Tuesday, August 9, 2011

It's that time again.

    We should be heading into my busy season at work instead we are knee deep.  It used to be that we worked steadily through the summer and at the end of the summer BOOM.  Over the last few years, as my industry has evolved, the work has gotten more and more and more but with the state of the economy, payroll has gotten less and less and less. Top that off with more family things and rampant insomnia and that leads to me being one tired puppy. 

^^ Tired Puppies ^^


This week for example- I have three four hour sessions of training to give.  Two for my new temps and a refresher for the rehires.  Today I have to drive to Indianapolis for my review.  I am picking up a colleague along the way so I will be leaving home at 9:30, picking her up and driving north.  Her review is at 12, mine at 1:30 and we should be leaving Indy at 3.  Drop her off, then back to work until....whenever.  On top of that, we have well over a hundred web orders to pull, pack and process, a couple of pallets of books to shelve, 34 pages of rentals to sticker, and well over a hundred shelf tags to replace.  Much of this - hopefully- will be done by my staff - but they are also being bombarded by customers at the end of their summer term so yesterday, we got just over 30 web orders processed (and 75 new coming in on the site) none pulled, some of the books put away, one four hour training session complete, 3 or 4 "fires" extinguished and a lot of customers taken care of and a couple of "this needs to be done today" tasks completed.  Last Saturday I worked about 7-7.5 hours and Sunday I literally stayed in my pajamas until 2pm because I just couldn't function as I was so tired and so sore.  I don't want to spend- make that waste- an entire day every week in recovery mode.  It's not good for anyone. 

  It feels like the more we get done, the more there is to do.  Oh- and everything I need to get done this week has to be done by 2pm Friday because I am going to my folks this weekend for my Grandmother's 95th birthday and so that I can "tag team" the sermon with my dad this weekend at church.  He asked me to write up and deliver a 5-10 minute message in the midde of the sermon about Hope and the message in my book.  Which was sweet but plays with my nerves on a big level.    Next week we start selling books to the public and in less than 3 weeks school starts.  Just a few years ago the "busy time" was the week before, the first week of and the week after school starting;  now it stretches to just at 2 months of long hours and hard, hard work. 

It could be worse.  One of my best friend's school was recently converted to a new company and so she is having to re-do much of the work she already did while learning all new systems and procedures.  Just when I think I am at my breaking point- I think about her and what she is going through or we will talk and I will hear all the pressure she is under and I know that it is much worse on her end.  When I have doubts about whether I can take any more and that maybe it's time for a change I just think about her and I know that if she can hang in there, so can I. 

This all make me very grateful that I have gone on this journey to switch my thinking and attitude because I don't know that I would be able to switch this around had I not.  Now I just have to combat the "fog" and the tiredness and the distractability and power through. 

On a side note- my insurance has "dropped" Orencia from the preferred medications list.  That means that either my co-pay goes WAY up- or we find another medication.  Amusingly- the only thing they have on the list any longer is Enbrel and Humira.  That's going to be pretty tough if they only allow those in conjunction with MTX.  Just another little layer of stress but it's out of my hands and I am giving it up to the powers that be. 

The last side note is that I am going to try out a few of my apps on the ipad so that I can try to keep writing during this period.  I downloaded one called "Check it" to write down the thoughts and ideas as I go and then "Blogger Pro" so I can put together those ideas and post.  The only...issue is that I don't have wi-fi at the university so I have to see if I can write and stuff when I have my breaks and then post when I am home.  If you have any apps that you love- let me know so I can check them out! 

4 comments:

Leigh said...

Jules - I'm of the understanding that many of the biologic companies will help patients with large copays so you might try the maker of Orencia first. I'm on Enbrel and they will pay up to $4000 per year or some figure. Mine is only $50 per month, and they pick up $40 of it. Worth the research. In your spare time. Kidding, ok? I'm an RA patient with the exact same issues - too much going on and I can't say no and am exhausted all the time. But, my motto is that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, me again. Here's a link from another blog.

http://abcsofra.blogspot.com/2011/07/where-to-get-help-with-medication-costs.html

Jules0705 said...

Leigh- My doctor's office called yesterday and told me to contact the specialty pharmacy and put them in touch with Orencia to see how much would be covered and how much they are raising my co-pay. If it's a crazy amount, then I can choose to change. What we will change to, I have no idea.

Jules0705 said...

phat50chick- I checked out the link- thanks! It's a good resource!