Saturday, December 30, 2006

Jagshemash!

Al, Lindsay, Pete & I went to a shag on the 22nd and had a blast. It was nice we were let out of work early so we were at least able to do something fun on a Friday night. It was packed, so I didn't get to do very much dancing :-( Surprisingly, I ended up winning a tonne of prizes!!

All night long, Pete was talking like Borat, which I had no clue who that was, but just thought it was hilarious. He was so good at it, every time we would run into someone from work he would pretend to be Lindsay's husband Borat from Kazakhstan, and people would come up to Lindsay afterwards and say "Your husband isn't from around here, is he?" So after listening to that all I night I was dying to see the movie even though I knew nothing about it.

Since mom is up visiting, I decided to take her... (anyone who knows of Borat or who has seen the movie is gasping in shock right now - I now know that this is not the movie to take your mother to....especially MY mother!) It was actually a cute movie, very funny... although pretty nasty - if it wasn't so close to the end, I probably would've walked out during the naked fight scene between the 2 men!! It was absolutely disgusting, and way too long of a scene. Well, the movie was entertaining...

Anyways, I have discovered that Pete does a better Borat imitation than Borat himself does in the movie ;-)

One of my favourite little clips from the movie: (it's short, and one of the few clean scenes!)

BTW: I recommend hitting play, and then as soon as it starts hit pause for a few seconds to allow the movie to almost completely download before attempting to play it. Although it is a really short clip, it still takes a bit to download.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

To all my Northern friends....

Living in Northern Ontario, I can totally feel his pain! (Then again, it's the end of December, and surprisingly we don't really have snow yet..... so thankfully I haven't felt the pain yet this year!)


Sunday, December 10, 2006

This Educational Moment Brought to You by The Simpsons.....

Who knew a faggot was actually a bundle of sticks bound together for fuel! I need to watch The Simpsons more often. It's educational ;-)

Source: American Psychological Association (APA):faggot. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1).

Thursday, December 07, 2006

That's All I Have Left To Say...

Exhausted ... burnt out ... fried ... not one more ounce of me left to give ...

That's all I have left to say ...

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

This too, shall pass.....I hope!

I am SO TIRED of being SICK! If I am magically better Thursday night, I will know it has all been just stress, otherwise it's the flu that just keeps dragging on. I constantly ache and feel like someone has beaten the crap out of me; I haven't been able to keep any food in me for roughly 2 weeks now, especially the past 3 days; and the ripping stomach aches that hit me when I am lying in bed at night makes me momentarily think I am dying. (Yet ironically I'm not losing weight - go figure) I called in sick last Wednesday, and my manager gave me such a rough time about it, and basically accused me of faking it, so it's just been easier to just suck it up and go to work. I just carry a little bucket around with me (as of course my desk has to be the farthest from the washroom!) {thoughts edited out to protect my job}

Ironically I watched on the news last night how most bosses prefer when their staff calls in sick when they have a cold/flu - (yeah, all bosses except those who work for the government!) Not only does the virus get spread around, resulting in more people getting sick, lack of productivity is another factor, as one just doesn't have the energy to give 100% at the office.

Thursday night I am supposed to get a flu shot - makes me wonder now if I even need to bother!

This too, shall pass....right?????? At least, thankfully, I am off tomorrow in preparation for my BIG exam on Thursday... hopefully I can recuperate while studying!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Time for a real blog entry again…

I revamped my blog the other night when I switched over to the beta version. It is so much easier to use, except I hate how you have to constantly re-log in every screen change, despite selecting “remember me” – gets a little frustrating after a while. Hope you guys like the improvements – now to try and make it a little more interesting and on topic now that I am a member of the nurses blog ring! Just wish I had an interesting life to fill in my blog with ;-)

So I found out on Friday where my January clinical placement will be – unfortunately it isn’t just a couple blocks from my house this time; it’s actually about a 20 minute drive. Normally that wouldn’t be a very big deal, but considering I usually don’t get to sleep until 3:30 am, and will need to be at clinical for 7 am, those extra few minutes that I could have been sleeping really do make a difference (especially after what happened last year!) Hopefully my request for modifying my hours a bit (coming in half an hour early each day all week so I can leave work 2 ½ hours earlier the night before clinical) will be approved. I guess worst case scenario is that I can use vacation time again this year, but I get so few vacation days as it is, and I work so hard all year long, it really sucks to have to use precious vacation time for school. I usually have to give up 2 – 3 days around exam time as it is. Oh well, the sacrifices we make to try and better our lives.

Wrote my anatomy bell-ringer exam today. I studied my ASS off for this exam; probably the hardest I ever prepared for an exam. Almost every waking moment for the past 2 weeks has been in preparation for this exam; from coffee breaks and lunch hours, flash cards between screen changes at work, flash cards at red lights in my vehicle, having friends give me spelling tests on the really complicated words - like chordae tendineae (no way I was losing 10% on spelling on THIS exam!) I had company from back home that I hadn’t seen in over a year stay with me last weekend, plus worked at a craft show Saturday, and my flashcards never left my hands. So I went in thinking I would get around a 90% cuz I KNEW MY STUFF! Unfortunately came out of it a little less certain…

Pathetically enough, I think I did the worst on the male reproductive system – I blame it on the fact that the model was so small (hee hee – no pun intended) that I had difficulty landmarking the internal vessels/structures... I also had a little difficulty with some of the circulatory system too, especially in the neck and face, as once again the models were so confusing. Most of the models were colour coded (red for arteries, blue for veins, {except obviously for the pulmonary arteries and veins} yellow for nerves, etc) but on some of the models everything was just pink, and in 30 seconds per station, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for landmarking so at times I just had to guess…




(speaking of the pulmonary arteries, it just dawned on me that I got that question wrong! I just realized I labeled it as a vein – DOH! I went in prepared for the trick question, and the 30 second time limit screwed me up!)








I’m positive that I passed THIS exam, so there is still hope of me passing this course yet so I am not giving up on my dream of applying to medical school just yet. And my final lecture exam is next Thursday, which is worth 45% of my final mark, so as long as I can do really well on it, I will make it………..

Sorry this wasn’t the most exciting blog…but literally nothing new in my life as every waking moment has been used studying, and every thought has been regarding anatomical landmarks! 10 more days until I am done school for a month! What will I do with all that free time?????

Thursday, November 16, 2006

It’s All Fun And Games….Until Your Dog Puts a Tooth Through Your Monitor

So I am playing around on my laptop, while laying in bed watching TV (slow episode of Criminal Minds) Molly (my non-cuddly beagle) is curled up on my lap cuz she senses I am sick. I start playing a game and am moving the cursor all over the screen. This catches Molly’s eye and she starts intently following the cursor. I think it’s adorable and start teasing her with more complicated cursor movements. When I would slow the movements down, she would lick the screen where the cursor was (ew – will clean that up later).

I had a flashback to when I was staying at my friend Carrie’s place back home, and when playing Mario Kart on Super Nintendo with Tim & Jon, Carrie’s cats would run up to the screen and start batting at the characters on the TV. When a character would disappear, the cats would run behind the TV to see where they went. I used to think that was cute, and thought, hmmmm, what would Molly do if the cursor disappeared. So, I started moving the cursor quicker and quicker and then just when I was about to make it appear like the cursor was going to go off the screen “CRUNCH” – Molly decided to catch the cursor with her teeth.

Yeah….it was cute at first…..

Time out....

Home sick with the flu tonight :-( Guess I shouldn’t really complain as I haven’t been sick in a LONG time and it’s been going around the office. I’ve managed to avoid all the colds that went around this fall, and despite my crazy schedule and lack of sleep, I’ve been surprisingly really healthy lately. Then “bam.” I even missed school today, which I did not want to do considering how little hope I have of passing this course right now as it is! Oh well.

Crawling back into bed now….

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Go, Leafs, Go!


I've always wanted to attend a Leafs game and tonight would have been a perfect one to go to. Home ice - playing against their #1 rivals, Montreal - and winning 5 - 1!!!! Toronto is actually doing awesome lately! And strangely without Sundin who is off injured right now! Wellwood and McCabe are the ones to watch right now!

This year I picked some great players for my hockey pool, all high scorers, but they keep getting injured, so I'm not doing very well :-( Sundin and Bertuzzi are the guys I need back out there! Thank goodness I still have Jagr winning points for me!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Telemarketer Revenge

First, get a train whistle - j/k.

(Sorry for stealing your next blog topic, Peter!)

I came across this and thought it was hilarious - my only complaint is that the radio show hosts that introduce it didn't turn their mics off while they played the clip; their laughing drowns out some of the words, and I haven't been able to find a version of this yet that doesn't have someone laughing along with it. Thankfully, you can read along with the audio.




On somewhat of a similar topic, in this case, insurance companies, I thought this was cute too. One of my youtube saved favourites:

Monday, October 30, 2006

Distorted Perception of Beauty?

Well, something a little more serious and mature to add to my blog for once ;-)

I thought this was interesting: Dove (yes, the soap company) has a compelling video that I recommend everyone take a look at. I feel it is worth the approx 30 seconds of your time. (Yes, I do realize that it is part of a marketing campaign, but I still feel the message being portrayed is beneficial.)

I wish someone had shown me this when I was in high school; when I was impressionable and obsessed with thinking I had to look like the models in the teen fashion magazines I was reading! It took me years before I realized that this was what was behind my eating disorder then (and my concerned friend, Jackie, writing that essay in English about my example eventually helped too!)

Delving more into the site, there are facts and information for parents, teachers, and each one of us. I found it to be quite thought-provoking. I loved the "Real women have real curves" slogan ;-)

I do recommend checking the site out, even if it is only to view the brief video, and passing the link on to a friend. Maybe it will help open the eyes of a young impressionable youth. Worth the try...

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

When was the last time you told someone how beautiful/handsome they are?

Thursday, October 26, 2006

So You Want to Become A Doctor....

Only in Northwestern Ontario….

My mom and dad were just up here for a few days, as it was my dad’s consultation appointment at the cancer clinic. Took forever to get that consultation appointment booked as it was, and I’m sure it was only that soon becuz I kept hounding my mom to call and remind the Dr’s to get it set up! Anyways, we were just happy that things were starting to get moving so treatments could begin before the bad weather starts.

So apparently dad was in the Dr’s office for less that 5 minutes, and was told that they want to get on the radiation treatments “right away” .... so his first radiation appointment is in April. APRIL!!??????!!!!!! Wow! I’d hate to know WHEN treatment would have started if he didn’t need to get started "right away"! Yep, sounds about right….that’s health care in Northwestern Ontario for you!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Who Brought The Cat?


This is the FUNNIEST thing I have seen in AGES!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

"Driving fast in your car...I've got you tracked on my radar..."

Tonight I learned that I am not allowed to listen to Gwen Stefani's song "Crash" while I am driving. I just LOVE that song and get totally engrossed in it! And I also learned that I am definitely headed in the right direction career wise!

On my way home on a major intersection I was totally jamming to my song and didn't notice how fast I was going.... sure enough I see red flashing lights in my rearview mirror. Well apparently I have a twin in the city... hottie cop comes up to my window and says, "Hey, I know you - you work at the hospital. Slow it down a bit will ya." And he let me go! Believe me, I would have remembered if I knew HIM!!! Wow!!!! Anyways.... where was I??

So I slow it down, turn up my song again, (big mistake) and not even 5 minutes later I see flashing lights in my rearview mirror! I was speeding AGAIN! Just a couple blocks from where I was pulled over a few minutes before!!! Not-quite-so-hottie cop comes up to my window and says. "The speed limit is 50 you know...oh hi! You work at the hospital don't you? Keep up the good work." And he let me go! So off my iPod went and I went 20 all the way home!

If you are at all familiar with the lyrics, it was a very appropriate song - thank goodness this part didn't apply: "Put your hands up, put your hands up, put your hands up..."

Back to slow love songs only in my vehicle....and nothing will stop me in my career in medicine now!!! Someday I really will be that girl who works at the hospital!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

And another blow...

My mom is up visiting right now becuz it is our assembly this weekend. She arrived today and sounds like she will leave right after the sessions on Sunday so it is a quick trip!

Tonight she finally filled me in on what is going on with my dad. So now I know he has cancer for sure. With all the secrecy, plus having the medical background, I kind of knew, but hearing it officially is still a shock. A couple weeks back he had a large malignant tumour removed from his bladder, still has 2 tumours in his prostate, and just underwent a bone scan to see if any of it has spread to his bones. I'm glad he had that extra scan, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have spread to his bones at this stage, (I hope!)

The good news is that mom says dad is in good spirits about the whole thing, and has commented on how he has lived a good life and is not too worried about it all. Which of course just leaves us to worry...

So now we are just awaiting the results of the bone scan before he will start radiation treatment, which I am assuming is to clean up any missed cells in the bladder, and to start focusing on blasting the prostate tumours. He had a choice between ***** and here in *****, so his obvious choice is ***** because I am here. Treatment will be 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for a month at least! So looks like I will have a full house!

Please keep my family in your prayers as I think this may be a rocky road for all of us for the next few months!

Update: (Sunday) Today a couple of my mom’s friends took us on a tour the cancer clinic, ***** House (the place where out of town cancer patients can stay) and the hospital. Strange how one’s whole perspective changes – touring a medical facility as a medical student or prospective employer vs. touring as a patient/family member!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Theme Song

Ok - I've decided my theme song is no long "I'm Bringing Sexy Back", but rather, "Wake Me Up When September Ends" because this is turning out to be a month from hell....

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Monday, September 04, 2006

*(Tearful smile)*

Sorry Amarys, but I had to steal this from you and repost it... it did make me smile... and almost cry (sigh....)

Ask her to dance.
On windy days, brush wayward strands of hair from her eyes and mouth.
When she’s coming down the street, across the room, or up the stairs to meet you, walk towards her as soon as you see her.
Put your arm around her when you introduce her to your friends and family.
Grasp her hand when a scantily dressed, beautiful woman walks by.
Call her when you’re feeling sad.
Kiss her eyelids.
Ask to see a picture of her when she was a child.
If she’s crying on the phone, go over to her place. Immediately.
Occasionally call her by her first and middle names.
Order coffee for her, remembering exactly how she likes it.
Tuck her in when she falls asleep somewhere away from bed.
Mention your upcoming anniversary before she does.
Send her something in the mail. Anything.
When she’s feeling insecure, stare into her eyes and tell her there is no-one in the world who could be as right for you as she is.
Call her just before you get on the plane.
Pick her clothes up off the floor.
Try desperately to make her laugh when she’s feeling down.
Touch her arm when you leave the table to go to the bathroom. Touch her again when you come back.
Shave just before you see her. She’ll notice.
Hug her when she gets jealous. Hug her hard.
Ask her about her day.
In the middle of a conversation, tell her you love her.
Ask her for help. They LOVE guys who can admit they need a hand with something
Tell her you love how she....wiggles her feet when she's happy, or how she crinkles her nose when she laughs. "I love yous" are always nice, but she will love knowing the little things that are cute to you.
Tell her.... Only You...
We like to feel unique...and that we are uniquely appreciated by you. So anytime you can say something along the lines of there being no one like us, we'll lap it up.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Sigh.....................................

Well I didn't get either of the management positions, and although I shouldn't be surprised, I'm a little more bummed about it than I thought I would be. So guess I continue on, mindlessly, mind-numbingly typing away at my same ole' boring task.......sigh - well at least I tried :-( Just kinda sucked sitting in the congratulatory office pot-luck supper we had tonight for Laurel, the one who won the position. She definately deserved it more than I did, but I was still hoping......... I kinda wish that I hadn't gotten as far in the competition as I had so at least I could have enjoyed my week of vacation I had off, and been better able to appreciate my visits with Anthe & Peter, instead of making myself sick with the stress of the whole thing. But I guess it was all part of a learning experience. .........

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

1:30 am drive home

K I just had to post about the cutest thing I saw coming home tonight from work. As I was about to turn at a major intersection, I noticed the do not walk hand symbol flashing indicating the light would soon turn red. So, I take a quick look around and find it strange that there are no vehicles coming from the other direction to trigger the motion sensor for the lights to change. Coincidentally, there is a cute little fluffy skunk standing on 3 paws on the corner of the intersection, as if waiting for the light to change so he could safely cross. Totally one of those "you had to be there" moments, but I still thought it was cute...

Sunday, August 27, 2006

August Expressions

Well August has been a good month for me. I had the chance to visit with friends I haven't seen in a long time, took a risk and applied for a management position (and lived to talk about it), went for a relaxing camping weekend, and lost some weight :-)

Just came back from Sleeping Giant Provincial Park this afternoon. Just Molly and I. Was quite nice. I decided to try a new area of the park I had never been to before and it was absolutely perfect. It was totally private, on the water, and was just a really nice site. I headed out early Friday evening and returned around 1:00ish this afternoon. Other than getting dehydrated today, it was the perfect way to unwind after my interview.

Well I survived my interview. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, yet I wish I had performed better :-( Oh well. I took the step....whether anything comes of it or not, I chose to make an effort to do something to better my life.

Actually I did a lot of thinking this weekend on my little getaway, and decided that I am going to make a bigger effort to focus on enriching my life. From taking better care of my health so I can look and feel better, to becoming a better house keeper so I can share my beautiful home with people I care about, to taking more risks in my life to advance aspects of my life that have become stagnant.

Back to work tomorrow - I can so tell I have just had a fairly relaxing vacation because I don't have that knot of dread in my stomach....amazing.... reminds me how I need to be enjoying more me time.........

And back to school next week - can you believe it! Totally snuck up on me.

Off to bed for a rare early night for me - toodles all! :-)

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Long Weekend At Last

Well it's a long weekend, which I should be enjoying and having fun, but instead have to stress over a work assignment! I recently applied for a management position in my office that I REALLY REALLY want, but have a very slim chance of getting it. So after I sent in my resume I basically gave up hope. Well on Thursday I got a phone call telling me that I moved on to Stage 2, the written assignment! Totally shocked me, and of course now the carrot is dangled before me again, and here I will go and get my hopes up, even though I know there is still a slim chance of getting it.....but it would still be nice. So now I am all stressed about this assignment which is due TUESDAY at 5!!!!!! So there goes my weekend. And becuz I am stressed about it, of course I can't seem to settle down to actually get started on it - so far today I've lounged in my pool, called friends, worked on my new website, played around on eBay - everything but actually sitting down and working on my assignment (except cleaning - I don't really feel like doing that either.....)

My new website. Well I am finally working on my new business website, but I am still new to the whole HTML thing so it is going a little slow. I was so proud of the one page I created that has a form that you can fill out to submit coments to....except when you click submit, nothing happens....sigh..... HTML is so complicated! Even though it's totally under construction and not live yet, if you want to check it out so far, the website is: http://www.teal-bubbles-italian-charms-etc.com Next I still have to figure out how to incorporate the PayPal shopping cart system into it and then link the items to the shopping cart - thank goodness no school right now!

A few more hours before bedtime so time to see how else I can kill time before attempting this assignment!

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Paris Hilton's Dog Should Be Jealous





It's a dog's life!
I have posted a few pics of Molly having fun in the pool on my MSN blog :-)

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Pool party!

Got a pool today so it looks like I may need to have a pool party soon - yay! It is so big for my little back yard it kinda looks a little odd, so now in my back yard I have a garage, a pool, and a sidewalk..... Molly was the first one to test it out today - it was kinda funny! She had a blast tearing around jumping in and out of it while I was filling it - will be way too deep for her now though, so that was her only chance. Hope it will be hot enough out this week to test it out :-) So who's going to test it out with me?

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Alaskan adventure

Can't believe how bad I've become at keeping up with this blog. Many people have been asking me for pics from my Alaska cruise and I have posted a FEW on my MSN space, but mostly just of the ice burgs we were hitting on the ship.

Overall I had a fantasic time - it was the best vacation of my life - I came back so refreshed and relaxed, I was like a new person. It was strange to come home and not have everyone call me M'lady, or Yes Ma'am. No one picks up after me anymore. No more limo rides. I actually have to jump in my SUV and DRIVE where I want to go! Sigh..... how I miss those days already.

I highy recommend the Alaskan cruise to everyone, young or old. I would actually recommend going later in the summer or into the fall, rather than spring like my family did. We missed seeing one of the more memorable glaciers because we were hitting too many ice burgs and it was too dangerous for the ship to go through the passageway and had to turn around - later in the year it wouldn't be as bad.

The day of the cruise, we went on a family whirlwind tour of Vancouver - I fell in love with that city. Pretty expensive place to live, but maybe some day. Stanley Park was amazing. The weather was a little misty so unfortunately we missed out on seeing a few things, but what a beautiful city!

On the cruise itself, day 2 I got violently sea sick! That was a total shock for me, on all my other cruises I was fine, but I guess the water was a little rougher this time. But after popping the drugs they gave me and sleeping for a day I was fine after that.

Overall, had a wonderful time, and will update this more when I have extra time. I have to get up early for overtime tomorrow so am heading off to bed now!

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Failure!

Phew - now I never have to think about chemistry again for the rest of my life! I'm pretty positive I failed my exam - hard to get a good mark when you leave pages of questions blank, but as long as I passed the class, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! The only bummer is how this class will drag my GPA way down and just hope it doesn't some day jeopardize my getting into medschool.......

What an amazing assembly! And I only caught the final 2 morning talks and the afternoon! I was so pumped up when I left the assembly :-) Plus seeing so many people that I hadn't seen for YEARS was nice. After the assembly I got to join about 20 for supper at Applebee's which was an added bonus :-)

Any minute now my mom will be flying in to spend the day with me as she is passing through from Toronto. Hope she doesn't care how messy my house is cuz I am just too exhausted to even attempt house work at the moment.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Thought for today

Well, as of today I have lost over 24 lbs so I am pumped about that :-) I'm hoping to lose 10 more before I fly out for my cruise on May 6th.

Special assembly day on Saturday, but I am going to miss the morning session due to having to write my chemisty exam Saturday morning. I am getting pretty stressed about my chem exam. Just thinking about it practically gives me a panic attack! It was an online class, so so far all the tests and assignments were open book, and I just answered all the questions out of the book without really teaching myself any of it, and now I have a closed book exam in 2 days....aahhhh! Guess the good news is, in 3 days I can finally focus on the excitement of my upcoming vacation :-)

Worked days for 2 weeks and just came back to nights this week. Also worked days overtime on the long weekend (triple pay!) but trying to get used to nights again was tougher than I expected! But at least right now I am back in the change of name department which I just love so I am happy :-)

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Vacation!!!!!!!!!!

Well yesterday I officially booked a vacation for myself and my parents. May 6th we will be flying to Vancouver and going on a 7-day cruise to Alaska. So diet-time again - back to low-carbing tomorrow. Hoping to lose 20 lbs before the cruise so I can look good in the family portraits, and have enough energy to enjoy myself!

Monday, February 13, 2006

The Latest

Actually the title of this post is a little deceiving, becuz it implies there is actually something new to report in my life.... sorry! Made you look!

Just realized I haven't posted in awhile and I'm wide awake and not ready to go to bed! So I will try and summarize anything new I can think of....

1. Dropped out of clinical. So now I am just taking the 2 nursing classes and chemistry right now - what a difference! My stress level has totally dropped! It took Molly getting violently sick and almost dying a couple weeks ago for me to sit back and look at how life is just flying by with me spending every waking moment working or with my head stuck in a textbook. I realized I needed to slow things down a bit - I am still crazy busy, but now I have time to breathe! And SLEEP - mmmmmmmmmmm sleep. I've even been catching up on some of my favourite TV shows!

2. Have been selling my life away on eBay lately. Trying to pay off some debt to help me get through school faster...one cent at a time!

3. Actually went out on a Saturday night - last weekend went with a couple girls from work to the Prospector. Was a nice break. Had a great time! To non-***ers, the Prospector is one of those "special-occasion" restuarants where you literally line up for hours on a weekend. Best steak in *****, and are also known for their buns. It's a restaurant that used to be an old bank. I love it there - too expensive to go to often, but the food is so good it is definately worth the price.

4. Ok I am a little behind the times, but I have just discovered the world of podcasts, accidently actually by pressing a wrong button when I was updating my ipod! Now I am addicted. There are even nursing podcasts that teaches anything from anatomy to just sharing funny experiences. I have subscribed to about 30 podcasts so far, from educational, to mindless comedy, to weightloss, to financial. To those who have no clue what I am talking about, podcasts are basically free LEGAL audio or video downloads for your ipod (or MP3 player, or just to your computer) You can download a simple podcast to listen to later, or actually subscribe to the podcast and your computer will automatically download the file when a new podcast is available. There are thousands of them out there on all sorts of topics. To me it's like having free satellite radio! (ok, ok I know it's not the same) but why pay several hundred dollars for a satellite radio receiver, plus a subscription fee when you can access podcasts for free! One of the best podcast sites I have found so far is: http://www.podcastalley.com/.

Off to bed!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Me again!

Two Thoughts for a Sunday Evening.

1. During the Xmas holidays I went to see Fun With Dick & Jane. LOVED it! Was SO funny! I'm usually not that big of a Jim Carrey fan cuz sometimes he goes a little overboard psycho, but he was great in this movie. There was only one little scene where he acted stupid, but his voice distorter he was wearing in the scene prevented you from actually hearing what he was saying half the time so it was tolerable! Great movie - you must see it!

2. James Blunt! What an amazing voice! Totally depressing songs but wow his latest song Goodbye My Lover just gives me goosebumps. If you have no clue who I am talking about, the song he is most known for right now is You're Beautiful. He has such a unique voice. The one thing that bugs me though is when he suddenly swears in You're Beautiful. It is such a sweet, romantic song, and then out of the blue, and totally out of place, he swears - totally breaks the mood. Anyways, if you haven't heard Goodbye my Lover yet, I recommend you download it to give it a try.

So this burnout!

What an exciting weekend this has been so far. It is 7:30 pm on a Sunday and I believe so far this weekend I have been awake for a whole 5 hours!

To quickly summarize my schedule again, I work nights from 5 pm - 1:15 am. By the time I get home, let Molly out, play with her a few minutes, have a quick snack, prepare things for the next day and actually phsically crawl into bed, on a good night/early morning, I aim to be sleeping by 3 am. Friday mornings are my clinical days where I must be up around 6 am. My clinical duties involve both heavy physical work as well as mental clarity and alertness. Well, I discovered on Friday that 2 hours of sleep does not prepare one properly for such tasks.

Arriving at my clinical location, after brushing off several joking remarks from the clinical instructors and fellow students about how I generally looked like crap, I began my routine. Thankfully we got into little groups of 3's to help each other out with their patients before having to jump in by ourselves so it did allow me a quick refresher of what we were doing. My friend Meesha's patient was first and we started out the day by undressing him and giving him a trough bath. He reminded me so much of my dad that it sort of startled me into just standing in the background and staring, basically being useless.

A little later the other 2 girls got busy making beds and helping the support worker with various patients so I decided to go and look for my patient. She is a sweet elderly lady that I chose right away as I seemed to connect her with her, and she is fairly high functioning so I wouldn't be too overwhelmed at first. After gently waking her, I was at a total loss as to what I was to do next... of course then my clinical instructor happens to walk by and check up on me and mildly chastizes me for being unprepared (meanwhile I had this patients whole chart memorized for over a week now, but my mind was just blank). So my clinical instructor stands over me as step by step I get her toileted, washed up, and ready for breakfast in the dining room. Other than looking totally incompetent it went pretty uneventful. For the next half hour or so I helped the support worker deliver breakfast to bed ridden patients, assisted with toileting, made beds, etc, and once things quieted down I went to the dining room to check on my patient. I sat down next to her and started talking with her. I happened to look to the side and noticed these 3 elderly people slumped over in the restraints in the wheelchairs sitting off to the side in the little sun room - they looked so sad and lonely and I felt so overwhelming sad for them. That was one of my last thoughts before the whole room started spinning, I started shaking, and I felt sick. Thankfully I found a washroom and was sick for a few minutes, and then just couldn't stop crying. I must've cried for at least half an hour. My clinical instructor was really good about it and talked with me for a little while about how I just burned out, and I will have to make some adjustments in my life if I want to continue as it is not safe for me, or the patients I am handling. Thankfully the rest of clinical was uneventful as I got my second wind.

After clinical I came home and napped for 2 hours until it was time for work. My entire work shift was in a fog, and at one point I went to talk to my manager about what happened to me earlier and what would she suggest. So for the rest of this term, I will leave at 11 pm Thursday nights, taking the remainder hours as vacation time, and we'll see how that helps.

To summarize, I look back now at how unhealthy I had allowed my lifestyle to become. Lack of sleep, lack of nutrition, lack of organization, and no "me time", all contributed to my burning out. Even coffee breaks and supper hours have been spent pouring over textbooks and doing homework. So I allowed this weekend to be all about me - in this case it was sleep! I woke up at 4 pm yesterday, had a bite to eat, then went back to sleep again. I was supposed to be working overtime today from 9 am - 1pm, and could really use the money, but when my alarm went off I shut it off and just rolled back over to sleep again until 3 pm. At least I am starting to feel a little more like myself again :-)

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Sabrina’s Law 2005

Well, I am pretty impressed with the government for our recent instilment of the Sabrina Law, in memory of the student who died from her peanut allergy. The purpose of the bill is to protect anaphylactic students. I am very impressed at this attempt to protect the safety of the students who are at risk of dying just from coming into contact with an allergen.

For those not aware, I personally have an allergy to seafood and fish – I carry an epi-pen – I believe the majority of people who know me are aware of this – and I have always kept my managers informed of this situation. In the past, due to fellow co-workers insensitivity, I have had several life-threatening reactions at work involving immediate action being taken and numerous hospital visits. Because of these numerous reactions, my allergy has gone from fairly mild to quite severe, where it is not guaranteed I will survive my next reaction.

Recently the managers on the night shift had been requesting that no items containing fish be brought into the office. A contract staff member who just came back to work a couple weeks ago apparently takes offence to this, and has sent me several nasty emails and practically attacked me at the end of the work day stating this was a violation of her rights, and who do I think I am getting the managers to ban a food item from the office to protect just 1 person. She is starting a diet which requires her to eat chicken and fish only for meat, and happens to prefer fish. So…..I am expected to risk my life so she can eat her fish? (Ironically, I am on the exact same diet – as of today I have lost 16 lbs, and guess what, I didn’t eat the fish!)

I am hoping Sabrina’s Law will open people’s eyes to how serious a problem allergies really are. How many more have to die before people finally get it! Legally, this law is just in effect now so will probably take a while before everything is smoothed out with it, and yes, it only covers schools; however considering the number of offices now that have a no-scent policy (including my own), I am hoping it will not be long until the same laws cover the work place too.

With all of the food options available to us in North America, is it really that much to ask people to consider other food choices for the meals when they have been informed of specific allergies of those in their company?

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