Showing posts with label Just Shut Up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Just Shut Up. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
I haven't given one of these lately...
It's time for another Just Shut Up Award. Now that the weather is getting nicer more people are beginning to drive with their windows down. I generally don't because the noise from the wind blowing in gets on my nerves (dumb, I know). Anyway, several times in the last couple of days I have been stopped at a traffic light with my windows rolled up, my radio on, and my kids yammering away in the back seat only to be subjected to some idiot behind me or next to me (or in one case I'm not even sure which car it was but it wasn't the ones immediately behind or beside me) who is blaring their music so loud that my entire car is literally shaking from the bass. News flash: Subjecting the rest of the world to your crappy music does not make you cool It makes you ignorant, rude, and probably well on your way to a hearing aid someday. So to all of you morons who feel it necessary to blare your music: Shut up! Turn your bass down and give your ears (and mine) a break. Don't force me to return the favor. My son would love nothing more than for me to blare the "Collin Song" for all the world to hear. Believe me, your bass can't even begin to compete with the annoying factor of this CD. (It's really cute the first 100 times you hear it, but its so happy its annoying).
Friday, November 9, 2007
Just SHUT UP Award
I know I just posted this award the other day but in honor of the day that I had at work following that post, the next award goes to none other than yours truly. After my little rant about all the stupid things people say and do related to surgery, I went in to work the next day feeling like I had vented, gotten it off my chest, and it was going to be a good day. I couldn't have been more wrong. I had 10 patients, 8 were crazy/stupid and the last one yelled at me and told me I ruined her day. No kidding, they managed to do every single thing I blogged about the night before. So from now on, I need to Just Shut Up before I set myself up this way again.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Just Shut Up Award
I give this week's Just Shut Up Award to every stupid patient that has ever called me and whined about their surgery time and/or instructions. In honor of them, I am posting the list of what not to say to the person who gives you your surgery time and instructions. Remember, it is our job to pass along the information, we didn't make the rules.
1. When you say nothing to eat or drink after midnight, does that include water too?
DUH!! What part of nothing don't you understand? I can't tell you how many people don't get this. This rule was made for a reason. If you eat or drink, even water, they will cancel your surgery!
2. My child can't possibly go from midnight to 7:10 without eating or drinking. They will be crying when we get there.
This is not a threat to me, my kids cry all the time-it doesn't bother me if yours do too. And if you think your kid is crying before surgery, wait until you see them afterwards! Also, I can assure you that your kid will not starve if you don't feed them for 7 hours! As a side note to this, in all the years I've been doing this, I've only seen maybe 2 kids come in really upset and their stupid parents had coffee and donuts. The vast majority of kids come in and they are not hysterical because they're hungry.
3. That time doesn't work for me, can we move it back a half an hour?
No-this is not the hair cuttery where you can pop in and get your hair cut any time you want. There is a schedule for a reason and a lot of thought goes into arranging it. I can't fit your surgery in between you manicure and your massage.
4. I don't have anyone to watch my kids while my spouse is in surgery so I'm going to bring them.
Uh, NO! We are not babysitters and children are not allowed in the surgery center. This is on all the information you are given ahead of time. It's up to you to make arrangements for someone to watch them, get them off the bus, etc. Your spouse needs your undivided attention so that the nurse can teach you how to care for them after surgery, otherwise you're calling us back with questions that we already answered when you weren't paying attention.
5. Can I request my anesthesiologist?
Yes, you can but not at 3:00 the day before surgery. Just like our schedule, theirs is set ahead of time and a request at the last minute requires many, many people to change things around.
6. Why does my ride have to stay?
Because we said so. Its in the paperwork you're given before your surgery. Again, we are not babysitters, when you're ready to go you need to leave so another patient can have your recovery spot. Not to mention, God forbid something should happen to you during surgery, we need someone to contact in an emergency!
7. Why can't I bring my whole family?
You do not need a cast of thousands to visit you immediately after surgery. It is elective surgery, you are only going to be here 3-4 hours total. They can visit you at home. Do you really want everyone viewing you right after surgery? You really won't be looking or feeling your best.
8. How much does my surgery cost?
Unless you don't have insurance and I've looked into this ahead of time, I have no idea what to tell you. The fee for surgery is based on the code used for the procedure. We can bill 2 million dollars if we want, your insurance company will only pay what they want to pay and you will owe whatever your portion of that is. For instance, if your insurance company will only pay $300 and you have a 90/10 plan, you'll owe $30. Each insurance company pays differently and since I don't know what your insurance company will pay, I can't tell you what you'll owe. The day before is not the time to try to figure these things out.
9. Why is my co-pay so much?
Call your insurance company. It is your responsibility to know what your copay is when you have surgery. Don't tell me it wasn't that much 2 years ago when you had surgery. Insurance plans change every year, you need to know what the changes are. Its not my job to figure that out for you.
10. Is Dr. (fill your Dr.) a good doctor?
The day before your surgery is not the time to investigate this and what do you expect me to say "I wouldn't let him operate on my dead dog?". Remember, they pay my salary. (Fortunately, the doctors I work for are all great and I can honestly tell people so). I know you're nervous, but someone trusted your surgeon enough to refer you to them, if you're still unsure about their qualifications perhaps you shouldn't have surgery.
If you haven't guessed, this little rant was prompted by yet another annoying patient today. I probably sound a little harsh and unfeeling but my biggest pet peeve is these parents who think their children just can't possibly go without eating for a few extra hours and they whine and moan at me about how they're only 2 or 5 or whatever. Basically they just don't want to deal with their whiny kid. All I can say is please remember when its you/your child who has to have surgery one day-we don't make the schedule with the intention of making your life miserable. Children are scheduled first, but when you have a day with 8 kids under the age of 3 someone is getting a lousy time. Invariably, the ones who really do have a crappy time (and I truly do feel sorry for them) are usually the nicest. Its the ones with the first slot of the day (7:30 am) who whine about their time being so late that make me want to reach through the phone and strangle them. Kids are amazingly resilient and will surprise you with how well they do without eating the moment they open their eyes. I'm a firm believer in the saying "if you don't ask, you'll never know" and "Ask, the worst that happens is they tell you no" so if you must ask these questions, please do it nicely and don't jump down the person's throat when you don't get the answer you want. And if they do jump down your throat, its probably at least the third time they answered the same question today.
1. When you say nothing to eat or drink after midnight, does that include water too?
DUH!! What part of nothing don't you understand? I can't tell you how many people don't get this. This rule was made for a reason. If you eat or drink, even water, they will cancel your surgery!
2. My child can't possibly go from midnight to 7:10 without eating or drinking. They will be crying when we get there.
This is not a threat to me, my kids cry all the time-it doesn't bother me if yours do too. And if you think your kid is crying before surgery, wait until you see them afterwards! Also, I can assure you that your kid will not starve if you don't feed them for 7 hours! As a side note to this, in all the years I've been doing this, I've only seen maybe 2 kids come in really upset and their stupid parents had coffee and donuts. The vast majority of kids come in and they are not hysterical because they're hungry.
3. That time doesn't work for me, can we move it back a half an hour?
No-this is not the hair cuttery where you can pop in and get your hair cut any time you want. There is a schedule for a reason and a lot of thought goes into arranging it. I can't fit your surgery in between you manicure and your massage.
4. I don't have anyone to watch my kids while my spouse is in surgery so I'm going to bring them.
Uh, NO! We are not babysitters and children are not allowed in the surgery center. This is on all the information you are given ahead of time. It's up to you to make arrangements for someone to watch them, get them off the bus, etc. Your spouse needs your undivided attention so that the nurse can teach you how to care for them after surgery, otherwise you're calling us back with questions that we already answered when you weren't paying attention.
5. Can I request my anesthesiologist?
Yes, you can but not at 3:00 the day before surgery. Just like our schedule, theirs is set ahead of time and a request at the last minute requires many, many people to change things around.
6. Why does my ride have to stay?
Because we said so. Its in the paperwork you're given before your surgery. Again, we are not babysitters, when you're ready to go you need to leave so another patient can have your recovery spot. Not to mention, God forbid something should happen to you during surgery, we need someone to contact in an emergency!
7. Why can't I bring my whole family?
You do not need a cast of thousands to visit you immediately after surgery. It is elective surgery, you are only going to be here 3-4 hours total. They can visit you at home. Do you really want everyone viewing you right after surgery? You really won't be looking or feeling your best.
8. How much does my surgery cost?
Unless you don't have insurance and I've looked into this ahead of time, I have no idea what to tell you. The fee for surgery is based on the code used for the procedure. We can bill 2 million dollars if we want, your insurance company will only pay what they want to pay and you will owe whatever your portion of that is. For instance, if your insurance company will only pay $300 and you have a 90/10 plan, you'll owe $30. Each insurance company pays differently and since I don't know what your insurance company will pay, I can't tell you what you'll owe. The day before is not the time to try to figure these things out.
9. Why is my co-pay so much?
Call your insurance company. It is your responsibility to know what your copay is when you have surgery. Don't tell me it wasn't that much 2 years ago when you had surgery. Insurance plans change every year, you need to know what the changes are. Its not my job to figure that out for you.
10. Is Dr. (fill your Dr.) a good doctor?
The day before your surgery is not the time to investigate this and what do you expect me to say "I wouldn't let him operate on my dead dog?". Remember, they pay my salary. (Fortunately, the doctors I work for are all great and I can honestly tell people so). I know you're nervous, but someone trusted your surgeon enough to refer you to them, if you're still unsure about their qualifications perhaps you shouldn't have surgery.
If you haven't guessed, this little rant was prompted by yet another annoying patient today. I probably sound a little harsh and unfeeling but my biggest pet peeve is these parents who think their children just can't possibly go without eating for a few extra hours and they whine and moan at me about how they're only 2 or 5 or whatever. Basically they just don't want to deal with their whiny kid. All I can say is please remember when its you/your child who has to have surgery one day-we don't make the schedule with the intention of making your life miserable. Children are scheduled first, but when you have a day with 8 kids under the age of 3 someone is getting a lousy time. Invariably, the ones who really do have a crappy time (and I truly do feel sorry for them) are usually the nicest. Its the ones with the first slot of the day (7:30 am) who whine about their time being so late that make me want to reach through the phone and strangle them. Kids are amazingly resilient and will surprise you with how well they do without eating the moment they open their eyes. I'm a firm believer in the saying "if you don't ask, you'll never know" and "Ask, the worst that happens is they tell you no" so if you must ask these questions, please do it nicely and don't jump down the person's throat when you don't get the answer you want. And if they do jump down your throat, its probably at least the third time they answered the same question today.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Just SHUT UP Award
And the award goes to..... My Wack Job Trouble Maker Neighbor
Tonight, after I'd been home for a half hour or so, my neighbor, good friend, and fellow board member, knocked on my door to let me know I had a "present" waiting for me. She had an identical one in her door. It was a letter from the neighborhood wack job trouble maker in response to a letter the board had sent to her about letting her pit bull roam the neighborhood pooping in other people's yards (which, if you don't know, is illegal in MD as well as being against association rules). Her response was to copy the letter and write on it "When the board starts following the rules, give me a call. Otherwise FU". She did at least have the courtesy to use the abbreviation as I wrote it rather than spelling it out but the intention is there and I'm beyond angry and though I've been venting all night, I still need to vent so here goes:
Dear Neighborhood Wack Job Trouble Maker:
How dare you use such language with me? I have done absolutely nothing to you. You broke the rules and you got caught (I'm not the one who complained about you). According to the rules, you get a letter telling you to stop doing what you were doing and if you continue and get caught again, you'll be fined. I didn't make the rules, they were in place when I joined the board. You have done nothing but cause trouble as long as I've lived here. That's right, I haven't forgotten that right after I moved in you left a letter in everyone's door about why we shouldn't vote for a board member in the elections that night because they were a horrible racist person. You made quite an impression on me with that nasty letter. Since then, you have complained constantly and the board has done its best to listen to your complaints and to try to appease you. You have personally attacked another board member to the point of slander! We begged you to come to a meeting, even going so far as to ask you for an agenda of items you wanted to discuss, so we could be prepared with answers for you and you didn't bother to show up. You have involved yourself in board business to the point of interference. You have sent horribly nasty emails to the board and your letter tonight was the last straw. You didn't even have the decency to knock on my door and hand it to me. I was home, my car was in my reserved spot and yet you took the chicken's way out and chose to slip it in my door. It's much easier to write FU in a letter than to say it to our faces. If you were as brave as your words make you out to be, you would come to a meeting and discuss your issues with the board as a reasonable person instead of swearing at us and threatening lawsuits. You want to get a lawyer and sue us, go right ahead. We have kept copies of all your nasty-grams and have followed our rules and by-laws to the letter. Who do you think is going to win in court? Obviously, you're stupid enough to think you would, but we already have a lawyer at the management company and they make sure that everything we do is in accordance with the law so good luck to you. If you are so unhappy, why don't you just move and go be someone elses problem. I'm just tired of dealing with you. I didn't volunteer to be on the board so I could be verbally abused. Keep it up lady and I'm going to the cops and you'll find yourself on the other end of a law suit.
Writing all that was cathartic. I do feel a bit better. It would feel so good to walk up to her and say all that but I won't stoop to her level. What goes around comes around and she'll get hers in the end.
Tonight, after I'd been home for a half hour or so, my neighbor, good friend, and fellow board member, knocked on my door to let me know I had a "present" waiting for me. She had an identical one in her door. It was a letter from the neighborhood wack job trouble maker in response to a letter the board had sent to her about letting her pit bull roam the neighborhood pooping in other people's yards (which, if you don't know, is illegal in MD as well as being against association rules). Her response was to copy the letter and write on it "When the board starts following the rules, give me a call. Otherwise FU". She did at least have the courtesy to use the abbreviation as I wrote it rather than spelling it out but the intention is there and I'm beyond angry and though I've been venting all night, I still need to vent so here goes:
Dear Neighborhood Wack Job Trouble Maker:
How dare you use such language with me? I have done absolutely nothing to you. You broke the rules and you got caught (I'm not the one who complained about you). According to the rules, you get a letter telling you to stop doing what you were doing and if you continue and get caught again, you'll be fined. I didn't make the rules, they were in place when I joined the board. You have done nothing but cause trouble as long as I've lived here. That's right, I haven't forgotten that right after I moved in you left a letter in everyone's door about why we shouldn't vote for a board member in the elections that night because they were a horrible racist person. You made quite an impression on me with that nasty letter. Since then, you have complained constantly and the board has done its best to listen to your complaints and to try to appease you. You have personally attacked another board member to the point of slander! We begged you to come to a meeting, even going so far as to ask you for an agenda of items you wanted to discuss, so we could be prepared with answers for you and you didn't bother to show up. You have involved yourself in board business to the point of interference. You have sent horribly nasty emails to the board and your letter tonight was the last straw. You didn't even have the decency to knock on my door and hand it to me. I was home, my car was in my reserved spot and yet you took the chicken's way out and chose to slip it in my door. It's much easier to write FU in a letter than to say it to our faces. If you were as brave as your words make you out to be, you would come to a meeting and discuss your issues with the board as a reasonable person instead of swearing at us and threatening lawsuits. You want to get a lawyer and sue us, go right ahead. We have kept copies of all your nasty-grams and have followed our rules and by-laws to the letter. Who do you think is going to win in court? Obviously, you're stupid enough to think you would, but we already have a lawyer at the management company and they make sure that everything we do is in accordance with the law so good luck to you. If you are so unhappy, why don't you just move and go be someone elses problem. I'm just tired of dealing with you. I didn't volunteer to be on the board so I could be verbally abused. Keep it up lady and I'm going to the cops and you'll find yourself on the other end of a law suit.
Writing all that was cathartic. I do feel a bit better. It would feel so good to walk up to her and say all that but I won't stoop to her level. What goes around comes around and she'll get hers in the end.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Just Shut Up Award
Anyone who listens to Mike and Mike in the morning (yes, I know, I'm a total geek) knows they have a just shut up award every Tuesday for all the knuckleheads in sports who can't keep their mouth shut. Well this month, I have my own nominee... Gabriele Pauli
I can't believe this Stupid German Lady! She is a politician who actually thinks that marriage should only last 7 years! After that you either re-up or dissolve it. Are you kidding me? What does this teach? Why bother getting married at all if after 7 years you're done with it? It defeats the whole purpose of finding someone you're willing to make a life-long commitment to. The divorce rate is already so high and we are already a society where everything is disposable, do we really want to put marriage in that category too? I know there are a lot of very good reasons to divorce someone, they're abusive, they've cheated, they've done something else completely reprehensible, but its not something to be taken so lightly that every 7 years we get to decide if we want to stick around or not. Marriage is supposed to be something that couples hold precious. I married my husband because I love him and I can't imagine spending my life without him. Our parents spent a small fortune on our wedding so that the people we loved could be there to celebrate the commitment we made to one another. What effect would this have on the children of those marriages? How do you teach your children the value of a relationship if you're dissolving them every 7 years. If you think you won't be happy together in 7 years, you don't get married, you wait until you find that person you know will make you happy for the rest of your life. If you make marriage last only 7 years, in addition to killing an age old institution, you're killing an entire industry. Who's going to blow thousands of dollars on a dream wedding if its only going to last 7 years anyway. Then what do you have, re-upping parties? This is a woman who has been married multiple times before and obviously just hasn't gotten it right. She's even posed for magazine pictures as a dominatrix. How she can be affiliated with a Christian political party is beyond me. I'm not a religious expert but I don't know of any that are advocating divorce.. As if you couldn't tell, I've been stewing about this ever since I read the article this morning. Call me old fashioned, but I believe strongly in the institution of marriage and the importance of modeling a healthy relationship for your children. How you can do that if you're deciding whether or not to dissolve your marriage every 7 years is beyond me. Why bother getting married at all. Maybe she's just trying to put divorce lawyers out of business. I don't know but she's got my vote for the Just Shut Up Award this time.
I can't believe this Stupid German Lady! She is a politician who actually thinks that marriage should only last 7 years! After that you either re-up or dissolve it. Are you kidding me? What does this teach? Why bother getting married at all if after 7 years you're done with it? It defeats the whole purpose of finding someone you're willing to make a life-long commitment to. The divorce rate is already so high and we are already a society where everything is disposable, do we really want to put marriage in that category too? I know there are a lot of very good reasons to divorce someone, they're abusive, they've cheated, they've done something else completely reprehensible, but its not something to be taken so lightly that every 7 years we get to decide if we want to stick around or not. Marriage is supposed to be something that couples hold precious. I married my husband because I love him and I can't imagine spending my life without him. Our parents spent a small fortune on our wedding so that the people we loved could be there to celebrate the commitment we made to one another. What effect would this have on the children of those marriages? How do you teach your children the value of a relationship if you're dissolving them every 7 years. If you think you won't be happy together in 7 years, you don't get married, you wait until you find that person you know will make you happy for the rest of your life. If you make marriage last only 7 years, in addition to killing an age old institution, you're killing an entire industry. Who's going to blow thousands of dollars on a dream wedding if its only going to last 7 years anyway. Then what do you have, re-upping parties? This is a woman who has been married multiple times before and obviously just hasn't gotten it right. She's even posed for magazine pictures as a dominatrix. How she can be affiliated with a Christian political party is beyond me. I'm not a religious expert but I don't know of any that are advocating divorce.. As if you couldn't tell, I've been stewing about this ever since I read the article this morning. Call me old fashioned, but I believe strongly in the institution of marriage and the importance of modeling a healthy relationship for your children. How you can do that if you're deciding whether or not to dissolve your marriage every 7 years is beyond me. Why bother getting married at all. Maybe she's just trying to put divorce lawyers out of business. I don't know but she's got my vote for the Just Shut Up Award this time.
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