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I've had a bad back for years and nothing works better...sm

Posted By: casey on 2006-09-05
In Reply to: back and neck pains - star

for me than heat.  I have a chair pad that heats and/or vibrates.  I don't use the vibrator much because the noise is distracting, but the heat works wonders.  Sometimes if the pain is real high around my shoulders, I just drape a heating pad over the top of my chair.....also keeps me warm and toasty in the winter time.


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I've used it for several years and won't go back.
It's very easy to learn and user friendly. I won't work on anything else.
I've been back in college for 2 years now.
and wish you the best of luck! You can never have too much education. It opens so many more doors!
I've been fighting back for 30 years.
It hasn't done one bit of good.  The AAMT sold us out a long time ago and when the computer came into being, it made it way too easy to ship everything offshore.  At least years ago when we used a typewriter, you had to work in house.  Now everything is about faster, faster TAT and hiring people as cheap as possible to get the work done.  I have always said that if they could get trained monkeys to do this job and pay them in bananas, they would.  They don't give a rip about the MTs and they never have. 
I worked for Cbay for 3 years. I was also part of their lay off back many years ago. sm
Even though I got stuck in a lay off era, I still love the company. They paid well then. The people were nice (exception of 1 person) and if I had the opportunity I would go back again. Fortunately (or unfortunately - depending on how u look at it), I have a great paying job right now, so I am not looking for a change. I do know that at one time, they asked management to accept late paychecks, but never sure of the reason why. My check was never late.
I know it used to be 5-10 years back, but the laws changed within the last 2 years. They can only g
x
I've been doing this doc for many years, so I've learned how to function with him. sm
I can tell what's a stutter, what's another word, what's just an "uh." Years of experience will get you through a lot.
Wouldn't want to do his charts all day, of course, but a few per day aren't bad. I haven't had to send his to review in a long time, but they do take a little longer to shuffle through.
I've worn contacts for 30 years. I've had both
hard and soft.  My vision is much better with the soft ones than they were with the hard ones.   When I first started trying contacts soft ones were still new and they couldn't get me to 20/20, so I went to hard.  Hard were okay until my eyes started changing shape and then I could no longer wear hard ones.  The soft should give you better vision as they conform more to the shape of your eye. 
When I trained, back years and years ago
We did not have spell checking nor the internet (Google for instantaneous help). OMG, how did we do it? We used Correcting Selectrics with the lift-off tape to correct errors- you only had dictionaries, both English and medical, to look up things so yes we did have to learn to spell all those big longgggggggggg words.
The ball works for the butt, but not so well for the lower back.
I sat on an exercise ball for about 2-1/2 years (with a 3 month break in between after giving birth to my son). The first 1-1/2 years before I had my son were great, as my abs were in pretty good shape. After the delivery and after my abs were shot, I had a hard time keeping good enough posture of my back and ended up putting more strain on my lower back, causing injury. I just switched back to a regular chair, and my back feels great comparitively, but my butt hurts. I am going to try one of those donut things though.

If you do try the exercise ball, I noticed that if I kept moving on it, I typed faster and produced more (kept me going more), but be very careful to make sure you are keeping a good posture.

Good luck.
Hmm interesting, I've been using this one, works well for me!!

You may wanna try this instead - similar concept. Its called "Medical Transcription Word Seeker." I've been using this for close to a year now. Here's the link.


http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=010964806533120826279%3Akyuedntb2fy&hl=en


You're welcome, hope it works for you! I've used
Instant Text, but only briefly. It seems to be "bug-y" on my system. I usually have at least two or three documents open in Word at a time and when I switch back and forth using F6, IT screws up my being able to switch between documents easily, also when using IE I don't like the adjustments I have to make with my mouse to get the screen back to how I need it to be when Instant Text. I started with PRD+ for DOS a long, long time ago, used it for years until I switch to Shortcut for DOS, then made the switch to Windows and started with ShortCut for Windows. I used that program for about nine months before finding Shorthand. I really liked Shortcut but it has it's limitations with coding. I love ShortHand the most of the three programs mentioned. It's easy to use, I can duplicate easily, a really nice feature that I wish IT had. I also tried SmartType. It wasn't user friendly, or at least I couldn't figure it out! I think it may have been bug-y with my system or something. Anyway, long story short, I love Shorthand, it's easy to use but one can do rather complex things using it. Oh, and that little box that follows around on the screen showing what my short will be when I expand it is a great feature!
Thanks! I've been told Infinity works with (sm)
the new platform I will be working on, I just needed to make sure it would work with my Start-Stop. I really did not want to have to get a new media player as well. Thanks again!
I've just used the wav player part, and it works fine.
I have not heard good things about the rest of the product. I have used Winscribe wav pedal with RIS Logic for radiology. Terrific combination!
I've heard C-phone with VOIP works well (sm)
and a lot cheaper, too.  Forget the costly unlimited long distance and business plans!  It may be a good idea to have another phone-line as a backup for your C-phone in case DSL/cable goes down.
My Logitech cordless is 5-years-old and works fine - sm
despite tons of garbage in it, though I do try to turn it upside down and shake out the crumbs from time to time, and blow it out with a duster. I also pop off keys and clean under them with a duster that way too. Though almost messed up my shift key, put it back on wrong and it would not work, but figured it out and now it is fine. Bought those stickers to put on the keys where the letters had worn off, but the D is damaged now, looks like someone (not me) dropped something on the keyboard as the D, E and C all are damaged/have marks on the, The D being the worst though, big chunk of it is gone. But still going srong. Would like a softer touch keyboard though, this one is very hard, but maybe that is the key to its longevity? Something to think about (I work ~40-60 hours a week).
This is the best site I've found about treating fibromyalgia. It works for me, maybe it will for

I've never been able to get back
a report after submitting it, and have always been forbidden to try, if I could figure out how.  All changes have always gone in an addendum that somebody ELSE can try to cobble together. 
Several years back it was

an 8 or 10 hour shift and your only break is for a meal.  Cubicles with no outside world communication.  Heaven forbid if you need a potty break. 


Hopefully things have changed, but I have my doubts.  Huntsville Hospital is more worried about being "the biggest" than employee relations.  There was a great letter to the Editor in the newspaper recently about the problems still going on there. 


And, I'll state, this is JMO.


Back 25 years ago, the FDA.....sm

Back 25 years ago or so, the FDA refused to allow a cheap drug called Latrielle into this country for the AIDS/HIV patients.  So, all the gay people went to Mexico to get the drug.  Does anyone remember this?


Our problem is not with *crack-pot* medical systems in other countries.  Our problem begins right here with the darned FDA.  For those who do not know what the FDA is - it is the Food and Drug Administration....you know those people....much like the USDA (the US Dept of Agriculture) which allows a certain amount of feces and rat hairs into ALL our food.  Start reading Consumer Reports!!!


There is better treatment all over the world - so please do not delude yourselves into thinking that the medical care in the USA is THE BEST because it certainly is not....it's merely BIG BUSINESS in the USA as usual.


I was out for 7 years and got back in, so...SM
you seem well within the time frame to do this if you have your heart set on it. I took some time off for raising kids and then worked at a school for 5 years in the meantime, then decided to pursue it again now that all 4 kids are in school (finally!) and I researched what company I thought I wanted to work for and took their test and was amazed to pass. After 7 years, I figured I'd really be out of luck. It worked out just fine. If I can do it after all that time, I don't think you'll have trouble. I only had about 2 years' experience before this, too, where you have much more. Good luck.
Just do it. I've had to cut back my volunteering because I can't say NO
and then I get stressed out. I was the public relations rep for city-based volunteer organization, member of two other groups, PTA member, and helped do a kidney transplant fundraiser. I finished out my terms with all of them, although somebody renewed one of my memberships for me that I quit. You need to volunteer to do something YOU are passionate about. Don't let someone else pressure you into something, which it sounds like this is your choice, so GO FOR IT!!!
I used them some years back and have some feedback...

The service was great, and sitefever.com's FTP servers were very fast. The only thing was that when I got more than one client or if I had a large client I wanted to use FTP for, their free service didn't cut it. But, they have a 300mb plan which is like 45 or 50 dollars for an entire year, and it gave me access for up to 10 different clients and plenty of space for them all.


So, if you're looking at sitefever.com as an FTP provider, you're looking in the right direction. The only thing I would suggest is if you plan on growing, just pay a few bucks for their larger accounts.


P.S.- The free FTP accounts only work when you have the public ID number, which changes monthly. I see whoever started this topic had posted a current ID number.


28 years - OJT. That was the only way to train way back then. nm
x
This happened to me a few years back (sm)
when I was working for a national and they had a huge teaching hospital in Southern California.  Must have been 500 docs, 500 specialities and 500 subspecialities - never had the same doc more than once......... I was so frustrated!!  Sorry - not much help but I do feel your pain!
5 years and still going strong, I have a back up one though- sm
that I use for travel, that is about 4 years old but only gets used about 20 days out of a year if that. That one gets abused a bit and still works fine though.
I just went back to radiology after 12 years
doing another specialty. My biggest problems were the names of MR images complicated by fast talk and different images for different MRs and different language from many different docs. Sometimes 6-8 lines detailing acquisitions, sometimes not. Cardiac MR was the worst for me. I had 8 plus years of rad, but hadn't done it since PET was invented,lol...It helped when I had good dictators.I found a list on line of names of MR images, isn't complete. NM cardiac was another trip. I spent a lot of time going to google,just to make sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. I really like the job. You should get sample reports for the different docs for procedures, reading them will help, and you will have them for reference.
We did and moved back after 4 years.
For us, we decided the big home and extra spending money wasn't worth it. I was depressed the whole time we were on the mainland. This is our home and this is where we want to raise our child. We are happier here in our little condo than we ever were there.
I have work going back years - sm
others keep it a month or two. I have one doctor who sees patients on a yearly basis, I pull the previous report so I don't have to retype a lot of it, as he basically repeats the old one with a few changes, I'd have a lot more work to do otherwise. I have another account that constantly misplaces their work, I have to retrieve work from months earlier because they cannot find their copy. I can either pull it from my stash, or the MTSO has a FTP where we back up all our work just for this purpose, she keeps it all there going back years. I have no idea how often she cleans it out, but she hasn't in the almost 2 years I have been with her. On another note, I only keep the sound files for a month, then I dump them.
MICHELLE!! GET BACK DOWN HERE! OH NO! YOU'VE READ THEM!
Its too late, but come back down here and laugh.  Don't read the ugly posts! They're not there - they are not really there - they don't exist, nor does the ugly poster!! 
Actually, we've been handed back that feature.
.
Bless your heart. Back several years ago
I worked FT for a large hospital doing MT and ran an MT business full-time but I had 2 partners in my business. I slept every other night. Hahaha I was younger at that time. Made INCREDIBLE money. Still can't believe today what I made then. It was a killer though. And with running my own business, I was not doing actual transcription the whole time, there was a lot of normal business activity/transactions/planning to do. That is why I think I held up to it as long as I did.

Well, I'm very impressed. Congratulations. I couldn't do that today (two FT transcription positions) if I tried!
Visited Idaho a few years back sm
beautiful, beautiful state. Decided that's where I want to retire.
The REAL credential was the ART a few years back
WE had to have knowledge to get it. Not just show that we could transcribe. We had A&P with the premed students. We HAD to learn the stuff.
I've tried to go back to the office a number of times and

I never can make the transition.  One consideration is your wardrobe.  You have to start dressing in office attire which is something I don't miss and found irritating when I went back into the office.  I also found that after working at home for as long as I have done it, it's kind of stressful to get out there and try to be social and friendly.  Office politics is another negative.  Offices are very much like high school, very cliquey and filled with gossip.  There is more to working in an office than just doing your job.  At home, it's just me and my PC.  I do the work and I get paid.  In the office, there's you, your PC, the person who shares the desk with you, the person who sits across from you, the person who sits next to you, your supervisor right across the hall, the doctors knowing you by name and seeking you out to complain about their dictation, the constant ringing of phones, chattering of voices.  The people you share office space with, one will always be hot, one will always be cold, one thinks it's too bright and there's a glare on her screen, and one thinks it's too dark.  You can't wear perfume because the girl next to you is allergic...


I could go on... 


have been using Cirque Glidepoint mouse for years-would NEVER go back! nm
nm
No way - MQ is the pits, left 6 years ago and never looked back.
There is greener grass, believe me.
One of my instructors referred our class to them a few years back.
I used them for FTP on a paid account (I think it was only like 20 bucks or so a year) and it worked great until a company I signed on with provided their own FTP servers.
TA has been bad news here & on other boards for years! A search will back up what is
s
I switched from Shorthand after 6 years to IT and wouldn't go back. nm
xx
Ask the ShortHand techs. They've always responded back very promptly to my
s
you've been an MT for four years,
so, based on this information, that would imply that you are a grown woman. If this is true, does your handsome husband know how immature you are? Does he know that his hot wife is on this board making juvenile and childish remarks? Just curious, what makes a babe such as yourself do something like this?
gee, I've been doing this nearly 27 years

And the clients have always liked my work.

That is the only CORRECT in my book ... he who signs the paycheck.


I've been doing this for 25+ years. SM

My problem with changing accounts was not the terminology, the dictators (I do 4 big hospitals even now), but it was shuffling around to remember account specifics. That is ridiculous.


It is another case of an MTSO (not the client, the MTSO) treating the MTs as a cost center instead of a revenue center. The "money" was for the suits and the editors (no offense) and the MTs who did the work were at the end of the money line.


I've been with BTS for nearly 3 years now.

I've never run out of work, been slow at times, and asked for more.  If you are a well-rounded MT the work is there.  If you are limited to one or two specialities well, work is limited as would be anywhere.  As for the pay, my check was been screwed up twice in 3 years.  I had the difference in my hands the next day, the fedex the check to me. 


Question to you?  How did you treat BTS?  Where you there to work if and when they needed you?  Was your work 98% or better and within TAT?  Most employers will treat their employees they way they are treated.  It's a give and take situation people.  I sign on do my work, send it to the clients and have no problems.  If they need extra help somewhere I usually (but not always) say sure (who can't use the extra money anyway).  When I want time off, they say no problem. 


Did you ever try talking to the owners about your problem with pay or work or to your manage?  You can't complain if you don't try and solve the problem first.!!


 


 


I've been using it for at least 4 years now and never
had any problems. I love it. It makes it so easy and it's a lot cheaper than paying someone to do it. You can load it on as many computeres as you want as you don't need the disk after it is loaded so me and my mom always go in half on the deluxe version so that we get state taxes included.
I've been in this biz for over 10 years

and can honestly say I've never had a background check to my knowledge.  They really should let you know beforehand and I guess it is possible I've had one and not been aware but highly doubt it.


I've been using an erg for a few years.
It took a while to get used to but it did help with wrists. I have a really hard time typing on a regular keyboard now.
I've been at it for nearly 15 years
I consider myself seasoned, not because of my years of experience, but because of how many different types of work I have done. I think that being flexible, versatile, and maintaining a good attitude is what makes a seasoned transcriptinoist.
I've been doing this for years...sm
I have been saying this for years.  If they would just contract it themselves.
I've been doing it for three years
I don't really have anything special I do. It's just something I'm used to. I work between 13-14 hours Monday through Thursday and take Friday nights off. I do have to have the TV on though. If it's too quiet, that's when I get tired and start to fall asleep. I don't like coffee, but I make sure to take some form of caffeine. I'll get up and walk around every few hours though.
I've been doing this for 20 years

Been in healthcare since 1972 :)  Got halfway through my Masters in HealthCare Administration and stopped because I was NOT passionate about that.  Got into this instead. 


I am still passionate about my house and everything else I do.  I'm 55.  I'm not naive, or dumb.  Passion comes from inside you, if you're not passionate, it's because you make yourself that way.


Thanks for the tip, but I don't have anything to get over.  I don't waste a lot of time whining and complaining though.  :)