Welcome to America

Now go and take your germs with you.


I am sicker than a proverbial dog.
Have codeine cough syrup, antibiotics and am ordered to drink gallons of water.
My nose is peeling.
I am not happy and trying to cough up this shit doesn't work either. It's not loose enough yet. Saw the doctor on Saturday morning. Will see him again if it's not better tomorrow. Fevers come at night, not during the daytime.
I counted how many pills I take a day. It's over 10. This pretty much expresses what it feels like. And I hate taking pills, I'd rather have my meds in liquid form. Maybe it was all those years of grinding up aspirin and antibiotics and mixing them with applesauce. UGH.


Another exciting weekend.
Blech.

Random Musings

Since I won't be here tomorrow, I'll be guarding your safety if you're flying by making sure no ter'rists cross the exit line, I wish you a happy Independence Day. While you are celebrating please remember those men and women who are stationed all over this world protecting you and those whose lives were sacrificed for us to celebrate.

If the beginning of the week was any representation, Friday will be slooooooooow. That's okay. I can make myself useful and do my job. The person who is the lead, needs to chill, we do our job and do it well. Now some one at the brain trust has decided to check each and every person's badge that comes through the exit with an ultraviolet light. Even the people who come in and out 5 or 6 times a shift doing radio checks and returning from downstairs assignments.

So, I wish they would disable me and retire me so I could get on with life otherwise the sum total of my experience with this agency is exit sitting. Life goes on.

Stay safe and have a good weekend. I still have horrible pain in my shoulder but I am ignoring it and I found a good Kathy Reichs book to read. No shopping today, no driving today. #1 kid is at the anime expo. See you later!

55

What does the song say, another year older and deeper in debt? Guess that is what happening. Had a nice lunch at Jerry's Deli in Torrance, it just opened on Tuesday. Dear Husband had lox and bagel and I had a Rueben. Next time instead of potato salad I'll have sauerkraut. Was nice. Got a nice marked down Liz Claiborne bag and it's the perfect color and the right size. A good deal!

Now tomorrow it's back to the grind. The agency I dislike did actually manage to get this pay period's paycheck in the bank, now if they'd get the one they lost back in, I could pay the rest of the bills. Like the lights. Those we need. Phone I'll worry about in 2 weeks. Cell phones are doing okay, I just can't fax from the machine.

Heard a rumor that I shouldn't be bad mouthing the agency. I don't think I've said the name and if I have I will go and delete it. The other agency that has screwed me forwards and backwards, I don't give a shit about. So you won't see the name of the kabuki theater that pays my salary. Just remember we don't make the rules, but WE HAVE TO ENFORCE THEM.

Is it August yet? I am going through withdrawls and arena football does not cut it.

Later babies, I have books to read and a child to pick up at midnight.

da bunny whose thoughts are random

The tale of the lost check

I came back from leave and started a new pay period and schedule (go figure). Well my bank closed my checking account and the check went into the ether of the federal cesspool. I called my HR who told me to call my payroll admin. I filled out new forms, I email them and say what is up? Oh my manager is gone. Oh, so ask someone else? Sends me a phone number and I have no money still. Call Peopleline and they say your HR should have opened a POP search on your money. Uh honey, HR referred me to Payroll. In the meantime I have no food in my fridge, a little gas in my car and no hope of knowing when this is going to be solved. I might have a check this week. I don't know. All I know is that I am really depressed and sad.

One day at a time and one step at a time. Can't do more than that.
Later alligator

Ok, so you want to see how the person who is supposed to be an advocate treats you?

Here's a little email exchange from the owcp person at my employer. She is the boss. But her minions don't return calls or emails. Just goes to show how much light duty people with chronic pain problems are treated:
This is an email and response that I got from HR/OWCP today. I saw the orthopedist on call and he said ice, ant inflams, and rest. Never asked what I did or how long I did it. So anyway I emailed the 2 people who are supposed to be handling my case and I BCC:ed the woman who is the OWCP specialist---the one who told me I couldn't have a keyboard and whose shit doesn't stink.
This is the exchange,
1. Email to HR #1 My ortho is out of town for 2 weeks. His w/c person said that because they aren't accepting new DOL patients she doesn't know if she can get someone to see me. I could try to see my PCP but I don't have any money since my bank sent my paycheck back to the federal payroll system and it hasn't been redeposited yet. But the PCP doesn't see W/C people either.

I can literally move the tendon that is inflamed in my shoulder. I left work yesterday and came home and took a pain pill, a muscle relaxer and sat with ice on my shoulder to calm it down. The tendon is just throbbing and when I can manipulate it with my hand you know that it's swollen.
I have called off but I am lost as far as seeing someone and getting some guidance. All I get is voicemail.
Do you have any suggestions or advice?
Please advise.
Second letter I send to them ( they don't answer their voicemails either) The WC person at the office finally found a shoulder specialist who will see me this one time. So I am going to see him this afternoon at 1430 and hopefully find something that will give me some relief.
Can I file a CA-7 for today since it is OWCP related?
Do I send it to you or to T3 Admin?
Could you email me the 2nd page part, I know I scanned it but I can't find it in the files. Only the CA-7 itself.
When I get home from the doctor (after having massive cramps and nausea there) I get this message from the head woman at HR/OWCP who I've BCC'ed on my messages. Well evidently I am a pain in her butt : We cannot stop you from filing a CA-7, but your claim is accepted for Medical Benefits only. The Department of Labor may not pay it. Submit the CA-7 and the medical documentation showing that the doctor totally disabled you for this day. If you just took off without being disabled by a doctor, you will not be reimbursed. Please do not continue to blind cc me on these emails. Tweedledee and Tweedledum are processing your claim and any paperwork associated with it. You may request a CA-7 from either Assistant.
So I humbly send my apology and now wait and see if Tweedledee or Tweedledum actually send me the paper that I need..... My apologies for the blind CC, it won't happen again.
The doctor has me off for today and tomorrow. He will be submitting a narrative which I will submit with CA-7. He is in the same medical group and reviewed my history with me.
I have asked Tweedledum andTweddledee for the paperwork but no one returns phone calls or emails.
Subjective diagnosis is tendonitis and he is going to ask their WC person to request authorization for pain management and see if that does anything with the shoulder. I see Dr Lim at the end of July.
Right now because of the DOL declining my back claim (which I have appealed) and losing all that pay, we are being evicted. My husband was laid off and it has been very tense at our house.
I don't mind the exit, in fact I was told by a passenger that it was too bad that other persons in LAX didn't have the courtesy and attitude that I had. I just answered a question. That probably was the nicest thing I have been told since I have been at that exit.
They are the most arrogant bunch I have ever worked with, save for the manager of Logistics. I have to call the ortho office and get a specific note from the WC person so I can submit it with my absence and my request for reimbursement.

And yes your tax dollars have funded this joke of an agency. We are turning into Germany of the 30's, ID and Papers please to fly inside your country. If the airline has established you are who you are, why does someone else have to approve it?



And by the way. I am going back to work Friday loaded down with paperwork for these people.




So later people.

It amazes me

I came home because my shoulder hurt bad. I ate my usual cocktail of pain pills and muscle relaxers and sat with an ice bag on it for 2 hours. Doesn't hurt so bad and it's almost time for a 2nd set of narcotics. Will call the Boy Wonder's office and see if anyone can see me if he's not there. I am just not pleased with lack of progress and the pain and spasms that keep me from doing my job. If you call sitting in a broken chair watching 12000 people pass through a security lane to/from airplanes a special job. I got yelled at for actually reading what is called a "go" list, so I know who to let into the exit.
I don't know if I can handle the pain, the futility of it and the lack of help.

Night all.

Praise

The husband got a job.

need 3000$ quick

Anyone have 3 grand they can give me so I can have a place to live when we are evicted? I need 1st, and security. Then I can find a place to move.
I am so tired of the defeatist attitude in this house. I can't go anywhere because gas is too high and there's no place to go if you don't have money.
The bank kicked my paycheck back to Uncle Sam. Unemployment didn't come. Phone is turned off. I need a break. Fast.
That's all.
later.

2 hours and then whammo it starts

I figure I have 2 good hours before the muscle relaxers metabolize and start to work on the back. Yesterday I spent 2 hours with the heat belt on and slept like a log. At least during those 3 hours it didn't hurt. I have to call the PCP back on Wed and let him know what is going on. I still have excruciating pain in the shoulder, but that doesn't count with the Dept of Labor. My medicine shelf resembles this, 100 years later:



I've got to find something else to do and still be able to get insurance and earn a decent living. That will be my challenge this week on my days off, to go through USA Jobs and see what is out there. I'm willing to work, I just can't be a screener because physically I have ruined one arm and damaged my upper back. It's like playing one against thousands when you are on injured status. Even though I can't lift a suitcase I can type and do clerical. But the agency I work at, refuses to believe that. You have to be a full fledged TSO to do anything in the agency. Assholes.


The yawnies are coming so it's time to put some lidocaine patches on the parts that need them and then the heat wrap around my back. Too bad I can't take that to work with me and wear it all day. But it's got water, though it is medical, and can't get through the checkpoint. So I wish you all a pleasant day, afternoon, or night whereever you are.



aloha!

Saw the doctor

Went to see the PCP yesterday and he gave me some exercises to do for my lower back. He also said that having scoliosis leads to a good chance of arthritis in my lower back as I grow older. I also have a hip pointer. So I continue my regimen of drugs and am off for 3 days trying to simmer it down.

Filed my appeal with the DOL with the new letter from the doctor. Fingers crossed, saints called on, angels sent out on a mission, and all the other things I can think of calling on to get them to approve this upper back injury and pay me the back compensation.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It feels strange to be home but after I take the next round of pills, I will be knocked out. I kept thinking it was Saturday yesterday and I missed COPS. How silly. Just goes to show you. I've been a good little robot and called into the call center and called the checkpoint. I also faxed my doctor's note to them and so they are all notified. But to fax them, you have to call the checkpoint, and tell them to turn on the fax and not answer the phone because they are all on the same line. You'd think the govt could spring for another phone line. After 4 tries it went through.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The landlord has left his 2 15 year old retrievers in his house in front with food and water. The one is barely alive and the other cries and moans all the time. It is so sad. When we first came here he had 5 dogs, the mom who was a springer spaniel, the dad who was a golden retriever and the 3 puppies who were black. It was pretty sad, they died one after the other and now only Snoopy and Lucy are left. They weren't the friendliest dogs in the world.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So that's what happening around this corner of the world. Foggy and overcast, breezy, and typical June gloom. We need a storm badly, we need the rain. It rained in east LA but we got nothing. We need it for our yards and our plants.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So later friends and family. I am going to put on my heat belt and take a nap.

amulbunny

Lets count the meds

Skelaxin
Vicodin
Bextra
Zantac
Diazepam

And that kids is how I get through the day. I hold back on the Vicodin unless its' really really bad. Today was. I even used some Icy Hot (generic) to rub into my shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wrote a letter of reconsideration to the agency I hate today. On Sunday I counted 112 wheelchairs (empty) come through my exit. That is an average of 14 per hour and that doesn't even count the ones with bodies in , nor the trolleys. No wonder my back feels like it's in a huge knot.

~~~~~~~
It's quiet with one kid at work, the other out with her friends walking along the Strand and calling in for basketball scores (I hate the Lakers). Husband is downstairs watching poker or the science channel and playing poker on his computer. If I had a laptop I'd be down there too, but hey, I like being in my room/office , it's peaceful. And it's mine for a bit longer. Still have to find a place to move to.


~~~~~~~
Time to get organized and get everything ready for tomorrow. The weekends tend to be busy. Lots of travelers. Lots of people who ask silly questions. For example:

I bought a round trip ticket to Bogota but they only gave me this one, I
think I need to make a complaint. No, when you check in at Bogota to
come home they will print your return boarding pass.

I forgot something on the plane, I have to go back and get it.
Sir/Ma'am you have left the sterile area. Go down to your airlines
ticketing counter and they can assist you.

You're a bloody git. I just crossed this line why can't I come back in?
Sir, you have crossed the exit line. See these signs that say you are not
allowed in without clearing security? You need to go back through the
line. We are not allowed to let you pass.

I left my bag trolley with you people and now it's gone and I have all this
heavy luggage to take to the gate. Why didn't you stop them?
Ma'am our job is to prevent breaches at this exit. We are not concerned
with what goes on behind us. That is not our job nor our concern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And just to be equally obnoxious the Air France crews are some of the worst I have ever come across. They and Air China. Just personal opinions. Used to be Virgin Atlantic and some of the older NWA crews, but the first 2 have them beaten hands down.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Off to another adventure ........

short and not so sweet

1. Back to work watching asses go by.

2. Husband got laid off.

3. Some asses should not be allowed to go clothes shopping without a mirror.

4. What part of NO REPETITIVE ACTION WITH UPPER EXTREMITY do you not get?

5. Why are you under utilizing people who have the skills you need to fill positions that are open when they are on light duty? Just because part of us is broke , it doesn't mean that our brains and the rest of our body is?

6. I am sorry Big Brown lost.


Good Night and Good Luck

todays the day

I see the Boy Wonder and he writes me the report that says my shoulder is at a place where it is at it's medical maximum. Meaning, orthopedically he can do no more. So why not refer me to a neurologist who can figure out what nerves is sparking all the pain? I am already pissed off at his office. This has cost me money, our home, and so many other things.



There was a rape at my daughters' college this week. This is the 2nd one in 5 months. It always was a safe but scary campus at night. Didn't seem like there were enough lights on the walkways. This happened at the women's gym. Thank God she doesn't have a night class but this last attack happened at 1715, still daylight.



Need to find some efax information. This computer used to have a fax system but I never figured it out. I'll have the computer geek kid try and get me one that will work.


More later.

todays the day

I see the Boy Wonder and he writes me the report that says my shoulder is at a place where it is at it's medical maximum. Meaning, orthopedically he can do no more. So why not refer me to a neurologist who can figure out what nerves is sparking all the pain? I am already pissed off at his office. This has cost me money, our home, and so many other things.



There was a rape at my daughters' college this week. This is the 2nd one in 5 months. It always was a safe but scary campus at night. Didn't seem like there were enough lights on the walkways. This happened at the women's gym. Thank God she doesn't have a night class but this last attack happened at 1715, still daylight.



Need to find some efax information. This computer used to have a fax system but I never figured it out. I'll have the computer geek kid try and get me one that will work.

Ah joy

Actually had a nice weekend. Went to church and yesterday I did a tritip and it turned out amazing. Everyone enjoyed it. Cooked it for an hour at 425º and then let it sit covered for 20 minutes. Sliced it up and made fresh guac, chopped maters, a new chipoltle salsa, and had quesadillas with frijoles and cheese. We actually had a family meal and spent it watching Deadliest Catch.

I really enjoy that show, and now that Bones and House are off, it's okay with me.

Tomorrow I get to see the ortho and get my Maximum Medical Improvement exam. Whopee. I am also going to talk to him about the fact that things weren't done on time causing me 4 months of pay, getting evicted and now finding out that my husband's contract ends Friday. I am not going to let myself freak out. He's been contacted by some other companies but who knows how long that will last. We don't have money for a first and last and houses are hard to find. If I had money I'd get a lawyer and sue the bastard for not doing the paperwork in a timely manner and causing me all this distress.

What is next?

Gonna move. Have no choice. Have no money. Haven't had a check since March.
Doctor's office lost paperwork I faxed to them in March. Finally got it and got it turned into the person who told me if I didn't get in they would make my absences AWOL and probably fire me. Appealing to the DOL with new medical information. Would be nice to get some therapy and some help for this big huge knot under my scapula.

Actually took the paperwork in person to the office. Saw one of my old friends from my last position. I don't think I miss it anymore. I could do it but they won't have me back. I did notice that my white board is still up with my cheat numbers written on it. I think they are trying to make everyone in the office a minority. At least that what it seems. Oh well.

Then I took the shuttle to the airport and went to where I had been sending some of my paperwork and found out they don't get it anymore. Went through security and even took off my shoes. I gave the admin person my time off note as well as my new doctor's note. Then out to wait for the bus, whoo hoo. It seemed like every airport bus came except the one I needed. By the time I got it, I was half frozen, then waiting on the train, and it was so cold and raining. Finally the local bus came and I got on it and got off at my stop and walked 2 blocks in the rain. I was so cold when I got home. Brrrr. No umbrella either. Duh.

So life goes on. We've got to find a new place to live, hopefully flat with a decent garage and driveway and room for my dog.

I saw my PCP and got some meds changed. Got a different SSRI but it's generic and I can get it through the mail. Need to see if I can get my HCTZ that way too. I'm trying to avoid taking a bunch of meds. Costs too damn much with copays. I am still dealing with all that is going on.

So well, here it goes. Have a safe weekend. I'm watching the race tomorrow and reading.

What is with this cat?

She decided that my computer chair is where she wants to be. So I get to sit here perched like a kid on a cliff, sitting upright, instead of bracing my back into the back of the chair. I could sit on her but that wouldn't be very nice would it?

No news today. Tomorrow we hope.

Cousin who had accident is back in hospital. Not good. Need to contact his sister and see if she knows what is going on. Wife is a flake.

Wish I could drape said cat around my neck and shoulders to warm it up. I'll just get the heating pad, watch Bones and House ( too bad Hugh Laurie is so married and so Presbyterian) and then sleep.

Tomorrow big night out to dinner with M&P, for their anniversary and for the 19th birthday of my baby. Who went out and applied for JOBS!!! today. Thank you Jesus.

Life is one day at a time. These lyrics put it in perspective:
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best

Prepare yourself you know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He's gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the sky
Gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the sky
That's where you're gonna go when you die
When you die and they lay you to rest
You're gonna go to the place that's the best

Never been a sinner I never sinned
I got a friend in Jesus
So you know that when I die
He's gonna set me up with
The spirit in the sky
Oh set me up with the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place that's the best
Go to the place that's the best

I want that played when I exit this galactic plane; cool huh?

Night all.

Another week starts

My mothers day dinner was der weinerschnitzel chili cheese dogs with onions. And a glass of wine.
I talk with an attorney tomorrow.
I see my PCP on Tuesday, then I contact the ortho office.
It will be an interesting week.
Life is too damn short to be going through this mess.

short and sweet

hospitals are not places to rest and recover
if I tell you the veins aren't good on that arm, listen to me, I know of which I speak
if the front office doesn't speak to the back office and your negligence cost me over $3000 in lost pay, I will hire an attorney and sue your asses
where's that fucking money tree? I need it's fruit now. I don't even have cheese for grilled cheese.
i got an eticket ride in an ambulance and had nuclear isotopes injected into my body. wonder if i glowed?
i am about ready to throttle people and soon.

Where's that peace of mind I need?