Most days at work, it feels as though we are being completely drained of all sustenance. I'm not the only one who feels this way either, my best-friend, who also works here, feels exactly the same way. We were talking a little bit about it this morning. It's funny, how we agree that we both walk in to work with a good attitude (on most days) and how, by the time we leave, we feel like the life has been sucked right out of us. Now, some will say that working on the frontlines at a doctors office shouldn't be that hard, that they could easily do it without incident. But here are some examples of the things we hear, see, and smell on a daily basis.
Right now there is a couple in our waiting room that smell so funky, we are about to gag. We have sprayed Lysol a number of times, to no avail. The odor is a cross between years of cigarette smoke, mildew, bad breath, and wet dog. It's making my stomach do summersaults (? spelling), my eyes water a bit, and it's certainly ruining my appetite for lunch. Now, this is quite a common occurence around here...there are all walks of life walking into our office on a daily basis.
Now, not only do we have to deal with the horrific odors, but we also get to try and find out what an Alzheimer's patient wants, when they call on the phone. You want to talk about confusing....these people have no idea what they are even talking about, and yet, we are supposed to "help them". That is no easy task. It's almost like talking to a child, whose language skills are not fully developed yet...you know, the stage where they point and grunt???? (Anyone know where I'm coming from?) Now I'm not poking fun at them, they can't help acting this way, it's actually rather sad. Think about it, I mean really think about it. Imagine yourself in their shoes...here are people that only have memories from way back when...the here and now is gone. My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's and would constantly be paranoid and asking the same questions over and over. She would take all of her bills and hide them, and then accuse others of stealing them. She would go over to my aunt's house and accuse her of stealing all of her food, because she knew she bought the same things and those must be hers! She thought that everyone was out to get her. That's very common with Alzheimer's.
Now for the kinds of things we hear around here...we have a pediatric neurologist in this clinic...which means that at least 2 days out of the week, when he's here, we often get screaming children. Now, these are not your average screaming children, these are developmentally disabled, tourette's syndrome, attention deficit disorder children. While most are adorable, even with the most disfiguring disabilities, there are sometimes the ones who just either get on your last nerve, or absolutely scare the crap out of you! Here's a few examples....we have our share of, what I will call, the "screamers"...these are the children, who for no apparent reason, will begin to scream at the top of their lungs...with no end in sight EVER! (At least that's how it feels on this end!) We also have our little daredevils! There is one patient who I recall coming in and jumping from chair to chair, as if he seriously thought he was a frog...the more I would tell him him that he needed to "stop doing that", the more inspired he became in his plight to make me lose all control of bodily functions and drop dead of a heart attack!!
Don't get me wrong, we have our fair share of really good days here too. We don't have management breathing down our necks...and can pretty much run things as we like here...which makes us very fortunate considering we work for a large corporation.
I guess my point is...let people think that all we do is "sit at a desk and answer phones"...lol The job is much more complex than that, and takes a certain personality not to flip their lid and start taking sedatives while on the job in order to return here 5 days a week! lol
Have a good day everybody!!
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