Life Lately
Hello from the other side of the new year! I hope you had some wonderful family time celebrating our greatest gift, Jesus, and that 2016 is off to a great start for you. For the first time, I actually took eight days off work for the holidays, which resulted in 12 days off total. That's never happened before! The only other times I've taken that much consecutive time off were when I went to Kenya and Uganda. I wasn't sure I had enough paid time off to cover it all, but I decided to take the time anyway. Statistically speaking, a woman diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer has three more birthdays, three more Christmases, and three more chances to ring in a new year, so I didn't want to cheap out on one of my remaining ones.
And my break was so nice! We visited Kevin's family in Chattanooga for much of it, but also had a couple of days with my family and a couple of days at home. It was so nice to set my own pace and get out and live like a normal person those days! I didn't realize how closed off I've been due to my work demands and subsequent lack of energy for anything else.
In a surprising development and maybe a Christmas miracle, my pain was A LOT better while I was off. I used a heating pad to help my back during the trip to TN and a little the first day we were there, but after that, my back pain was minimal. I didn't even have to take ibuprofen. Yet after going back to work last week, my back was back (haha punny) to its former state of pain. I'm not sure what's causing me to feel worse on days I work - the stress? my work chair? I don't think it can be the sitting, because I did a lot of that on vacation, too, although the chairs were definitely softer. My boss has given me some information on ergonomics to look into, but I'm under a really tight deadline right now and haven't had a chance to read it yet.
I didn't think about work once over the holidays. It wasn't until Sunday, Jan. 3, that I thought about it at all and that was only because I began dreading going back. I like what I do, and if I wasn't sick, the challenge of learning so much new stuff would probably be invigorating. I know I would be dreaming about all the ways work processes and patient care could change for the better if only I could connect people with data. But how it's played out - taking this new job and then getting sick less than two months later - has been brutal. The thought of returning to that - remembering the deadlines and amount of work I feel driven to produce - put me in a full-blown anxiety attack for the rest of the day.
Which led me to start considering my options for scaling back at work. But I'll leave that for another post. It's late, and this working girl needs extra sleep these days. Just wanted to check in and let you know I've been thinking about you and a bunch of things I want to write. Until next time...
And my break was so nice! We visited Kevin's family in Chattanooga for much of it, but also had a couple of days with my family and a couple of days at home. It was so nice to set my own pace and get out and live like a normal person those days! I didn't realize how closed off I've been due to my work demands and subsequent lack of energy for anything else.
In a surprising development and maybe a Christmas miracle, my pain was A LOT better while I was off. I used a heating pad to help my back during the trip to TN and a little the first day we were there, but after that, my back pain was minimal. I didn't even have to take ibuprofen. Yet after going back to work last week, my back was back (haha punny) to its former state of pain. I'm not sure what's causing me to feel worse on days I work - the stress? my work chair? I don't think it can be the sitting, because I did a lot of that on vacation, too, although the chairs were definitely softer. My boss has given me some information on ergonomics to look into, but I'm under a really tight deadline right now and haven't had a chance to read it yet.
I didn't think about work once over the holidays. It wasn't until Sunday, Jan. 3, that I thought about it at all and that was only because I began dreading going back. I like what I do, and if I wasn't sick, the challenge of learning so much new stuff would probably be invigorating. I know I would be dreaming about all the ways work processes and patient care could change for the better if only I could connect people with data. But how it's played out - taking this new job and then getting sick less than two months later - has been brutal. The thought of returning to that - remembering the deadlines and amount of work I feel driven to produce - put me in a full-blown anxiety attack for the rest of the day.
Which led me to start considering my options for scaling back at work. But I'll leave that for another post. It's late, and this working girl needs extra sleep these days. Just wanted to check in and let you know I've been thinking about you and a bunch of things I want to write. Until next time...
Praying your back will feel better and the stress will go down soon! Hugs!
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