Every Monday morning when I walk into work I brace myself for the inevitable chaos. The unexpected walk-ins, the people who call in first thing for problems that they left over the weekend, the late-comers and early arrivers who come in at the same time.
Usually when I look at the appointment schedule I see every 15 minute space filled up from 8-11:30 and then other times even the 7:30-8am time slots too, when I'm not even meant to be available. That's expected of a Monday.
Today was different. Today I had no idea how busy I was going to be, what to expect because our computer network was down. We had no access to any of the pre-booked appointments, any files, nothing. Unless something was an emergency, we could not make any appointments because we don't know whether that time was already taken. When we did make appointments, we had to cross our fingers and hope we were double booked. This certainly made things interesting.
Handwritten consultation notes, handwritten prescription stickers, flipping through a 20 page price list to find one item, relying on clients to remember everything.
"I want more of that eye ointment"
"Which one was it?"
"The white tube!"
"There are 4 other eye ointments that are also in a white tube, do you know the name?"
"uh..no?"
I braced myself for a bad day. Hopefully this would be as bad as things get. Five minutes into the day my first patient peed all over me. I had a change of work shirt, but no change of pants. FYI: scrubbing with wet chux wipes just doesn't cut it. Clearly it was going to be a smelly day and I couldn't be more right. Another hour in, maggot infestation. Thank goodness I forgot to bring lunch, even my tea was making me ill.
If anyone is reading this, I would love to hear about any bad Monday mornings you've had!
I'll leave you with a photo of Ninja Cat looking very feline and skinnier than he was a month ago. You can still see the clipped leg from the surgery he had recently. That's a story for another day. I promise it's a doozy!
Ahh all I want to do is give you a big hug, you sound like you had a really rough day!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever had a day like that, worst I can remember is a customer while work at Harvey Norman.
With child in pram, a woman threaten to jump the count and smash me. Calling me a dog and all manner of atrocities under the sun.
She then left and came BACK with her husband and that is when the cops were called!!
My manager took me for an icecream at Wendys afterwards ahah.
I hope the rest of your week is SO much better.
Cat
Eek! I think I'd much prefer being peed on than abused. That is one traumatising experience you've had there. May I ask what got her so riled up? I can't imagine a scenario where a customer can justify such behaviour in a retail outlet!
DeleteWe had one of those bargain bins out which had memory cards for camera in it.
DeleteWe have to unlock them with a special magnet thing.
She approached the counter with one of the packages and asked for a refund as it was faulty, when I checked the to see if it was open I noticed it was locked.
I had to consult my manager at that stage because, well it didn't make sense that she could use it, know its fault and then return a locked product.
She got increasingly frustrated with the wait as it was around Christmas time and my manager was in a rush.
I stood off to the side and someone took over the till for me, I made the unfortunate mistake of checking my phone.
Someone wrote something hilarious and I started smiling, I looked up a met eyes with her.
She assumed I was laughing at her ... and that is what started it o.O
Oh wow, maybe it's her embarrassment at being caught. People tend to react more indignantly when they know they've been busted. It's as if think that if they take the offense then you might be too intimidated to call them out on it.
DeleteMy gosh kittylove, what do you do? I hope your day got better...
ReplyDeleteI work with animals. My day did improve! =)
DeleteI took my car to the panel beaters and found out that the rust that's now formed in the dent on the side of my car won't affect the initial repair estimate. That's as good as it seems it'll get today, so I'll take it!
Oh, wow! I remember when I worked at an orthodontist, mondays were also so busy because of all the breakages the kids had had over the weekend). I can't imagine adding the computer network being down on top of that! I'm glad your day improved, though! And your kitty is very cute. Reminds me of my old cat, except he got to be quite a chubby kitty in his old age haha :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, my kitty got a little chubby too! I wasn't quite aware of the extent until we had to do surgery on him. I was pretty annoyed with myself when I saw the amount of fat he had inside so he's on a much more restricted diet now =)
DeleteFunny from your post I assumed you must be a doctor.
ReplyDeleteSo are you a vet or a vets assistant? I would love to work with dogs all day.
I think vets do an amazing job. I've had to take my dog to the vets on many occasions and the vets have always been awesome.
DeleteThanks! I wouldn't know what else I would want to do if not this. Even on bad days =)
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