Love Chunks, 2010-2010

I just received word from my partner on my overnight shifts that Love Chunks has indeed been fired.

I barely knew her...

Friday

Friday I worked my normal shift of 4pm-midnight. Homeboy who was coming off of heroin was doing worse, not being able to keep anything down. At one point, all 3 of my coworkers for the shift were off-site, meaning that of course this guy was going to take a turn for the worse. I took his blood pressure & it was 131/95 & his pulse was 55, which was weird. I called one of my co-workers, who tried to get in touch with the detox nurse (who sucks) & couldn't, so she called Love Chunks. Love Chunks decided that he needed to go the hospital, which was a problem because I couldn't leave the site with the other clients there by themselves. Luckily 2 of my coworkers came back & he got the hospital.

I also did a drug test on a new client, did an intake, & really took charge of shit.

I've heard rumblings that there will be a lot of changes coming up, like Love Chunks being fired, other people being fired, shifts being rearranged, a new location opening up, my Saturday/Sunday night partner being asked to pick someone to be her partner for later (she picked me). It's all weird. I want to quit so bad but I just have to hold on & see what happens. Maybe I will be able to get better shifts that are more conducive to trying to make friends & having a social life.

Thursday

On Thursday the lady I was working with & I were mondo pissed because we were told by Love Chunks to clean an empty apartment, despite the fact that they had 2 days previously to clean it, & the cleaning lady (who also works as a C.A.) was just there, & the last shift featured two male C.A.'s in said apartment watching the Lakers/Celtics game.

So my partner for the night (I'm such a slut) & I start cleaning. We also have to keep an eye on a new client who was detoxing off of heroin. We were told to check his blood pressure every hour, which I did first. When it was time for his second round, my partner did it & inadvertently said something to make him mad, causing him to rip the cuff off his arm & throw it on the ground (I didn't see this. I was in the apartment cleaning). He also kept mumbling. So we called Love Chunks who told us to just check on him & make sure he was breathing throughout the night.

And that was the shift that sent me into overtime this week. Holla!

Wednesday

I was asked to fill in for a co-worker this week since I would get overtime & I'm nothing if not money-hungry. Of course, this happened to be overnight shifts, but once I worked them they weren't that bad. In fact, if I could JUST work the midnight-8am shift, I would be perfectly content.

On Wednesday (shift 1) I had to take a client to the hospital. We have referral sheets that they have to give the receptionist saying they can't be given narcotics because they're in rehab. I dropped him off, parked, & went in to make sure he was ok. Things didn't seem right so after he got called back into triage I asked the receptionist if he gave her the referral sheet. Which she said he didn't. Great.

4 1/2 hours pass & I haven't heard jack from him so I went back to the hospital to check. The ER doesn't know where he is. Shit. I start to panic & call Love Chunks, who tells me to double check with them if he could be anywhere. I figured with HIPAA laws they couldn't tell me, but apparently since I work at a rehab I'm privy to such information. I remembered that I had his face-sheet (a sheet with his basic info that would allow the nurses to search for him in the computer system) so they were quickly able to find him. It wasn't visiting hours so I got the hospital phone number, his bed number, & called his nurse to give him the message that we knew he was there.

And I was told I did a good job by Love Chunks. Holla!

Humorous

I find it funny that after working at my job for 2 months & thinking I was getting fired for the past month & a half, I have survived & outlasted so many other people. At least 7 people that I can think of right now have quit/been fired in the past 2 months, yet I keep trucking along like a cockroach or that contestant on "Survivor" who despite the odds never gets voted out.

Apparently 3 more people are getting fired next week: 2 of them work with my on Friday nights & the other being Love Chunks. I also find it funny how in practically every job I've ever worked, regardless of my competency or how much I perceive how much I'm liked, I work myself into a position of knowledge. I always find out things that are shaping up before they are announced. Now we'll just have to wait & see if these firings actually take place.

Tonight was a slow night. The only exciting things that happened were me backing one of the vans into an iron fence at the Narcotic's Anonymous meeting (minus clients) without any damage befalling the van (the fence wasn't so lucky) & one of the girls attempting suicide while the guys were at their meeting. When my partner for the night & I found out, we drove the guys back very slowly so they wouldn't be around when the cops were still there. Homegirl got Baker Acted, too. Dem's is da breaks.

Over The Weekend

Work this weekend was kinda nuts. Nothing of major consequence happened Friday except 2 of the guys were basically requiring a staff member full-time to monitor them since they will not follow the rules. An extra obstacle was also added to the saga of my van driving: rain. And I conquered.

Saturday was weird. I got called in early because the new guy from last weekend got fired for cussing out a client & making a motion like he was jacking off to him. So I ended up working 16 hours on Saturday. The same 2 guys were acting like fools (both are in my age range) & I just got so fed up with them that I just stopped. I did what I needed to do but I'm not getting paid to chase around 2 grown-ass men who refuse to listen.

Sunday...I was already kind of an emotional wreck from some other stuff & find out that my normal partner isn't coming so I'm getting this guy who had already worked 12 hours. I'm starving so I order Chinese food delivery. The delivery guy is an r-tard & is on the phone with me for 18 minutes trying to figure out where my location is. All of this is happening while I'm trying to give the detox clients their meds & talk on the Nextel with my co-worker who is coming in & wants to talk to my supervisor who won't talk to him because he was a jerk to her earlier. So I eventually said, "Fuck it" & handed my phone to a client & told her to tell the guy how to get there. 10 minutes later I finally get my Chinese food.

My co-worker comes in & is mad that I ignored some of his calls, which I explained to no avail. He then went outside & sat outside an apartment & watched TV through an open door, letting the clients do whatever they want. Then he & a client get in a fight & the client comes in to the office crazy pissed because he said my co-worker slammed his fingers in the dryer & tried to turn the other clients against him. I'm just listening to him while giving him his meds & not saying anything one way or the other when my co-worker comes in & they start going at it. I'm just there wishing I could be anywhere else, realizing that I've heard more intelligent fights on MTV. The client was eventually placated & all was good. My co-worker then went to sleep in an apartment while I slept in an office.

Tonight we had a Counselor Assistant staff meeting where nothing constructive was really reached. It seems like everyone hates everyone else, basically. And it seemed like Love Chunks kept looking at me when she was talking about what was going wrong. Then after the meeting I went with my weekend supervisor & normal partner to Applebee's & got some drinks where I was informed by my supervisor that the guy who hired me (who happens to be the maintenance guy) actually didn't want to hire me but did because his boss is friends with one of my professors. He told my supervisor this when she ran in to him at a bar & he was high on coke & drunk as a skunk. Part of me wants to say, "Fuck it" even more but the more spiteful part of me wants to stay & prove their expectations wrong.

On the plus side, I played Mario Kart 64 tonight.

Drugs

So the new guy at work already got fired. No one liked him & he was really rude to the clients. Yesterday while a client was trying to talk to him about his life, my co-worker told him that he was above him & didn't need to listen to him. This turned into a big argument with screaming, cussing, & eventually my co-worker making a gesture as if he was masturbatin'. One of the head people happened to be there, saw it, told the supervisor who called the head supervisor ("Love Chunks", as the clients respectfully refer to her) & he was promptly sent home. I was called in & worked 16 hours last night.

For the most part it went well, aside from 2 guys absolutely refusing to listen to me. They keep wandering around into other peoples' apartments & wearing sleeveless shirts or no shirts at all. Of course last night one guy had 4 of his Trazadone pills stolen, so I'm sure shit is gonna hit the fan regarding that.

And I have a bit of a neck cramp from sleeping on the floor with only my outer shirt as a pillow :(