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.