Thursday, June 29, 2006
Tick, Tock
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Umleitung
For those who do not know, I have decided to abandon this blog. (Wipe a tear, go on). I agonised over it for a good few minutes, I assure you, but I've decided that I needed a revamp. My blog has now been reincarnated and can be found at the below address. Thanks for reading, and I hope you like the new site.
We'll Always Have Zimbabwe
We'll Always Have Zimbabwe
Thursday, November 03, 2005
The Search
Here I am again on day three of my three days off. At the moment I have little to no feeling in my left middle and ring fingers after catching them in the stupid fire door yesterday night. I was trying to be helpful and close it gently so it didn't slam and wake people up (I don't know why, no one else seems to bother) and caught my fingers. I was so angry I just wanted to kick the crap out of the door, but that would have defeated the purpose of being quiet. So I was very restrained and merely swore at it a few times. The cleaners have taken it upon themselves the past few days to defrost the freezers, which to be fair are way past due. I went into the kitchen last night to wash up and the floor was covered in water. They had put a small bowl in the freezer and a towel down, but I think they may have slightly underestimated how much ice there was in there. I nearly broke my neck trying to jump across the pool (don't ask me why I decided to jump, I was still angry with the fire door).
Yesterday I had quite a productive day. I began the long and winding, errr, search for a job. My current one finishes in February so I need another 6 month job really. I've found 3 so far, but as any doctor in the UK will tell you, you need to apply to as many as possible in the current market which has too many doctors and not enough jobs. I also tidied my room up a little (not a lot). You'll be pleased to know I didn't get told off at the gym, just tutted at. That was probably because I turned up 2 hours early for my fitness session, duuh. I am now moving on to weights, though I would like to keep going with the cardio. The fitness plan is so long (it was taking me 1h20m+ to do all the things he laid out for me) that I can't really do both in a day. I'm going to try going every day this week until next Tuesday... I'll let you know how that pans out. Well I best get going. Gym first, followed by post office (life is a bag of laughs in Essex) and then coming back to talk to Jenn - it's her day off!
Sometimes when I wake up slowly
Paralysed by the fear within me
Lightning Seeds - Waiting For Today To Happen
Yesterday I had quite a productive day. I began the long and winding, errr, search for a job. My current one finishes in February so I need another 6 month job really. I've found 3 so far, but as any doctor in the UK will tell you, you need to apply to as many as possible in the current market which has too many doctors and not enough jobs. I also tidied my room up a little (not a lot). You'll be pleased to know I didn't get told off at the gym, just tutted at. That was probably because I turned up 2 hours early for my fitness session, duuh. I am now moving on to weights, though I would like to keep going with the cardio. The fitness plan is so long (it was taking me 1h20m+ to do all the things he laid out for me) that I can't really do both in a day. I'm going to try going every day this week until next Tuesday... I'll let you know how that pans out. Well I best get going. Gym first, followed by post office (life is a bag of laughs in Essex) and then coming back to talk to Jenn - it's her day off!
Sometimes when I wake up slowly
Paralysed by the fear within me
Lightning Seeds - Waiting For Today To Happen
Monday, October 31, 2005
Darkness Falls
I promised myself I would post in the week, and I've come pretty close. Tonight is my last night before my days off, so thats better than before I suppose. Its been a busy weekend at work, not least because of the extra hour I had to do on Saturday (grrr). Being on nights also means I miss talking to Jenn because she is at work until the time I start, and by the time I finish its far too late to call. I have my follow up session with a personal trainer at the gym tomorrow (gulp!), I have been better this week but still not good enough. Once I am back onto days it will be easier again. I've noticed that the situps aren't so agonisingly painful anymore, which has to be a good things. I still shake like a leaf though, and it makes me look stupid but hey, since when has that bothered me?
As I said work has been busy, notably Saturday night, which was just hell. At 4am we had ambulances crews queueing to get in. We have a sister hospital down the road, and apparently they had no patients! One of the nurses told me its because the crews don't like it there because a) the staff are rude and b) they make them wait outside whereas we let them wait inside. In the middle of all these patients a couple rushed in their baby and came up to me while I was about to pick up a head injury case (Saturday nights, gotta love em). My first thought when I saw him was 'oh crap', because he looked really unwell. I got him through to the resuscitation room and started the basics, oxygen etc. I got very tetchy because I asked the nurse to get a nebuliser for me (to help open up the baby's airways) and she said 'in a minute, I'm just putting up this parvolex'. Parvolex is a drip for paracetamol overdoses, and I got a bit annoyed because it could have waited 30 seconds. Anyway, after the nebuliser he was still struggling so I got the paeds team down. They got a drip in (such tiny veins) and carried on with the nebulisers, he was still short of breath but looked a little better. Panic over! I am actually doing a course on Paediatric Life Support in 2 weeks, so I'm sure I'll be more confident after that, but I came away from this feeling I had done ok.
Last night we had a chemical incident. Somehow (don't ask me how) we managed to have cyanide in the department (a patient brought it in...why?). People were starting to get dizzy and faint, so the fire brigade were called in. We had 2 fire engines, police and 2 ambulances (which seems a bit silly, where are they going to take them... A+E?). The firemen got dressed up in these huge space suits and came in. They put the cyanide in a bag, put the bag in a box and taped it up with 2 pieces of sellotape. They then took the box outside the door (about 15ft away) and left it there. 'That's our job done'. So they left, and there we are with a box of cyanide outside A+E sealed up with 2 pieces of tape. I don't even know how we got rid of it in the end... its probably in a bin somewhere.
Well thats about as exciting as it gets at the moment. Looking forward to December, as always, and it seems closer now as it is November tomorrow. Better go get ready for work, I'll catch you all on the flip side.
Lets take the train
To anywhere
I want to feel the wind in my hair with you
Missy Higgins - Don't Ever
As I said work has been busy, notably Saturday night, which was just hell. At 4am we had ambulances crews queueing to get in. We have a sister hospital down the road, and apparently they had no patients! One of the nurses told me its because the crews don't like it there because a) the staff are rude and b) they make them wait outside whereas we let them wait inside. In the middle of all these patients a couple rushed in their baby and came up to me while I was about to pick up a head injury case (Saturday nights, gotta love em). My first thought when I saw him was 'oh crap', because he looked really unwell. I got him through to the resuscitation room and started the basics, oxygen etc. I got very tetchy because I asked the nurse to get a nebuliser for me (to help open up the baby's airways) and she said 'in a minute, I'm just putting up this parvolex'. Parvolex is a drip for paracetamol overdoses, and I got a bit annoyed because it could have waited 30 seconds. Anyway, after the nebuliser he was still struggling so I got the paeds team down. They got a drip in (such tiny veins) and carried on with the nebulisers, he was still short of breath but looked a little better. Panic over! I am actually doing a course on Paediatric Life Support in 2 weeks, so I'm sure I'll be more confident after that, but I came away from this feeling I had done ok.
Last night we had a chemical incident. Somehow (don't ask me how) we managed to have cyanide in the department (a patient brought it in...why?). People were starting to get dizzy and faint, so the fire brigade were called in. We had 2 fire engines, police and 2 ambulances (which seems a bit silly, where are they going to take them... A+E?). The firemen got dressed up in these huge space suits and came in. They put the cyanide in a bag, put the bag in a box and taped it up with 2 pieces of sellotape. They then took the box outside the door (about 15ft away) and left it there. 'That's our job done'. So they left, and there we are with a box of cyanide outside A+E sealed up with 2 pieces of tape. I don't even know how we got rid of it in the end... its probably in a bin somewhere.
Well thats about as exciting as it gets at the moment. Looking forward to December, as always, and it seems closer now as it is November tomorrow. Better go get ready for work, I'll catch you all on the flip side.
Lets take the train
To anywhere
I want to feel the wind in my hair with you
Missy Higgins - Don't Ever
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
The Empty Half
Well my ambition to post between workdays seems to have fallen through again. OK so its not so much an 'ambition' in that people have ambitions like climbing Mount Everest or pulling along a car attached by chains to their nipples. Not me, I hasten to point out, just some people. Have had a good few days off, I went back home and relaxed. When I got back last it struck me how stir crazy I get living in the hospital grounds. I spend 10 hours a day at work and 8ish sleeping, and probably another 3 hours a day eating/showering/watching Takeshi's Castle. So I really only spend 3 hours a day not here, which is depressing. Oh, and another thing I'm bitter about is the upcoming time change... the clocks go back on Sunday, which for most people means an extra hour in bed, but for me it means an extra hour at work (I'm on nights). Sorry about the grumble, but I've been moaning to everyone so I can count another, well, 2 people I've grumbled to, and Jenn again (sorry).
My life is once more terribly unenthralling, I can't wait till December when I get to go back to New Jersey. The only other thing I have planned at the moment is my course in November for 2 days in Bristol. My my, thats going to be a busy week, I've done a swap that weekend for someone who needs the days off, so I work 8 days in a row, 1 day off and then onto nights (yet again) for another 6 days. And in the middle of the 8 I have to travel to Bristol for 2 of them. I suppose that will be a nice 'break' in a way though! Jenn and I were reading through my old blogs the other day and it really struck me how my writing is so much different in style. My old posts were full of enthusiasm and detail about my days (I could remember them because I posted so often), whereas I barely even mention work now. Its strange how something that you would assume to be extremely varied ends up feeling almost monotonous. Probably because you do end up seeing the same presentations again and again, and its only very rare that something new comes along. I don't know if its because of the weather getting colder or the days drawing in, but patients and their relatives are becoming increasingly impatient, and unwilling to wait. I find it highly irritating that we are working our arses off but people still complain that they are not getting seen quickly enough. Unlike all the other jobs I did there are no 'natural breaks' in the day, ie times when no-one is waiting to be seen and you can sit down for 10 minutes. In fact this did happen the other day, for the first time in 3 months and it was weird. It only lasted a few minutes, with 7 people arriving in the space of quarter of an hour, and after that we got buried. Anyway, my point is that in most jobs that involve some kind of waiting (including Jenn's) people are always going to be like that and demand to be seen quicker, which in the end slows people down while they a) explain why things are taking so long and try and appease and b) bitca (sic) about them to the other employees afterwards. Its not like we are sat there doing nothing, we are working as fast as we can. You wouldn't walk to the front of a supermarket queue and hastle them for waiting so why do it anywhere else.
Phew, rant over. Sorry about that. OK well I'm off to the gym (see, I do go ;) and I'll catch you all on the flip side. I will post this week, I will post this week...
I was happy
In my harbour
When you cut me loose
KT Tunstall - Silent Sea
My life is once more terribly unenthralling, I can't wait till December when I get to go back to New Jersey. The only other thing I have planned at the moment is my course in November for 2 days in Bristol. My my, thats going to be a busy week, I've done a swap that weekend for someone who needs the days off, so I work 8 days in a row, 1 day off and then onto nights (yet again) for another 6 days. And in the middle of the 8 I have to travel to Bristol for 2 of them. I suppose that will be a nice 'break' in a way though! Jenn and I were reading through my old blogs the other day and it really struck me how my writing is so much different in style. My old posts were full of enthusiasm and detail about my days (I could remember them because I posted so often), whereas I barely even mention work now. Its strange how something that you would assume to be extremely varied ends up feeling almost monotonous. Probably because you do end up seeing the same presentations again and again, and its only very rare that something new comes along. I don't know if its because of the weather getting colder or the days drawing in, but patients and their relatives are becoming increasingly impatient, and unwilling to wait. I find it highly irritating that we are working our arses off but people still complain that they are not getting seen quickly enough. Unlike all the other jobs I did there are no 'natural breaks' in the day, ie times when no-one is waiting to be seen and you can sit down for 10 minutes. In fact this did happen the other day, for the first time in 3 months and it was weird. It only lasted a few minutes, with 7 people arriving in the space of quarter of an hour, and after that we got buried. Anyway, my point is that in most jobs that involve some kind of waiting (including Jenn's) people are always going to be like that and demand to be seen quicker, which in the end slows people down while they a) explain why things are taking so long and try and appease and b) bitca (sic) about them to the other employees afterwards. Its not like we are sat there doing nothing, we are working as fast as we can. You wouldn't walk to the front of a supermarket queue and hastle them for waiting so why do it anywhere else.
Phew, rant over. Sorry about that. OK well I'm off to the gym (see, I do go ;) and I'll catch you all on the flip side. I will post this week, I will post this week...
I was happy
In my harbour
When you cut me loose
KT Tunstall - Silent Sea
