shamrock79

One, two, three... only four more days left of uni!

Well, four days in which to try and memorise all the pathophysiology coursework I've neglected to do this term and which will come up in the exam on friday afternoon. Eeek. So far, I can write one essay on parkinsons, so i really need to to cover at least another 5 topics to be sure of being able to answer 3 essay topics.

My new phone arrived today, its so pretty and fine and pink, go my phone!

My dissertation is finished, complete, done and dusted! It's most likely a pile of rubbish, but I'm past caring, it's handed in all beautifully bound and out of my site, what a relief!

We went to Wagamama after handing in the nasty dissertations, I'd never been there before but it was super nice. I had a lovely chicken katsu curry, which had nice fried chicken fillets with a HUGE portion of sticky rice and curry sauce. mmmmm. Hell, I'm going to get fat anyhow so I might as well enjoy it!

What a meh couple of days, I'm so glad to be back home...

I started bleeding on monday afternoon so went up to Casualty where they insisted on admitting me. I was like please no I hate hospitals, they make me feel ill ( Despite working in one!). So I was kept in overnight so that I could go for a scan the next morning. I hardly slept at all cos I was worried and wards are just so noisy. I'm sure I dont make that much noise on nightshift! So I went for a scan on tuesday morning and thank goodness everything is ok. It was weird seeing the ultrasound, it really looks like a little person, so cool. I just got a big shock over the whole thing, you kind of assume that you won't have any problems. Apparently bleeding is pretty common, though not normal, my mum said she had some when she was pregnant with my brother.

I slept for 14 hours last night I was so sleepy after hardly sleeping in hospital. And today I'm all refreshed and ready to get on with the rest of chapter three, I really must finish it by tomorrow at the latest. Paul has now told his family, and they took the news really well. His mum is super excited and has been phoning all her family telling them she's going to be a granny!

General Yayness tho. I told my parents today that they were going to be grandparents and the reaction was surprisingly positive! They were a little shocked but seemed pleased about it especially my dad, I was absolutely dreading telling them. However, my mum says that I have to tell my granny myself and she won't be telling her anything! She's going to have a fit, considering I'm not married, with no plans on being so and Paul not being Catholic.
Oh well, I'm super relieved anyhow to have got that out of the road. Now i need to get back to my stupid dissertation. I hate it soooo much.

Well that's my seminar prepared for tomorrow, its a pile of lame waffle but i really don't care, cos it's not marked. Yes, I know, what a bad attitude, but i've had it up to here with uni!

I'm signed off work just now for a week, have a chest infection and am coughing all the time. Pants. But it gives me time to write up chapter three of the dissertation and finish up my patho essay before Paul arrives on the 15th. Only 16 days!

Still not told my parents, We decided would wait until after the first scan which is in 2 weeks, I just want to know everything is ok before I drop the bombshell! I'm ten weeks now, and morning sickness has the most misleading name ever, try all the time sickness....

I just got back from Stockholm on friday night, it was beautiful and snowy, very christmassy looking despite being february. We went on a boat trip to Moomin land aka Finland, so cool. All the water in the sea was totally frozen, the boat had icebreakers just to get through. It was full of crazy Swedish People going mad for cheap alchohol. Couldnt indulge myself, but got very hyper on diet coke and we ended up in the cheesy club on the boat till 2am. Spent the next day wandering around Helsinki, pretty cool place, it looks a little Russian. Super nice. My first new country of the year!

Meh, I feel awful, am still sitting about in my pjs, trying to eat some curry which will be my first proper meal in 2 days. Pregnancy sucks- i feel nauseous all the time tho am not throwing up, have to pee about every hour and my boobs have gone up a cup size already. Hell I was a D already, I feel out of control! Im just starting week 8 so i guess ive been lucky that i havent had any sympoms till this week.

Lecturers have set a most evil topic for my next group seminar, I swear i couldnt find a single reference for the dude. Then i discovered they had spelled his name wrong! They hadnt even found original research and instead had quoted him a a wrongly spelled citation, i'm furious! Have spent 2 weeks trying to get info on a non existent researcher. Even now i've found his actual name there is very little on him. Uni sucks although ive now finished chapter 2 of dissertation, only 2 more to go now. My patho module is hellish, 2 three hour exams and an essay, with 4 solid hours of lectures every friday morning.

Going to Sweden this friday for a week, yay! It will have been a very long four weeks since i last saw Paul, we have lots to talk about despite constant skypeing! My dad gets out of rehab on saturday, it seems to have gone well, I think he's addicted to going to AA meetings now instead! went to see "Walk the Line" last night with my parents, it was such a good film, reminded me of Ray a bit. Reese Witherspoon has got so skinny tho, and joaquim phoenix just has the sexiest accent in it, verrry nice!

Well, I told Paul.... and after an initial "oh my!", he's pleased! I'm so relieved, in fact I think he's taken the news much better than me. I'm still a bit shell shocked, going to the doctors next week so will find out more about how far along I am and so on. I wish he was here with me just now, I really want a hug and feel vulnerable already.

But overall, I think I'm coming round to the idea, scary though it is

Omg, I thought January couldnt get any crazier but something else completely major has happened.

I was a bit late and thought nothing of it cos I've been really stressed, but I was chatting to Paul last night about how I seem to be eating every two hours and being really nibbly, and he joked are you sure you're not pregnant?! I hadn't even considered that but I did a test this morning and it's positive. In one way i'm actually happy, but in another completely scared, If this had happened in a years time it would fantastic, but I had counted on some time once I finish uni in May to sort things out and also Paul doesn't finish uni for a few months and needs to find a job. I don't know if I should tell him just now or wait until i see him in three weeks.

This has been the strangest month ever...

Arghhhhh! I hope I win the Euro millions lottery this weekend so I can pay someone handsomely to write my dissertation for me! I hate it now with a veangance, and still am only doing reading and organising for chapter two. Boo hoo.

Went to see my dad last night in the Rehab hospital place, he seems to be getting on ok, they have lots of group therapy, activities and AA meetings. My mum didnt look very happy though, I think she's a bit sceptical about what will happen when he gets out and there isnt the same support or attention. ah well, we'll see, I'm just trying not to think about it much.

I decided what to get Paul for his birthday, am thinking about booking up to go somewhere for a city break when he's over in March, maybe Prague or Budapest, I'm not sure yet. A week in the sun would be nice too, so I'm starting looking.

Shay is round to stay at the moment, he's spent the whole morning alternating between sleeping on the couch and sleeping on my bed. What a cushy life!

Well, I meant to update sooner but this has been such a busy crazy month so far I havent had time to. I cant be bothered typing lots so I'll just make a lazy little list of whats been happening...

- Work is ok. Haven't seen much of my boss and that's just the way I like it. My patients have all been really nice, no major complications

- Uni, all my essays are done and I finished chapter one of dissertation today. Yay! only another 3 to go.

- Paul was over from the 9th till the 18th, had such a nice time and miss him so much. same old story there then! He met my uni friends who liked him, we went out for lunch which turned into drinks till about 10. dangerous

- We went to Belfast for the weekend, what a nice place. Would go back, the people are super nice

- Decided am going on holiday in june with Rachel and Frances, Im in charge of finding something nice so need to start looking

- My car hit a GIANT pothole on monday, it was like a metre wide and exposed down to the brickwork. It f&*£ed my tyre completely and I had to put on my spare. Phoned the idiots at the road department for compensation forms. I swear it was hubcap central at the spot. about 15 of them were lying about!!!!!!!!!!

- Last of all is a biggie.... My dad is going into rehab on monday, I knew he drank heavily but he's admitted that he's alcoholic and has been abusing drink for 30 years. Its a 4 week programme and is all really shocking and out of the blue. He'd hidden it really well from us, especially my mum. She's told him if he doesnt quit, it's over and she's divorcing him. Everything feels so up in the air. Im glad he's admitted it but God, everything is so confusing. I guess its better things are getting sorted out but I just dont know whats going to happen.

  The first one is me and my brother caught by surprise. The second is my little doggy, at the top of a windy hill, he looks like devil about to take off!

I can hardly believe it's almost 2006! This year seems to have flown by, overall it's been a good one though.

Im Struggling on with the most immensely dull and pc health promotion essay ever, hate the subject and only picked it becaused there were so few classes to attend which fitted in with my shifts. The essay is full of total dribble, but hopefully it's the kind of dribble the module leader wants! Then it's back to dissertation work for the whole of January as Im not back at uni till the start of february.

Work is going ok tho. Some days I like it and others i don't. Mainly when I don't like it, it's concerning crappy staffing levels or the hideousness of my evil boss! I've been there 3 months, so i'll be able to move on once I've 6 months experience, probably to either another HDU, maybe ITU, but certainly nearer to home, I mean I can walk to the nearest hospital in 10 minutes, instead of spending an hour and lots of petrol money communting everyday! High dependency is a good place to start your first job though I think, You get a lot of really good experience in pain control and post op care, and actually have time to learn.

Christmas was nice, went round to my parents and had a nice christmas dinner that I was in no way involved in cooking! Mostly got money as presents, but also chocolate and a few dvds including the fourth series of Still Game, it's hilarious. With the money have ordered a nice little digital camera, a couple of Irish history books and entire Beethoven Piano sonatas which have been meaning to buy for ages. Shame I can only play 2 of them, but I guess that's a nice challenge.

Only 9 days till Paul comes over, seems an eternity since I was in Stockholm. We're going to Belfast for a couple of days, thought about going on a road trip up north but it's kind of bleak at this time of year. Maybe in March or April cos I quite fancy going to Skye or some of the islands. So that's my news, not so exciting at all!

No more work this weekend, whether I have my silly health promotion essay to do or not cos it's nearly christmas! Yay! Im going to go round to my mums and do christmassy things, whatever that may entail.

So, I hope everyone has a lovely and super happy christmas, and that Santa is good to you!

Back to work tomo after nearly 2 lovely weeks of skiving....meh

I was in Stockholm from the 8th until yesterday, had such a nice time really spoiled getting to spend so much time with Paul. I got my birthday present from him (at last!), its so pretty, a ring he designed himself with an inscription inside by Byron. I miss him sooo much already, things are just so up in the air we cant make any plans till he finishes his dissertation and gets a job. And i'll be staying in Glasgow for another year, after that who knows. It just sucks not being with him.

We did lots of nice things during the week, wandered roung the Gamla Stan which is all christmassy, went shopping, went to Scansen for the Lucia procession, to the zoo and went on a daytrip to Linkoping to visit a friend of Pauls. But now its back to work, I have a health promotion essay to write this week and then chapter one of my dissertation, and they have to be written before Paul arrives here in 3 weeks.

Shay is going to the hairdressers this week, he's going to look so clean and smart and not smell all doggy!

I STILL have no online access at my flat cos the idiots that lived there before didnt bother to cancel their broadband! Fingers crossed that tomorrow BT will have sorted it out and i can sign up with my old provider to get connected. True when i have no net connection i get hell of a lot more work done but I cant skype or msn Paul, I have to over to my mums and its feels like he's so far away. We had a lovely time though when he came to visit, met my family and a couple of friends and they all seemed to like him. Im going to Stockholm on the 9th of december till the 18th and then he is coming back here on the 9th of january for 10 days, we're so organised these days lol!

I have no life just now though, i go to work and i come home and do tons of uni work. Its neverending. But the flat is lovely, after a couple of trips to Ikea, i have everything that i need thought there are still things that i want. as always!

My bed came today, its so nice and comfy!
I'm so stressed about work- my preceptor phoned me today to talk with me about something that happened when i was working yesterday, or rather a mistake that i made and am partly to blame for. My patient came back from theatre and i was busy sorting out the raft of paperwork that accompanies them. I noted down her observations but then realised they were in the wrong time slot so started a new obs chart. I thought all that was written on the old chart was my obs that i transferred but one of the doctors had written her fluids on the back and didnt say to me, though i really should have noticed. I binned the old one, which again looking back i shouldnt have done but was so busy and stressed I was thinking properly. So when the SHO came round in the evening to write up fluids I thought this was the first that anyone had wrote, with the exception of the fluid orders from the theatre notes which i was following. She was on dextrose and saline infusions with added potassium from theatre but the SHO wrote her up for Hartmanns. I said to her do you want Potassium added or continued potassium infusions, cos Im sure Hartmanns has only about 6% potassium but she was like no, no there's plenty of potassium in the hartmanns for her. So i thought, ok, Ive questioned it and I'll go by whatever fluids are written up. The patients potassium was low overnight and is still sitting at about 3, I feel really awful about it, I should have looked at the back of the old form and shouldve questioned why the hartmanns instead of potassium. But then again the SHO is responsible for checking the bloods and writing up appropriate fluids. I dont know, some days i feel im getting on ok and days like this I feel like packing it in!

Yayay, I have everything in my flat and the cleaning done, just waiting for bed to be delivered tomo and I can move in!!!! Just worked my last supernumary shift today, from now on im counted in the staffing numbers, poor patients!

What a busy busy month October has been and im glad its coming to an end. Tomorrow is moving day, I get the keys to my lovely flat! My room is complete chaos just now, boxes everywhere and lots of stuff waiting to be boxed. Im very much looking forward to having my own place, so i can get all organised as everything has been kind of unsettled since I got back from Umea.
Work is going well in a sense, I love working in high dependency, most of my patients are surgical post op, and i have only 2 to look after at once, but saying that it keeps you very busy. All the other nurses on the unit are really nice and friendly, if i dont know how to do something its no problem to explain. Downside: the sister is an absolute control freak bitch! Cannot stand the woman and neither can anyone else. She put out the christmas off duty this week, she has people working 5 12 hour shifts in a row over christmas from the 23 to the 27th so they essentially have no christmas. No one ever works 5 shifts in a row usually, we're going to the union to find out if is even legal! Im working new year which is fine with me as i hate new year, but even so have 4 shifts in a row then plus one on the 28th when i think i may have a spot of food poisoning or a heavy cold, wink wink. But other than her, work is good. Uni is dull, my dissertation is not jumping out at me at all, but i guess I have to start doing some work for that to happen!
Only 8 days till Paul comes over for 10 days, I cannot wait now, it seems ages since we last saw each other. I spend so much of my time on messenger or skype these days, its pretty sad. He's talking about job hunting here next year, if he likes Scotland that is! Or rather, I pointed out to him wait and see if you like it, I dont want him giving up so much for me if he's not happy where he's living. So I'm still sadly loved up!
Birthday on friday- I will officially be closer to 30 than 20 eek!

1. Your name spelled backwards?
ettolrahc

2. Where were your parents born?
Glasgow and Donegal

3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
Skype

4. What's your favorite restaurant?
Yen

5. Last time you swam in a pool?
In Malta on holiday

6. Have you ever been in a school play?
Once, I played an orphan after the Great fire of London

7. How many kids do you want?
2 or 3 i think, maybe even 4

8. Type of music you dislike most?
country

9. Are you registered to vote?
yep

10. Do you have cable?
NTL

11. Have you ever ridden on a moped?
No

12. Ever prank-called anybody?
Nope

13. Best friend?
I have a couple

14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
Have been bungee jumping and would definetly try sky diving

15. Furthest place you ever traveled?
Australia

16. Do you have a garden?
Yes

17. What's your favorite comic strip?
Dont really like comics, never have

18. Do you really know all the words to the pledge of allegiance?
Nope, not American so no reason to

19. Bath or Shower, morning or night?
Shower every morning, sometimes bath at night too

20. Best movie you've seen in the past month?
I liked Troy, finally got round to seeing it

21. Favorite pizza toppings?
Hot and spicy

22. Chips or popcorn?
I dont really like crisps, only like sweet popcorn

23. What color lipstick do you usually wear?
rarely do, only lipbalm

24. Have you ever smoked peanut shells?
Nope?!?

25. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?
I was Miss Mini Coastline 1986 lol

26. Orange Juice or apple?
Orange

27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with?
Paul, his sister and 2 of her friends

28. Favorite type of chocolate bar?
thats impossible i love so many. Maybe Lindt Lindor

29. When was the last time you voted at the polls?
At the last election

30. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?
No idea

31. Have you ever won a trophy?
Nope

32. Are you a good cook?
Not good but reasonably competent i suppose

33. Do you know how to pump your own gas?
No, but I can fill up the tank with petrol!!!

34. Ever ordered from an infomercial?
no

35. Sprite or 7-up?
neither, irnbru or pepsi

36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work?
yep, my beautiful scrubs!

37. Last thing you bought at a Walgreens?
huh?!?

38. Ever thrown up in public?
yes

39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or finding true love?
Finding true love

40. Do you believe in love at first sight?
No thats just plain lust

41. Can ex's be just friends?
No

42. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital?
No idea, i spend too much time in hospital

43. Did you have a lot of hair as a baby?
yep

44. What message is on your answering machine?
pre-recorded one

45. Where would you like to go?
everywhere, well except like afghanistan or iraq

46. What was the name of your first pet?
Goldie

47. What kinda backpack do u have, and what's in it?
Oh i have many many bags!

48. Who is your best friend of the opposite sex?
My brother i think

49. What is one thing you are grateful for today?
my laptop is working again

50. What do you think about most?
thats for me to know!

so miserable outside today, luckily my dad took the dog out for his walk so I had no reason to bother going outside. Instead I had a nice day pottering about catching up with things. I packed all my books into boxes for moving and dismantled my Ikea shelves ready for moving. Then I did some reading for my ethics module, the classes are dreadful and really badly taught but in itself its a very interesting subject. Caught up with a load of ironing and then downloaded lots of nice tunes. I used Lime wire for the first time today, so much better than win mx. I found quite a few tunes that were played a lot while i was in Sweden, Like Amy Diamond and Arash, very cheesy tunes. Then I was talking to Paul on skype for a couple of hours. We were chatting last night about some pretty serious stuff, like the future, settling down, kids ( we agreed that 2 or 3 is nice!). I'm not going to write down what we said because that would be utterly cheesy! lets just say we concluded we were in it for the long run. I'm so sorry i'm so loved up, I know how irritating it can be when you're not, but I'm just all fuzy and dreamy when I think about him. A nice busy day but uni at 9 tomo, dull dull dull. I dont mind studying but the classes I have are so boring and pointless.