My Toes Are All Better

One of the really crappy jobs I've had involved an externship at a hospital in the pharmacy. Not a single window anywhere, the oldest building ever without actually falling down, and oh yeah, in not so many years past, this same hospital had a little problem with um...communication. That is to say there was more than one instance in which a doctor cut off the wrong limb and took out the wrong organ.

So my first week there, I followed around other pharmacy techs while they delivered the meds to the pyxis machines. Once an hour, for the full eight hours, we walked the entire length, breadth, and width of the hospital. This worked out to about 15 miles a day. This was in addition to the other stuff you had to do BEFORE you could even start the deliveries.

At the end of the first week, my toes were black. I don't mean like bruise black. I'm talking ink black. I had blisters and back aches. This was an unpaid externship. Yep. No money changed hands for this. This lasted for one month. Four weeks. 20 days. When it was over, I truly did not think I would ever walk normally again. Every step was complete agony. If I was a dog, I would have been humanely let go. Gladly, I might add. That was August, 2009. It is now June, 2010, and for the first time since my fabulous learning gig, my feet look like they are supposed to look. Yep-10 months recovery time.

Sadly, I would not even count this as one of my crappiest jobs. Yes, there have been worse. The paid ones have been worse. Stay tuned. I'll be more than happy to share them with you.