Maddening Monday

As I mentioned before, I work as a nurse in a Pulmonary office. October is a busy month for birthdays, 3 out of 8 our staff- myself included. My birthday passed with little pomp and circumstance- just a nice lunch and cake, as I only turned 34. Dee, our secretary, turned 50 on the 9th and we made a big deal for a big birthday. We had signs around the office- all hail Queen D, the Queen is 50, etc. She wore a crown and a boa all day, we had a great lunch and a fabulous cake. The patients loved it. The final birthday is this week and it is one of the doctors. She has made comments since my birthday about not forgetting hers, she is turning 40 after all. I had no intention of doing anything but then she made such a stink that we felt obligated. What would we do? We finally came up with Holy Cow or Holy Maceral Dr R is 40! We ordered a nice lunch and a fabulous cake. We had only one day to do it when all of the staff were there- monday. She had taken wednesday through friday off.

All weekend, I made posters and put together cows. I bought enough cows to have 40 throughout the office. There were cows in every exam room, office, waiting room, and lunch room. The doors all had hangers with Holy cow. The patient occurrence forms all had cows on it. I made a door hanger for her door that said Happy Birthday and one for her lab coat hanger that had a sheep on it that said "Don't be Sheepish, 40 is just a number". It was a riot. I got to work early and decorated the office before getting signout from the doc who covered for the weekend. The office looked great. And then Dr R arrived.

At first she was quiet and then asked who had done it all. Who indeed, the male docs certainly hadn't. I laughed and said just wait- there are 40 cows throughout the office. "I think I like Dee's theme better". I was speechless. You ungrateful BITCH!!!! The day only got better. Ten minutes later as we were goiing over the intensive care patients, she told me that she had scheduled physical therapy over lunch just in case we had planned something. ARE YOU JOKING, YOU MAKE A HUGE STINK FOR THREE WEEKS AND THEN THE ONE DAY YOU ARE HERE, YOU ACT SUPRISED THAT WE MIGHT BE DOING SOMETHING!!!!!!!! She repeated her dislike of the whole cow theme several times to the office staff. My office manager finally looked at her and said "You couldn't be the Queen, there can only be one Queen!!!" "Why do I have to have the cows?", she said.... (Fortunately for all of this exchange, I was up seeing my hospital patients....) She continued through the day- "my patients know how old I am, why do I have to be the cow????? The complaints just kept coming. I bit my tongue. We are talking serious bleeding. Seriously, though- Someone clearly put a lot of time, effort, and expense into decorating the office for you birthday. It was not forgotten. And you have the gall to complain and complain?????? It was bad enough that the two male docs apologized for her ignorance at the end of the day. I am telling you this- the cows are staying up until the end of time. I have enough cow stickers to put cows on her occurrence sheets until the end of november. Never again. Her name is mud................................................