Back to the new normal in General Stuff

All of the Christmas decorations and lights have been taken down and tucked away until next year. I re-arranged the closet where I keep all of my decorations for every holiday. Now I have much more room to store them and I can find each holiday more easily.

Tomorrow I go back to work and no more holidays until Memorial Day. My new normal continues until next week when I find out the status of my co-worker’s health. On October 8th she suffered 3 back-to-back mini strokes and has been off work ever since. She really, really has had a difficult time coming back from this. She had just turned 50. Because she lives alone, it was a while before she could contact someone to come and drive her to the ER. She’s so stubborn…she wouldn’t call an ambulance. The only reason she didn’t drive was because she was so dizzy she didn’t think it was safe.

Once she got to the hospital they found her blood pressure was dangerously high as was her sugar. She was immediately transferred to the ICU and that’s when they found that she has had at least a hundred or mini-strokes over the past several years.

They released her after about a week and said no driving until she was evaluated again in 3 weeks by the neurologist. She naturally assumed she would be back to work on the 4th of November. Nope.

Then another evaluation at the beginning of December. Her eyesight had improved but she was still having dizzy spells. She thought she would be back on the 10th of December. Nope.

She finally was released to drive a couple of weeks later but was still having dizzy spells. (WHY WAS SHE ALLOWED TO DRIVE!!!) She was to have a test done on Monday the 30th to see what was causing her dizziness. She said she’d call me right after the appointment but I didn’t hear from her. I left her a voicemail and sent a text. Nothing.

While I am covering for her at work I have access to her voicemails and emails. Some stupid, stupid lady from the doctor’s office left her a voicemail on her work phone saying that she needed to get a hold of her to schedule an MRI on her spine. That should not have been left on a business phone…I called them to give them her home phone number. Still nothing from my co-worker.

Her FMLA ends next week. Our company’s short-term leave works with the FMLA. However, it lasts for 16 weeks so she has another 4 weeks from next week if she is unable to come back. I spoke with our manager who said they have feelers out for a replacement in case she can’t come back. If she isn’t able to come back after the extra month then the company will terminate her.

In the meantime, I have been covering her book of business AND mine. Luckily, they found another account manager that was hired prior to my co-worker getting sick but she wasn’t starting until the week before Thanksgiving. By the time she got here, the first co-worker had already been out for 45 days or so. New co-worker had to go through training and so just NOW is getting up to speed. Throw in all of the short weeks due to holidays, the general end-of-the-year craziness that always ramps up in my line of work and I am beyond tired.

I have no idea how this will turn out, especially in light of the new information regarding the MRI. Maybe it’s precautionary. Maybe it’s not. I just would like some clarity, as I’m sure my co-worker wants as well.

In the meantime, the new co-worker and I will continue on, trying to keep everything caught up and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.

I’m so hoping 2020 will turn out well for everyone involved but most especially my co-worker.