Gold teeth and a curse for this town, were all in my mouth....

Yeah,
Life is sucking right now. Our 3rd orthotist is being transferred to Kirksville to take the place of someone that got fired. We couldn't really afford him because it's been mostly slow for several months. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as he leaves we get very busy. This week has been exhausting. So, that means it's back to on call every other stinking day and weekend. I fucking hate it. First, we were going to use one of the other orthotists from the other office every couple of weekends, but he declined. The only glimmer of hope on the horizon is that the other office may hire someone that would share call with us. We would absorb part of her salary. If that occurs....I will only be on call once every 8 weeks. Talk about Heaven! I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Yeah, I would. I'd be in Kansas City every other weekend. So, there's that. Also, somehow our expenses are out of control. I can't figure out how to lower them because most of it has to do with the cost of making a brace and shitty reimbursement from insurance companies (which the contracts were set up by the company). So, if that doesn't improve, they may close our office (they are already doing this in St. Louis). Also, the hospital is breathing down our necks due to the cost they have to incur with indigent patients. They want us to give more and more stuff away for free...which I say bullshit to. They can cut costs in other areas, they just pick on us because it's easiest. So, the hospital is looking into doing orthotics in house and getting rid of us. Luckily, if they break the contract, my no-compete is null and void...meaning I could work for the hospital. Fuck that! There isn't enough in-patient work to justify 2 employees, and besides, that would definitly lock us into on-call every other weekend..which is not acceptable. I don't see how they could do them in house. Nobody would want to work there and be on call that much. Also, they would need to seek out contracts with insurance companies because they would still have to bill for what they do. Either way, I'm getting extraordinarily tired of this same old game. I figure I'll probably be out of a job by summer, maybe sooner if we don't get on-call help. I'm really pissed because I just bought this house and have started making it a home. I don't want to leave...I like Columbia a lot. But, I'm not going to continue with this shitty existance that I call my life. Also, Jade is having a rough time at work and may be looking for a new job. The worst part is that I have no way of knowing what's going to happen in the end. Sure, we may get on-call help, but what if the hospital doesn't renew our contract? Sucks to be me, sucks very much. To boot, I have to get back "on the wagon" (Aaron knows what I mean), just in case I have to keep my options open. This makes me very cranky indeed.

Boo.