Yeah, I'm Still Here

Had to come up for air
and just dump it all, here--
all the tiredness
the frustration of years worth of laboratory records
that should have gone to storage
or the incinerator
years ago.

(Hoarders, Buried Alive :  Lab Edition )

I'm getting there--
remind me why I said "yes"
to becoming the chemistry supervisor
(and urinalysis)
for 3 labs ?

I finally figured out how to juggle
all the daily, weekly, monthly
Quality Control processing and review
(7 pages of anal-retentive, typed,
step by step notes, later....)

I've got 2 techs picked out
that are gonna learn how to do shit
to help out
whether they want to or not....

(9 years until retirement-- countdown's on...)

Lost all of yesterday
being part of an inspection team
to accredidate another lab
in another state
(so much driving , to & from;
my eyeballs hurt)

I can do this
I can do this
I can do this
The way to eat an elephant 🐘
is one bite at a time

(How the f----  does one have stacks of paperwork
still not done
from 8 months ago??  I cleaned that up in a week)

I'm old enough
to be the pathologist's mother .

There's hardly any "real" techs left

We're training biology majors
to be medical lab technologists--
that's a trip, since they have zero clinical background
or theory.

We're hiring techs from the Philippines
but they can't get here for at least 8 months
due to visas and immigration red tape

(But we're drowning now-- fly 'em to Mexico
& have them walk into Texas like everyone else is doing, and we can have them here by next week-- win!)

I can do this
I can do this
I'm so damn tired
I can do this
I gotta win Powerball....

Breathe
Breathe
Breathe.....