With the help of endorphin, I managed to show up at the medical appointment after the lunch with my friends.
Wednesday appointment for the week had been temporarily cancelled because Dr TL has been extremely busy because their nurse is not on duty at the moment. I missed him, but it was only temporarily so I am not complaining.
Amazingly, he is managing the busy work schedule with long hours, lots of demand and pressure. I don’t think I can manage such work load even when I was healthy and had able body. He joked he is practising Yoga while driving home. It made me laugh while I was trying to imagine the Yoga posture that could be possible to practice while driving. I’m sure there is none.
He asked how many clients did I see a day when I was practising accountancy. I answered much less than he does. The nature of my job wasn’t something I could finish while talking with clients. My main work was business accounts, sole trader, partnership, company, trust, self managed superannuation fund, and so on. Therefore, I spent more time in back office. I also taught clients how to use computer and accounting/bookkeeping programs. It was a kind of job that never gets to see the end of it because not many clients has understandings of computer and bookkeeping, not to mention the complicated tax system… They could save my time if they just give me bank statements, invoices, dockets and so on. But, they believed they could save money if they do it by themselves. They didn’t think fixing their mistakes and making sense out of their mess takes much more time than I just work on the account from scratch by myself… I often visited clients at their premises. It was an effective way to learn their business as I have tendency not to trust what client tells me from experiences.
Dr TL joked that I did House Call as well. I thought they were more like Office Call, Factory Call, and Shop Call.
While we touched the subject, he asked about my employment history. So I told him how it was important to me, how my employers looked after me, and how devastating it was when I had to end it.
He added that I would also felt guilty of leaving the employers who looked after me. So, I explained that the way my condition was, leaving was rather helping my employers. The hardest part was losing everything that meant a lot to me. I just didn’t lose a job, I lost the career that I made sacrifices and put efforts just before I could start feeling my life would get easier. He empathised and said that would have made me really angry. The talk reminded me the time and made me a little emotional. And I told him that I’m okay now since I grieved for my career, life and things I lost.
He gave me a hypothetical question. If there is a cure, would it scary for me to go back to workforce. I didn’t need to think much. I don’t mind putting hard work to go back to workforce if I’m physically able today. If I am healthy, I am still a desired employee by accounting firms today. Surely, there are some catch up to do, but I have a strong foundation to do the job and it wouldn’t disappear easily. I was there when Australia introduced the messy and complicated Goods & Services Tax (GST). Clients were all stressed out and feared, while we were attending lots of seminars and doing lots of research to catch up with the ever changing acts and rulings. I hardly slept for over a week when the first Business Activity Statements (BAS) were due. I’m not really scared of hard work.
He gave me an example of a released prisoner who wants to go back to prison cell because it is too hard to adjust to the new environment. I believe he realised that the situation is different for me and didn’t pursue with the hypothesis any further.
He quietly mentioned that change is scary. That was the point he wanted to make. I agreed and added that change and uncertainty are scary. I know these from my own experiences. What makes different is that I can have a vision of my future and trust myself. Things that don’t kill you only make you stronger. I’m afraid I came out too strong for most of people…
Hypothetically if there is a cure, I will go back to workforce with hope and vision, even if it would be different from what I had in the past.
After he checked my chest sound and lung capacity, he gave me a new exercise idea. Singing! For 30 minutes! Before he had a chance, I told him that I am not going to sing in front of him. He laughed with guilt.
I understand the theory and agree it is a good exercise to strength diaphragm. Since I’m not following his other suggestion “reading to my dogs”, this one seems to be a little more reasonable. At this point, it was hard to say if he was serious or just joking. Just in case he wasn’t joking, I consider it for a while. Well, I can only manage a slow and short song.
We enjoyed non medical chat for a while. I noticed that he realised we spent too much time. Time flies when I’m having good time.
As I was leaving, he reminded me not to forget singing. Oy Vey! He must be serious. I complained that 30 minutes is too much and impossible. Then, he said, “5 minutes.” Okay, that is manageable, and made me feel I made a really good bargain.
Although he is still very busy, he put my Wednesday appointment back on. This Wednesday happens to be my birthday. I consider it as my birthday present.
Posted in Doctors, ME/CFS
With the help of endorphin, I managed to show up at the medical appointment after the lunch with my friends.
Wednesday appointment for the week had been temporarily cancelled because Dr TL has been extremely busy because their nurse is not on duty at the moment. I missed him, but it was only temporarily so I am not complaining.
Amazingly, he is managing the busy work schedule with long hours, lots of demand and pressure. I don’t think I can manage such work load even when I was healthy and had able body. He joked he is practising Yoga while driving home. It made me laugh while I was trying to imagine the Yoga posture that could be possible to practice while driving. I’m sure there is none.
He asked how many clients did I see a day when I was practising accountancy. I answered much less than he does. The nature of my job wasn’t something I could finish while talking with clients. My main work was business accounts, sole trader, partnership, company, trust, self managed superannuation fund, and so on. Therefore, I spent more time in back office. I also taught clients how to use computer and accounting/bookkeeping programs. It was a kind of job that never gets to see the end of it because not many clients has understandings of computer and bookkeeping, not to mention the complicated tax system… They could save my time if they just give me bank statements, invoices, dockets and so on. But, they believed they could save money if they do it by themselves. They didn’t think fixing their mistakes and making sense out of their mess takes much more time than I just work on the account from scratch by myself… I often visited clients at their premises. It was an effective way to learn their business as I have tendency not to trust what client tells me from experiences.
Dr TL joked that I did House Call as well. I thought they were more like Office Call, Factory Call, and Shop Call.
While we touched the subject, he asked about my employment history. So I told him how it was important to me, how my employers looked after me, and how devastating it was when I had to end it.
He added that I would also felt guilty of leaving the employers who looked after me. So, I explained that the way my condition was, leaving was rather helping my employers. The hardest part was losing everything that meant a lot to me. I just didn’t lose a job, I lost the career that I made sacrifices and put efforts just before I could start feeling my life would get easier. He empathised and said that would have made me really angry. The talk reminded me the time and made me a little emotional. And I told him that I’m okay now since I grieved for my career, life and things I lost.
He gave me a hypothetical question. If there is a cure, would it scary for me to go back to workforce. I didn’t need to think much. I don’t mind putting hard work to go back to workforce if I’m physically able today. If I am healthy, I am still a desired employee by accounting firms today. Surely, there are some catch up to do, but I have a strong foundation to do the job and it wouldn’t disappear easily. I was there when Australia introduced the messy and complicated Goods & Services Tax (GST). Clients were all stressed out and feared, while we were attending lots of seminars and doing lots of research to catch up with the ever changing acts and rulings. I hardly slept for over a week when the first Business Activity Statements (BAS) were due. I’m not really scared of hard work.
He gave me an example of a released prisoner who wants to go back to prison cell because it is too hard to adjust to the new environment. I believe he realised that the situation is different for me and didn’t pursue with the hypothesis any further.
He quietly mentioned that change is scary. That was the point he wanted to make. I agreed and added that change and uncertainty are scary. I know these from my own experiences. What makes different is that I can have a vision of my future and trust myself. Things that don’t kill you only make you stronger. I’m afraid I came out too strong for most of people…
Hypothetically if there is a cure, I will go back to workforce with hope and vision, even if it would be different from what I had in the past.
After he checked my chest sound and lung capacity, he gave me a new exercise idea. Singing! For 30 minutes! Before he had a chance, I told him that I am not going to sing in front of him. He laughed with guilt.
I understand the theory and agree it is a good exercise to strength diaphragm. Since I’m not following his other suggestion “reading to my dogs”, this one seems to be a little more reasonable. At this point, it was hard to say if he was serious or just joking. Just in case he wasn’t joking, I consider it for a while. Well, I can only manage a slow and short song.
We enjoyed non medical chat for a while. I noticed that he realised we spent too much time. Time flies when I’m having good time.
As I was leaving, he reminded me not to forget singing. Oy Vey! He must be serious. I complained that 30 minutes is too much and impossible. Then, he said, “5 minutes.” Okay, that is manageable, and made me feel I made a really good bargain.
Although he is still very busy, he put my Wednesday appointment back on. This Wednesday happens to be my birthday. I consider it as my birthday present.
Posted in Doctors, ME/CFS