What Have I Been Doing....

Well... I've been busy. No really I do occasionally move from the front of my computer. The sad thing is that although I have all this time I have spent relatively little time working in any of the hospitals.
Agency-wise I've done 3 night shifts. I hate night shift. I hate more night shift in wards where I don't have a scooby as to what is going on. General surgery for example by-passes me a bit, although by the 2nd night I could at least follow the hand over. It was interesting that I got a shift back on my old orthopaedic ward. I loved that place when I was there and yea it even still smells the same. Not bad, I've been on wards that stink to high heaven, just a certain blend of soap and equipment stocked. It's unique to the ward, none of the other ortho wards I've been on smell the same.
In other places - I've been moving out of the flat. It's gone to mammoth proportions. Of course as world's best procrastinator I've put it all off to the last day. Aren't I smart! No wonder people shake their heads when I try to prioritise!
I've got the optician tomorrow for my contact lens fitting. Well you imagine jumping in a lake with a pair of glasses. Oh and if it couldn't be worse the glasses I do have don't react to the sunlight so I'd be guarding the lake without sunglasses. That's far more difficult than it sounds you know.

Not long till I leave now. I'll be there this time next week!!! So excited!

On This Day....

... in 1990 the World Health Organisation passed a resolution to remove Homosexuality from it's list of mental illnesses.

The World Health Organization's ICD-9 (1977) listed homosexuality as a mental illness, and in 1990, a resolution was adopted to remove it in the ICD-10 (1993).

Wikipedia

The ICD-10 then carried the note-

Sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder.

Movin' On

I've not got long left....
My flights for the USA leave on the 1st of June which only leaves ?15 days. So plan....

17th -
18th - Agency Night Shift
19th - Agency Night Shift
20th - Pack Up Flat
21st - Youth Group
22nd -
23rd - Agency Night Shift
24th - Pack Up Flat
25th -
27th - Move out remainder of stuff
28th - Final Youth Group, Clean Flat
29th - Hand in flat keys
30th - Packing
31st - More Packing
1st June! - Leave for camp!

Dang! See I have to leave the flat and pack for camp and earn money at the same time. We need an extra week in May people! I also have to - find a way of getting a medical for less than the £80 my practice charges; see my dentist (lest one of my teeth decides to abscess/get infected/lose a filling); get asthma review; make sure NMC/college paperwork is finalised; pay off all debts to college; see the doc so they can medicate my panic attacks for the next 3 months......

I should probably do the doc / dentist / nurse on one day (like I don't already spend enough time in the NHS as is). Just realised that sticking all that into one day would be some people's idea of hell. It's my idea of freaking boring. I intensely dislike waiting rooms. All waiting rooms.

The dentist's is the worst simply because you find 2 kinds of person in my dentist's practice. Those with no/bad teeth (that includes me) and those who freak-out at the thought of a check up. (I am sacred of a lot of things but the dentist's isn't one of them.) When I'm in pain I want everyone else to naff off and I can be quite nasty about it too so why in the name of the wee man would I want to listen to someone gibbering on about a simple check-up? Last time I went to the doc's I was (almost) rocking back and forth as I was nursing the tail end of a major panic attack. So you can imagine the looks I was getting that day.

I guess that having other people judge you when you walk in doesn't help. Why are you not limping / bleeding / moaning with pain? Excuse me but when did the GP become A&E? I'm also guessing that anyone sneezing and coughing is black-balled.

And Finally.... was out for dinner with the Milkman, Tex, the Artful Hustler, Hollywood, the Milkman's BFF, the Artful Hustler's BFF and Mr. Sensible tonight. Hollywood is not known for a manly sneeze and so when the giant phallic symbol (sorry they call it a pepper mill) got knocked over he started a sneezing fit. The Milkman's BFF yelled at the top of his lungs -
"SWINE FLU!"
And proceeded to try and climb over the partition wall thing in an attempt to get away. He only brought the attention of every diner in the restaurant to our table. Of course we are a big attention draw the 8 of us, our conversations can be on anything from movies and books, to Ann Summers and the dark side of the internet!

I Feel The Need To Spam

SCORE! The best Trekkie meme ever!

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi

You are a caring and loving individual.
You understand people's emotions and
you are able to comfort and counsel them.
Deanna Troi - 95%

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Beverly Crusher - 65%

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Spock - 64%

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Chekov - 60%

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Leonard McCoy (Bones) - 55%

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Uhura - 55%

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Will Riker - 50%

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An Expendable Character (Redshirt) - 50%

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Data - 48%

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Worf - 45%

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Mr. Sulu - 40%

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Jean-Luc Picard - 40%

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Mr. Scott - 35%

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James T. Kirk (Captain) - 30%

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Geordi LaForge - 25%

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Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Anyone else think that Deanna would be a kick-ass nurse?

Florence Nightingale's Museum

I recommend that if you like your history / nursing / history of nursing you need to go to the Florence Nightingale museum.
It has an amazing amount of information on her life and the work she did. There is also an exhibit on Mary Seacole (who is also a total idol of mine!).
We couldn't take photos inside sadly and as I look back over the contents of my digital camera most of the photos really aren't worth cluttering the blog up.

On a similar note the keyring in the photo from the post before is Nurse Bean (it's from a collection). I have a larger one too but I thought since I couldn't be in the photos my keyring could be. That actually turned out better than I thought.

So nothing much more to report. My visa was granted so I shall go to the States!
Only 2 weeks to go!

Sleepy

Someone's put something in my drink. I'm exhausted.
I do have photos.
They are stuck on my camera... except this one.
Did go to Flo's museum - will report on that tomorrow.
Visa was approved so I can go to camp this year!
Right... can I sleep now?

London

Well tonight I board a train and head down the illustrious capital of this tiny isle...

Oh all right. I'm dragging my butt to London so I can attend my interview at the American Embassy. It's a requirement of me getting my visa so I can actually work at camp this year.

I said to Karin over at 12 Hour Nurse that I would go to the Florence Nightingale museum and post photos. So in about 24 hour's time I should have a post up with my London hi-jinxs. Or there will be a news story about a mad Scottish woman getting arrested.......

OINK!

My 2 favourite things right now are:

1. Telling people I'm signed off
   and
2. Making fun of Swine Flu

Yea I know number 2 isn't very grown up but to be honest it is Scotland's biggest joke right now.
It's kinda coming to a big nothing. The two people who were the UK's first cases have sold their stories to the newspapers. And the government has produced the most patronising leaflet since the one about disaster preparedness.

The jokes are doing the rounds as well.... We have the one about breaking out in 'rashers'. Of course you can insert almost any 'oink'ment joke as appropriate. Oh and my current personal favourite has to be any poor sod with hay fever, a cold or an asthmatic/COPD/smokers' cough being let loose on a bus or train. Fastest way to get the annoying person sitting beside you to move.

Worst part is I could have saved them millions on the whole message thing. You know; wash your hands, use a tissue, bin the tissue............
We had a strangely similar message going about nearly 70 years ago.......

Who Da Nurse?

Me that's who!
I got signed off!

Me.... Nurse ....... Qualified...... Finished........ *OK time to quit hyperventilating*




Shit.

The Elephant in the Room

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
By Terry Kettering

There’s an elephant in the room.
It is large and squatting,
so it is hard to get around it.

Yet we squeeze by with,
“How are you?” and, “I’m fine,”
and a thousand other forms of trivial chatter.

We talk about the weather;
we talk about work;
we talk about everything else—
except the elephant in the room.

There’s an elephant in the room.
We all know it is there.
We are thinking about the elephant
as we talk together.

It is constantly on our minds.
For, you see, it is a very big elephant.
It has hurt us all, but we do not talk about
the elephant in the room.

Oh, please, say her name.
Oh, please, say “Barbara” again.
Oh, please, let’s talk about
the elephant in the room.

For if we talk about her death,
perhaps we can talk about her life.
Can I say, “Barbara” to you
and not have you look away?
For if I cannot,
then you are leaving me alone
in a room—with an elephant.

My elephant isn't bereavement but the poem is true all the same.