UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

26 October 2001

I wasn't in the office more than 20 minutes today before I was standing by an exam table watching Dr. G do a breast exam and looking at the patient's ovaries on the tiny ultrasound screen, as he poked the ultrasound wand inside her vagina. Talk about getting intimate with your job right away!

It wasn't on the schedule for me to work today, nor for me to meet with Dr. G to have any further orientation, but he thought maybe F, the woman I'm replacing, could give me a tour of her desk and "show me a little" about what she does.

F turns out to be a very nice woman whom I like a lot, who seems to have a pretty low opinion of herself, as she kept telling me over and over again about how she'd "screwed up" and how she didn't have a head for things like this, etc. Unfortunately, I identified with most of what she said myself!

By coincidence, she took on my job at Sutter Women's Health after I left, but only lasted a few months because she couldn't deal with all the difficult personalities there. But we compared notes on people we knew and various parts of the job that frustrated both of us.

And in the process, she did give me a tour of her desk, the supply closet, and the drug room. She told me so much that I don't remember a fraction of it.

My head is spinning right now. There is so much to remember. I know that I don't have to pass a test on my first day, and that as I start having hands on experience I'll begin to sort it all out, but right now the knowledge that I'm totally on my own tomorrow is pretty frightening.

D is coming by at the end of the day tomorrow to give me more instruction in back office procedures--I know what my duties entail, but I don't yet know how to do them, for example.

It seems that I've gone from five years of sitting on my butt staring at this computer screen to overload in an eyeblink.

As I sit here at 11:30 p.m., having just returned from the opening night production of Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida what is facing me is:

...and that's just for starters!

So what am I doing? The review is 1/3 written and I'm taking time out to write an entry for my journal.

And just to make this even more fun, next week is a three show week:

(at least I don't have to review The Last Session.)