Job Update

I am now in the middle of my third week here at my new job and it's pretty interesting.

I haven't really seen that many patients yet, and I'm getting the feeling that I'm not going to have a huge daily case load anyway. Probably around 5-6 patients at the most on any given day will be the max, plus any prior approvals for supplements that I have to call into pharmacies.

That part is probably the most time consuming part of my job right now. A lot of the patients here are on Medicaid or ADAP and therefore require prior authorization numbers if they are prescribed an oral supplement like Ensure or Boost. These charts get forwarded to me, then I have to fill out a form, call the Medicaid automated number, enter all sorts of numbers and then get the prior authorization number. Then I have to mail the presciption, with the authorization number written on the top of it, to the patients' pharmacy. It's not really that hard, just really time intensive.

Other than that, I pretty much just do same out outpatient counseling I was doing in my old job. A lot of education stuff. I'm trying to get all the patients that weren't seen by the previous dietitan here by putting my name on the list to see them when they come in for their doctors appointments. Some come, some don't. Some just want to get out of here as fast as possible. I think things will be a bit easier when I am set up in the scheduling system, so I can schedule my own appointments and/or see when patients are coming back for their follow up appointments so I can catch them then.

Wow, was that boring enough for ya? ;) Sorry but that's how exciting my life is!! hehehe

I was just down in the city though (my first trip down there since I moved) to do Hedwig Friday and Saturday night so that was pretty nice. A bit of drama went down, and I wasn't able to do much else in the city other than the shows since I was so tired on Saturday from the Friday night show, then I left Sunday morning. Hope I can get down there again soon and actually get to do something, hang out with my friends, etc. :)

Until next time, kiddies!! :)

Exercise Exasperation

Greetings from upstate NY!!!

I know I haven't posted a new blog since I moved up to the Capital City of Albany, NY (bad Jenn, bad!! *slap on wrist*). I started my new job last Tuesday (Monday was stupid general hospital orientation crap), and I haven't really gotten much into my job as I have only seen one patient so far at the HIV Medicine clinic here at Albany Medical Center. Hopefully I will see some more tomorrow though.

Now, to the main topic of this post. Before I moved to NYC, a year and a half ago, I had a car. When I moved to the city I sold it, thinking I would have no further use for it. Now, I'm up here in Albany really wishing that I hadn't sold that old clunker!! So my current mode of transportation is Dana's old bike. Things were going pretty well for the first couple of days but then I realized how much I miss having a car!

Let me state for the record that I probably haven't seriously ridden a bike in a good 15 years, and even at that time I was not very good. Most of the scars I have are from that bike. Whether it be falling off the bike, getting caught in the gears or whatever, it is obvious that I am not an expert bike rider. I was placing bets with friends and family as to how long it would take until I seriously injure myself this go around on the bike. So far I have been pretty lucky (knock on wood) and haven't fallen into traffic or anything.

The first side effect I noticed from biking to and from work every day is the big pain in the ass that it causes (quite literally). Even though I got a seat cover to go over the current one, it's still not fun sitting on that seat for close to an hour every day. I guess that's because bike seats aren't really made to be sat on continuouslly, you're supposed to peddle off the seat most of the time I guess. Well, perhaps when I was a kid I had the strength and courage to do this. But whenever I try it nowadays I get all wobbly and sit back down!!

The next side effect comes from the fact that I haven't done any serious exercise in a very long time (unless you count climbing the unlimited number of stairs in the subway stations!) so this biking to and from work everyday has kind of put my body into a state of shock. I know it's only a matter of time until my body gets used to it and I start getting better in shape, but for now it really sucks!! Hills are a complete impossibility right now as my legs turn to burning piles of jello by the time I get up 2 feet of the hill!

Although it's kinda sucking right now, I don't miss having a car when I see the price of gas when I cruise by the stations on my green (literally and environmentally) bike! :)

I think I'll like it up here. The Albany Tulip Festival is coming up and JOAN JETT (!!!!!!!!) is performing so I'm very happy about that. So I think Albany will have enough stuff going on to keep this city girl occupied. And being closer to Miss D doesn't hurt either. :)

P.S. I got myself a kitty cat to keep my company here. Will post pics of the little terror soon! :)