September 2020 Update
I'm back again with another update.
August has been another rollercoaster month. While I haven't been back to the hospital for kidney stones, I had to return when I endured some chest pains. Now, I do my best not to panic and while I didn't panic that day, I was scared. I wouldn't have gone to the hospital if it hadn't been for the clots in my lung and being on blood thinners. But I was and I went.
Keep in mind, all through July, and most of August, I worked my overnight shift without any big problems, medically speaking. Well, other than burning the crap out of my thumb while cleaning the griddle on the Sunday morning prior to this last hospital visit. I ended up with a massive blister on the side of my thumb, and my co-workers suggested I use this ointment that was meant for burns. I tried the ointment and an hour later, no more pain! The area around the blister was tender, but it didn't hurt at all. Wow!
Anyway, the following Thursday was when I went back to the hospital. As I said, chest pains that had me scared due to the issues for which I had previously gone to the hospital.
As I left town, I sent a text to my manager, letting her know what was going on. My shift didn't start until Midnight that night, and so long as the hospital didn't tell me I was having a heart attack, I would be good.
Get to the hospital and after their initial assessment before moving me into a regular room to do further tests, I had to sit out in the lobby to wait for said room. Now, I will admit, my fear had diminished, but my chest still hurt and I was having some breathing issues. Maybe an hour after I arrived, my phone died. I couldn't call or text my manager to keep her updated.
I only waited maybe half an hour for that room, but then I spent several hours having blood drawn, having an x-ray taken of my chest, then taken to radiology to have an MRI of my chest done, and finally talking to the doctor only to have him scold me for missing one or two doses of my blood thinners. The thing was, after the original 30-day supply I had been given ran out, it was two weeks before I received more. The pills I'm on are expensive (as in $450-$550 per 30 day supply). They had helped out by getting me signed up for assistance, but things fell through when no one notified me that the company supplying the drug would be calling me to confirm my shipping info. I don't generally pick up the phone if I don't know who's calling. The hospital found out, called the company, and then let me know how to correct the issue. I finally got through to the company, confirmed everything with them, but it was another week before the pills arrived. (I now have 3x 30-day bottles).
One other thing. I suffer from nasal polyps, which cause all kinds of sinus problems, including sinusitis, and sometimes light bronchitis. Well, this visit to the hospital proved that my clot issue (still have the clots, only they're reducing gradually) was complicated by light bronchitis, making it difficult for me to breath (again) and making my chest hurt. They prescribed antibiotics.
So, I got back home close to nine pm that night, and I used a friend's phone to call my manager.
She was pissed.
Store policy said we had to call in at least an hour before our shift started, so someone could be found to fill in our shift. I called in three hours prior. I explained what happened and that I was in no condition to work that night. She said she would find someone and hung up.
… only to call right back. She went off over the phone complaining about finding someone so late, which she probably wouldn't, which meant she would have to work the shift herself. On and on. She was trying to guilt me into working that night. I remained silent while she spoke and only apologized for the inconvenience. (same thing we tell customers when we don't have something they want) The last thing she told me was to be in early the next morning with my paperwork from the hospital. I had asked the doctor specifically for a note excusing me from work that night.
Next morning, I felt better. I grabbed the folder with the paperwork the hospital gave me and went to the store. The manager and assistant manager took me to the office.
Manager went through the folder. The hospital had papers in there with info on the prescription I was given, as well as stuff on Covid, but that was it! The note I was promised was missing.
Manager wasn't pissed at this point. She said she was disappointed. I told her I would call the hospital and have them email the note to her. She told me not to bother. I frowned. I didn't understand why she would refuse the paperwork. She had worked with me on all of the other medical issues I'd had while working there, but the sudden change made me suspicious.
The assistant manager piped up then, pulling out a sheet of paper with all kinds of hand-written stuff on it. She started reading to me the list of issues I was being written up for. Number two was for "excessive call-ins". The more she read, the more angry I grew. They had included every little thing I had done wrong there, most of which we had already talked about and agreed wouldn't happen again. And they hadn't.
I pointed out the excessive call-ins. The night before was the first time I had called in.
"Well, this is based on all the time you missed when you first started working here."
I was even more horrified. "You cannot write me up for that!"
"Oh, we're not, but you have to admit, you have missed a lot of work."
"For medical problems that I had absolutely no control over. You know every detail of what happened."
"There was that time you called from work, needing to go to the hospital."
"Yeah, only to find out I had blood clots in my lung! I would have died if I hadn't gone!"
"Well, still, you've missed too much work."
She was still mad about my call-in the night before, though I had done nothing wrong other than making sure I had the note from the hospital.
Then she pulled out a pen and wanted me to sign it. It was technically only my first write up. I had been written up at other jobs before and accepted the punishment because I had messed up. This time was entirely different. The assistant manager even looked over the list, saying that if I messed up again, I would be suspended without pay, as well as the second time, and third time, and forth, and fifth. Oh! They were willing to keep me around even if I had messed up bad enough to be suspended a fifth time?
Another issue on that write up had been customer complaints. One complaint had been about the cat hair on my clothes. I'm sleeping in my friends' living room and don't have a closet to hide my clothes in. The AM suggested I bag my clothes up in a trash bag. I asked her if she's ever had a cat. She said "No, why?" A trash bag with something soft in it is for scratching and ripping up -- then they'll have something soft to sleep on.
Along that same line, there were complaints of cat urine smell. Due to the nasal polyps, I am nose-blind. I cannot smell anything. I could walk through the worst smelling locations and smell anything. There's also the fact that I cannot even breath through my nose. So, I had no idea I had a cat urine smell.
There was one last issue that I had to put my foot down on. The store honors call-ins for food that we carry. We have a deli full of hot food that we cook on a regular basis. Overnights, I had made breakfast in preparation for the breakfast rush. (cooked and chopped up sausage, bacon, and potato wedges, added two dozen eggs to two different bowls -- 4 dozen eggs a night -- cooked the sausage mix and then the bacon mix on the griddle, rolled up breakfast burritos with shredded cheese, wrapped them, and adding stickers so customers knew which kind they were). Then there were sausage and bacon biscuits and croissants, a plate stacked with bacon, and then a few of the regular lunch/dinner foods because the breakfast rush would buy those for their lunches at work. All of that on top of the other duties I had in the store. On a busy night, I would be pressed for time trying to get everything done.
Yet it was company policy that we have a minimum of two people on EVERY shift. I could handle things on weeknights, but weekends? It was stressful. And my nights off were always on weekdays.
Now, I tell you this to give you an idea of how busy I was, even when completely alone in the store. If someone called in for food, it was usually for something I already had ready (typically beef & bean burritos that only take 8 minutes to cook in the deep fryer). The very first time I got a call-in, I thought it was something of a joke. The caller sounded drunk. I told him that we didn't do call-ins. The next morning, I was corrected. Yet, during this meeting for my write-up, they were blaming me for a customer complaint of a call-in to which the employee had been extremely rude to the customer in response and said we didn't do call-ins. My first call-in had been during my first week. The call-in they were talking about was only three weeks to the write-up date. It wasn't me. I had accepted every call-in no matter how busy we were and the timing had annoyed me. I had also never been as rude as they implied on the phone. Never. I had twenty years of taking calls in customer service to not only know better, but to automatically treat those calls the same way. I was not going to be written up for something I did not do.
After going over all the details, Manager wanted me to sign the paper. I shook my head. "No, not until that line about excessive call-ins for absences is removed, as well as the one saying I was rude to a customer over the phone."
Manager rolled her eyes and sighed. Then she bent over the paper with the pen she had been holding out to me, and added to the excessive call-in line "without a note from the doctor".
"I didn't say change it. I said remove it."
She shook her head. "No, you've missed too much work."
I shook my head in return. "Then let me offer a solution to the whole problem. I quit." and I walked out of the office.
The manager chased after me. "There's no need for you to quit."
I pointed back at her. "You have a massive list of reasons for me to quit."
Spluttering, and probably planning on trying to convince me to stay, she said, "Well… you have to put that in writing."
I strode back into the office, grabbed the pen, and at the bottom of the write-up sheet, below the line where I was meant to sign, I wrote "I quit." and signed that. Then I stormed out.
So, I have been unemployed (again) for the last week. I will be posting a new chapter for Free Magus to my Patreon account, which means I should also be posting a chapter here as well.
Later this week, I will be posting the first chapter for Small Deaths, my sequel to Crushed Heart.
I haven't decided yet, but I have been posting the series of scenes from the gauntlet Seth had to navigate when he was trying to end the lockdown. Listed as Lockdown Scenes on my Patreon account. The idea is that the scenes could be read in any order because none of them affect any of the others.
I am looking for work again, but in the meantime, I will be working on writing up as many chapters for both stories and the scenes as I can.