Crash

 After the system crash / security issue at work the week before last, I arrived at the office on Monday to find my work computer had been wiped clean.

Apparently, they did that to all of us "low level" employees.  

They "pulled" all of our desktops, and replaced them with a new version that had NOTHING on it that was functional.   

I was unable to do ANYTHING AT ALL for the first two and a half hours of the day.  

My supervisor's system wasn't wiped, so she had to do my billing, because those bills HAVE to go out every morning.  

I mean... we are the BILLING OFFICE, and it's my job to get the bills out - accurately and promptly.

She was also having her phone ring, over and over, with other employees (who were all working from home) calling in a panic because all of their "stuff" was gone, like mine.  

At one point, she stood up from her desk and yelled "I'M NOT I/T!"

As it turned out, not surprisingly, she made a major mistake in one of my tasks, and the director came at ME about it.... but I was able to deflect it back to the source, without harm to my job, and we fixed it together.

In  retrospect, it would have been REALLY HELPFUL if we had been emailed, or somehow notified, that I/T was going to do this, and that we would not be able to log in, or do anything, on Monday morning.

At the very least, some newer employees needed to be told to SAVE everything to their "U" drives (which are permanent, and are there for us to be able to keep important information and tools for our jobs).  

This was not done, and a LOT of very important tools were wiped away.

But no.  It was just done, and we were left floundering.

The floundering continued all of last week, with items slowly being restored.  It was quite stressful, aggravating, and frustrating. 

Sadly, as part of the rebuild, they have taken away ANY sense that we had of being able to "personalize" our screens.   No more pretty pictures in the back ground, to make staring at those screens for 40 hours a week more bearable.

It was a very difficult week, and my phone still doesn't work, and I still can't do all of the billing.

At the same time, one of the major vendors/websites that we use daily had a major security breach, and had to shut down.

What is this trend, lately, with hackers/whoever breaking into HEALTHCARE operations???  It's pure evil, I tell you....

In other news, the weather has been very April like, and daffodils are blooming all over town, a month ahead of time (two months ahead of Illinois), and my willow tree is sprouting leaves already.

This does not bode well for a tolerable summer.  Ugh.

We may yet see more winter-like weather, but it's not likely.

We finally got to go out with our February birthday friends for dinner last night.  I get to tag along, by default, HAHA!!  We always go for sushi.... which I adore!  

It was wonderful.  Our favorite sushi place was closed for a long time, building a new restaurant...and they have been re-opened for a while, but none of us had been there yet.  

It was quite nice, and the food was, of course, perfect!

We will take advantage of the spring like weather today, and get a couple of things done outside.  Dave is going to re-arrange the storage shed, as it is kind of a mess.

I might set up a fire in my fire pit to belatedly celebrate the Pagan holiday that was a couple of weeks ago, when it was cold and wet outside.

Like it still should be ... sigh...

Anyway, my treatment is this coming Thursday.  

I will have to go ahead of time for my blood draw, but am enjoying only having to see the doctor every six weeks.  Having to go to see the doc one day, and have my treatment another day, every time, was getting REALLY old.  

Have a good week!

Busy weekend

 Our friends arrived, safely, on Thursday, and we took them a dinner of rotisserie chicken, and deli salads.

They had me laughing within minutes.  

Friday, we met at the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and literally spent the entire day there.  The menfolk really enjoyed it.

Yesterday, we met at the First Americans Museum and spent the entire day there.  

It was quite an education.  

You think you have an idea of what the European "settlers" did to the Native peoples who were already here?  Think again.

There was lots of positive stuff, too, though, and they are going to be expanding.  

We decided then and there to become members, in order to support this wonderful, educational, eye opening facility.

Then, last night was a big steak dinner.

We will be staying home today, while our friends go on further adventures.  

We have chores to do, and errands to run, and then they will come here for our last evening together.  I am making a big pot of potato leek soup.

I am feeling a bit tired, but I am sure it will hit me harder when it's time to get up for work tomorrow.

On that note, have a great week!

INCOMING!

 Had my chest CT on Tuesday morning, and scanned through the results on the patient portal.  I didn't see anything alarming, and didn't receive any phone calls telling me not to go to treatment.

The CT appointment took all of about 8 minutes, start to finish, and then we went up to the lab to get my blood draw taken care of...and sat there for a freaking HOUR.... just waiting and waiting and waiting....even though we got there the moment they opened.

Ridiculous.

Treatment on Thursday went just fine, but the steroid reaction lasted through Saturday this time.  I didn't sleep much for two nights....it was bad.

But, at last, I slept last night for almost 11 hours.

Several friends followed through on sending Dave cards for his birthday... he got 15, and someone sent a gift as well!

Now, it's time for him to apply for medicare, and get the ball rolling for his retirement.

This coming week, my dance sisters from back home, and their husbands, are coming to visit!

I had said something, back at Christmas time, about missing my chosen family back home.  

My best friend here had said she didn't want to come to Christmas dinner with us anymore, and the other friend who had said she would come was talking about backing out at the last minute.... so I was feeling unsupported by friends here around the holidays.

The second friend even went so far as to say "FUCK the holidays" to me, knowing how special the holidays are to me. 

SO, my girls from back home started plotting to make a trip, and it's finally just a few days away! 

They arrive Thursday afternoon, and are renting a car, and a house.  

They will get settled into their rental, and pick up some groceries, while we finish our work day on Thursday.

Then we'll get together for the first time that evening.  (One of them has a zoom meeting at 5, so it will be after that.) 

Then, we are taking Friday off to spend a 3 day weekend with them!

We're hoping to go to the new First Americans Museum and Cultural Center, the newest Lebanese restaurant in town, and maybe some other attractions.  

I also want to make dinner for everyone at least once.  I'd love to have people around my table who WANT to be here!!

They leave on Monday, so we will have plenty of opportunity to do stuff with them, both running around, and just hanging out!  

I'm really looking forward to it!

This weekend, so far, has been about cleaning the house, and preparing for a possible winter storm that's due to arrive today.

I made my first deep dish pizza yesterday.... Made the sauce, and the crust, from scratch, and filled it with provolone, mozzarella, pepperoni, sweet Italian sausage, and black olives. It turned out REALLY well!  

The crust was a little bit too thick around the edge of the pan, though.... not sure how to avoid that, though. 

I will be making Jambalaya for Super ball game day today.  We don't watch the game, but I always make Jambalaya on the day.

That being said, I am off to start my day.  Have a great week!

Good progress

 I met my new doctor last week.

She apparently used to work with my former doctor, back after the first time he moved practices.  I never met her, though.

That put my heart at ease a great deal.

She is kind, and she looked me in the eye, and listened to me.  

Then, I met her nurse. 

Her nurse investigated that whole billing thing, where the patient portal had a message that said YOU MUST PAY THIS AMOUNT BEFORE YOUR APPOINTMENT.

Well, apparently, they can't legally require patients to pay up front for services that have not yet been rendered.  

I COULD have gone for all of those scans, and said "please bill my insurance first."

Neither the nurse nor the doctor knew that OU Health has the policy of sending an email ahead of time that takes the patient to a demand for payment.

Now, we ALL know, and we all know that it's just a "scare tactic," as the nurse put it.

We talked about all of the scans that the interim doctor had ordered, and my new doctor did indeed see it my way... every 6 months is sufficient for the routine CT scans, and the new routine of doing a bone scan, so those will happen in April.

In the meantime, though, she ordered a chest CT without contrast for next week.  

She said that Enhertu (the chemo I am on) can cause lung damage, so I will have to start going for a chest CT every TWO months.

Ugh... but if lung damage hasn't happened in a year, it's not likely to.

Also, my heart ultrasound that I had last week came back completely normal again!  Great news!

So, we will continue with the treatment protocol as it is until April.  At that point, we will see what the scans show, and go from there.

I do not need to see the doctor every time I go for treatment, and will only have to make the two appointments (doctor one day, treatment another) every 6 weeks.  

I can go for my blood draw before the treatment any time I want, on a walk in basis.

I feel like now, at last, this stressful transition of my entire care team, and the place that I go, is over.  

We can now settle into a routine, and I can shift my focus back to "center."

In other news, Dave has been released from therapy, after working through the program for PTSD.  His therapist is moving to a different practice, and wanted to finish this cycle of treatment with him before she leaves.

He will probably go back to his previous therapist now.

His 65th birthday is this coming week, and he will be starting to put the wheels in motion, over the coming months, for his retirement.

Today, it's rainy and chilly in OKC, and it's one of my Pagan holidays, so, once again, the weather is making me have to change my plans.  I had hoped to have a fire in my fire pit, but may still do one in the chiminea.

First, though, we are going to Costco, and out for brunch.  Have a good week!