My Butt Hurts

 Home health is hard because it's all Medicare patients and you have to do a lot of extra steps to prove that your patients really need your care. It's also challenging because there are a bunch of team members working together - PTs, SLPs, RNs, OTs, and office staff. And then you factor in a ridiculous documentation system (created for your ease, once you learn it). And so, they sent me to Tucson. 

My favorite kind of salad. 

This was my first business trip and it was rough. A lot of what we had to do was just learn the iPad system of documentation and the extra hoops - which meant 8 hours of chatting daily, iTrains at night, and a whole lot of sitting. (Not to mention the drive...)

Making the most of my time on the iTrains. 

It was fun, Erika was a great tutor, and now I feel only semi-prepared to handle this in the field and will probably spend a few extra hours at home finishing documentation after each visit. But they're trying to make me self-sufficient by Thursday, at which point I will be desperately needed in Cottonwood. Good luck to me. 

The sun making an appearance for a few minutes. 

I was looking forward to the trip because it is warm and sunny in Tucson 360 days out of the year. Well, guess which FIVE DAYS I happened to visit on. The rainy and cold ones. But that's fine because I just hiked several miles through the desert with my sweatshirt and rain jacket on whenever I could. And I didn't even die. 

The sperm petroglyph, a classic. 

I met up with Abbie and John Robert one day for a short petroglyph hike and then dinner and we had fun catching up on our new lives as practicing clinicians and PAYED employees. Hallelujah. They are good people. 

The best nachos. (Also accompanied by iTrains.)

I did end up finishing my training early, so I was able to hang out with Maddy and her PHX campus friends for a bit on my way back to Flagstaff. That's the point where I found out that instead of a 3-week ramp-up on my caseload, it was going to be a quick trial by fire kind of deal. Love that. (Again, the PT part isn't hard. The documentation part is.)

It's nice to be able to create semi-professional looking images. 

Whenever I wasn't working on stuff and when it was too dark to be hiking around, I was trying to finish up my new YouTube page - geared towards aspiring PTs to help simplify some complex topics into JUST what you need to know for the boards exam. Anything extra will depend on the setting you're in. 

Aye, avast!

Unfortunately for my booty, as soon as I returned (but AFTER I went to the gym), Roger and I headed up to Page to see Stu's pirate play. It was pretty decent for a HS production, especially one that got shut down by the school and picked up by the community. And it reminds me that I want to be in a theater production one day, and probably only one play. But it's a bucket lister I plan to check off sometime.