Hey just an update since i've been blogging a lot on bebo lately. I got an A and and A+ as the final results for my two postgrad papers so yay me! and it's nice to know that the months of hard slog actually paid off. Not going to do any more study next year - having a break and also will be starting on ICU so want to focus on that. Also, I might be doing a play March-May time if I get the part, which I should be hearing about soon. Even if I don't get that one there is another possible play on the cards with auditions in February so I'm quite motivated to get back into doing shows! 3 years of being career focused is making me wonder a little bit what happened to the 'old' me, so off I go on a voyage of self discovery, or something I dunno.
In other news, our flatmate Greg moved out early November and then we soon after inherited a Bala. Sadly this is due to him and his wife separating, but at the same time it's kind of nice to still have a flatmate around the place. Chris passed both his papers this semester just gone, so he's now feeling positive and motivated to finish his darned degree and get out into the world of careerness. As such, he's taking two papers over summer and then going all out full time next year. Which means I have ended my cruisy life of 4 shifts a week and am now full time - but I'm kind of excited to see what my maximum earning potential is, so yeah all good.
So it's been a bit of a busy time. Really enjoying the summery weather - we've now got a BBQ up and running which is fantastic. I smashed up the underside of our car the other day driving over something on the motorway (there was no way to avoid it, unfortunately) - don't know what it was but whatever it was it was solid and square and I'm lucky I didn't have an accident. So we've got Chris's parents fourwheel drive now until we can get our car sorted.
And we have 21 days in which to sort it - because we're meant to be driving up to see the rellies on the 21st. Agh!
Colour
Over hills and streams
The eyes, the sun
They move in weaves
And smiles, flowers
half unfurled
Shy
Against the background of the world
Softly
Slowly
Blaze and burn,
Simmer through the cycles
Turn.
til all is naught.
Lost
but barely fought.
Sharp
The edges,
ashes, pain.
Shadows
twist and tear a name.
A huge thank you to all out there who have sent me birthday wishes, cards and/or presents! It means a lot to know so many people are thinking of me! I am having a really great day, have been shopping in Wellington and I'm looking forward to a fun dinner tonight. Buzzing on a happy birthday high!!!
So it turns out that you're never too old to grow older! (that sounded better in my head...)
Love, Jane
Well, the Pirates and Pixies party was a huge success, and I have now officially celebrated my transformation into the 23rd year of existence in style and a whole week too early. My Stepmother Celia tells me I have 5 days left before it's all over, so I should live it up! So far the coming week involves a study day, a day of work and then some leave which I will be spending furiously trying to type up enough waffle to make my portfolio seem convincing. So not really much living up to be had, but Ange comes up this Friday (my actual birthday) so fun shall be had! Dammit!
And on another more energetic note - I jogged for 45 minutes today! Previous record was 31minutes, so thats a 14 minute improvement. Prolly could have gone for longer, but my newly extended circuit ran out and I wanted to be vaguely alive tomorrow. But I do believe one hour is possible, and am now seriously thinking about getting in the car and working out roughly how many kilometres I am actually managing to travel. It's a pretty slow pace, so I'm thinking its anything amazing, but am curious to know just how far I can cope with.
Today I jogged for 30minutes! I'm so proud! When I first decided to start jogging in march I could go for a grand total of 3 minutes before I was gasping for breath and forced to slow down and walk. Since those days I have never really managed to get into a routine of jogging regularly, partly due to shift work and partly due to winter turning up and slightly destroying my motivation. However I have managed to get out there at minimum once a fortnight (except recently when I got sick) and slowly but surely my fitness has improved. My goal has always been based on how long I can keep jogging for, not worrying about how far or how fast. My "short term" goal was always to be able to keep going for 30 minutes, but I have let myself come up to this level gradually because I knew that if I pushed too hard and became really sore it would kill my motivation. So finally, doing it the way I knew would work for me, today I achieved my goal!
So what next? Well, I shall carry on as I have been. Getting to 30 minutes was a bit of a struggle at the last, but I think finally my cardiovascular fitness is now at the point where I can just keep on going without running out of breath. I now feel like stopping because my legs get sore before I feel like stopping because my breathing is getting difficult. 30minutes is often all the time I really have to spare for a jog, so I think it would be good to keep going for this long, just to try and jog a bit faster and go a bit further. And if I happen to have the time, I guess i'll try and keep increasing the length of time I go for. My ultimate goal is not to run marathons, but simply to maintain general fitness and prevent myself from piling on the pounds, and also stress release. I haven't got any grand plans, but I'm really happy with how far I've come.
It's a magical thing discovering how you can slowly improve and change your own body. It's been a bit of a growing and learning experience, and quite honestly I've surprised myself. Yay me!
This actually happened last Wednesday but I thought I'd better immortalise it while I remember - I managed to break our washing machine! Quite literally! I loaded it up with to many towels and sheets. Chris and I heard banging while it was going and we were like "Oh well, it always does that".
But lo, when I went to get the washing out when the cycle had finished I lifted up the lid and thought "Hmmm where's that plastic bit that normally sits in the middle of the tub?" (Chris tells me that bit is called the Agitator - kind of like the terminator, but for clothes). So I pulled out the sheets and found that said sheets had had their revenge on my washing machine by wrapping themselves around it and quite deftly snapping it off at the base. I thought it was pretty impressive for an inanimate object myself.
Our flatmate Greg decided to take a look to see if he could fix it. I was dubious, but he was all "I'm a man and an engineer, I can fix anything!" But then he actually looked at it and was like... umm... no.
Luckily, it was a farmer's cardholder's day the next day! So off we trundled to my old place of work to get a 10% discount on a brand new (and much larger) washing machine. It was delivered the next day. Ah the fast paced modern consumeristic society we live in. Terrible for the environment, but just so darned convienient!
So there's my little story for today!
I just thought you'd all like to know, that grades for my postgrad. study are as follows:
Really easy research paper assignment thingy that was boring : A-
Insanely time consuming 4,000 word case study + literature search: A
Power Point Presentation of above case study to other members of the class: A+
Yay me! I'm just glad that all that time I spent on those damn things actually paid off. Phew!
Heya, Thought I'd better post something on my sorely neglected site. From the title, you may have guessed Kiwiwriter's Southern Cross Novel Challenge (SocNoc) is in full swing, in fact it's almost over. Much like when I did Nanowrimo last year, the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month. The only difference is, this time I'm on the team that's running the site and the challenge, and we're holding the competition now because we wanted to be able to do it in a month where the sun isn't shining outside and it's easy to justify spending hours tapping away in front of a computer with the fan heater on wrapped in a blanket.
Unfortunately real life doesn't stop, not even for SocNoc, and the postgrad study continues to add a stimulating but stressful burden upon my life. With the first two major assignments out of the way for my acute care paper, my thoughts are now turning to my portfolio, with 22 objectives to complete there's craploads of work to be done and so far I'm being really really good at procrastinating about it! I need a bomb under me or something.
So in the name of procrastination I have now written 35,000 words towards my novel, which I am really enjoying this year because I have stuck to my niche of fantasy rather than try and do something intelligent like I attempted for nano last year (but got so bored with it half way through that it ended up morphing into a fantasy anyway, which ended up making for a totally stupid plot). nine days left and 15,000 words to go. I think I can make it! Wish me luck!
Well, it has been bit too long since I last posted I'll admit. Times have been busy (but aren't they always) and seems the longer I put off posting, the more overwhelming it seems and the more I avoid it.
Part of my hesitation has been that my stepfather has been diagnosed with cancer, and in addition to the kind of muted chaos it has caused in my life it is also something I have been reluctant to bring to reality by posting about. So far the chemotherapy is going alright, there are the usual side effects which are making things not very fun for anyone, but the blood tests taken last week showed an improvement which is uplifting in that it means the treatment is not in vain. However it is bittersweet because there is no known cure for this kind of cancer, so the aim is to buy as much time as possible. Given the circumstances, my stepfather is probably in the best situation he could have been in to be diagnosed with this, as he is young, fit, and the cancer was discovered extremely early on. So there's a very good chance that he'll be sticking around for a good long time yet!
So, in the inexorable way that it does, life carries on. The study associated with my new job recently had me completely absorbed as the first two big assignments were both due in last fortnight. I actually finished both several days before the due date, surprising myself, as usually I am a last minute all-nighter kind of girl. I think in my dotage I've become quite petrified of the stress such a situation would cause, as well as unable to face handing the rubbish the assignment would be if it had been written at 4am (whereas back in nursing school I didn't seem to care. Now to me that seems very strange.).
I feel extremely settled on the cardiac unit now. I'm quite confident with the basic care of the average, non complicated patient and I'm beginning to branch out and care for the occasional more unstable patient. Because coronary care is a specialty there seems to be a set amount of knowledge that you can learn, and this knowledge is like a toolkit that can be applied to about 75% of the patients on the ward in terms of assessment and questions to be asking, conditions to be considering or observing for, and to guide your priorities of care. One of my most recent assignments was really brilliant for teaching me a significant chunk of this knowledge because I had to perform a search of the literature surrounding the care of patients experiencing a serious heart attack, and in the course of the search I learned a lot about coronary artery disease, the principles of what happens when the heart muscle cannot get oxygen, the complications, the various forms and goals of treatment, and the tools needed to care for any patient with a common cardiac problem. My knowledge of interpreting ECGs continues to expand and get reconsolidated with experience which is also great. I can recognise most basic rhythms now and can have a crack at what might be happening on an ECG where the answer is not immediately apparent.
Anyway, I've just run out of time, so hopefully I'll be able to write again soon.
Well, it's all go! My post grad stuff started at the beginning of this month and... well, there's a lot of work to be done! In fact, I should be doing some right now! It's really quite overwhelming, but I'm sure I'll get through it all somehow. I also had my cannulation and phlebotomy study day on Wednesday, so I'm finally allowed to stab people! I have successfully put IV lines in two people (one a fellow study day classmate and the second was a silly house surgeon who volunteered to let me practice on them.. mwa ha ha ha!) and I've taken a blood sample x1 (got it first pop!) So this is a skill I've wanted to have for ages so I'm quite excited about it.
Chris and I are also getting a flatmate! He's a mutual friend of ours, moving in Easter weekend. He's geeky like us, enjoys computer games and DnD and stuff, so it should be good fun, not to mention a great help with the rent etc.
This month is busy! The school work and normal work would be enough on it's own, but there's also so much social stuff going on (I know, I know, poor old me). Going to town for St. Pat's day and a friend's birthday tomorrow night which should be a blast. Then there's another party the next weekend, and then we're having a party here the weekend after that because a friend of mine is visiting back from the UK and I have been told that I am to throw a party for her. Well, I'm more the venue than anything else, I haven't really done any of the organising for it.
Anyway, enough whinging. Better get on with some work!
Well, I'm posting anyway. I haven't posted recently because there hasn't been much new stuff to say. My job is still going great, I'm out on my own on the ward now, taking my own patients, and it's really great to be back into it again. Chris is back at uni doing two papers this semester, and his company has kept him on part time which is really great, so we're basically all sorted for the year. My post grad study starts next week and that's looking to be full on, so between that and work and kiwiwriters and all other stuff I've got going on it's looking to be a busy but fulfilling year!
So, ah that's about all... Keaz if you're reading this, do the words Thick Pink Icing mean anything to you? hmmm? 
Kiwiwriters is here! Actually, has been here since Feb 1st, I'm juse really slow to post about it. It's a project I've been working on with a few friends I met at Nano, and Keaz as well, and it's here and up and running. It's a place for amateur NZ writers to gather together, discuss ideas, challenge eachother and give eachother encouragement and feedback.
I'm really excited about how it's turning out. We just finished our first site-wide competition - Waitangi Weekend Word Wace (wwwW) which was a great success, and now we have 20 account holders! Looking forward to having many many more and seeing the people who join help us to improve and specialise the site so it's a one-stop-shop for those in New Zealand wanting to write for recreation or for eventual publishing!
Take a look and see what it's all about!
Hey there. Updating on how things are going, all through with the silliness now. (I promise) (actually, no i don't hehe). So I got this new job on a cardiac ward, and I've been there about two weeks now. It's really quite good. My brain is throbbing from all the new information it is desperately trying to absorb, I'm having to go back to the textbook and relearn in great detail all my cardiac stuff, as well as all new things like angiograms and ecgs and femoral sheaths (which i think sounds dodgy, but actually its just the tube the put in people's legs i.e. their femoral artery when they do an angiogram). It's all a great new challenge, and what's really good is the job is less physically demanding than surgical. Very little showering or helping people up and down or wiping bottoms. Almost every patient is independent with these things, just has a dodgy heart that needs to be monitered closely!
So I've got eight months total here and then I move onto cardiothoracic, which is where patients go after they've had heart or lung surgery. So that WILL be very physically demanding, and mentally demanding. so it will be interesting to see what morale is like amongst the nurses there. On CCU where I am now, morale is very high and there is a very positive team environment. They're all making me feel very welcome, which is so important. I'm coping with the commute as well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be (but, things very rarely are as bad as I think they will be), and it's kind of nice being in the big smoke everyday, that's something I used to miss. Although it was a bit depressing, on Saturday I worked an evening shift and they let me go early because there were only 6 patients and I'm supernumerary at the moment, and driving through town at 10.30 watching all the partygoers all dressed up and having fun.. I was like "i dont want to go home! let's go party!" but of course, i was alone in the car talking to myself, and i promptly replied to myself with 'don't be silly, you'll look stupid dancing alone in bars in your nurse's uniform!" so i obediently drove myself home without another word.
