[andi]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

This is actually not what you would expect but i am so angry right now i'm a little nauseous.

I work in a medical office as the office manager (really more like a title so I feel better about myself, really I'm an appointment booker. lol)

I book apts when you call in or when the hearing aids come in I book a fitting..follow up...we all go to a million doctors so we know the drill.

Well today I called a new patient to let them know their hearing aids were in and to book an appointment. They said the doctor told them to come in whenever they want. Whatever people, we all know that is just not true.

I told them we were all booked tomorrow...well that was an error...then I told them I was wrong and we could see them at 10 or 330 tomorrow. The patient then said well I thought you said you were booked. I told her I am sorry that I have TBI and I get a little confused sometimes. She then said "Well, maybe you shouldn't be doing this job"

TBI takeover time...anger level....dangerous.

I then ask her "What job should I have"

i'm just angry about it. really. i have to have a 20% permanent full body disabled forever (and i am only 36) and then hear crap from you.

I understand that ignorance is bliss but this is no time to rub my nose in my disability. People can be so cruel.

Lucky for me I work for my friend that was in the car accident with me. I went to his office and told him everything word for word (I wrote it down so i wouldn't forget). I guess that was not professional of me but the anger comes out so sudden and so strong sometimes I don't know what I am doing until it is already too late.

Lucky me I get to deal with these ignorant, discriminating, jerks tomorrow 1st thing.

I hate this...now I feel like I'm going to cry. Damn you emotions always out of control. It doesn't help that we are crazy crazy busy this week and next.

Just keep swimming...just keep swimming!!!

Andi~

[Jomar]

Sorry that person was so irritating.
I was a part time receptionist at a 500 employee sized company, it can be so busy one minute and then so slow the time doesn't move at all..

But they always expect the front desk personnel to be professional and pleasant..and cool under stress..

Take some deep breaths and forget about what that person said, maybe they had a bad day themselves.

I think in the future I wouldn't mention your health situation though, someone might try to confuse you on purpose and take advantage of the situation.

Just cover a slight mistake with a simple "Oh just noticed a opening at such time" nobody needs to know why you didn't see it before

[andi]

Most of the patients here know what happened. It's a very small town where i work so they are usually so understanding of everything. I'm just having more problems dealing with anger than I would like. My life has been shaken up a lot in the last few months and I am still trying to reconfigure who what when and where. Just need to vent sometimes.

[Mark in Idaho]

andi,

I can understand your frustration. I think you are making more of the situation that it really was. This was not a case of discrimination. It was a case of the customer's confusion with the inconsistent information they received. It will be helpful if you can have some rehearsed responses for situations like this.

For example, You could reply, "Yes, you can come in any time you want but if you don't want to get stuck waiting, it will be better to make an appointment."

As Jo*Mar said, Mentioning your TBI may be counter productive. " I'm sorry. At first glance it looked like the day was booked solid. When I looked a second time, I found 2 openings."

The important thing is to rehearse these responses. The concussed brain does not respond well under stress. Having rehearsed responses ready will make it much easier to handle these situations. I used to spend hours calling back job leads to schedule jobs. I had to learn to memorize my responses or I tended to get flustered when the customer would try to make special requests. It was even more important when the customer was getting testy.

Maybe you can write down some responses on note cards to review from time to time. In my case, my wife could tell I was talking with a testy customer when she would here some of my canned responses. When dealing with customers all day, having a repertoire of canned responses can greatly improve your own tolerance for testy customers.

It can be a tough situation. I hope this helps.

My best to you.

[ginnie]

Hello, and I am sorry you had someone be unkind to you. If only people would recognize each other as brothers and sisters, we would treat each other better. Sometimes you just get a person around, who wants to be negative and cruel. when you want to squack, NT is here for you. You have a reason to growl and it is OK to do so here. I was just talking to my neighbor yesterday, almost the same kind of situation. She was treated poorly by a cranky boss. I hope your job will bring you satisfaction, and no more of that stuff where you get crabby people. ginnie

[andi]

One of the reasons i started telling them is because many of our patients are in the office a lot. I mean a lot a lot and I can't remember who they are. So many times I just stare at them blankly because i am at such a loss.

They were getting upset that I had no idea who they were so I started telling them. Now they come in and tell me their name I grab the chart and sometimes I make little notes about them so i can remember. It's worked really well. This is the 1st time any patient has been testy over it.

Also I am going through a lot personally with my boyfriend and my son just turned 18 and is going to graduate high school in December and I'm very over emotional and my lady times compound my zany emotions.

I am working with my social worker when I can get an appointment and he is trying to help with my emotional issues but he is not trained with tbi or pcs but does his best. I need to work on my emotions.

I'm so overloaded and i dread Christmas...but not thinking about that now. i am going to intensive meditation training (thanks to theta) in January and hope to get help from that. Would love to try acupuncture but can't afford it.

Thanks for all the listening!! It really helped me today to have somewhere to throw out my frustration and get some responses.

<3 <3 <3

[Concussion]

Mark has posted some very helpful cues that could be useful.

However, it also sounds as if you may not be at a point that could be considered ready for full time return to that environment, and a 20 % disability may need to be reconsidered.

You might need to return to your Care giver for review, and even have them readdress some of the situations you have presented here - stress induced return and compilation of symptoms are something many in practice fail to realize are real..........spend time with them to help them realize the reality, and if they can't see it, ask for a referral to someone who will listen...rather then stick with what they already labelled.

Things do change and not always to the good......especially if stress is still triggering things.

[sospan]

Just believe in Karma - what comes around come around

My wife used to be a nurse in Accident and Emergency and was doing a stint checking people in. The police brought in a real low life for treatment for some cuts and bruising before taking him off for further questioning. To say he was abusive and rude would be an understatement.

The guy was lead away to a treatment room with the police. About 10 mins later she was relieved and went back to treating patients. The first one she picked for treatment was the low-life.

Soon as he saw my wife the abuse started again. She did tell him that it would sting a bit but by the time she had finished he was crying like a baby

Apparently, she was so upset when she was cleaning his wounds that she forgot to dilute the peroxide - well that what she told me

[andi]

I wish I could take some time off but alas I am a single mom with little to no support system. No work no eat..no work no place to live. I am barely surviving as it is.

Originally Posted by Concussion

Mark has posted some very helpful cues that could be useful.

However, it also sounds as if you may not be at a point that could be considered ready for full time return to that environment, and a 20 % disability may need to be reconsidered.

You might need to return to your Care giver for review, and even have them readdress some of the situations you have presented here - stress induced return and compilation of symptoms are something many in practice fail to realize are real..........spend time with them to help them realize the reality, and if they can't see it, ask for a referral to someone who will listen...rather then stick with what they already labelled.

Things do change and not always to the good......especially if stress is still triggering things.

[Mark in Idaho]

andi,

There is a specific part of the brain that links face images to names and such. It is not uncommon for the link to be damaged. Often, there is a sense that the face is familiar but absolutely no name connection. The work-around is to find non-facial features to link to the name.

It also helps to focus on a single facial feature and think of it as separate from the face such as 'big eyebrows' or 'bump on the nose.' I have done this successfully. One of my wife's friends is remembered as 'crazy hair.' Eventually, I realized her initials are CH which fits with Crazy Hair so I have even better connection to her name.

Simply understanding the brain's facial recognition function and accepting it as dysfunctional helps to lower the stress levels.

An explanation of "I'm sorry. My brain does not connect faces to names properly because of a brain injury. I recognize faces but have no recollection of names."

My best to you.