Holidailies Is Starting Again -- I think

I am assuming that since it's December 1, Holidailies is starting again but I can't believe that I am the first to post, but I will go ahead with that assumption.

So...hi everyone!  By way of introduction to readers new to me because they are coming to Holidailies for the first time, I'm Bev Sykes, 72 year old grandmother living in California with my husband of 50 years and our dogs Lizzie and Polly.  I am a very part time theater critic, volunteer at a used book store and our local hospital, and take care of my 96 year old mother with dementia.  Our children are scattered -- Jeri and her husband in Boston, Tom and his family in Santa Barbara, Ned, his wife and dog in Sacramento (the closest to us).  I have been writing this journal since March of 2000 and this is about the 5,719th entry (I sometimes get off by a few numbers)

I have no Christmas theme to begin this with because today was such a crazy day.  On Friday I will be having my cataract surgery so today was my pre-op at 9:45 in Sacramento.  I also was scheduled to work an afternoon stint at the Sutter hospital information desk, my first time working alone after my last orientation session which was about a month ago.  I let someone in charge of the volunteers that I had the morning appointment and expected to be back to start my stint at 12:30, but in case I was late, I wanted to let the person I was relieving know.  I was informed that the person I was relieving said it was no problem and she didn't mind working until I got there.

I set off for Sacramento early and was 30 minutes before my appointment and then was not taken in for an hour AFTER my scheduled time.  I had brought my Kindle with me and then discovered its battery was dead so I downloaded my Kindle book onto my cell phone and marveled at the technology we have at our fingertips.

The nurse did a preliminary exam and told that after my appointment I would have to pick up meds at the pharmacy.  I sent a text to Walt telling him that there  was no way I would get to the hospital by 12:30 and asked him to call the information desk and let them know.

The doctor explained in depth what to expect on Friday and how it might differ from when I had my first cataract surgery 6 years ago.  I have "the worst" kind of cataract in the remaining eye and it is quite thick, so they may have difficulty sucking it out and part of it might fall behind my eye and require a second surgery to clean it up.  The possible problems continued all the way down to blindness in the eye, all of which, I was reassured, were very rare.  I'm holding the good thought.

I went to the pharmacy and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to wait forever and was actually back at my car at 11, which meant I would almost assuredly make it to Sutter on time after all.  Knowing that the information desk was covered if I was late, I even stopped off at McD's for a quick cheeseburger lunch.

I realized I had left my lanyard, with my ID information at home, so made a flying stop at the house on my way to the hospital and, amazingly, I arrived at the information desk exactly 3 minutes late.  The person I was replacing had left, leaving me no notes about anything (including the quilt I was apparently supposed to be selling tickets for!)

This is not brain surgery.  I sit at the desk and answer questions, directing people where to go and finding the room numbers of patients for visitors.  Still, there are some routines that I needed to remember and it had been a month since I was there and had never worked alone before.

The first order of business was to log in with my brand new computer ID.  I'd seen it done before.  Log in and immediately a page with all the hospital patients pop up.  Only it didn't for me.  I got some weird database page and could not find the page for the patient list.  There are 2 IT guys, Dotie whom I had met before, and Don, the head honcho.  I saw Dotie and asked him about my problem, but he said he didn't know anything about the Epic program, which we use, and I would have to talk with Don.  I called Don and left a message.

Then I called the woman I replaced and she didn't have a clue about the computer and she, too, told me I'd have to talk with Don.  I called the woman who trained me and she didn't know how to fix my problem, but gave me HER log in and password so I could get the patient list up.  

By logging off as her and logging on as me, I found the problem.  When I looke at her menu options she has something called "secured house census" which is not one of my available options.  So it seemed a simple matter of just adding that to my menu.

Don finally came down to check out thecomputer and I told him what I had figured out and he said "Oh...you're using Epic.  I don't know that program."  He said I'd have to call the Help Desk in Sacramento and gave me their number.

I called the help desk and went through the story for the guy who answered and when I got to a certain point he said "Oh...you're using Epic.  I don't know that program" and said he would transfer me to the Epic help desk.

I finally talked with someone who could understand me and he said he would put in an "incident report" and they would notify me by mail.  So I never did get on Epic on my own account.  I don't know if it will be fixed when I work again (December 8).  In fact, I don't even know if I can work then.  Depends on how the surgery goes.

I came home and collapsed.  It was more activity than I'd had in one day in a long time.  Now I have to go soak my eye, which I must do every night until Thursday, when I start putting eye drops in the eye.

I had an appointment with an audiologist for tomorrow to start the process of getting hearing aids, but I decided that I wasn't up to a lengthy appointment tomorrow, and I have to go check on my mother anyway, so I have asked them to call me in January.