Picking Blueberries

Yesterday Mum and I went picking blueberries. For those of you who dont know blueberries grow on a small bush and they pop off like little flowers when they're ripe. We had so much fun. I got down on the ground and got all the big ones under the tree. It was so exciting when you found the biggest purplest blueberry and you just know its going to be delicious. Today I'm baking a blueberry pie and muffins.

Travel Blog

Andrew and I have made a travel blog to write about all the things to do with our trip www.aliceandandrewstravels.blogspot.com

an adventure of this ymn

Well its nice to have something other than work to blog about. Andrew and I have just come back from a camping holiday in Mapua. Yes, this is the infamous nudist beach, but fortunately only in Feb and March. Its a great spot actually, nice clean facilities, beach really close and a cool bar/restaurant looking out over the water. Every night we were there there was a live band playing and big drums of fire keeping the beach illuminated. Anyhow heres some pics.......

We found this octopus stranded on the beach so Andrew found a stick and we put it back in the water. It was really white when we found it and as soon as it got in the water it went bright red.

Last Night

So, I've just finished another set of quiet nights. Last night was the most interesting I think. I was mistakenly first on the list to go away and fully expected to do so. After the last two boring nights I actually thought it would be nice to go hang out somewhere else for a while. But no, the duty manager didnt have anywhere for me to go so I ended up floating round ICU for the night. We did some turns, made a tea trolley and sat round chatting for a while. Not long into the night I got a phone call from one of the ortho wards. The nurse on the phone seemed quite nice but a bit stressed. She told me that her patient was having an anaphylaxis and her doctors wouldn't come. She told me her sats and GCS were dropping. TRUCKS!!!!!!! I grabbed a reg and we headed up to sort it out. Immediately when we got there I could see that the patient was fine, she was warm, well perfused, ABC intact and told me she actually felt a bit better. The staff were probably in a worse state. The arrest trolley was there, but the airways box was still on the shelf. I did my assessment, covered up this poor lady who'd been left half naked while everyone was flapping and stood back to listen to the goings on. She had a SBP of over 240 and a ST around 120, sats were 89% on 5L. There was nearly nothing to suggest she was having an anaphylaxis. It was a good thing we came because the house surgeon (who I presume was extremely new to the job) was about to line her and give adrenaline. VERY VERY bad idea. More doctors arrived, the flapping carried on and eventually we left them to it. I like doing call away jobs, its so extremely different from a clinical emergency in the unit. It made me think I'd like to develop a better system for myself in those situations.
The rest of the night passed by pretty uneventfully. I was allocated to helping in the infectious room so that meant I dodged the burns room. I sneaked into the cardiac unit which was closed for the holidays to have a sleep. Theres a store room there that always has a huge pile of mattresses and is usually quite quiet. When I woke up I realised that there was someone else sleeping in the main bit. I tried to sneak past but I wasnt sneaky enough and I think I gave him a bit of a fright. The turns were all done by 530 and Helen let us go at 6.

Things I like about Shifts

Night Shift
1. The tea trolley (especially Germaines bean dip and Rachelles chilli chicken pizza)
2. Sleeping in
3. No visitors
4.Warm cuddles at 3am
5.Reading a book
6.The slight crazy effect it has on everyone
7.The feeling of getting into a warm bed when every part of your body is completely weak
8.Sleeping on Andrews side of the bed
9.Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee
10. Crossword puzzles and the latest celeb goss

Morning Shift
1. Feeling human
2. Eating proper meals
3. Sleeping with Andrew
4. Ward rounds (I actually have a love hate thing going on with the rounds)
5. Lots of things to do
6. Washes, shaves and nice smellies

Working Nights

Today was my weekly 24 hour day, that is 24 hours of awakeness. I had a busy and I must say fufilling day at home painting, grouting, washing, gardening and doing the dishes. I saw my friend Sarah and her two precious boys. Ollie is very shy but seems to be warming to me, he nearly dribbled all over me which seems like a good sign. I started my week of nights with a really nice long term patient. Its great being able to communicate with patients sometimes. I read a whole book on shift tonight. Was the first time I've ever done that. Once I read Angels and Demons in two nights. I had a sleep for an hour which helped me feel a million times better. Its amazing how comfortable an old chair in a store room can be at 4am.

Tiling

Today I have learnt that its better to follow the instructions on the back of the grouting packet than try to invent your own way of grouting. Its much faster and doesn't make your husband complain that your grouting sucks. Either way I think grouting altogether sucks. I hate the grittiness of it and the fact you have to mix it yourself to exactly the right consistency without having any idea of what that looks like. Laying the tiles is much more fun. The adhesive smells kinda nice and has a nice putty consistency.

Micheal Buble and Pigs

I had quite a fun day today I must say. I meant to get up early and go for a swim before meeting my friend Erin for coffee. Since I spent half of my sleeping time last night writing blogs I decided to sleep in a bit instead. I had a really nice coffee with Erin, who is American and has a really great accent and perspective on American culture. After that I did pull myself into the pool, despite my temptation to be lazy. It felt so good for my arms and legs because they were so sore from Sat night. I talked to an old lady on my way round and she said she wished she had my energy. I thought she was doing pretty well to come to the pool and exercise even though she was so old. I had hopes to meet my friend Sarah after that but she has a crazy life with two young boys and a sick husband and it never worked out. So instead I went into town and had a walk round the gardens. It was so nice because it was so sunny and warm and I was listening to Micheal Buble on my IPod. It made me feel very happy. Actually I havent had this in ages but it was the kind of happy that you couldnt help but to smile as big of a smile that you possibly could.
Perhaps it looked a bit strange to other people. Oh well, the world needs more smiles.
My walk ended in the gardens when I ran out of garden. I made my way to the lawyers to drop off a christmas card and box of chocs and headed into town. Town is quite interesting. First I saw a guy playing the bagpipes and it made me jiggle a bit. It was a shame I didnt have any change for him or I might have jiggled a bit more than I did. After that I saw a girl walking her Rotwheeler dog and 3 tiny puppies that were peeing all over the pavement. I'm not sure if they were together but behind her was a guy walking a pig too. The pig didnt have a lead, just seemed to follow this guy where ever. Weird.
After a bit more ambling I went to receive my cert for finishing my critical care course. It was a nice do, even the DON made an appearance. Its weird because the only time I see her is when shes making an appearance at some do. Its like thats her job. The food was really budget compared to what the trainee doctors get which amuses me to no end. Some really nice people were there and at the end we had a photo. Once again my shortness not only put me in the front, it put me kneeling on the cold concrete. Germaine was next to me and she got cramp, I couldnt stop giggling.
I am so tired after my busy day.

Good times in scummy town

Andrew and I had another great experience together last night. At 9pm I was given the whole night off on leave and it just so happened that we had a party to go to. I felt slightly guilty about that afterwards cause I heard it went crazy and they probably could have used my help, But anyway..
We got to Nikki and Georges party about 10 and were meet by George and Mike, George filled up our glasses with eggnog and we meet a new friend called Madison. Shes a trainiee doctor and a really cool chick. During the course of the night I meet some more people, (weirdly, all nurses from the hospital who I hadnt meet before), danced in the middle of the lounge despite being completely sober and the only ones doing it and dressed George for town. We headed into town with Sam, George and Nikki. As soon as we got there there was this huge fight in the middle of the street that blocked off all the traffic and attracted 5 police cars and a paddy wagon. It upset me alot cause I hate violence so much and the boys seemed to get off on it a bit. Then we had a terrible time at the Treehouse, which I used to think of as really scummy but I now realise that its on par with all the other bars in Christchurch. After hearing Oak do his song I meet another nurse who seemed really nice until he realised I was married. We left there and had a strange run of being turned away from nearly every bar on Manchester Street. Finally we convinced the bouncer at the grumoy mole that, No, Andrew was not kicked out of here eariler in the night and yes we were well sober enough to enter. The rest of the crew left then and it was me Sam and Andrew booging away until we were the only ones left and they put a bugs bunny "thats all folks" cartoon on the big screen. We walked around for a while after that, which usually would feel quite unsafe to me but because I was with two guys it was really fun. Andrew wasnt let into the Viaduct where another crew of people we knew were so we settled for the boulevard where we only got in because some girl pashed the bouncer while we were walking in. All the broken glass on the floor kept getting into my jandal and since Andrew had already cut himself twice Iwas a wee bit worried. Despite this, the bad music and the heavily obese Maori guy watching us dance I had a pretty good time dancing with the guys. Its weird being a girl in town, theres definitely predatory type guys all around you that you cant help noticing. After that we went to the outside bit where Sam did his thing trying to buy a cigarette with no luck-even though it was strangely obvious that one of the bouncers was smoking drugs. Thinking back on it now it seems so weird to put myself amongst such dodgy surroundings. Anyway after that we walked back into town for some KFC, where I saw the biggest most disgusting mess I've ever seen. I also learnt that KFC is open Christmas- sucks working Christmas but even more it sucks being the person who has to work Christmas at KFC. We had some good talks and I drove us home safe and sound. Such a fun time.

Opinions

Lately I've been thinking about being an adult and having opinions. Its a weird thing as you grow you develop more and more skills of discernment and are exposed to more and more different ideas. I recently found great enjoyment in discussing, or even at an extreme debating different view points with people. Thats why blogs are great, everyone can be free to share ideas and with an open mind make informed decisions about life. Personally, lately I've come to realise that the lie that everyone can have their own truth is rubbish. Where in actual life do we see that opposite truths can exist as both correct. It would be ludicrous to suggest that 1+1 equals 2 but also equals 19 if one would like to believe that. Deep. Any ideas??? Perhaps I'm walking on shaky ground here and I need to back up a bit. I don't want to offend anyone and I try to be as emotionally removed from discussion as I can be in order to harbor an openess in my thinking. I've also found that its good to not take life this seriously all the time.