A busy week spent playing catch up after two vacations. Not whining as lots of folks don’t even get to take one but it does lead to mountains of laundry, mail, grocery shopping, bill paying and other chores. Although I’ve been off the past four days, it doesn’t seem like I’m making much headway on the list. One of the exciting tasks however was answering some fan mail from a participant at one of the Scholarship at Sea presentations – good for the ego.
Directly after returning from the cruise I headed out that evening on another flight and had a full week visiting my buddy, hanging out, checking out the sights and catching up on my sleep and reading. Which relates to the quote of the day here:
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Bertrand Russell
Good thing I was rested up as the flight was late getting away due to weather and so I missed my connection and had to take a later flight in to the city. The worst part of the flying was that I had developed clogged sinuses the departure day and the final two take offs and landings were excruciatingly painful. The delays meant an 11 p.m. arrival at the teacher daughters, frantic directions to the location of my clinical placement in the morning and a very short night.
Up to make my way across increased traffic, due to a transit strike, with a vehicle that was very slow to heat up and thus lane changes were a real lottery. Arrived safely at the health center, which opens at 7 a.m. and already there was a long line of those seeking to access the lab and x-ray departments. Although I frantically signaled the security guard through the locked glass door, I was ignored. Apparently, patients often try to access the building at 6:55 a.m. Imagine! Finally the team leader arrived and ‘swiped’ me in. I was not expected apparently but she quickly assigned me to one of the RNs. Free labour, is after all, free labour. I felt like an 85 year old as I couldn’t hear out of my left ear and my balance was off if I moved too quickly. Not exactly on my game, thankfully the instructor wasn’t there. She did make a brief appearance in the afternoon to see if I had actually arrived as I’d alerted her to the possibility of weather delays. Apparently I’d copied and pasted the email I’d sent to daughter # 2 about the delay and my instructor was pretty impressed with my closing of “love Mom”. The day was spent attempting to orientate myself enough to manage for three days but not add too many nonessential facts to this old brain as I have no intentions of actually working there. A tough balancing act.
I stopped off to pick up the videos transferred to DVDs and there was an impromptu showing of a quarter of a century previously with baby videos and local scenes. It was such a trip back to be able to see grandparents well as they had been in those days, they certainly loved their grandchildren. A few more tapes surfaced and have been left to be transferred and then I can copy for the movie stars to have their own. Good times, good times.
Clinical day two was spent under the watchful eye of the instructor so I was glad to have regained my hearing and balance. The day progressed routinely enough until the final three hours when the wheels came completely off of it. The emergency we had was one we manage in our own workplace so I felt fairly comfortable duffing in, offering suggestions and even barking some directions at others. When the instructor suggested afterwards that I might have been a bit overwhelmed I assured her that I was used to such situations which we handle with 1/3 of the staff and even less resources. Nothing like leaving on an adrenaline rush, I always say. I stop on the next block for gas and can’t get the car restarted, have to buy a phone card as mine has outdated in all my travels but finally get the car going then. I do manage to make it home to the daughter and son-in-law’s and find them entertaining his dad and stepmom as they’re flying out to Hawaii in the a.m. I think I manage pretty well as by this time….I am not feeling very socially inclined.
Early the next morning I am ecstatic that the car actually starts and since my final clinical day is Saturday I quietly get myself packed and out of the house….forgetting the lunch I’ve packed and the frozen char I was taking home to the shore captain. The fish can be retrieved on another visit but the lunch led to real problems as the in house Tim Horton’s I’d visited with my instructor the day before is NOT open on the weekends. This meant I ate out of the vending machine (not recommended) to attempt to survive a 12 hour shift. There were a number of major cases during the shift and I served notice that I’d be absconding at 6 p.m. as I had a three hour drive ahead of me and a 12 hr day shift in the a.m. It was pouring and a really long dark drive home but thankfully no snow.
Up early again – four days in a row now if you’re counting, as I sure was when the alarm rang at 5:15 a.m. It was a busy day on the inpatient unit where I hadn’t worked for over a month so I was sure glad to see the night shift come in. The next morning sleep in for night shifts was certainly welcome. I busied myself unpacking two sets of suitcases, doing laundry and setting the house back into the routine after we had been abandoned by the cleaning lady who had gone to Cuba for two weeks. The place was ‘man cleaned’ meaning it didn’t look too bad but there was gravel in my socks from walking across the floor. As I puttered about the phone rang and it was a co-worker advising me that the only son had “a bit of an accident on his 4-wheeler, his shoulder was sore and they’d given him a shot and he was in x-ray “. He apparently had been with a crowd of 12 in the interior of the province and pitched to the left off the machine after hitting something. He was wearing a helmet and was sober (not the case with his compatriots) and had to be brought several hours out of the woods on the back of someone else’s 4-wheeler, then drove himself (yes you read that correctly) to the Emergency Dept. His x-ray showed a fractured collarbone which was somewhat displaced but no other injuries. This meant I was spared the trip to a regional center to surgically repair a shoulder, which pleased the Supervisor who would’ve had to ‘somehow’ replace me for the night shift I was heading in for. His left arm is immobilized in a sling for 4 – 6 wks and he is finding it very difficult to be a one armed Capt. As his sister commented “just once when you call I’d like to hear you say ‘your brother won the lottery’ but no – it’s another injury!” Good thing he has his mother’s pain tolerance and not the other parent.
He has had mechanical troubles with the new engine he installed in the boat while we were cruising and it has overheated several times. Getting in and out of the engine room apparently requires the hired man to pull on the collar of his coveralls from above and the extra hired man (got to take someone else if all you do is sit in the wheelhouse) has to push up from underneath. Good thing he’s tall and thin. Which was the reason that I had to add an extension yesterday on to the purchased sling from the drugstore to fit him as his hand was hanging out as his wasn’t standard size and the clavicle wasn’t being stabilized like it should. I used camouflage patterned fleece and cut a hole for his thumb to stick in to anchor it. Very spiffy. As I tucked his empty sleeve into his pocket today when he left he said “oh, I just use that one to wave at everyone with”.
So, tomorrow there is a writing group meeting and I’m looking forward to reconnecting there. With my shift schedule it’s rare that I can make two meetings in a row. Unfortunately my switched shift this set means I’ll be doing three day shifts and only one night. Sigh.Speaking of work related issues (which I truly don't wish to on my days off) we're into the countdown provincially of wearing colorful scrubs as we'll be switching to white tops, black bottoms April 1st. One of the errands on my list was to try on the samples brought by the interfacility delivery van and THAT was an experience. Thank goodness the ward clerk helped me or I'd still be there. It turns out that according to the various styles I am either a medium, large or extra large size. I did manage to find three tops, two pants and a warm up jacket with only $15 of my own $ thrown in so that part was enjoyable.
