OT-Update on crazy stressful life (house is gutted)

WAY TO GO, Nicole!  You are a strong woman, stronger than the adversities you have faced.  I'm SO GLAD you decided to call on your strength to help you get through this, and you will continue to be in my prayers!

Glad your starting over again Nicole, good for you! Life gets crazy but hopefully we can keep reminding ourselves to take it one day at a time.  I am sorry for the loss of your pets, that can be hard on the family too, and hopefully your house will come along quickly and you can get back into it. Please do tell me how you got the job as an autopsy tech. sounds very interesting, something I always wanted to look into.

Yes the pets suffering is really getting to me. The two that died may have died either way, but I can't help but think that if we were there all the time, we would have noticed and been able to do something. The dogs and cat are becoming really depressed. It breaks my heart every time I have to leave after visiting them. As for autopsy tech job I was a paramedic for 7 years and had the basic knowledge of anatomy, micro, and protective equipment plus knew I could handle the "ick" factor. So I got the job, then it was on the job training. I work with a pathologist who does the incision and removes heart and lungs. I remove the rest, they examine it, then I put everything back and sew up, clean up, and "do the dishes"( clean all the tools and put them away) and call the funeral home and things of that nature, then deliver the specimens for micro disection and the samples that need to be sent out for tox. It is interesting, but we don't do anything criminal, mostly the accidents, suicides, found dead at home, and medical deaths are what we cover for 7 counties.

Do you work in the cities for this job? I would love to shadow you sometime if they ever do that? I am an LPN and work in Oncology and a nursing home part-time, but I have alway been facinated by the morgue, odd I know, but true.

I actually work in Willmar for this job. And yes, we do have people come in and watch if there is a valid reason such as being a nurse, nursing student, dr. , emt, paramedic, or cop. Morbid curiosity is harder to get the Dr. to approve. lol. The problem is there are not that many autopsies done anywhere anymore, and we can't preschedule them. I usually get anywhere from the night before to a couple hours notice when we have one coming in, depending on the cir****tances of death. Willmar is about 2 hours west of the cities. I can go from no autopsies for 5-6 months, to 3 in a weekend pretty quickly, but winter is the best time for them, we seem to get more for some reason, and the decomp factor is lessened as well. If it is really something you would want to drive that far for, I could let you know more.

Nicole, You are probably the strongest person I know and I say that only knowing about your fight to live after WLS complication.  YOU WILL make it through all of this! You're doing a great job with everything - hang in there girlie!  Remember, if God brings you TO it, HE will bring you THROUGH it. Take care sweetie!

Yep, God has definately kept me from totally loosing it and just giving up, because this would be trying to someone who was 100% healthy and didn't have a lifestyle altering issue at hand! I thank God each day for the support system I have developed here and thank every one of you *****sponded to me!! Thank you all for your kind words and support.

Holy crap....someone remind me not to complain about my life any time soon. All I can say is its got to get better!

Yeah I keep thinking it's bad, but then I hear about someone else who had even worse things happen, and I keep reminding myself, it could always be worse!

You certainly have a lot on your plate. Wow! How do you do it? I would be getting gray hairs everywhere. I hope things lighten up for you soon. March is a long time away. Let me know if you need anything.  Also, congrats on the weight loss. 5 lbs? Have you ever been just 5 lbs away to goal? That's incredible. Keep it up! Lori