Today I was on the early shift and actually got there before the night girl left, it’s strange when I’m on that shift, because firstly I’m not used to it and secondly it’s a Sunday which means a 3 course lunch and thirdly the weekend staff work differently to those in the weekdays, only slightly, but still, routine is routine.
It’s that time of year when my knuckles are red raw (no I haven’t been punching anyone) and my nose is red and sore (no, I haven’t been punched), it’s the weather. It makes my skin crack and it becomes so, so sore. I did have hand cream which I was going to take to work with me this morning. I bought it downstairs and then it just… disappeared. I seriously cannot find it anywhere. Whenever I’m cold it’s my nose that catches it. Like right now, I’m not really cold but my nose is, I fear I may be confused with Rudolf when Christmas gets here. It’s not far away, is it?
30th November already, Christmas is seriously creeping up and it’ll be 1st December tomorrow. The last posting date for International mail is the 5th I think, I need to get onto starting my Christmas cards and getting some presents ready to send off… sighs. I don’t know what’s the worst part of Christmas, writing Christmas cards, buying gifts, wrapping gifts, cooking the Christmas dinner, the Christmas carols, putting up Decorations/the Christmas tree, the commercialisation… actually I dislike it all equally.
Well she’s on the sick for 4 weeks which means I am temporarily back to my normal shift pattern which is great.
We heard back about that road around the corner and it has been declared dangerous so something is going to be done. Oh, and something else that gets on my nerves is when van drivers park on the edge of a junction so it makes it hard to see past when approaching, for goodness sake it gets on my nerves soooo much, it’s against the highway code am pretty sure you’re not allowed to park within 10feet of a junction Bloody idiots. It’s so flipping dangerous. Grrrrrrrr
Anyway I have an ulcer or something in my mouth and it’s driving me crazy, I have been dabbing Bonjela on it so much today I hope it’ll be better tomorrow. It’s right by my back tooth so it’s hard to talk without it hurting but Bonjela is helping a lot. I also have a bad back today.
I haven’t long got back from the resus course and I have to say I found it really interesting and worthwhile. Last night (and this morning) I was really apprehensive about going because I doubted I’d be able to do it, it’s such a big course and covers a lot of ground and there were going to be quite a few people there who had already done the course, but were updating their certificate. But I did go, and I’m glad I did.
A lot of the morning was based around CPR and additional equiptment we can use. This introduced us to the BVM (bag, valve, mask) which assists when it comes to breathing, so instead of giving mouth to mouth we ‘bag them’ and have the option of attaching oxygen to the valve. A little biology lesson now… when we breath in normal air we breath in 21% oxygen and breath out 16%, so we only use 5% of it… so when we give mouth to mouth we are breathing our exhaled air into the other persons lungs so that’s only 16%. If oxygen is used when giving CPR if used properly can provide 100% which is really helpful when it comes to CPR and attempting to keep the body going.
We were told about LUCAS, a machanical machine that does the chest compressions for ya (and while it’s at it am sure it breaks every single rib! Look at it!) We don’t use this, but some NHS ambulance services do.
In the afternoon we learnt about oxygen therapy, giving oxygen to casualties who are basically having trouble breathing for whatever reason and how to establish an airway by sticking something down the casualties throat! Oh, and suction… one of the trainers volunteered to allow people to use suction in his mouth and I used the suction machine on him and it was pretty daunting.
Then we learnt about monitoring equiptment such as pulse oximeter which measures the oxygen saturation in the blood and also the pulse rate. Well my pulse was 110 but my oxygen saturation was 99% which was good… then we were introduced to the blood pressure monitor and my BP was 159/96 which is really high! Normal should be around 120/80.
Anyway it was an interesting course and got to play with some new toys, also one step further to getting on the ambulances! I think I need two more courses before taking the IHCD exam and hopefully I’ll be on the ambulances by April. Woot!! I know it’s not the NHS but the Red Cross do follow the NHS and their aim is to qualify ambulance crew to a level similar to that of the NHS so that if there’s a casualty needing proper care they don’t need to wait until the NHS ambulance gets there to recieve good care, there can be more to first aid than plasters and bandages.
Yesterday I booked my car in for a winter checkup. Here’s a link to the leaflet. I use my car a lot these days, work, red cross, general driving around, she last had an MOT in April which is a good few months ago and thought it would be good to check her over see if she’s ok, also getting the winter kit which is a few quid itself!
I had to drive to the pet shop today. Gerbils. Lovely cute little things aren’t they? They are little bastards that bite through anything. When I bought them I didn’t realise I’d need to kit out the cage every few weeks. Haha They have chewed through the plastic on one of the tubes, attachment to the food bowl, attachment to their vitamin tablet thingy, their bed. Oh, and me. My poor fingers. I buy them wooden toys so they can bite them for their teeth, but they still bite bite bite. The white one is using the exercise wheel at the moment, good too considering the chocolate dad gives them!
I got my one months notice through the post today, the other woman is taking the job full time… see what happens there.
Anyway, I have a headache. Got the resus support course tomorrow, hope I feel more enthusiastic tomorrow.
Posted by flummoxed1 on Nov 22, 2008 in christmas, life
Today I was walking through the shopping centre in town and you can really tell Christmas is just around the corner. Santas Grotto was there, Christmas decorations hanging everywhere and Christmas themed music blasting out in the background I felt like screaming. The interior of the shopping centre is white and even that reminded me of Christmas (snow). Walk out of the shopping centre and it’s nothingness, nothing at all is there to make you think it is Christmas. The lights were put on at the weekend but there’s no tree or decorations in the high streets, always used to make the effect. But I think because the city is under ‘refurbishment’ the local council just isn’t bothering, it’s a shame really. I mean, I can’t say I’m a fan of Christmas, but many other people are, especially the children, you’d have thought they’d put up something. Oh, I lie, there is a decoration up somewhere in one of the high streets (can’t remember where) saying Merry Christmas in Welsh, but it wasn’t taken down from last Christmas and I think it’s meant to light up… but it doesn’t. Tacky, huh?
Anyway today I made a start wrapping what presents I have. I haven’t finished yet but it’s a start… I just don’t know what to get people. I like using gift finders on the internet, they are helpful. A site that you may find useful is Firebox. I have ordered a few things off there over the year and the service is great, I highly recommend them.
Well work tonight was a bit of a pain, a while ago we were talking about updating the tenants on the fire alarm proceedure so that they know, well, what to do in the event of the fire alarm going off… there’s a fire alarm info card in every flat and all tenants are told about the fire alarm proceedure when they are moving in, but, like things do, some things slip our mind and/or get confuddled. Well, tonight I had to go around 30 flats explaining to them all what the fire alarm proceedure is, what to do, where to go etc… and it was a bloody nightmare.
One of the tenants was stone deaf but thank goodness she was able to read it and sign to say she understood it. Another one is very hard of hearing (in denial about that fact) and she didn’t have reading glasses (prefer to read it out anyway) and I was in her flat for ages trying to explain it because everything I was saying, she wasn’t paying attention because she was so certain she knew what to do… when she didn’t. I kept my cool, when I felt like banging my head against the wall. Another tenant has bad confusion so that was fun explaining to her. Another tenant likes to pick holes in everything and when I finished reading it out she of course had to pick up on a few ‘contradictions’ … when there aren’t any contradictions. They are clear cut and to the point, they have to be to be understood.
Anyway by the time I finished my board tonight (took almost 4 hours) I had a bit of a sore throat. The boss asked if they understood it and I said the number of times I read it out, I, for one, definitely did. Thing is they understand it NOW, but tomorrow, or in a weeks time, it’ll be a different story for many, so we’ll need to do that every few weeks/months I think.
Onto other news, I have been telling people I haven’t been scared about what my dads ex girlfriends current boyfriend (or whoever) said to me, and I thought I wasn’t, but tonight I was leaving work and I felt ultra anxious. My car was in the car park and I couldn’t help but keep looking around and as soon as I got into the car I locked all the doors. I hate it when people target you emotionally. I honestly don’t know if she will carry out the threats or not, I guess if she was going to, would have by now.
Posted by flummoxed1 on Nov 19, 2008 in life, work
Well, I’m back in work tomorrow, I’ve had a few days off and I wish I had a few more days off… it’s like school. The longer you have off school the less ‘enthusiastic’ you are about going back. I was rarely enthusiastic about going to school but I have been about going to work. Usually I enjoy it, the people I work with, tenants we look after etc, but I go through times where I find it such an effort being in work. My colleague usually notices when I’m like this and asks what’s wrong, sometimes I tell her I’m feeling a bit ‘blehish’ and don’t say anymore, othertimes I say “I’m fine”, crack a smile, and that’s the end of that. So ya I’m back to the afternoon shift tomorrow, but hey, on the “bright” side, it is payday, woot!! I wonder if that’ll give me a reason to smile? *rolleyes* Sigh, I’ll probably be ok once I get there.
Anyhoo, my poor baby car sounded a bit ill this morning, maybe she was cold or something, I dunno (hey, cars have feeling too!). Ironically enough I got a letter through the post about a winter vehicle check, £25 (£10 off, woot!). They check the lights/electrics, brakes, clutch, engine, mirrors, fluid levels, steering, wheels.. everything, and the coolant levels/brake fluid/screen wash/engine oil get topped up too and I think it’s a good bargin. Oh, and ya get a free winter care kit.
Speaking of cars I swear like a mad man when I’m driving. You should hear me… or not. When I’m going to this particular place I ALWAYS take the WRONG exit which ends up putting an extra 15 mins or so on my journey as I have to carry on going and go another way around. I was saying, I bet I take the wrong *beeping* exit. I always take the wrong *beeping* exit. Oh for *beeps* sake I’m in the wrong lane again. Oh *beep*, let me ouuut let me ouuut (ie, let me get in the lane!!). Wow I actually took the right *beeping* exit for a change. I rarely swear outside the car, it just drives me crazy! Oh and other drivers do too.
I installed this earlier and so far it works a treat. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/ I can’t update wordpress or vbulletin and always bug a good friend to do it for me, so with the auto update for wordpress that’s one less ‘burden’ off his shoulders (he’s so going to virtually slap me for that).
Hmm well I haven’t updated for a while.. first of, relating to last post, someone contacted me the other day about the traffic situation on that particular road where drivers should ‘give way’ but they don’t, they said they were going to go down the road and have a look themselves and pass it onto the traffic management team (or something) who will do something about it because I don’t care what anyone says, it IS dangerous.
Speaking of dangerous I can’t remember if I mentioned my dads ex or not… it’s a long story but basically she’s being a right bitch and is trying to make our lives hell. Tonight I was threatened, police called again. Didn’t do much, said they couldn’t do much. If I’m followed or get any trouble at all or see anyone suspicious they told me to call 999.
Still in work… just… review coming up re job share in December, haven’t a clue whats going to happen (which isn’t fair really) but I have told my boss I’ll stay on through Christmas and New Year.
Red Cross.. my name has been put forward to go on a resusication support course on sunday, one step further to being on the ambulances. I remember back last year I was allowed on the 4×4 at a racecourse and it was such fun, I was going speeding over a HUGE bump thank goodness I had a seatbelt on, shame the other red cross dude (who gave me the keys in first place) didn’t. I should have given him a head injury info card.
Relationship… still with Callie
Pets… Snap, Crackle and Pop still don’t like me… well, Pop and Crackle are ok with me but wont let me hold them properly yet. Snap on the other hand, the white albino, is a bastard because he keeps biting me!! He bites me and I pull my hands away but the little shite is still hanging from my finger. Aw, can’t help but love ‘em though.
Family.. well my mum wants to have another baby so who knows… maybe I’ll have a little brother/sister in future… my dad isn’t too bad, uncle is having relationship problems and has been living in a car, he moved back to England but we’ve told him there’s a spare bed here if he wants to crash for a few nights or something.
If you have just stumbled across my blog then allow me to say "hi!" =)
This blog is kept by a 21 year old female living in Wales UK. It's a personal blog used as a way of expression for my thoughts, opinions and random blurbs. Some posts are deeply thought out whereas others are heat of the moment. The topics range between all areas of my life. All entries are my opinion and by no means do they intend to offend. Rarely do I post material that could - but there's always that chance!
If you'd like to know more about me then click 'About Me' in the navigation bar at the top. Thanks for reading. =) x
Tired