the 14 year old law....

ok for those of you who do not have teenagers...get on good terms with God. just fyi...once your child turns 14 the government seems to think that they are old enough to make their own health care decisions. yes that is what i said. you see i have had a personal experience with this. i had good reason to request certain lab tests be done to my daughter. so today when i called to get the results...mind you the tests that i requested that my insurance paid for that i pay the premium for... i was told "well she will have to call and give us permission to talk to you." excuse you! i support this child 100%, put a roof over her head, clothes on her body and food in her mouth. the government says that a 14 year old can make their own health decisions but you have to be 16 to drive a car, 18 to vote for the leader of your country and 21 to drink alcohol. but at 14 you can decide how to handle a std, pregnancy, drug screens and addictions. is it me or is there something wrong with this picture? again, yes i am a social worker and maybe i am supposed to know these things. but i work with old people.

so after i have peeled myself off the roof, had a nervous breakdown, scared several of my friends to death because they had never seen nor heard me so upset, i begin to think of how i am going to approach this with my child. so this is what i came up with. i explained the 14 year old law to her, but gently reminded her that she still lived under my roof, spent my money and ate my food. therefore, if she felt that she did not need to place my or her father's name on that blasted hippa form, then the next time she got sick with a cold, flu, cramps, shits or whatever, she was on her own to get to the doctor. she says what about medicines. i said what about it. you are old enough to make your own healthcare decisions then you are old enough to figure out how to get your medicines. i don't know how to take my temperature or my blood pressure...what is normal...to which i said, you have two choices put my name on the paper or figure it out on your own.

if you have ever wondered what is wrong with this country...it is the people who have nothing better to do than to think up stupid, rediculous absurd and every other expletive that i cannot put in writing laws like the 14 year old law. and if you disagree with me...keep it to yourself because you probably don't have kids and it won't do anything but make me alot more mad.

the joys of parenthood...

My first survey as "director"

oh my goodness. you know if you work in a nursing home, you are used to the phrase, "Attention all staff and residents, we would like to take this time to welcome the Department of Public Health to our building." This means one of two things - it is time for your annual survey or you have screwed up. well needless to say, since i have not updated this blog in a while, we had really screwed up. the state was in our building from Wednesday through Friday. The whole problem is that they were in our building on a "social service issue" yea that makes me feel real good. bear in mind there has been no social worker in this building in about 3 months, and the year and half they did have a social worker, i do not know what she did. anyway, i feel like i have been on an ak47 firing line for the past week. luckily, we have managed to get out of a major tag with the state, but it was alot of work. for those of you who would like the "ginny version" of this story, just call me. the story is too long to put on a blog. i guess the funniest part of the whole week was on wednesday night, we are all about to fall over. it is about 8 pm and we are starving. understand that when the state is in the building, you cannot leave until the state says you can leave. so anyway, we decided to order pizza. it was left to me to do this. so i call papa johns. they answer, thank you for calling papa johns. i say, i would like to place an order. they say pick up or delivery. i say delivery. they say i'm sorry we are not delivering anymore. before i knew it, i said then why the hell did you ask. the funny part of this is i have only been at this job for two months, and the director of nursing, the executive director and the regional clinical operations nurse were in the office. oh well, as my husband says, you never have to worry about what is on my mind. have a great week.