Happy MT Week

It's Medical Transcriptionist week - give your favourite MT a hug :)

Here's the top 25 Dictator Bloopers - I received this from work and it cracked me up - maybe you too? These are the things that doctors actually say while dictating...our job is to clean them up. Aren't you glad you have us? :)

1. Allergic to MORPHINE, VALIUM and her relatives.
2. The patient reports that since she had a colonoscopy, she has noticed some problems with her short-term memory.
3. She is on SEPTRA right now for a sinus infection which she was given over the phone.
4. The patient fell while rollerblading on his left hand.
5. Patient comes into Urgent Care feeling concerned because at work he feels slightly confused and disoriented. At work he usually carries on 3-4 conversations at a time, and now is only able to carry on one conversation at a time.
6. I recommended that she get an over-the-counter ear removal preparation.
7. He sustained injuries to his forehead and face when he fell from his glasses.
8. She gets headaches with her migraines.
9. He also has external hemorrhoids, which he says he likes to keep to himself.
10. The patient reports a fatal reaction to IODINE in the past.
11. She also complains of pain in her right ankle. She says she is not sexually active.
12. He has been monitoring his blood pressure. Does not drink. Does not use much soap.
13. Patient is 15 years old. Chronic runny nose for 20 years.
14. She apparently has had a cold for several weeks, but just started to turn green the last couple of days.
15. The patient has not been using METROGEL because it was too drying and her face peeled off in chunks.
16. She smokes one glass of alcohol per week.
17. ...concentrated on chest, abdomen and all four lower extremities.
18. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it had completely disappeared.
19. The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1983.
20. He has left his white blood cells at another hospital.
21. The patient left the hospital feeling much better except for her original complaint.
22. She has breast-fed the baby with frequent loose stools.
23. At work yesterday, she was lifting a 5-gallon bucket of pain.
24. This man was seen by me a month and a half ago and got over it.
25. A 78-year old woman told her PCP, “I just KNOW I have BEGONIA”!

Super Mom vs. Bad Mom vs. Me

On the good days I feel like supermom. Those are the days I make lists of everything I’ve accomplished in a certain time frame and I feel fabulous about myself. I think great things about everything I’d done. My list often looks like this:

• I work 38 hours or more a week. From home. Mostly while Alexys is asleep. That significantly takes out of my “me” time. I feel as though I forget what else people do in their spare time. No really. I went to school every spare chance I got from home while on mat leave and now I work every spare second I can – every penny counts. Some days I even manage to entertain Alexys during the day and whip out some reports. I’m excelling at my job…I think I am any ways.  People message me for blanks they just can’t get and often I get them. It makes me feel good.
• I make dinner nearly every night and do crazy things like bake homemade pretzels, homemade pizza dough, tomato sauce, and cut soy out of my cooking. I even get as crazy as to use organic whole wheat flour in my cooking.
• I make my husband’s lunch everyday and Alexys’ too.
• I empty and load the dishwasher everyday.  I was the extra dishes and put them all away.
• I do all the laundry – the washing, the folding, the putting away.  Jordon goes to the gym at least once a day resulting in two towels and two sets of clothes. That results in a lot of laundry.
• I take Alexys on outings and even have her signed up with a talent agency (she goes to her second audition on Monday).  I put her in swimming lessons (well, every second set) and try and get her on at least one play date a week.
• I vacuum and keep the floors clean.
• I organize things over and over. Like my closet. Alexys’ toys. Whatever it is…over and over.
• I do things like keep memory boxes to scrapbook the little memories.
• I spend time researching ways to be frugal online and go out of my way to follow through with them.
• I volunteer judge figure skating and have accomplished a lot for a judge in not even a full year. I say yes to all the competitions and recently got my next level promotion.

Those are the days I feel like a good mom. The days I go to bed exhausted and complete because my child is asleep and happy, the toys are put away, our bellies are fed, and I’ve made money that day.

Then there’s the days when reality sets in and I realize that supermom is just a façade. It’s my safe net to feel proud of who I am and feel relieved that I’m doing “okay.” Reality sets in when I look around and realize that life is messy.

• I wake up to the dishes overflowing out of the sink and a clean dishwasher that needs to be emptied…and I am out of mugs for my coffee.
• I simply don’t feel like working…or sometimes I do and there’s just no work. That’s the ups and downs of medical transcription.  Those are the days I feel useless and like I was not very accomplishing. I hate not bringing home money too
• I give in and say lets just go to Subway or go out for dinner. I stop caring about the content and cost and just give in, because I’m tired and don’t feel like cooking supper.
• I forget to make Jordon’s lunch or only make a peanut butter sandwich because I just don’t feel like opening the can of tuna – that requires cutting up celery and mixing it with mayo and I just didn’t feel like it.
• I’ve washed the same load of laundry three times because it’s been in my laundry machine for so long. I’ve turned on the dryer again because I just don’t want to fold those clothes.  The pile that remains to be folded is often taller than I am and I encourage my husband to dig through the pile to find his clean clothes.
• I don’t feel like going out and consequently Alexys cannot go out either. We sit around all day and sometimes I let her watch too much TV. 
• The floors are covered in cheerios and the carpets desperately need to be vacuumed. The sideboards need to be wiped and the bathroom needs to be cleaned. Heck, even the toilet paper needs to be stocked.
• I pile things in the closet and close the door when I know people are coming over so that things look cleaner than they are. Who opens a friend’s closet?
• I spend money just because it makes me feel good.
• I eat chips and drink pop.

Mostly those are the days I feel like a bad mom…a bad person really.  Neither is fully how I’m feeling right now – somewhere in the middle and that’s a good balance, I think.  That’s where I need to learn to be satisfied.  I need to keep learning to just focus on the things…the little things…the things that pass and are forgotten…rather then the miniscule things – the things like laundry and dishes.  It’s hard.  I get jealous of the better moms out there – the ones who always brag in their Facebook statuses about their daily accomplishments and the blogs I read online about women who have 400 children and make all their clothes.  One day I need to find my happy medium.

Right now? I’m going to bed.
kortney elise xoxo

Happy Mother's Day

I became a mother just 17 months ago...and am celebrating my second mother's day. I think I'm still in shock that I'm a mom, sometimes, and have even made it this far. Somehow I'm managing to raise Alexys and she's turning into a beautiful little person with each passing day. I think I know how that's happening - I have the most wonderful mom a girl could ask for who's taught me everything I know.

Just some pictures for now - the day I became a mom and one of my favourite pictures with my mom (from my wedding rehearsal).

Happy Mother's Day to moms and mom-to-be on this beautiful and sunny (at least where I am) Mother's Day.

kortney elise xoxo

Milestones, I suppose

It's hard to believe that in just a few days Alexys May will be 17 months old. She's almost a year and a half and I know I've said this before, but really? Wow! Time sure flies. What has my little munchkin been up to these days, besides turning into a little girl? Let's see.

at 17 months, Alexys May, you…

walk like an old pro and are confident in every step you take
are starting to run - it's so cute when you "speed walk"
love playing in the cupboards
say...
mum-mum

daddy

ya
zeee (zio)
…in context all the time
you have said many other words...

but only  like to say them once like

aunni (auntie)
gramma
Marney (Barney)

...among others
have an appetite that goes up and down like the wind
your favourite foods are raspberries, cucumber, and olives...
but you'll eat anything...
except cantaloupe
have 13 teeth fully cut...
and three more eye teeth just broken through
have tried your best to give up your only nap of the day...
but sometimes mommy still makes you take it
drink only big girl milk now

you only have bottles (1 to 3) during the night
have bright blue eyes
and soft blonde hair
your hair is long enough to braid...
and mama still hasn't cut it yet
know which buttons to push on the elevator in our home

and you knock on the door when I tell you someone is coming
wear size 6 (or 6.5) shoes (!!!)
still wake up 1-3 times a night
will only sleep in your own bed and no where else...
even if you're sick
wearing 24 month and/or 2T clothes
weigh 25 1/2 pounds
let mama do your hair every morning
are still rear-facing in your big girl car seat
love to be outside more than anywhere else

and are great at bouncing balls
breakfast is your least favourite meal
watching you dance is mama's best part of her day...

your rhythm is unbelievable and you work those hips baby!
still throw temper tantrums when mama says no