When will the war start?

Sometime earlier this year I came in to work to find two rather pleasant men demolishing #7 register.

Now this poor register has never done anything to upset anyone. It has sat there faithfully waiting to be used since I've been there. I actually did see it used. Once. It was a Christmas about three or four years ago.

The reason this register gave up its life and spot was because there is legislation that we have to be wheel chair accessible. Well the store is, but none of our check outs were. Now there have been wheel chairs come through the store and they have made it through the registers, but they have so far been the narrow, sleek ones. We would not have been able to get a regular, like you see in hospitals, wheel chair through. Also we have people that have double wide baby buggies that have to put their groceries up, go around the service counter and back to the other end of the register. There have been no complaints from them, but it is surely an annoyance.

SO. The big plan was to make this spot extra wide. It involved quite a lot to get all of that 'stuff' out of there. Somebody in the metal collecting department made a lot. Anyway, while they are doing this I notice they have some tools capable of doing something that has bothered me for a while. I ask them if its possible to add some higher bag bracket shelves. Those are the little things that allow each person to adjust of the height the bags for themselves. He says he can get a couple done for me. He did this while his buddy was working on something else. In other words instead of standing around leaning on his shovel he did something nice for somebody! ! ! ! !

I asked it be done to the two registers I tend to be at the most. Selfish I know, but no one else thought to ask and you gotta strike while the irons hot ! ! ! Or while the drill is in the store.

I wish I could have got it done to all the registers as it is ergonomically a very good thing to do.

Now if I can just get the registers turned in such a way that we move the arm back and forth as opposed to having them reach across our body, I will have really made progress.

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**This post has been sitting as a draft for a long time and I'm not sure why it didn't get finished. So its here now and there will be a few more showing up as I catch up on things.**

When last we left off . . . . .

Sally Missing part 2:

I named it that because of the reaction I got from customers both in our store and in other places that I would run into them.

I'd be walking around somewhere else and someone would say hi, how are you and then follow it up with a 'where have you been?'

To which I would tell them what had happened and then they'd ask questions etc. After that would be the 'we miss you, when are you coming back?'

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Back to the story . . . . .

As I explained I was in the hospital and they were checking me out. The gave me Tylenol, which they said would reduce the fever. Well, it did ! ! ! ! ! I know. I was surprised too. I never expected it to do that. So inside of a 1/2 hour my temp comes down, not right to normal but way better than it was before. Of course when this happens my brain is working a little better. I start to notice things. For example: the resident assigned to me, very handsome young man, comes back in and decides to see if I can stand up straight now. He's looking at me, I'm looking at him, and I said 'don't I know you?'

He says "I thought you looked familiar ! Don't you work at ------?"

me: "yes"

handsome doctor guy: "Wow. I come through your line all the time! I'm so sorry to see you having this trouble."

me: "well, I'll do anything to keep an eye on my customers."    -    And another friendship is sealed. He's young enough to be my son so its a mother kind of figure I represent. He reminds me that I used to praise him on his shopping and the fact that there was mostly good stuff on his list; as opposed to junk food.

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It is decided that I will be admitted because as soon as 4 hours goes by the fever comes back with a vengeance. It still doesn't hit 104 but they don't like that it went right back to 103.8. By now I'm on intravenous fluids and they have drawn a circle around the suspected area of my leg to see if the redness moves more. Apparently its a 'little' larger than they'd like it to be. Yes that was sarcasm, because the redness affected the whole back of my left calf!

As an aside: I take a lot of medications because of heart issues, etc. I always carry a list with me of what I take and when I take it. It is so much easier than trying to explain it to the doctors/pharmacist/nurse, etc. I give them the list. The doctor is impressed that I have it with me and after asking if he can keep it, puts it in my file. I even brought all my meds with me as that is what I thought you do. Apparently they just want to see what you take and then they use their own drugs.

Soooooo, some time during those first several hours, the pharmacist comes in and asks about the list. I explained how I take my meds and when. I showed her how the list is made up and explain what my notes mean.
'Can I keep this?'
(Its already part of my file so): "Sure."


I am sent for an x-ray and at about 5AM a bed is available and I am off on a trip to my room. Once there I am barely settled and they send me for another couple of tests. In the meantime, the fever has returned right on the 4 hour mark and more Tylenol is given. They have also got some results from blood tests and I am started on an IV antibiotic. My leg is still very, very sore. Painful in fact. Like 'I don't even want a sheet to touch my leg' painful.

Then the highlight of that day ! ! ! They bring something on a tray, which I decide must be food of some sort. I'll tell you the liquid was something that smelled sort of like coffee, which I don't drink anyway. That's okay, not really that hungry. They did supply big glasses of water which, I'm sorry, tasted like city water. BLECCHHH.

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(This is probably more than anyone wants to know about my adventure, but after all it is my blog! ! !) 

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End of today's story

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