Miss me? Thought you would...
I had some 'puter problems, for the last couple of days. I thought I had downloaded a virus, but I had not, it was only a software problem. I actually bribed my computer to behave, by promising that I would update the motherboard soon...I think I did a good job convincing it, because here I am...

On monday night, I went out for dinner, to my favourite Vietnamese resturant. I had ordered my meal, Bun bo Sate, and was talking to hubby. My meal came, and I started to wolf it down. No sooner had I started, when this man came from behind and leaned down and asked me "My girlfriend wants to know what you're eating?" I told him what it was, and turned to see his girlfriend. I told her (from across the room) to come and try it..so she came with her own chopsticks, and she tried my food. She said she liked it, but I don't think she ordered it. The owner of the store came over and said "Thanks for the free advertising". Hubby and I had a good laugh.

I just came back from the gym now. I upped my weights to 35kg. Now I'm really starting to feel the difference. I also extended my warm up time to compensate. I hope to look great by summer. I want a new pair of cossies (bathers).

My dad bought me a pen which doubles as a penlight. You can write in the dark with it, because it has a little L.E.D. at the nib, which turns on at the touch of the button. It's great, as now I can do my crossword puzzles, in bed once hubby has gone to bed, and not disturb his sleep.

My cat, 'Amy' has developed a habit on cold days, of sticking her body into my pillow case. I think she is trying to keep warm, as I don't think she is looking for a place to give birth yet. The thing which annoys me, is that she meowks when she wants to get out, because she has entangled herself in it and can't get out by herself. So here I am playing nursemaid to a cat!

On a more serious note, I have realised how frustrating it can be for me, to hear stories about women who need help due to emotional or mental stress, getting the help they need. Never having to need help myself, I count myself as being fortunate, but I, being a nurse have often seen where it was necessary for a women (or man) to get psychological assistance immediately, but there was no way to get that help without a waiting period. So many lives are unnecessarily lost, if these women where just helped when they needed to be. It is hard for a nurse, to stop and listen to each and everyone's problem. I always wanted to, but would find myself with so many duties and so little time to do them in.

Everyone feels helpless when they are in hospital, that is why they need that extra TLC, which us nurses try to give. On many occasion, I would stay back and hour or two, to talk to those people who I felt needed a little comfort. Often I would go and check on a patient who had been shifted to another ward after surgery, just to see that they were okay (not that I could do much about it, if they were no longer under my care). I was taken aside one day, by the charge nurse, and was told that what I was doing was causing problems because the other staff (nurses) didn't have time to do what I was doing, so it made them look bad. I explained how I stayed back on my time, but she said that I was a legal liability. She had a point, but as I explained to her, it was usually when on my way home that the patients waved to me and asked me to stay. I said that I would try to stop. I did, but found myself loosing sight of why I was nursing in the first place. Was nursing all about, giving drugs, cleaning bed pans and making beds? I didn't think so... Or was it to care about the people you were looking after?

Another problem arose...Patients started to come to the ward to visit me. A lady who had lung cancer, whom I had looked after, came and told me about her chemotherapy treatment. Another had CAGS (bypass surgery where arteries from usually the saphenous vein are grafted to the existing arteries in the heart to allow the blood to flow unblocked). Another just popped in to give me some paprikas from her garden, because she knew how much I liked to cook. All I got from alot of the other staff members where nasty looks. I made alot of friends with the staff, but some where against me, from my first day. It was probably because I was University trained, and they were hospital based and were required to go to Uni to study an extra year, if they wanted to get a Bachelor of Health Science. That caused a lot of friction for all uni trained nurses.

I will leave it here, as some of my feelings towards this are unresolved and tend to make me unhappy when I think of them. Next time, I will tell you about something freaky which happened to me, which I will never forget.