A Visit to AmCare

Amazon has an onsite health center called AmCare. On Friday night, I ended up visiting there four times.

Friday night was an 11 hour shift, and I was worried about how in the world I was going to manage it. I’ve developed blisters on the bottoms of both of my little toes. My little toes have a weird shape, and I’ve had this problem before when I walk too much. I’m dealing with it using band-aids and ibuprofen, but my feet were really hurting on Friday night.

About two hours into the shift, something very unexpected happened. I was picking Leap Frog toys directly off of a pallet. Sometimes you pick items from bins, and sometimes directly from pallets.

When you pick from pallets, you have to open boxes and take the items out. The load of boxes on the pallets are usually wrapped with shrink wrap. I was down to the bottom row of boxes on the pallet. I had put one foot onto the pallet to reach the boxes in the middle. As I stepped back, my foot got caught in the shrink wrap around the bottom of the pallet. I fell backwards onto my bottom and back.

I was pretty stunned, but got up right away. Although I fell pretty hard, nothing felt broken, just bruised. I finished packing my tote and put it on the conveyor. Then I headed to the manager to report the accident. We’ve been told over and over to report any injury.

She took me to AmCare where I was met by the EMT on duty. She had me fill out a report and had me sit on some ice for my bottom and back. She also offered me ibuprofen. How embarrassing. There was also a representative from the safety committee who came and had me explain what happened. Then I had to show my manager and the safety lady the pallet and explain how it happened. The next time I walked past that area, the shrink wrap was gone from that particular pallet.

I was told to return to AmCare every two hours for the rest of the shift to ice my sore areas. That meant four visits to AmCare where I sat for about 30 minutes icing my bottom and back for a total of 2.5 hours of resting time during my 11 hour shift. So, I think the fall was a blessing in disguise. I got paid for the full 11 hour shift, but was able to rest my feet for a good part of it :)

Yesterday my bottom was a bit sore, but not too bad. I think I probably bruised my tail bone as the soreness feels as if it is deep inside. My back is feeling fine.

While at AmCare I asked the EMT if she had any tips for sore feet. She gave me some mole skin pads to put on the areas that get blisters and recommended getting diabetic socks to help circulation in the feet.

Yesterday we went to Walmart and I picked up two pair of diabetic socks for $8.50. Wow, that’s quite expensive, but if they help it will be well worth it. I have good shoes, just weird little toes.

This week we start our 50 hour weeks. That means we work Sunday nights in addition to the regular four nights we have been working. We’ll see how it goes. Depending on when they release us, we have about four weeks or a little less to go. I will survive, and the income will allow us to explore Texas this winter without working. Still a good trade-off for us.

Kevin is doing fine. He seems to be able to handle being on his feet much better than I do. Sometimes I feel like such a wussy!

Our son Eric called us yesterday to tell us some good news. He was very happy to report that his boss had called him into the office to let him know that Eric is doing a great job and the boss is very happy with him. He thanked Eric several times during the conversation for doing a great job and being very reliable. He also told Eric he would be getting a very nice end of the year bonus. Congratulations Eric!!

You may remember I mentioned that Eric is an HVAC service technician. With the record heat this past summer, Eric worked many, many overtime hours and was quite exhausted. Its nice to know the boss appreciates and rewards that hard work!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!