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Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
blues
Why I have the blues
-I got on a plane yesterday and returned from a 3 week holiday in Samoa
-My husband gets to spend an extra week in sa, whilst i have to come back to work!
-I left welly on a cold and windy day 3 weeks ago, and arrived back on another cold and rainy day!
-I am addicted to sun, and wellington aint got any- losing the tan already!
- I arrived at work today, 10mins late because 1) I was travelling yesterday -thus, even though I was sat on my butt most of the day, I was shattered at the end of it. Then this morning I woke up, got in my car and found no gas so had to get gas, then drove for 10mins and realised I forgot my stethescope so had to go back and get it, and got to work, to face a very grumpy person (worked before me) who couldnt be bothered handing me over anything ( ie who is sick from last shift etc) and gave me the worst bitch face a guy could give ( yes it was a guy) before storming out of the place!! talk about PMS!!! ..Great way to start the day, first day back infact after a luxurious holiday!!
-I miss the beach
-I miss vailima
-I miss the close proximity of friends ( ie 1 min drive away)
-I miss having heaps of nosey family around, wanting to know my every move, wanting to book me for breakfast,lunch,dinner,movie, going out, going to the beach, going to a party, hanging out or just chatting in my mums patio.
- I miss the fact that a roadtrip to the store means you could run into at least 4 people you know, and everywhere you turn ie, read a newspaper/watch telly/ listen to the radio..there is someone you went to school with/knew your brother/is your husbands cousin/ met out one night or you just know through word of mouth- NZ is so impersonal, and although some may see the advantage of this at times, i dont miss it like i miss the personal touch of life at home...
thats why i have the blues
Saturday, October 28, 2006
laughter is the best medicine, but it dont cure insomnia...
HELLO everybody. I have finally decided to contribute something to the world of blogging, after weeks of being guilty of just enjoying other peoples blogs but not contributing!! he he!! Part of the reasoning for that is that I have dial up at home which is as slow as a snail, plus I have had limited time at work to sit down in front of a computer for very long (And do anything OTHER then work !!He he!!) and of course plain laziness.
My life in the last few weeks has been pretty hectic as usual. Work never ends to be anything other then a zoo..crazy hectic angry...for anyone out there who may be considering medicine as a career- I urge you to get a reality check, becoz this industry is full of people with high blood pressure, or developing high blood pressure!! everyone is always overworked and tired and grumpy and not wanting to help you out. when i get up for breakfast in the morning I feel like I really need my nutri grain because I am literally preparing for war. The poeple that fortunately, are oblivious to this chaos are the dear patients in the wards, they dont know that I had to yell( well not yell but speak 'sternly' to!!) at 5 people to make sure they got their medicines becos "we were out of stock" - so you just dont give it then??or let anyone know?? or "the pharmacy was shut" hello thats why we have afterhours people around " she was in the shower" " she had lots of visitors" " he didnt want it" " he refused" ..I am sorry, but none of those excuses means that one can missout on their Intravenous antibiotics or parkinsons drugs etcetcetc because for a sick person in the hospital, they could be dead by the next day!!. Patients dont know that I had to grovel, and got yelled at, in order to get them a CT scan because the radiologists will do everything to get out of having to do more work.. the life of a juinor doc is anything but glamorous or prestigous or as glorified as the innocent bystander often presumes.And frankly, I am getting all abit tired of the politics of medicine..could we not just all work together in a uniform and harmonious ( ? is that a word!) manner to get people better???
sighhhhhhhh..maybe I am just complaining too much- I think I am, and I guess that happens when youre tired. On a good note, after work yesterday my husband and I went to see the laughing samoans who were doing a gig down here. By pure luck I happened to stumble across ticketec when they opened the sales to the show -so managed to grab some tickets before the show sold out. It was GREAT. Exactly the sort of medicine I needed after a crap week of work, I laughed my silly heart out, and clapped and stomped my feet and wiped away tears of joy. What was interesting though was the number of palagis there. There were quite alot of big groups of them, of what I could only presume had to be work mates sponsored by their jobs, there would be 1 pacific island looking person in the group, so I presume that was who got them to go. Anyways, it was really entertaining watching them. Like, there were great stints of the type of "And da morro of da story is,....a chocolate par!!" (i.e moro bars) humour,with roars of laughter from the pacific island audience, where the palagis sort of looked at each other sideways as if to say "I dont get it?"!! I still feel slightly awkward about this, but I actually enjoyed watching them sorta squirm in their seats, feeling a bit out of place-ish. Too often have I been made to feel out of place amongst them ( despite the fact that I am part palagi!) too often have I remained quiet and hummed at their opinions of "the NZ society is not ready for Bro town"...when I actually wanted to say-> not ready my butt, bring bro town on, its the greatest cartoon ever, next to spongebob and simpsons of course!! he he!!
Anyways, the low side of my evening was that I nodded off halfway through the act, only for a minute,it had absolutely nothing to do with the act itself!!I was just soooooo tired after a hectic week. I laughed after cos I couldnt believe I had nodded off either, I had literally just been laughing my butt off , and then Zonk...out for a minute. I think it was in the brief minute that they moved to the back of the stage to change character outfits, cos they turn the lights off briefly so you cant see them doing so. Anyways, I woke up and managed to laugh and stay awake for the rest of the act so that was good.
I am due back home in about 3 weeks and ABSOLUTELY CANT WAIT. I am soo excited I can feel myself just about fall off my seat everytime I think about it. I just need to come home, get a tan, enjoy the weather, hang out with the folks and friends, see my grandma, drive down pot-hole plagued streets, and smell the umu!! I know X100, that my bones are not made for the windy chills of Aotearoa, the sulphur smelling geysers nor the snowcapped mountains and frost covered winsheilds.. I know I will miss white chocolate and blueberry muffins with frappucinos..but seriously, I am not doing myself any favors with those particularly addictive foods!!! So I am currently 'thinkin' about what to pack ( he he!! even though I know I wont actually pack my suitcases til a day before I leave) but its exciting just 'thinking' about it.
so far all you back home, look out for me in a few weeks ok!! and hope everyone has a good week!!!
My life in the last few weeks has been pretty hectic as usual. Work never ends to be anything other then a zoo..crazy hectic angry...for anyone out there who may be considering medicine as a career- I urge you to get a reality check, becoz this industry is full of people with high blood pressure, or developing high blood pressure!! everyone is always overworked and tired and grumpy and not wanting to help you out. when i get up for breakfast in the morning I feel like I really need my nutri grain because I am literally preparing for war. The poeple that fortunately, are oblivious to this chaos are the dear patients in the wards, they dont know that I had to yell( well not yell but speak 'sternly' to!!) at 5 people to make sure they got their medicines becos "we were out of stock" - so you just dont give it then??or let anyone know?? or "the pharmacy was shut" hello thats why we have afterhours people around " she was in the shower" " she had lots of visitors" " he didnt want it" " he refused" ..I am sorry, but none of those excuses means that one can missout on their Intravenous antibiotics or parkinsons drugs etcetcetc because for a sick person in the hospital, they could be dead by the next day!!. Patients dont know that I had to grovel, and got yelled at, in order to get them a CT scan because the radiologists will do everything to get out of having to do more work.. the life of a juinor doc is anything but glamorous or prestigous or as glorified as the innocent bystander often presumes.And frankly, I am getting all abit tired of the politics of medicine..could we not just all work together in a uniform and harmonious ( ? is that a word!) manner to get people better???
sighhhhhhhh..maybe I am just complaining too much- I think I am, and I guess that happens when youre tired. On a good note, after work yesterday my husband and I went to see the laughing samoans who were doing a gig down here. By pure luck I happened to stumble across ticketec when they opened the sales to the show -so managed to grab some tickets before the show sold out. It was GREAT. Exactly the sort of medicine I needed after a crap week of work, I laughed my silly heart out, and clapped and stomped my feet and wiped away tears of joy. What was interesting though was the number of palagis there. There were quite alot of big groups of them, of what I could only presume had to be work mates sponsored by their jobs, there would be 1 pacific island looking person in the group, so I presume that was who got them to go. Anyways, it was really entertaining watching them. Like, there were great stints of the type of "And da morro of da story is,....a chocolate par!!" (i.e moro bars) humour,with roars of laughter from the pacific island audience, where the palagis sort of looked at each other sideways as if to say "I dont get it?"!! I still feel slightly awkward about this, but I actually enjoyed watching them sorta squirm in their seats, feeling a bit out of place-ish. Too often have I been made to feel out of place amongst them ( despite the fact that I am part palagi!) too often have I remained quiet and hummed at their opinions of "the NZ society is not ready for Bro town"...when I actually wanted to say-> not ready my butt, bring bro town on, its the greatest cartoon ever, next to spongebob and simpsons of course!! he he!!
Anyways, the low side of my evening was that I nodded off halfway through the act, only for a minute,it had absolutely nothing to do with the act itself!!I was just soooooo tired after a hectic week. I laughed after cos I couldnt believe I had nodded off either, I had literally just been laughing my butt off , and then Zonk...out for a minute. I think it was in the brief minute that they moved to the back of the stage to change character outfits, cos they turn the lights off briefly so you cant see them doing so. Anyways, I woke up and managed to laugh and stay awake for the rest of the act so that was good.
I am due back home in about 3 weeks and ABSOLUTELY CANT WAIT. I am soo excited I can feel myself just about fall off my seat everytime I think about it. I just need to come home, get a tan, enjoy the weather, hang out with the folks and friends, see my grandma, drive down pot-hole plagued streets, and smell the umu!! I know X100, that my bones are not made for the windy chills of Aotearoa, the sulphur smelling geysers nor the snowcapped mountains and frost covered winsheilds.. I know I will miss white chocolate and blueberry muffins with frappucinos..but seriously, I am not doing myself any favors with those particularly addictive foods!!! So I am currently 'thinkin' about what to pack ( he he!! even though I know I wont actually pack my suitcases til a day before I leave) but its exciting just 'thinking' about it.
so far all you back home, look out for me in a few weeks ok!! and hope everyone has a good week!!!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
change of scenary
I have been absent from the blog scene for a while. Just had a change of scenary at work- moving on from the good old renal deparment, to the "whole scarey hospital" department..I am the official reliever so If anyone is sick or on leave- I am the cover ..kinda scarey.. I used to think of relievers as the supermen and wonderwomen of th hospital..cos you are just all over the place. One minute in sugery next minute in ED next minute on the medical ward..etc ( not literally minutes..but everyday a new venue!)
So far it hasnt been too bad. I have had to be the cardiology cover for quite a while cos their docs have been on holiday- forever. I havent worked in cardio before but it has always scared me. Just walking past their ward with their big computerised base- they have this huge monitor/computer/desk monster thing that reminds me of something off star trek or something. Like a spaceship control centre...buttons and beeping and images and nurse-patrol-police who never fail to confront you with "IS YOUR CELLPHONE SWITCHED OFF COS IT INTERFERES WITH THE MONITORS?????" cos they can see the freaken tip of the antenae of my cellpnone peeping outa my bag. LOL!
I can never work out which freaken beep means "RUN TO THAT PATIET HE IS DYING!" and which one means "this patient dropped his nametag"..I mean for freaks sake if you're gonna have any beep at all could it just be the one that counts!! ( keeping things simple for moi poor brains please!!)Slowly over the last few days I have managed to calm my anxiety over the monster machine.(its all about ME versus THE MACHINE) No one has done anything exciting yet-and I have cheerfully been reminding my patients they are not allowed to have heart attacks!!he he!!Always makes for cheerful talk-most are like "I'll try!!lol!"
They have asked me again, for the third time this year ( they being my bosses),to present something to the weekly staff teaching lectures on pacific islanders and /or Samoans ( being the interesting and foreign beings that we are!!) It seems they can never get enough of my tales (Maybe because they are so tall!!) I can never get over how little some people know about samoa/ns despite being a neigbouring pacific country. My shock all started when some kiwi in Otago ( admittedly FROM Otago as well) asked me where I was from, I told him, then he asked where in auckland that was again (Samoa) ..no seriously . Since then I have easily convinced people that we samoan woman walk around in grass skirts and coconut shells for attire ( its too damed hot for cotton) and men wear little loincloths or nothing if they have a pe'a, that we samoan women are so beautiful because we all go down to the beach in the morning and exfoliate our skin with the sand (watch while palagis go 'oooohhhh' and remind themselves to take little bag with them next time they go to beach!) and we still travel by canoe and horseback cos we dont have tarsealed roads....I mean seriously, maybe its the particular type of people I work with, but they lap it all up..like where were they brought up????
Anyways, I am now stuck with trying to drum up another vaguely interesting presentation. I know what most of it will consist of. Statistics that make us look fat and lazy and unhealthy. Then there will be discussions about how we value our food and the wrong types ( whilst I eat my deep fried lunch) and discussions about our culture and what we value.(i.e do we value being big-ger(fat/healthy and wealthy!!) errhhhm..i think we value not-being-hungry) anyways..apparently fascinating stuff for them..kinda broken record player music to me. Anyways..we'll see how it goes.
I am actually really looking foward to this weekend ( its friday today) I have worked 12 days in a row- 72hours in the first week -so I am so looking foward to just kicking off my shoes and relaxing. Maybe actually start on my cardio excercise plan I have been meaning to launch in the last 3 months - we'll see what the weather decides!! Har har- the weather dictates my fitness level- as you can see i have become a whale after winter!LOL! anyways- gotta go so til next time- take care all!!
So far it hasnt been too bad. I have had to be the cardiology cover for quite a while cos their docs have been on holiday- forever. I havent worked in cardio before but it has always scared me. Just walking past their ward with their big computerised base- they have this huge monitor/computer/desk monster thing that reminds me of something off star trek or something. Like a spaceship control centre...buttons and beeping and images and nurse-patrol-police who never fail to confront you with "IS YOUR CELLPHONE SWITCHED OFF COS IT INTERFERES WITH THE MONITORS?????" cos they can see the freaken tip of the antenae of my cellpnone peeping outa my bag. LOL!
I can never work out which freaken beep means "RUN TO THAT PATIET HE IS DYING!" and which one means "this patient dropped his nametag"..I mean for freaks sake if you're gonna have any beep at all could it just be the one that counts!! ( keeping things simple for moi poor brains please!!)Slowly over the last few days I have managed to calm my anxiety over the monster machine.(its all about ME versus THE MACHINE) No one has done anything exciting yet-and I have cheerfully been reminding my patients they are not allowed to have heart attacks!!he he!!Always makes for cheerful talk-most are like "I'll try!!lol!"
They have asked me again, for the third time this year ( they being my bosses),to present something to the weekly staff teaching lectures on pacific islanders and /or Samoans ( being the interesting and foreign beings that we are!!) It seems they can never get enough of my tales (Maybe because they are so tall!!) I can never get over how little some people know about samoa/ns despite being a neigbouring pacific country. My shock all started when some kiwi in Otago ( admittedly FROM Otago as well) asked me where I was from, I told him, then he asked where in auckland that was again (Samoa) ..no seriously . Since then I have easily convinced people that we samoan woman walk around in grass skirts and coconut shells for attire ( its too damed hot for cotton) and men wear little loincloths or nothing if they have a pe'a, that we samoan women are so beautiful because we all go down to the beach in the morning and exfoliate our skin with the sand (watch while palagis go 'oooohhhh' and remind themselves to take little bag with them next time they go to beach!) and we still travel by canoe and horseback cos we dont have tarsealed roads....I mean seriously, maybe its the particular type of people I work with, but they lap it all up..like where were they brought up????
Anyways, I am now stuck with trying to drum up another vaguely interesting presentation. I know what most of it will consist of. Statistics that make us look fat and lazy and unhealthy. Then there will be discussions about how we value our food and the wrong types ( whilst I eat my deep fried lunch) and discussions about our culture and what we value.(i.e do we value being big-ger(fat/healthy and wealthy!!) errhhhm..i think we value not-being-hungry) anyways..apparently fascinating stuff for them..kinda broken record player music to me. Anyways..we'll see how it goes.
I am actually really looking foward to this weekend ( its friday today) I have worked 12 days in a row- 72hours in the first week -so I am so looking foward to just kicking off my shoes and relaxing. Maybe actually start on my cardio excercise plan I have been meaning to launch in the last 3 months - we'll see what the weather decides!! Har har- the weather dictates my fitness level- as you can see i have become a whale after winter!LOL! anyways- gotta go so til next time- take care all!!
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