Credit Rating, Pay Cut

 It always seems like my financial position is in direct contrast to the general economy. 

As an example, in the mid 90's, while most of the country was economically rising, I wound up dcclaring bankruptcy. I came out of that as the Internet Bubble burst. In 2008/9, my credit rating had recovered to "good". As the economy recovered from the 2008 crash, I wound up in financial distress due to workplace politics and nearly wound up in foreclosure. 

Today, the economy is definitely headed straight into depression. The worst this country has seen. It seems like the better my credit rating becomes, the worse the economy is going to do. As of right now, my credit rating is in the "excellent" range. 

I have avoided loans and credit cards as much as possible for years. Only exceptions have been car loans, which I try and pay off long before their maturity. I did make payments on my laptop, with it being a gaming laptop (refurbished). I paid that loan off early as well. I have had a secured credit card. Last year I doubled the collateral deposit to increase the limit. 

While the balance owed on the secured card is $0, I had been thinking of taking am unsecured card for some time to bring my credit rating as close to 850 as possible. Right now my credit rating is above 750 but below 800. So, last night I was shopping online for a new bed. My current bed is at least 16 years old and I have fought off bed bugs in the past few years. While checking out, Amazon offered a $100 discount if I applied and was approved for an unsecured Visa. I knew I would be approved, so I applied and was approved immediately. The new bed went on that card. One part of the bed also had a $40 coupon, so between the card and coupon, $140 got knocked off the price. 

The secured card has a $1000 limit. The unsecure card has a $3000 limit. So, my unsecured credit limit quadrupled. I plan on paying off the balance due on the bed as soon as I get the physical credit card. I mostly got that for the $100 discount, though I do prefer having more leeway on my credit. Never know what may happen in the future. I know the application will knock my credit rating down temporarily, though I will assume not by much, since my secured card has $0 charged to it. Once I pay off the balance on the unsecured card, any impact on my credit rating will rebound and should rise closer to 850. 

This may be with good timing. Last year I had set a goal on savings and reached that goal. Then the ex died, daughter went through a rough time and I avoided taking a travel contract until she was in a better emotional state, preferring to stay close to her. I spent money on new glasses and dentures. Then I went through a health crisis which sapped more of my savings. I am making payments on some of the health issues but concurrently my savings have been rising to near what they were before all of the above happened. 

Meanwhile, my agency gave me news that they will renew my contract but I have to take a pay cut. Nothing to do with my performance, it is affecting all the nurses with the agency. It's a big pay cut and I will feel the effects. However, I will still be making more money than I was making in AL. That's true even after travel expenses. Mostly the effect is that I will not be able to save as much per month as I had been saving. I still expect to be able to save money and get my savings back where they were last August in a few months. 

The agency said the pay cut is because the county reduced how much they are willing to pay. So, I renewed for 3 months even though they asked if I wanted to renew and stay for a year. Like I said, it's nothing about my job performance. I preferred staying at this location because I like it there. Besides, my current contract ends on 5/7/23. I didn't want to take the chance that I may not get another contract that soon. I'll stick with the 3 month extension and near the end of it start looking for something that pays more. That may mean having to travel further from home. 

I have an interview regarding the presidential campaign coming up on Thur, the 27th. I am hoping this will help get more attention to the campaign. The more I listen to other candidates, the better my policies sound, even from a completely objective standpoint. I've deliberately developed my policies to be what I would want to vote for. I am going to spend some money on advertising and hope to get more donations and expand the campaign further. Given the chance, my administration would be the best administration in US history. 

Good news

 I finally got the CT report yesterday by going to the doctor's office. The findings were a relief. Mesenteric inflammation and stranding. Diverticulosis. My appendix is normal and there were no masses found. 

Like I said, this all comes as a relief. I was expecting to find chronic appendicitis and needing surgery. I also had a little apprehension that it could be cancer. That fear was there but a bit low, since I had tumor markers drawn last year. The markers were either normal or lower than normal. That means the risk of cancer was low but not nonexistent. 

Expecting possible surgery, I had alerted my agency and employer ahead of time. I was also planning financially. If necessary, I would have taken out a loan from the bank. For the first time in my life, my credit score is in the excellent range. To some degree I'm not sure how it got there, aside from making payments on time because my income has been stable. Knock on wood. It may also be that the rating agencies are grading on a curve and many people today are defaulting on debt. In any case, I could have gotten a loan if I had to. Enough to not have to spend all of what I have in savings. It would be a lot better getting the loan up front instead of waiting, if I had to be out of work for a while and depleting my savings. Then I would have been able to pay the cost gradually as I returned to work.

For a few days, I went through a scare that I would have been fired. My coworker was told she was going to be fired. She got a contract somewhere else and then resigned at our current place, so she's okay. She even got a raise in the process. $5 an hour, so that's an extra $200 a week at 40 hours. Wish I could get a raise like that! Any way, this all came about because of a conflict which I had no part in. Though I think they don't like me in admin, since I am not someone who just follows orders without question. I ask questions and raise objections when things don't make a lot of sense. Or explain how things can be done in a more efficient way. They don't want efficient, they want automatons that just do as they're told. So, while I am not being fired, they are not renewing my contract. They want me to work through the end of my contract, which ends on 1/22/23. Okay, I can do that and keep to myself as much as possible. The agency is seeing if I can return to Carroll County, where I worked for a year. Sounds like they have spots available. Honestly, that's what I had been planning on doing. I did not want to renew here and hoped to go back to Carroll County. Barring any unexpected events, I could remain at Carroll County for a year again. 

What is happening there does anger me. I have done nothing wrong and tried to make improvements. The pharmacy is in much better condition than when I got there. The inmates and officers all like me. They don't want to see me go, It made me feel good when both women's pods all said I was their favorite nurse, then many of the males said the same thing. I care, I answer questions, I follow up on things when I say I will. I write notes of issues while doing pill call, so I don't forget. I change orders that are incorrectly entered, sometimes because the wrong times are entered and other times they are entered so that the medication will not even be sent from the pharmacy, so the patient doesn't get the medication. Checking TB skin tests are done at night. Before my coworker and I started, the compliance was around 25%. Since we started doing it, compliance is around 90%. I made the suggestion that most get done at night and the ones who refuse be attempted the following morning. Some inmates are more compliant in the morning than the evening. This seems to have been taken as me being insubordinate. 

I have drawn attention to the fact that, while the HSA says she wants wound care done at night, sometimes she has ordered it twice a day. Then nobody does it in the morning. 

Right now, my WBC count was still 21.9, so I am back on Cipro. I was having a lot of pain but it seems to be decreasing at this point. For the past few days, I have been taking 750 mg instead of the prescribed 500, as a kind of loading dose. That seems to have helped. I will drop it down to 500 this evening. Been having intermittent back pain, which can be a sign of too much Cipro. Any time I take antibiotics I get some level of brain fog and fatigue. At least I am not having confusion. 

None of this is helped by the fact that my iron is below 10. Should be above 50. Low iron also causes fatigue, slow memory and mild brain fog. May sound arrogant but I am still more highly functioning mentally than most people, though that is by sheer effort and always has been. I had asked about getting an iron infusion at my last appointment but it got lost in the shuffle with other referrals for the CT scan and GI consult. I think I should call Monday and ask again. Low iron also means slower wound healing, including to my intestines. I already take 8 iron supplements a day and that doesn't seem to be helping. (Though if I didn't, my iron could drop to zero.) 

I really want to get my health issues under control once and for all as soon as I can. This month, if possible. My GI appointment isn't until 2-21-23 but when I take a week off between contracts, I may see if there are any cancellations and be moved up. I know they are going to want a new colonoscopy and I will agree to it. I can afford it now. Besides, there were some things on the CT scan which conflict with the prior colonoscopy. I may not have ulcerative colitis but Crohn's Disease, depending on the location of the damage. Rather minor distinction but can change how it is treated. 

Having to push back my more aggressive push on my presidential campaign because of all that's going on. Have to shoot for late January or early February. On top of the other issues, I am back in FB jail because of "bullying". That's because I compared capitalism to prostitution, which is an apt analogy. FB has no concept of context. 27 days left to the restriction, so that will be early Feb. Since FB is my main social media platform, that affects my ability to communicate. Once that's over is when I'll go hard on my efforts. 

That's okay. Hopefully by then my health issues will be under control. Besides, I am rebuilding my savings to a specific level. Took a hit having to be out sick one weekend and with Christmas spending.

 Then that was after my ex dying a few months ago. It hit daughter really hard and I took a few weeks off to be available for her. She's doing much better now. Spending a lot of time with her SO. I do not think her attachment is false but I do think it is being intensified by the emotional vacuum left by her mother's death, which came suddenly. 

I believe things will work out well. Just with effort. 

Illness

 Last year I got extremely ill, with severe intestinal inflammation, weight loss and anemia. Things seemed to improve somewhat for a while but in the past few weeks the same problems came raging back even worse.

My most recent labs showed a WBC count of 26.3, which is potentially deadly. Had to take two weeks of Cipro and Flagyl, two of the harshest antibiotics available. I ultimately had to stop them 3 days early because my internal organs felt like they were being shredded and I experienced mild confusion. While driving to GA. I am doing follow up labs this morning. 

Few days ago I got a CT scan of my abdomen with and without contrast. Have to call the doctors office today to see what the report says. At this point, I am suspecting they are going to advise an appendectomy. I think my problem is chronic (not acute) appendicitis. Though that may be the best case diagnosis. 

Still having a considerable amount of pelvic pain on the right side, which is what leads me to that suspicion. Honestly, if they advise an appendectomy I will happily go with that advice if it offers hope of an improvement. I'm not fond of the idea of surgery. I've never had any surgery except on my right foot with a local anesthetic and that was when I was 18. 

Of course, I do have some apprehension that this could be cancer. However, I think the chance is low because my condition has been up and down, not consistently getting worse. Plus I had tumor markers drawn last year and they were not only normal but low. 

The worst part of this is fatigue, partly due to pain. I'm an energetic person by nature and the fatigue is really rough on me. 

I also have a GI specialist consult in February. That was the earliest I could get in to see them. 

My current work contract ends on 1/24. Though in this case if surgery is urgently advised I will have to end the contract early. Happily there is another nurse already in orientation who could take my place. I do want to see if I can go back to the facility I was working at last year but it's best if I get the CT results before checking on that.