

Health care still feels weird to me. Here I am having tests, going to the Dr....with no co-pay and no charge. Although strangely I found out that if there were a charge it would be fairly low. While I was at a walk in clinic with a consumer, a foreign exchange student who had not applied for a health card came in and asked how much it would cost to see a doctor without a health card. And the answer is? $100? $75? How about $45? Yep...that's all folks. He then says...I think I may have strep...what about a test for that? The receptionist replies...if we do it in office, it's included in the $45. I almost fainted. I know that's about the charge for a nurse practitioner run, in drug store kind of clinic in MN. But to see a Dr? In a full clinic setting? I asked at Dr. K's office, just to see if the charge was more...and the nurse there said Dr. K really doesn't accept patients without a card unless it's a family member visiting, then he charges $55, again including any tests he can do in office (not much...no blood work, x-rays, etc--but strep tests--yep can do that)

Another odd thing...Lottery. In the US, states that have lotteries do so to either increase their general operating budget or for a specific purpose (IE--education). And the lotteries here in Canada do that too, but there are also special lotteries for specific purposes. For example, the libraries do a special lottery each year where the grand prize is a 1/2 million dollar house. There are a limited number of tickets for these lotteries and a limited number of prizes (For that one there were....I think....10,000 tickets--each ticket costing $100 or a book of 5 for $250. ) And yes, there were corporate sponsors for the prizes, so the library wasn't paying retail for the prizes. But still, it's odd to hear and see in action. And a good number of these lotteries are for health care. Help the NICU buy new monitors by buying a lottery ticket. Or the cancer ward get new books and games for the chemo area. Oddly...schools don't do this. I asked about it and was told schools get funded first. So they don't need money. Wow! Amazing. Teacher salaries here are really pretty good too. (low end about $7,000-10,00/yr more than stateside.)

Well, there are a few more of the odd things I've been noticing. :) See you next time I start thinking of the odd strange things that are different here in the not so frozen right now North!

Ah...two days off!

I must admit it. I'm learning to really love my schedule. :) I've been off for 24 hrs and will be off for another 48. Then I work 24 of 48 hrs and then I'm off again for 84 hrs before I go back for another 24 of 48.



Some days do go really slow. But that is due to the current house/consumer I'm working with. Which will be changing at the end of the month. I'm moving from the Crisis house to the Respite house. The Respite house is there to give regular, full time caregivers someplace they can take their charges to for anywhere from 4 hrs to 7 days. I'll be there for July and August (the two busiest months). I'm looking forward to it. Not only will there probably be at least 4 consumers each night, but that means there will be at least two staff on at all times too. :) So I'm looking forward to getting to know more people, seeing lots of new consumers and over all just having a great time. :)



So I'm getting the ultra sound done this week. On Thursday afternoon. I have mixed feelings about this. I really, really hate doctors, lab work, and medical stuff in general. But at the same time, I've thought for a lot of years that this is just not right. So off I go to get an ultrasound of my kidneys to see if there is a problem there. After that, it's a few days to wait for the results and another visit to Dr. K.

Updates on appointments and the like....

So, it's been a few weeks now I guess. And the Dr. appointment has come and gone. Mostly good news. All lab work came back normal. And in some cases, better than normal. Good cholesterol is high. Bad cholesterol is lower than normal. :) Blood glucose levels are normal, no other problems with the tests. So the physical exam was good too. No obvious problems, no clear cause for my leg swelling. :( So on to the next thing. Which is an ultrasound of my kidneys. All the lab work seemed to show decent kidney function, but that is the next big thing that could be causing the problems in my legs and Dr. K wants to check it out.

Car is fixed, running well and should be licensed in Canada in the next week or so. :)

Work has been going well. Hard to believe I've been there 2 months already. Time is really flying! As a matter of fact....I need to go get ready for work. I'm off for two days after today, so I'll try to maybe write more then.

Upcoming appointments updated

So the appointments that I listed before are over. And a new round are just begining. :(

The car appointment led to the finding of a major problem. The left front axel was almost broken. Which in turn lead to the left front bearing being worn down. (which this car has already had replaced twice in the last 3 years that I know of) So the estimate the dealership gave me was...scary! But a local shop that Pat takes his van to gave me one that was 50% lower than the dealer. :) So back to the shop my car goes on Thursday. Hopefully this time will be a bit better.

The doctor appointment was....good and nerve-racking. I liked the Doctor. He seems very concerned about any issues you have, listens well, asks questions when he needs more information and is willing to let you take your time and explain anything you want to talk about. But, in the course of the discussion, I mentioned that I've had my lower legs swelling (filling with fluid) for several years now. Some days are worse than others, but it's always there to some extent. My last doctor just kind of assumed it was my weight and left it alone. The doctor here...told me in some detail just what could be causing it. :( Anything from my weight....to congestive heart failure. So I'm going in for blood work (it's a walk in lab--just go in anytime from now til two days before my next appointment. And a chest x-ray. I have to make an appointment for that, but again, can do it as I want. Then back to the doctor for an actual physical and to get results from the test. It was kind of scary and kind of refreshing to hear that the small concerns I had weren't being just attributed to weight and age, but being seriously thought about and followed up on.

Sunday Morning Mass

I went to Mass at my new church last Sunday morning. I really do feel so at home there. Even more so than I ever felt in MN. And I liked my church in MN. But there is a....flavour (to use the Canadian spelling ;) ) to this Catholic church which is unlike anything I've seen. In part I think it's almost a Evangelical/Pentecostal feel. I had some really odd thoughts at Mass on Sunday.



The first one was....How is a Catholic Mass like a musical?



Well...People move in unison (Stand/Sit/Kneel) and process around the church with little to no direction (kind of like a slow dance bit), and burst into song without warning. :) Where else but a musical (or the Mass) does this happen?

The second odd thought I had was my church is even more multicultural than my church in MN. Which is a bit odd as my church in MN wasn't exactly all white. But here...we have a couple of families from Africa, a few from the Phillipeans, some from Europe, and now...me from the States. Which is fun...as people will look at me for a few minutes then say "You're not from around here, eh?" And I'm not. I still say "Amen" with a long A, instead of Ahmen. ;)

Upcoming appointments

And WOW!!!! There are a lot!

I have a work meeting next week. I'll get to meet all the house supervisors hired so far (eventually there are supposed to be 16 of us--4 at each house X 4 houses and about 10-12 people able to do on-call as needed so we can have vacations/sick days etc.) And all these people have been invited to the meeting. But at the moment we only have 12 full timers hired and 6 on-call folks.

Later in the week, I take my car in to have additional child safety seat anchors put in as well as daytime running lamps. The child safety seat anchors are free! The daytime running lamps are $250. But then I can have my car inspected and licensed here in Canada. So that will mean one more thing off my long to do list. :)

Pat is going out of town to visit a friend he hasn't seen in about 10 years. They've tried to get together a few times, and life always got in the way....but his friend was diagnosed with cancer this past year and although he is in remission and should be fine, the overdue visit was bumped to must do NOW priority. So I'm helping out by opening the storage area for one of Pat's employees on Friday and again Saturday to get equipment for a gig.

Then finally to round out my month, I'm going to the doctor. No, nothing is specifically wrong that hasn't bothered me for a long time. But I need to find a doctor here in Canada and since I haven't had a full physical in about 2 years....I guess it's time. It's a bit strange here. Dr's offices overall don't do blood work. A few of the larger clinics do, but not the one Dr offices which are common. So I'll go in, talk to the Dr, we'll decide on any tests needed, then another morning, I'll go into a walk in lab to have the blood work done.

I must admit though, I think it will be interesting to see what another Dr says about some of the things I've been dealing with. I'm trying write some of them down on a list, because I'm sure I'll think it's not that important at my appointment if I don't. For example....my lower legs (calves) have been swollen for almost 5 years now. It was one of the reasons I suspected I had hypothyroidism at that time (but didn't test positive for it) Never did find a reason and never have done anything to fix it. My calves are just filled with fluid all the time. Some days are worse than others, and on those days, wearing socks actually hurts. So I'm guessing there maybe some things that a new set of eyes will see differently than my old doctor in MN.

Given my general....dislike (ok...ok...I'll admit it--it's HATRED) of doctors, this is the appointment I'm kind of dreading the most. But Pat assures me that his doctor is very good, a good listener and does amazing diagnostic work. So I'll go and see. I just never know how much of my past history I should try to explain. :( I think I'll try to talk to Pat about it before I go. I'm sure he'll say give all information possible, but sometimes I think...doctors will think I'm a bit crazy if I do that. I've just had so many odd things go wrong with me. Nothing big, but just...odd. ;) Like Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome instead of the normal Carpal variety. Or bolus impetigo instead of the regular variety. Just odd stuff. So I tend to not give as full a history as I probably should.

Anyway...if any of you readers have any ideas of things you know I should be talking to a Dr about....feel free to let me know. I'll add it to the list. ;)