Where do I begin?

Working nine days in a row....not so fun. But I finally get two days off! When it comes to stress, I definitely exhibit the typical Blood Type A response. In other words, I'm a bit of a wimp despite my work ethic. I was happy at my 32 hours per week as a float pharmacist. But I wanted a little more control over my destiny and schedule so I opted to work as a staff RPh and was willing to sacrifice 8 more hours per week since faulty logic told me, "hey, commute time will decrease so you'll have more free time anyway, right?"

Wrong.

Maybe things will get better once tech staff is fully trained, but in the meantime, I've exhibited some very strange stress markers that are telling me to go easy and cut down on health professional martyrdom syndrome:

1)Heart palpitations. For a while these were no longer a part of my life but the other day I had a butterfly in my chest again.

2)Gut trouble. Undiagnosed right lower quadrant pain is coming back. IBS most likely. It shows up when I get stressed out.

3)Poor sleep. This has somewhat decreased due to the existence of a great boyfriend who forces me into relaxation with his very being, but for a while there, I couldn't get to sleep without sleep aides. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, and I'd DREAM ABOUT FILLING PRESCRIPTIONS!!!!!

4)This is embarassing but I'm going to share a very private moment with the world wide web in hopes that this knowledge will somehow get people to understand that putting too many demands on health professionals and not allowing them basic human rights like potty breaks because you want your prescriptions filled NOW promotes further illness in society........LOSS OF BLADDER CONTROL! Twice during the month of December I sneezed and well, you know the rest. I am 26 years old and have no children. This is NOT normal. Granted, the second time this happened my technician purchased a venti peppermint mocha for me so all that diuretic caffeine probably had something to do with it, but seriously, something's just not right here.

That day I worked from 8 am to 6:30 pm straight with no break. Hey, I'm extremely loyal to my company and I love my patients, but sometimes you just have to step back and realize that while it's great you're making the world a healthier place (sort of), you are killing yourself in the process. Some people handle stress much better than me.

Well, if good juju is on my side I'll perhaps be able to stay at my store but decrease my hours. What people don't realize about the profession is that you are like a waitress. You are on your feet all day long, lucky if you get a break, but with the added responsibility of extreme quality assurance. It's not just a matter of giving someone a Big Mac instead of the McNuggets. If you are not at your 100% best mindset or have to babysit questionable support staff, you could make an irreversible fatal error. All the while, people complain because, "you are just counting, pouring, licking, and sticking. What's the delay?"

Anyhoo, enough ranting for one blog entry (or ten for that matter!). Let me tell you about my food:

1)Breakfast. What breakfast?

2)Lunch (around 2 pm): from the deli next door I ate a breaded cod fillet and green beans. I also sampled the espresso brownie bars from the coffee shop and sipped a soy latte. Finished off my wannabe power lunch with unsweetened Tazo iced tea (Passion). Man, that is some good tea.

3)Dinner. A couple of pieces of chocolate. This diet is not happening today. But I'm about to have some leftover deli roasted turkey.

That's all for now...the week can only get better, right?

Later,

E