December 31, 2012
New Year, New Challenges
New Year’s Eve looks even better than I planned. I finished work two hours early. Set myself up on my new banana lounge under the shade of my beautiful Japanese Maple, watching my dog explore the backyard, drinking my lemon lime and bitters and writing. When the sun gets low I’ll move inside and set myself up on the couch in some comfy pyjamas with some snacks and a low alcohol sparkling wine and watch DVDs until the fireworks on TV (and there are rumours of some local ones) or I fall asleep, whichever comes first.
I’m not one for New Year resolutions. I’m pretty sure I’d be setting myself up to fail. But this year, or this past six months, has been the worst I remember health wise. So I’m determined to make some changes.
Since my crash back in September I admit I probably haven’t been looking after myself as well as I could. I’ve probably bought more take away food, I’ve nearly emptied my freezer supply, I haven’t eaten fruit, not paced myself well, have gotten lax with my planning which has meant more frequent trips to the supermarket…the list could go on forever. Up until yesterday this is where I was going to focus my “health reform”.
The first thing I figured I needed to do was work out what was causing this prolonged poor health state, if it was just the above or was the above actually the result of a crash that has just been perpetuating itself. I’ve been shutting this out because in the past I’ve found that for me a crash is triggered by no one thing, but usually a combination of things that have the audacity to hit me all at once. The difference this time is I don’t seem to be recovering from the crash, at least not back to my previous capacity.
About six months ago my role at work changed significantly. I wasn’t happy about the change, but that’s another story. On the surface (and I suspect this may have potentially been behind the move) the move looks like it makes my life easier. It’s less complex clinically, there is less urgency to get things done therefore there should be less overtime and on the side, parking was better so I wouldn’t have to park so far from work. Unfortunately my workload was spread across two campuses, 10minutes walk apart. I picked this as an issue early on and I tried to plan my week so that I wouldn’t be walking back and forth each day (driving sounds like the easier option but at one of sites it’s about a 10 minute walk to the nearest untimed free parking).
In the past few weeks I’ve been doing some research around chronic illness/disability in the workplace. One of our OH&S representatives sent me some information which I finally had a chance to look into over the weekend. As I was reading it I came to realise that the move at work may have been a bigger detriment to my health than I first thought, that the things that I’ve been doing my best to not complain about for the past six months may be more than just annoying.
A lot of the management ideas portrayed in the information included things I already tried to do in the past, and were largely based around setting up your work space. I now share a desk with two other people. I can no longer stick reminders to myself in the middle of my desk because they’d be in other people’s way. Using my diary is difficult. It contains patient information so I don’t like to take it home but I’m frequently starting at one place and finishing at another so somehow it ends up at home. I then forget to take it back to work so I miss meetings, forget phone calls and overlook orders I’m supposed to place. I’m starting to look very unprofessional.
My current role involves a lot more talking with patients, education and negotiation. My brain does not do these well. I have a very scientific brain. It does not cope well with rephrasing and coming up with analogies. I’ve noticed it being so much harder to speak my thoughts. My previous role was a lot more complex in many ways but I didn’t have to put my explanations into terms that patients could understand. It also involves a lot more time on my feet, talking to patients (I refuse to sit on patients’ beds for a number of reasons) and chasing down other staff, and supplies.
For now I can’t change these things easily. I’m not happy about it but that’s life. I am going to put together a case, with the help of my OH&S friend and my psychologist, for some changes but given the complexity of politics in our organisation I’m going to tread carefully and take my time.
In the meantime I’ve considered what I can change to help my case.
- I need to find a way to get to work on time. I don’t cut hours, but if I arrive to work late I stay back late making it up which means I get home late, and start to feel like I have a routine of work, eat, sleep.
- I have started to use the online calendar at work. While this might appear an obvious solution, our organisation does not have enough computers (considering EVERYTHING is done online), so it’s not a final solution but I think it will help.
- I’ve set a very strict timetable which I’m following starting today. Into this timetable I’ve inserted all hours I’m allocated to each different part of my role, but more importantly I’ve included my tea breaks. Tea breaks are not something that is really routinely taken in my workplace however it is an entitlement and I believe it will go a long way to improving my productivity and health. To help me with this I also have allocated a block of time at the beginning and end of each week to plan my week and ensure all the paperwork is finished on time.
- I’m colour coding my diary. I’ve always been jealous of people who do this but some of information I’ve been reading recommends doing this to help with visualisation. I started doing it with my online diary about a month ago and it’s worked brilliantly so I’m going to start doing the same with my paper diary as I rely a lot more on that.
In addition I plan to:
- Return to my fortnightly meal plans. I don’t stick to them strictly but they do mean that I don’t have to go to the supermarket more than once a fortnight and I don’t end up buying my lunch at work
- Drink less caffeine and artificial sweeteners. I don’t have a lot of caffeine – I try to limit to no more than 2 caffeinated drinks a day and I rarely exceed this (and never after lunch). Artificial sweeteners on the other hand have gotten a bit out of control. In a bid to drink more fluid without sugar I have been drinking a fair amount of diet cordial. The trick will be to drink enough fluid to keep my head from spinning. Today stocked my filing drawer with peppermint tea bags.
- Later in the year, once I’m going to talk to my GP about reinstating some of my previous treatments (more on those another day) and potentially revisiting my CFS doctor.
So no resolutions but a long list of good intentions that I think are largely achievable and hopefully will go a long way to increasing my workplace situation. I recognise a lot of other things I could do, but I think that by focusing on these will actually mean many others fall in place.
Wishing that 2013 brings you all happiness and good health xx
Living in Dreamland 