Worth

So, I managed to hold off my illness until the last person from last week's group left the house. Then, I sat down, looked around, made a mental note that T was at her only current client's birth, R was in between births, and my next client wasn't yet in her due date window, and KA-BOOM, I allowed myself to get sick.

I ended up with one of the worst colds I've ever had, and a full week later, I'm just now feeling normal again.

Unlike when the man of the house gets sick, however, life still needed to go on. Having finished watching all the ER seasons currently out on DVD, I had no incentive to rest on the couch and watch TV, so I just worked all week. I avoided seeing clients, of course, but I got a ton of work done with a break every couple hours so I could disinfect my keyboard. I also tried to avoid sneezing on my eBay packages as I wrapped them up.

On Saturday, I got an early morning call to help out R, who was at a birth but had a bunch of prenatal exams scheduled for later that morning. Despite the fact that I couldn't breathe out of both sides of my nose yet, I felt fine and so I made sure to be very clear about the fact that I was getting over a cold. She was cool with it, so I filled in for her for a few hours.

It was great being able to work as a midwife again! I mean, getting to do prenatal exams. It's a whole different set of skills I get to use, as compared to being at a birth. I was happily surprised to see that I wasn't rusty at all, and that even the clients I had never met before seemed comfortable with me.

When R was done with the birth, she came by the office to find out how it went and I was proud to say it was a success. Even my charting was pretty :) I was completely shocked when she said she wanted to adequately compensate me for my time and wondered if I thought a hundred dollars an hour was fair.

A hundred dollars an hour!? Me!? Just months ago, I was a mere student. OMG, now I'm, like, a health care provider :)

Almost, almost as nice as the more-than-adequate compensation is the professional acknowledgment and respect that I got as a true colleague, and the trust that I could provide quality care to another midwife's clients. I could get use to this.

And so, I grabbed my bunches of kleenex, told her, "anytime!" and headed home. Still on a high from my newly discovered worth, and pondering the possibilities of how I should spend my small fortune, I came home to Louis reminding me his real estate license is now up for renewal, his car's front windshield is cracked, and the hot water in the shower is spitting out red and black stuff.

*sigh*

Two steps forward and one step back.