New stuff

A little while ago Nathan reminded me that he had some money set aside. It was a fortnightly budget allowance for petrol (for driving to Melbourne when he was having Tai Chi lessons there.) It had added up before we'd made decisions and changed the budget, but I'd completely forgotten about it.

So he told me that we were going to buy a tent!

We drove into town yesterday and bought a Queen size airbed, a HUGE esky and a tent that's big enough for 8 people! Can't wait to go camping now... well, I suppose I can wait for better weather!!! ;-). We thought about a light and a camping stove. But we have torches, and you can cook anything in the microwave. When we have a little camping trip we'll be able to figure out what else we really need.

We're going to set up the tent next week to make sure we can :) and that all the parts are there. Then we can just go camping whenever we like, for the weekend or a few days here and there; whenever we have time off together. Plenty of room if we end up having 8 kids. We can just close in the front part (the 'living room') and sleep there, and put all the kids in the other room. And when the oldest is about 12, we can make them all live in the paddock, and we can have the house back.

He he.

Well, this is my 5th and last day off, so I'm going to go and enjoy it! Might watch "Sense and Sensibility" again. I bought it recently, and I've watched it a few times on my days off (3? 4?). I've been doing a bit of cleaning and cooking. We even had Simon's whole family (of six) for tea on Friday, which was great! I annoyed my sleeping little nephew for ages with my camera flash.

Ezra

Simon rang me at about 9:30 this morning... with a baby howling in the background! So it wasn't too hard to guess what he'd been doing all night! Ezra Jonathan was born at 9:08am and he weighed 8lb 11oz. (A bit under 4kg). Then Nathan and I went off to church, where I sat reading Ezra instead of listening (to remind myself who he was).

I had to work, but Nathan met me at 2:30, because I have a break then. Spent my whole break waiting with Nathan and Kelly, as Ezra was stuck in the nursery, being a bit hypoglycaemic (2.6).

Saw him for a second as I left, though, and also spent my dinner break holding him while he slept. Gorgeous! Pity I can't put up pictures, but I'm sure Kel will (see the "shooting star" blog link).

Had a good day at work. It was quiet (so to speak...) and the little old lady who was crying "IhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyou!!!" last week was singing about how much she loves us all now. Literally singing! So funny! ;-)

Busy little bees

What a day for the last day of the week! I've just finished work, and I'm sitting in the hospital library recovering...

We had 2nd-year nursing students, who were spending their first day ever in a hospital. They have 2 weeks with us, which will be fun! 2nd-years are so keen. But it took me 90 minutes (instead of the usual 15) going through everyone's charts and medications with Danyelle. And then there were discharges.

Discharging patients home from a medical-oncology ward can be complicated, to say the least. They have services to organize, a dozen family 'issues', pain, nausea, and a sudden, last minute temperature.... normally. When an oncology patient is going home, we usually end up spending an hour or so on phone calls and paperwork and chasing doctors. It's amazing, actually; no matter how many people you send home, you'll always find a new and interesting complication to take care of!

My complications today were as follows: 1. Hospice organizes Home Oxygen for patients, but not for Keith, who lives in Ararat. 2. Morag can go to Maryborough hospital between 1 and 2, and then she'll have her 2pm peritoneal dialysis; but what happens when Advanced Medical Transport is an hour late? 3. Keith can make the trip home without extra O2, but what about when he's sitting in Pharmacy and his daughter, who's taking him home, gets stuck in the elevator?

My third patient harassed me all day about when the doctor was going to let him go home. He's allowed to go home. He doesn't need anything. But the doctor wants to see him first, and she is busy elsewhere! As I left he was sitting by the door with all his bags, still waiting at 3:30.

My fourth patient went on day leave for a few hours, which is not as tricky as sending someone home, but he had a list of things to be done before he went... right when I was supposed to be having lunch.

Then one of my old favorites died. Beattie was expected to die soonish, as her kidneys had stopped working, but it felt a bit sudden. Just this morning she was telling me how much she likes her doctor and how well his gray hair suited him, etc. ;-) So I helped wrap her for the mortuary and talked to her grandson.

We had 9 discharges and a death today, which is a bit of work for a 23-bed ward. And by the time I left 6 of those beds had been filled with new patients! I'm afraid I neglected my poor student for the last half of the shift, but she said she had fun...

Now I have 2 days off! I'm going home to sit and read my current Eddings book (which I got for free ;-) with the Harry Potter one) or work on my silly present for my new niece or nephew.

I love weekends.