Off

The Nurse is off for three days after two 12hours day shift and two 12 hours night shift. Hurray!!! And no I'm not gonna do extra shift on my days off even they will pay me double. I am tired of being at work all the time.

What If?

What will I do if I have swine flu? I don't really know. Maybe I will admit myself in the hospital even if I'm not very ill because I am worried that my children will get it from me. Swine flu is very rampant now from where we are. My Filipino colleague had her 6 years old daughter admitted to the hospital because she wasn't well and she had swine flu. As what I heard her daughter is poorly. And today we admitted another swine flu patient again. If only swine flu can be remove with the pressure washers, but it can't. I just hope I am healthy enough not to get it. But what if, I will be next?

ANGRY Nurse

As I said before, we had a swine flu patient. On Sunday I was on early shift and I looked after the swine flu patient. That time they said she already had a negative swab and she is not isolated anymore so mask and gown is not required. Because they said so, I did not used the correct gear. But the problem arises today. I was on 12 hours shift and as what I noticed the patient was isolated again because as what they said she is still on high risk which means I will be a carrier as well. I am so angry at them, all nurses who was in side room will be a candidate to have swine flu and that's including me. I was in the side room for the whole 8 hours without protection!!! And now I don't feel good at all. No fever yet but I feel so tired and got a very bad headache. Oh God help me.

2 More Nights

Two nights done, two more to go and I'm off for 2 days only. And with that 2 days there are 2 parties I will attend to. Yay, more food again. Not good for me especially that I am trying to diet. Anyway, I am thinking of what to bring to those parties. Maybe my especialty fried chicken? Or spring roll? Don't know yet I will see on Friday if I still have strength to do it. Or maybe I will just look for surplus things online maybe I can find gift that I can bring on Friday and Saturday.

H1N1 is in The House

Not in our house but in the hospital where I am working. She was transferred from another hospital last night and they only said her case is only community acquired pneumonia. But when she arrived all people who brought her are well covered. So we guessed that there is something wrong. They said that she is OK and she is safe from Swine Flu. But hold on? Why they are all in full gear? When the doctor reviewed her history all her signs and symptoms correlate with Swine Flu. So now she is in one of our isolation room. I just hope I will not be looking after her on her entire stay in our unit. Fingers crossed.

Rain Guards

It is really difficult when you are overweight. Why? One of my colleague who is big, broke his ankle and ended up in a cast for 6 weeks. The reason? She slip and fell in hospital pavement when it was raining. Maybe there was no rain guards available that time. But now since her accident hospital installed bars where people can hold when it is raining. I bet if she was fit and healthy it will not be that worst. The difficult thing is that off sick here is limited so most of the time when she was on sick leave she did not received anything.

Blame It To Red Bull

We went out yesterday. When we we're having lunch red bull girls arrived and gave away red bull drinks. Of course I had one because it was free. I had a can and a half. But during the night I had on and off sleep. I was hoping during the night that it will be morning so that I can go to work. I can only blame red bull because it never happen to me before. My brain was all awake and my body did not feel tired as well. Next time, I will only take it when I do night shift to avoid this incident happening again. Thankfully the unit was not busy so they allow me to go home early.

My Workload

I am glad that patient ratio here in Oz is the same in UK. We only have one patient for level 3 and two patients for level 2. And as I said before I am now a Cardiothoracic/General ICU nurse. Not as interesting back in UK because most our patients here have open heart surgery and procedure post surgery is routine. So if I'm on a night shift most of the time I am just in the swivel chair rotating myself around and around when I get bored (like a child playing swing sets). Not that I'm lazy but I need to be with my patient all the time even if I don't have nothing to do. It's another story when I'm on day shift because I'm always on my feet because the unit is very busy.

It's Making Me Confused

I was on night shift last night and my colleague asked if I have a bluie. It took me a long time to figure out what bluie is. It is a pad or we call it enco pad back in UK. I don't know why they call it bluie (blo-wie). Maybe because of it's color blue? But why they don't call the green one greenie?

Ranting

I blogged last year about June time that we moved to a new unit at work, unit that was too big that you can use a gps systems inside the building (yes it was huge). That was way back when I was still in UK. It was exhausting and very stressful. This time it happened again because we moved to a new unit where I worked now. As expected it is busy especially that they opened 15 beds and the staff number are still the same (only for 12 beds). But because I work in a private hospital now they hire a lot of agency staff where salary is very high. Imagine paying them $50 an hour. That's bigger than my salary and their workload is far better than mine!!! Just excuse my rants, I am just tired after my long day at work.

My Best Mates at Work

Jacinta, me, Grace and Loiue

This are my Filipino colleagues who work with me in UK. They are my best friend at work and I love them so much and missed them a lot. Unfortunately we need to say goodbye to each other because I decided to come here in Oz but even so I am happy because Grace will join me in few months time, Jacinta is already in Canada just last month and Louie will stay in UK for now (poor Louie :( The picture above was taken the night before we left UK. Love you Girls!!!

I Am Off :)

Finally I am off now, but not for long because it's only for 2 days. I am thinking of doing overtime on Monday but I want to spend that day with my family especially that my kids will start their school on Tuesday after 2 weeks off. Tomorrow our plan is to go shopping because my baby Neil want to buy toys. I don't know what my 2 girls want but I think they want books and stationary. I am thinking of getting it online as well because I found a site that offers very good price. Check the link above to visit buy.com.

Tounge Twister

When I was in UK my colleagues got mixed up all the time with my name and with my other colleagues especially after a long night shift. Shiela (me), Sheeba and Cily. But now it is worst because in the unit where I work now there's Sheejah, Sherly, Sheryl, Cheryl and Shiela (me). A good tongue twister right? Let's do it again...

Sheejah-Sherly-Cheryl-Sheryl-Shiela :)

Wilmington NC Real Estate

We moved here in Oz thinking of getting a bigger place because our rented house back in UK was small. But the problem is we live just about 5-10 minutes walk to the city so imagine how high our rental is right now. Our 2 bedrooms apartment is just enough for us for now because we don't have a lot of furniture. But maybe in 6 months time we will move to the suburb so that we can get a bigger and cheaper rental house. If only I have money to buy a property now I will get one like the one I saw in Wilmington NC real estate. This site serve the cities of Wilmington and Jacksonville particularly near the beach. If you are from that area and looking for a property by the sea then check their site now.