A crazy last few months!

Hello there everyone! This blog is one of the hardest things to keep up on! Things have been going great since I last blogged in June though!

As you all know, I had been trying to get into the University of Michigan hospital permanently since I started working there with Manpower. Well, I finally got hired in permanently! I had been applying for anything and everything, just trying to get an interview.. The only kind of response I was getting was the e-mails that tell me that the department had completed its interviews and the position was closed :-( Well, after someone had hacked into my hotmail account, I have very rarely been using it, but hadn't closed it out yet! One random monday afternoon, I decided to check my old e-mail before heading in for my evening shift at the U. Only to discover that there was an e-mail sitting in there with a u of m email address, with the subject line interview! FINALLY! I open it with excitement to see that someone in the Cancer Center wanted to interview me! I was so excited! So I e-mailed the lady back and we set up an interview for that coming thursday! The interview went great, I got to meet with one of my current bosses as well as the lady who is in charge of hiring for the CC! I got a tour of the floor that I would be working on. They liked all of my questions I asked, and the interview went well as a whole! I found out I was 1 of 5 candidates they would be interviewing, #4 infact. They wanted to have a decision by the middle-end of the following week. So I sent my Thank you notes, and waited. While waiting I had gotten another interview at East Ann Arbor Radiology! I was 1 of 15 there for just the first round! After that interview, I went right into work, and opened my e-mail, and there was an e-mail from the lady in the CC saying they were interested in hiring me!!!

Being hired into the U is a process, they need to do a background, references, all that, then HR decides how much to offer, they tell your supervisor, then it gets offered to you. That process took about a week, so not to bad. I got my start date of July 12. I notified Manpower, as well as Central Staffing that I would be leaving for a permanent position. I think CSR was a little less than thrilled, and asked why I hadn't waited for them to make me an offer... Because I need full-time permanent now, and its being offered, i'm not going to wait for a maybe down the road...

So in the CC I work on Floor B1, Reception B, which deals primarily with bone marrow transplants, pediatric and adult cancers, as well as other blood disorders. I work M-F 8:30-5pm, no weekends, no holidays. I work in the checkout portion of the area. Basically the patients have already had their appointments and need to schedule follow-ups, blood work, chemo appointments, and possibly any sort of radiology testing (MRI, CT, etc), or a consultation to another area. This is what I do, I make all of their appts, collect any co-pays, and provide them with a list of their appointments. It really is quite different than inpatient, but I must say, its really nice to put faces with the names on the paperwork, when your inpatient (when a patient is in the hospital) you very rarely meet the patient behind the paperwork. I love the interaction, sometimes its just a smile that makes someone feel better that day :-) I still miss my inpatient friends from the 7th floor in the main hospital though, so I still keep in touch :)

There is a lot to learn with this new position, a lot of training classes, but so far I'm doing great, and half of my classes are over already :-)

So besides the new job, I've also been very busy planning our belated wedding reception! Which is actually tomorrow, so a lot to do in the next 24 hours! We are having it at Kensington Metropark, and are expecting between 90-100 people! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting some of Dan's extended family :-)

On a side note, I need another root canal :-( Thankfully with our awesome insurance from U of M, its covered 100%! The only problem I had was finding a dentist that did them. I made an appt with Great Expressions Dental in Livonia, and went in, they confirmed what I already knew lol. But then told me they couldn't get me in for an appt to do it until August 17th? wtf? That was 2.5 weeks away! So my dad suggested I go to his dentist, so I did. I went Thursday and they said they could get me in monday for the root canal! So on monday i'll no longer be in pain when not taking Motrin 800's lol. Thats another thing, the other place didn't even offer to provide a prescription for pain meds, even though I would be waiting for 2+ weeks! Don't ever go there!

Well, thats about it for now, I'm going to go enjoy this cool morning out on the porch and wait for Dan to wake up :-)