Let me tell you about my Friday....

So this past Friday (Sept. 19, 2014) turned out to be one of the best if not the best day since I lost my David. So my short term disability extension had been denied. From June 9th through August 20th, that is the extension that was denied. It was because my doctor did not submit the paperwork by the date required. Fine, I appealed. I sent the paperwork back the very day I got it. Should have had a decision on Aug 15. But for reasons unknown (and even though I called to check on the appeal several times) the paperwork was not sent to the appeals people like it was supposed to. I got a phone call on I believe it was Aug 12 telling me my case had just been assigned to an appeals person. They were going to need to extend when they issued a decision until Sept 29th. Sure why not, I had already been living off my savings, which was rapidly dwindling, why not wait another 45 days. Well on Friday morning I got a phone call, 10 days earlier then they had said, telling me my denial had been overturned and the extension had been approved!! So basically ten and a half weeks of back pay will soon be coming my way! What a relief!

So I get to work, in a really good mood. I am doing what I do, plus trying to finish some online training I need to work on, between customers. I'm busy reading whatever it was I was studying when one of my co-workers asks me if I have checked my email lately. I hadn't, so I open it, and there is an email from our manager to all of us. PNC like almost every business I know of does customer surveys. Now Kohl's and other places I am used to have the survey attached to your receipt. It is up to the customer to take the time to call or go online to do the survey, and at least at Kohl's we never know who helped the customer. It's more of just a general survey. Now at PNC they do it differently.  They use a service that calls random customers who have been into the branches. We don't know who is called and we have no clue who waited on them until the results are sent from the service to PNC. I'm not even sure if there is a set number of surveys per branch per week or what. But the results are sent to our managers who then let us know how good or how bad we do. It is a better system, I think. Because you find out how good or how bad you are doing. There is no way to keep unhappy customers from taking the survey. No getting your numbers up because you tell your employees not to give out surveys to customers who aren't happy with the service they got on that particular day. You know an ethical way to do survey's, who knew it could be done ethically? Anyway so I have worked in my branch for 3 weeks now. This was the first email I had gotten with specific results in them. Now like all survey's the scores range from a 1 to a 5. Five being the best and ones being the worst service. This email from our manager was a very good email. Three people at our branch had survey's done the week before and all three had perfect 5's! I was one of the three people who had a survey done the week before. My very first survey and I got all 5's!!! So my day went from good to great!! Knowing that even with all my nerves and self doubt I still managed to do my job. I made my customer feel special and important and I showed him or her that I know what I am doing.

God is very good!! =)

Light at the end of the tunnel?

So a lot of things have happened in the last few weeks for me. I have been at my branch as a teller for two weeks now. I still make a lot of mistakes, but feel like I am getting the hang of it. I like where I work and the people I work with. There are only ten of us at my branch and compared to Kohl's it is so much smaller! My new family doctor is amazing, she is working with me to get a handle on this thyroid problem I have. She also is able to talk to me about the procedures being done to help me with my back, neck, and headaches. Such a difference! She like talks with me, not at me, or worst not at all. The two procedures had helped my back so much! I say had because well, that's a story for later in this post. The one procedure in my neck definitely took care of the pain that was shooting down into my pinky finger. The other one helped a little but not as long as we had hoped. So last week on Wednesday these guys came into my branch to take out the old carpet and put new carpet it. They have been giving my branch a touch up if you will. The carpet is that square stuff were you take out/put down one square at a time. They were taking up all the old squares before putting in the new ones. My co-worker and I go to leave for the night after closing the branch. The area right outside the tellers area, they had already removed all the carpet from there. Even though the glue was old it was still extremely sticky. So sticky that my shoes literally stuck to the floor. I tried getting one foot/shoe up to keep moving forward and well my body did indeed move forward, while my shoes did not. Next thing I know I am lying flat on my face. Really? Why does it have to be me? I manage to roll over. My whole left side is already hurting. The carpet guys immediately came to my aid. They managed to get me in a sitting position, after my hair managed to get unstuck from the stupid glue on the floor. Thank goodness my hair is really short right now!! Two of the guys then try to help me get up. First of all I am always extremely self-conscious when anyone tries to help me up. I know how over-weight I am and worry about hurting someone who is helping me. But then problem number two enters the picture, my pants are stuck to the floor. All I can say is thank God I wasn't wearing a skirt that day!! They do manage to get me up and I move slowly barefoot over to where there is still carpet down. After pulling as hard as they can they get my shoes up from the sticky floor. I slip my feet in and instantly know my left foot is going to be a problem. By the time I get home my left side of my body is swelling in various areas. I have multiple bruises and a huge knot on my knee. Headache is also now at a 10+. I work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So thankful I can sit as much as I need to! I alternate sitting and standing because my back is once again hurting a lot. On Friday my manager gives me info on doctors I can see and encourages me to see them. She also was so apologetic about the whole thing, like she had anything to do with it! Seriously differences between this job and the last one.... Saturday my left ankle is swelling, a lot! So after I get off work I go home change and then head to the hospital on the list. They x-rayed well almost my whole left side. The good news is nothing is broken! One of my toes is sprained and that is what has been causing the swelling. My knee is badly bruised, along with my hip as well as my shoulder. I also had some dizzy spells from hitting my head, but those have stopped! Monday Dr. K did a diagnostic procedure on my neck. He did an epidural block on several of my cervical joints. If the pain improved or even went temporarily away he would know he was working on the right spot and then would get my insurance to approve him burning off the nerves in that area. Luckily my family doctor explained the whole thing to me. Well the block worked! I didn't have a headache for 7 hours and the block helped my neck pain as well as the new shoulder pain! So today was my followup with him and he is starting the ball rolling to schedule the burning off of the nerves! I also told him about how much pain my back is in from the fall. He asked me which injections I had had already and I told him. He then started putting pressure on my spine asking where it hurt, when he hit the spot I nearly jumped! OUCH!! He asked if I wanted to try another injection back there and I said yes! I am amazed at how the injections worked. I honestly thought I would just have to live with the pain, I'd been living with it for so many years already. So now I just wait for the two procedures to be pre-approved by my insurance. And I am so lucky! I have Mondays and Tuesdays off from work and Mondays are one of the three days Dr. K does these procedures. God has been so good to me lately!