u/TheEarthCallsToMe

I started a new travel gig and was told by agency that facility requires 4-5 days of call per 6 weeks with one weekend per 6 weeks. I even did an over the phone interview with surgical manager and she said same thing. I was like cool. I get to facility and find that I have 12 days of call in a little over 4 weeks. I am very irritated because I feel I was lied to concerning the call requirements. Its not that I care that there is 12 days of call. It's that they told me there would only be the above mentioned and it is no where near that. I plan on bringing this up at the end of my assignment. What do you fellow travelers think of this?

Edit update! Thanks everybody for confirming this situation. I think what I'm gonna do is talk with manager and let her know I'm ending contract early because of the call. I will put in a 2 week notice and if they show their ass, i just won't show up to finish the contract.

Hi fellow travel CSTs. Wanted to get some insight from you guys.

I've been traveling since 2018. Got 20+ contracts under my belt now and getting ready to head to another in Virginia. Can I just say that I am burnt out as hell. I am so depressed. Like there I days I have no will to do literally anything. Not only that but the cost of some house repairs on my home where my money funnels into so savings have been non existent. Hubby lives there along with my kitties but the repairs have been alot lately. I have been racking my brain for the last 2 years trying to figure out how to make this better. I don't look forward to assignments anymore. I dread leaving home. I've missed out on so much family time especially with my hubby who hasn't been able to travel with me.

I get this existential dread when I have to go somewhere new. Just because as I like to say.."I never know what sort of shark infested waters I'm sailing into." I've been to so many places that hate me because I am a traveler and then others that are great.
To add insult to injury I have worked full time and as a traveler in the town that I am closest to which is Louisville, Ky. Nothing but shit at every location. Terrible, unhappy staff. Grade As$hole surgeons. Terrible management. I want to leave the field so badly but inflation and cost of living has just sky rocketed to the point where I would go into debt leaving this field behind. So my question to you guys who have been doing this for awhile is how are you finding joy? How are you keeping your head up? How are you affording the housing with lower travel rates?

I also have to include the issue that over the last almost 3 years, I have been living out of my jeep for assignments when I am not close to home. So that makes everything even more difficult from trying to find ways to keep cool in the summer to warm in the winter, cooking, showering. The cost of housing is unaffordable with the lower rates and before anyone asks about stipends and housing... I still pay ridiculous rent just to jeep camp. Minnesota I paid 800 a month to park in a field. So I am just trying to get your all's thoughts. I'm working towards a financial goal. I'm getting there very slowly but with the lower rates, cost of living, inflation, I'm mentally struggling.

Thanks for reading.

My love for Ghost.

For the love, I have gone beyond obsessed. I'm drowning in infatuation for this musical rapture. For some of us, this infatuation deals with not just the music because the music is just all that is, (Repsite on the Spitafields anyone?) but Tobias Forge himself and how he literally goes against all narratives and that rebellion is my gold horse.

I first heard Ghost back in 2018 going to work. Dark as shit outside. 5oclock in the morning heading to a surgery driving in my mustang down a country road in Kentucky. (CST here). I am listening to rock radio. On comes Dance Macabre. I'm like yeah this song is pretty cool . Over next few days I listen to it a few more times and my interests starts peaking

Fast forward, I quit my job in Kentucky because the surgeons were grade A assholes. It's the end of 2018 and I start traveling the US for surgery assignments. I'm at a podunk assignment in Indiana and literally cannot get enough of Faith. Blasting it in my car the 2 hour ride back to Kentucky amongst other Ghost songs to include Circe, Rats,..you get the point. I'm working in sterilizing instruments and I'm have my phone on speaker listening to "He Is". Blasting Ghost across the decontamination department. Wanting everyone to hear this masterpiece that is Ghost.

Fast forward from 2018 to 2026 (now) up to 22 assignments later ladies and gents. I am still blasting Ghost across operating rooms across the US of fucking A and I've introduced so many people to them. Anesthesia providers. Surgeons. Fellow CSTs. I listen to them whilst pulling surgery cases for the next day. Its like a literal drug for me. Nothing like Satans Prayer to get the day fucking done.

I hear or even see images of Tobias, ie any of the Papas and my body instantly reacts in goosebumps because I now have a visceral reaction. It's ingrained in my bones and in my organs. I dream about Ghost. I've gotten the Grucifix tattoo. Working a sleeve piece. I have the Grucifix on my mustang and my jeep. Stickers inside on the mirrors. I try to listen to other bands and succeed for a very, embarrassingly short amount of time.

Last album that came out, Skeletour, I was in Chaska, Minnesota. I waited for the drop from the hospital parking lot for Lachyrma and spent 3 months Jeep camping at an abandoned farm house blasting Ghost across the lake. I've seen them 3 times live asking myself how can life literally get any better because the band is amazing live. The theatrics are amazing and I always leave the concert in tears asking myself how is this most amazing moment of my life about to be over.

In addition to this, the lore of Ghost. The funny skits on youtube he does. My religious trauma growing up. I literally dread dying because I fear that I will miss a new tour or another album. This band has saturated my organs. My being. It is all that I want in my life and I have felt no to other place would perhaps understand than the Ghoul fanbase that is reddit. Sorry for a lengthy post but here I am in Indiana again... waiting on the Ghoul ball to come this Saturday in St. Louis and I've been prepping for months to go and experience this magic again with Ghost fans from Missouri until Tobias and the group get a much needed rest from their world tour. I know I yapped alot but if Tobias and Ghost ever read this....you literally have not a clue..at how much.. you mean to me. Thank you for such amazing talent that you are.

_---Surgery Ghoul---operating in your name