Overwhelmed - Party of 1

Ok - I am officially feeling a little overwhelmed. So far this year, I've been able to juggle work, personal life, projects, and life in general. Now...I'm dropping things on my head. I'm barely treading water here! Case in point - I initiated the institutional review board paperwork for my project in October (October, as in 4 months ago). Today I received an email informing me that my presence was requested in Gainesville, Florida this Friday because I am doing a research project and I needed some kind of training. Ok - first of all what kind of notification is 2 days - especially when it would require PLANE tickets to get to Gainesville??? So, I forwarded the email to the R&D director at DC. Instead of answering my question, she sent me another email telling me that my presence was requested in DC next Tuesday from 12-1. It will take me more time to drive to DC than I will be spending in DC. WTF? Oh, yea add to this that the co-investigator in my project is in Arizona (and will still be there next Tuesday) AND that we're interviewing a candidate for one of our residency slots on that very day. She happens to be coming from Florida - and that requires plane tickets - which are usually non-refundable. Again, I was given 1 week notice to this freaking "requirement" - and was only notified when I asked if I should be running to the travel office at my VA to get plane tickets to Florida! Honestly! The IRB can kiss my ass at this point. It was my understanding that this interaction was supposed to foster future research on my part - HA! I can tell you it will be a cold day in Hell before I do ANY more research.

On a sad note, my very first Zebra pen - the one I got after my first weekend staffing - died today while I was interviewing a patient. I even took it apart to make sure it was out of ink...and dammit it was. I almost cried. And then I panicked because I haven't wrote with any pen except for a Zebra for 7 months. I came damn close to a panic attack. I located a Government Issue Stanford, which is not nearly as nice as my Zebra, but sufficed.

Let's see here's the list of shit for the rest of the week:
1) Have conversion plan for fentanyl patches in place by tomorrow at 1500
2) Present said plan to primary care Thursday
3) Tweak fentanyl MUE to suggestions from primary care
4) Tour P3 students around my facility and tell them how rewarding residency is
5) Present journal club on varenicline Thursday at lunch
6) Research Factor II deficiency as it relates to colon cancer
7) Compare and contrast University of Washington, Circulation, and CHEST guidelines for warfarin
8) Attend waste-of-my-friggin'-time residency meeting at Snot U on Friday
9) Staff this weekend
10) Figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do next week

Song of the week - "Face Down" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus