What I Did This Summer
This summer was taken up largely by three divergent pursuits:
- the pursuit of not letting my true crankiness show through at work (mostly fulfilled)
- the pursuit of picking a very large quantity of blueberries (an utter wash, largely due to the the next item)
- the pursuit of getting my sprained ankle to return to normal (also pretty much a wash, even with our recent acquisition of health insurance)
I am lucky to be of an age where I have my mom around to yell at me to do things, and where the things that she yells at me still on average make sense. On this most recent visit she yelled at me to go get physical therapy for my ankle, which aches intermittently, refuses to flex in certain directions, and absolutely prohibits running, under penalty of hobbling home to pop half a Percocet.
Today I filled out my PT intake forms. It has been 98 days since my injury; I have been (admittedly mild) pain most of that time. I had a long commute this summer; I missed a total of five work days, three due directly to my ankle. I only glared at one patient. I did not yell at any co-workers.
My dad dubbed my tenure at $drugstore a “mixed experience”, but it was mixed in the sense that any job is mixed, I think. I was never in love with it the way I was with compounding, but I learned a new computer system, dealt succesfully with a few utterly maddening patients, outlasted one of the most underhandedly mean bosses ever, built a good relationship with a lot of patients, and earned the accolades of the technicians I worked with. Oh, and I counseled almost all of our Spanish-speaking patients, despite not having had even a refresher course for a couple years.
I did this while my ankle hurt, and I only cried once. My head is getting better, and I can only pray it stays this way.