Tough'n up, Princess...

Works a bit tough 

[changes, changes, so many changes... and 3 deaths this year... hopefully that's it]

Schools a bit tough 

[pretty full on right now with anatomy and physics but way interesting]

Families a bit tough

[love them to bits, of course]

That's all. I'm just having a little selfish moment here...

Enjoy a couple of my favourite pic's I've taken

"flash photography" - Keppel Bay Marina, Singapore

Tally = Two

The talk around work now is constantly "Who's next!!?!?"- next... to die.

*insert doomy boomy backgroundy music here*

This might seem horribly morbid, but in reality this is a dealing mechanism for us at work. By 'predicting' who is 'next', we can get our head around the fact that people die, deal with it, and go about our daily job. Or something. Plus when you work with the elderly, this is a large fact of life that occurs alot more frequently. ALOT.

Today, Number Two passed away. When Number One passed away about a month or so ago, I felt totally lost. I felt really sad, because there were many aspects of Number One that I adored, plus she has the cutest personality, even though  no one could understand what she was saying. However, Number One was a handful, and so much of our routine was based around her. Infact, I would say in this particular area, one third of the routine was based around her. So, you can imagine how lost it was to then work without her there. Five minutes spare time? What is that...

Today, I got to work and heard that Number Two had been sent to hospital last night. I saw Number Two on Saturday, and she wasn't great, but we thought it might be just a bit of a phase. She was quiet. Mostly. Now that was unusual. She wasn't holding her frame - just a "floppy rag doll". Slightly unusual. She wasn't hungry and refused to eat or drink. Very unusual. Number Two lived on bacon and eggs, porridge, warm milk, and warm apple juice.

They told us she passed away comfortably, however it was due to heart failure and fluid around her heart and lungs that caused her to be hospitalised and evidently caused her to pass away. Number Two also had about one third of the routine in this particular area based around her. Two-thirds of every shift in that area has now changed. Thats a huge change. That's a change thats going to have hours cut from the roster because we don't have 2 high-care residents anymore.

Work was eerily quiet today. Residents were quite relaxed, but I think because they didn't know what has happened, and i'm not sure when or if they were told, they were oblivious and were just enjoying the peace and quiet. I believe the motto from upper management is not to tell them until they ask.

Tomorrow, I am probably working in that area with the two-thirds of the work routine gone. I'll kick myself if I subconsciously make bacon and eggs for Number Two - who, clearly, wont be eating it...

The Cat Empire sang about it

This is a cartoon i drew of one of my teachers. She wasn't actually asleep - but I felt like I was close enough!

"Protons, Neutrons, Electrons" - quite the quirky, funky song as all good songs are from the Cat Empire. So you're there, you haven't heard of it and want to geek yourself up a little bit? Check it out now.

Anyway, the point of that is to mention what I'm up-to studying now. Protons. Neutrons. Electrons. Because Chemistry is involved in nursing. Its in everything we do and can see. Oh, and we're also learning about the Legal side of nursing. Sooo - there is currently alot of reading, writing, listening, thinking and lack-of-interest in places/sections at the moment... atleast when I find it gets too much, I go and look up some weird word and learn what it is.

I'm finding it a struggle to study at home - too many easy distractions or easy annoyances. Yet, when I take myself out to a cafe, despite the noise level, it seems remarkably easier. Except this afternoon that is. While trying to drill my brain with chemistry information, I'm more interested in hearing the conversations around me; the girls planning the new interior design of the store, what colours and where everything should/could/would go; the two older ladies discussing their woe's of ageing bodies and family; the two Christian guys discussing church, studies and expectations of people [I might have tried to find out which church they belonged to via their conversation - or I perhaps I didn't].

Today I also spent an hour with one of the ladies from my church, who after a health problem a fortnight ago, is now residing in the hospital awaiting transfer to a long-term facility. When I arrived, she was quite agitated and eager to get out of her seat and away from the hospital. Throughout the time I spent there, we had to locate her glasses [tucked well into her dressing gown] as some mail arrived from her son in Tassie. I read the documents to her, and at the end she looked at me with the strangest perplexed expresssion. I think she didn't understand who was writing to her for a little while, but in the end she did. I read her some of Philippians 3 to encourage her - however when I was finished I wasn't sure if she was sleeping or praying. In the end, she seemed alot more content and less agitated and was enjoying a good perusal of a gardening magazine.

Today I also [randomly] decided to review on some "Bloody Idiot" tv ads. These are the "if you drink and drive, you are a bloody idiot" ones. One of my friends sent me the youtube link to TAC - the Victorian's plan to lower the road toll deaths around the country. Some of these ad's I've seen before, and others I've seen for the first time. Most of them are horribly impacting, challenging and extremely unnerving - especially when you can consider countless times when you could've been in the same position as a driver, passenger or onlooker. However, they were very effective on causing me to be even more aware of my surroundings when driving.... especially as I already think I am pretty aware of everything... but accidents definately do happen [as I've proved twice already].

Hmm...ski

Happy One Month Anniversary, Nursing Class 1103!!

Four weeks of 5 days [of both work and study in a row], and I'm pooped.

Exhausted.

Knackered.

Whatever you want to call it - that's what I am.

But, heck its great fun and I'm so loving nursing school!

However, working in this environment where we see the end of peoples lives is a hard ball sometimes.

Just this past week, one of my favourite residents [I know, we shouldn't have favourites] passed away. 

It wasn't sudden, mostly expected, but totally sad.

Even maddening, but that's mostly in relation to a family member's treatment of this resident...

Before and AFTER they passed away.

The world we live in is a scary, evil, confused and corrupt place.

Thank God for all the love, joy and peace He still provides amongst all that.

And laughter. OH MY GOSH! I love a great sense of humour.

Peace... x

:: Leaf Me Be

End of my third week at Nursing School. I'm tired! I've got SO much to read! I think most of us only realised today just how much extra work we have to proactively set about to do ourselves. We have so many classes on different topics with different teachers, being given different assignments to focus on,  and today was the first time one of the teachers said [first time that I was aware of] that we need to read "x" chapters of our main text book PLUS the extra, non-compulsary workbooks they put online for us - JUST to keep our minds fluid with the phrases, abbreviations, and context of what we are doing. That's onTOP of doing our assigned homework!!

This could be a painful 12months ahead, but despite all the work, these are very exciting days...

Enjoy

Today, I was not interested in listening to the Teacher at school.

Don't get me wrong, I bet she did good...

Its just that I can't seem to enjoy listening to a talk about the 

Government, Politics, and the Law in a mono-tone voice.
Major-brain-pain.

So, to keep my brain entertained while I [tried] to listen,
I sketched... a pair of these...

PS -

Sorry for the triple-post-sesh. Just seeing what the new look looks like.

I think I am liking it.

Thoughts?!

And - thoughts on more regular pictures?

:: Eye/see... ::

Sometimes I am positive we have a picture frame follow us around with 

speech bubbles anticipating our next moves... 

This was in my diary last year. I painted it, randomly. 

Then when it was dry, I drew on it with a felt tip pen... randomly.