Slam

So I went up and cleaned out my locker at my former job today. Spoke to a few people who were sad I couldn't stay on.
Last night I was all relaxed, not stressing, walking to my car, and got a strong premonition that the job I wanted to get here in town wasn't going to happen after all. Really strong. I fought it off the best I could, since the lady I interviewed with seemed to really want me and said she'd call Friday and tell me if she could work it out.
So it's time for her to leave work now, and....no call. Not yes or no, but limbo. Which is not promising. Now I have to do clinicals and jobhunt. With a high probability of having to travel or relocate.
I'm going to swim now and let myself be sad; I've already made two calls on other jobs and will just have to be an emailing fool for a few weeks. Still, it sucks.

The Sound of a Door Closing

I was denied accomodation at my place of employment. They told me I was on my own to get another job in the company that would let me work 8-hr days instead of the twelves I just can't do any more. I got one of the two interviews I requested; the lady just gave me a courtesy call to let me know she had a better match for the job, someone with specific experience to that office. So I'll be terminated at my present job on Friday.
Yesterday, I interviewed with a different company, and the boss was very nice and seemed anxious to solve the two internal problems to my hire, as I would be able to work without training and take over her supervisory role at another facility. I sure hope that is my window opening. She said she would let me know Friday.
There aren't any more openings in town for the specialty that I want, and chances are the place I just interviewed with would not hire a certified person over me, that they would go with a lower-cost person, so I couldn't go get the job a certified person left. I am going to have to travel or relocate if I don't get this job.
I feel oddly calm about all this. Somehow, I'm sure it's the right decision, and I will somehow get a job I can physically do and enjoy.
Here's hoping for the sound of a large window opening.

Kitty Butt Pirate

There are a lot of cats in my life. I have the two wild crazies, they rodeo all over my house and night and abuse the throw rugs. I've been helping house-sit a friend's neurotic tiny cat with the horriblest voice evah, she has a sweet nature but she sounds like the Wicked Witch of the West and she's super talky, plus has a tendency to chew off her fur. Object of Affection #2 has three cats that spend the night at his house plus a fourth that comes for meals. One of his housecats has small head syndrome; he has eaten so much that his body makes him look microcephalic. A couple of weeks ago he was making room-clearing farts. They matched his personality so we didn't think much of it until this week when he stopped eating. The vet found that he was literally full of shit; he ate so many mice and fibery things like them that his poop got too big for his pelvic girdle and his colon was impacted its entire length. She sedated him and removed as much as she could reach, and the stench made her clinic air bad enough to burn out all your nose hair.
 I had to take him back in today because his new diet wasn't helping him pass the remaining impaction. I helped her hold him and manipulate his belly while she bravely dug and enemaed and flushed and dug some ridiculously large and hard poop out of him. The sedation didn't put him all the way out, and he started growling faintly, so they had to give him anesthesia gas. After it was all done, and he only had 1/3 of the original blockage left, too high to reach, the tech and I were cleaning him up. She asked the kitty a rhetorical question and I did a voice like I was him and said, "I went to PRISON...I don't know what I did but I went to PRISON." Another client had brought her sick kitty back and the vet and tech and I burst out laughing; the client was obviously shocked that I was so heartless, making fun of kitty butt reaming. My humor is not for everyone.

Need some Absolut Vanille

This is what I did this week: yoga, swim, take cats to the vet, job-hunt. Oh, and laundry and floors. Good: the new muscle relaxers seemed to help a lot. I had about twenty minutes yesterday when nothing hurt. Nothing. Not belly, not neck, not whole right leg. It was a little hard to breathe from the disbelief. But awesome.
Job hunting sucks boar testicles.

Shit that doesn't even happen to other people

My RSD leg has been acting up badly since I have been going to yoga class.  Horrendous muscle spasms. The neurologist says there's nothing to do for them except take muscle relaxers and keep going to class, just do less. Really severe muscle spasms, hip to toe. Hurts like a mother, and have been keeping me up from about four in the morning on. This morning the numbing pads weren't helping, and I draped my side over a big body pillow because the spasms were spreading up to my lats in my back. Kind of a contortion, but it was oddly comfortable and I got another hour of sleep. When I got up, I was standing up, talking on the phone and just turned my head in a normal fashion---and started screaming. I had to put the phone down for a while and try to fix what had gone wrong. A rib, about three or four down from my neck, had subluxed from its attachment to my spine. Holy shit. I had to get off the phone and do some serious contortions to get that mean fucker back where it belonged. and it offered to slip back out about ten more times in the next few hours. If you had looked into my kitchen you would have seen a big old woman in a vintage red nylon nightgown, doing a slow-motion version of the hokey-pokey.  I could not figure out how the hell such a thing happens but the only reason I can come up with is, I shoved my ribs up lying with that pillow under them and stretched a ligament. Lesson learned.
I am going to get into a wine bottle and not get out for a few days.

Drain Bramage

Good news, sort of, at the neuro doc's office; I have zero markers for any known syndromes. There is a not-that-big cyst in my skull but he doesn't think it is big enough to be troublesome. I have some encephalopathy, mild brain damage, and he doesn't know why. He thinks it could account for my memory problems. He also doesn't think the RSD in my right leg will ever go away, but maybe it will get a little better. So, now, on to the immunologist! God, I'm getting tired of telling this story to people who scratch their head and can't think of what to tell me.

Suckitude and awesomeness

The awesome thing is, my kid got into grad school. They will pay her tuition and give her a stipend, so she can get her Ph.D. We were really sweating it, she had gotten a bunch of rejections and were thinking she was going to be taking her $120,000 education over to Mickey D's to ask if people wanted fries with that. There was a lot of screaming and crying when she called me, all happy noise.
Suckitude is how my company is planning to terminate me because I can't return to 12-hour killer shifts. I have asked for an 8-hour accomodation but it doesn't look good. So I've been applying for other jobs and have been crawling around the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers. None yet, only a few dog turds, but who knows.