How is everyone doing?

Our blog has been quiet this week! It's time to post again to keep in touch.

Exactly a week from now, I will be in the final throes of packing to go visit Carol-Ann and her family and our mother!! How exciting is that?!!

Here's my confession for this week -- I had wanted to break the 180 mark before this visit to Canada, but I'm not sure that will happen. There is only one more week to go, so we will have to see what happens by then.

I have been somewhat taken aback by the number of obstacles I have run into on this seemingly straightforward plan. Just three "little" things in my plan: Eat less, drink more water, and get more exercise. Suddenly we are swamped with celebrations involving food. And I am finding it is a challenge to remember to get up from my computer to get water and be active.

I work at home as a medical transcriptionist. I take the patient information recorded by the doctor and turn it into a professional printed medical record to be put into the patient's chart. This is a very challenging job. I didn't know the half of it when I was beginning this four years ago! I thought it was going to be about learning the millions of medical words and phrases and short forms, the multitude of medicines on the market with their brand names and generics, all the parts of the amazing human body. Little did I know that...

The doctor is often in a hurry, tired at the end of the day, and not speaking clearly. Sometimes he yawns loudly, talking all the time. Sometimes she is sitting by a ringing phone that no one is answering. Sometimes she drowns out her own voice with the flapping and snapping of x-ray films she is putting up onto the lighted screen. Sometimes he pronounces medications all wrong, even spells them incorrectly. Sometimes he really needs to blow his nose but instead he keeps...Well, you get the idea...!! Being able to type enough lines to make a reasonable income requires mentally fastening yourself to your computer chair and staying there for long hours each day.

This is working against me! The only things active in my office are my fingers! I get myself into the most ergonomically comfortable position I can find, one that requires the least possible movement of my arms and wrists. So this has been a big challenge to me in this current little project we are in!!

Another side to the story ... just when I am ready to give up, the doctor says something like this, "The patient lost her job recently due to her level of pain and is now without insurance. She is not being charged for today's visit," and I forget all about the irritations along the way! (Here's my paraphrase of 1 Peter 4:8 -- Admiration and respect cover a multitude of sins.)