Long Week

At 3:00 this afternoon, I will have put in over 77 hours in 6 days.  My one day off yesterday was blown out of the water and last night, I left First Responder Training early.  (Thankfully, the instructor was wrapping up and he knows who I am.  He also happens to be the Assistant Fire Chief.  Small towns work in our favor sometimes.)

I am not complaining about what I do.  Honest.  I love my job.  I do hope I get paid someday.  (I WILL get paid someday.  I hope.)  I just don't like the super long hours.  When Bethany is making comments like "Are you coming over for dinner?" it breaks my heart.  I know this is temporary.  I know that more help is coming.  I know that once people are trained in the intake process (actually being able to sit through one) I won't have to be here for every intake.  Intake will still be a two person process, but I won't always have to be the second person.

One of my personal philosophies is "A cry for help should never go unanswered."  Right now, my body is crying for help.  My blood pressure is up.  My normal is 144/62.  It's 120/90 right now.  I've been going so much lately that I never noticed an embedded tick until I got hit with "tick fever." 

Yeah, that's another thing.  I finally made an appointment with the clinic because I had this what I thought was a mole suddenly growing up near my temple.  It had never been there before.  I tried picking at it.  It wasn't going away.  It was getting bigger and getting a red ring around it.  So, being sensitive to the sun and knowing that I burn in 2.3 seconds and have had more than my share of sun stroke episodes, I became slightly concerned.  Ok, I was paranoid.  So, I get in to see my NP whom I love and is wonderful and she takes a look.  A tick was embedded and my skin had basically encapsulated it.  I never noticed a tick on me.  I have not been home in the forest long enough to get ticks!  Yet, here was a tick.  Embedded.  How did I not know there was a tick?  And it burrowed under my skin!  And my skin wrapped itself around this tick!

She takes care of it and after a few seconds of "Eww, that was totally nasty" I decided that compared to other things it could have been, I think I am ok with a tick.

This also explains the low grade fever I've been running for the better part of a month and my swollen glands.

So, ticks, tick fever, children thinking I don't live at home anymore, high blood pressure, and insane hours. 

But, the policies and procedures manual is done and now I need to work on some other stuff.  But first, I need to get more coffee.