mission 'take back the Oscar' - members needed.

Its my last night shift for awhile....hurrah! Only 1 more scheduled shift before I go casual here and start my new position as a full-time student - again! I'm looking forward to having a somewhat normal schedule that allows for extra-curricular activities that do not include sleep.

Its a busy night on the ward. Emergency has been bombarding us with admits - whatever happened to people being too busy shopping on boxing day to be sick? The post-holiday illness frenzy begins now...

Went and saw Oceans 12 a couple of days ago. Any movie that involves Julia Roberts having to act as herself is an immediate write-off. God, I detest that woman. Anyone who is interested in a "Tell Julia Roberts how much she sucks club" let me know. So far we have 3 members. I feel honestly she does not think that there are people out there who do not like her and question her so-called acting talent. I cannot believe she has an Oscar! I want to write her a stern letter...

All in all, Oceans 12 was a tremendous disappointment. Even all the 'Brad Pitt eating' scenes could not save it! Tons of good stuff coming out though. Phantom of the Opera, Hotel Rwanda, The Life Aquatic, The Aviator and of course, A Series of Unfortunate Events!... must spend all of January in the movie theatres...

I'm hoping to have a "book club" link added to my blog in the next while. The book for January is "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. So far there are 4 people interested in book clubbing this novel. If anyone else is interested, let me know.

a poem

America, America

I too love jeans and jazz and Treasure Island
and John Silver's parrot and the balconies of New Orleans,
I love Mark Twain and the Mississippi steamboats and
Abraham Lincoln's dogs.
I love the fields of wheat and corn and the smell of
Virginia tobacco
But I am not American.

Is that enough for the Phantom pilot to turn me back to
the stone age?

America:
let's exchange gifts. Take your smuggled cigarettes
and give us potatoes.
Take James Bond's golden pistol
and give us Marilyn Monroe's giggle.
Take the heroin syringe under the tree
and give us vaccines.
Take your blueprints for model penitentiaries
and give us village homes.
Take the book of your missionaries
and give us paper for poems to defame you.
Take what you do not have
and give us what we have.
Take the strips of your flag
and give us the stars.
Take the Afghani Mujahideen beard
and give us Walt Whitman's beard filled with
butterflies.
Take Saddam Hussein
and give us Abraham Lincoln
or give us no one.
...
We are not hostages, America
and your soldiers are not God's soldiers...
We are the poor ones, ours is the earth of the drowned
gods,

the gods of bulls
the gods of fires
the gods of sorrows that intertwine day and
blood in a song...
We are the poor, ours is the god of the poor
who emerge out of farmer's ribs
hungry
and bright,
and raises heads up high...

America, we are the dead.
Let your soldiers come.
Whoever kills a man, let him resurrect him.
We are the drowned ones, dear lady.
We are the drowned.
Let the water come.

-Saadi Youssef

choose your holiday bird very wisely....

What I knew all along is now officially true...we're related to chickens, the stupidest and lamest of all the bird world. A new study is out which proves that 60% of a chickens DNA is similar to that of ours....yet another reason supporting my belief that humans should not be eating any animal unless it is made entirely out of tofu:)

A couple in the States has gone on strike and is picketing outside their home to protest against their lazy children. A psychologist claims that there is no problem with this parenting tactic and it won't lead to psychological damage as long as there is no abuse... right, having "Deepshikha is a rotten, no-good, inappreciative little brat and I wish I had a better child" published in every major newspaper in N. America wouldn't lead to any long-term psychological problems....

Tonight has been exceptionally busy. I blame the large number of off-service patients we currently have on the ward. I have a hematology/bone marrow transplant service patient who asks one too many questions. I know very little about this area of medicine - er, blood goes in, blood goes out? He is on a bunch of fancy meds I have never heard of and apparently the nursing drug guide has never heard of either - that's always a fun scenario. Luckily, Pharmacy was able to decipher my pronunciation of the drugs and help me out.

Tomorrow I start my set of 4 off - it has been a very, very long time since I've had more than 2 days off in a row. Part of my plans include a visit to the dentist, which I have not done for almost 3 years. I'm actually pretty excited, I LOVE going to the dentist. You get to sit back in a comfy chair, watch Days and get your teeth shined - its like the spa!

the 22-day "a better me" plan!

Being that there are only 22 days left until the end of 2004, I took it upon myself to contemplate what my 2005 new years resolution(s) should be. I don't usually make new years resolutions, well I do but I don't really take them all that seriously. But I realized that the resolutions I have set for myself for the upcoming year are exactly the same to those I set last year...crap. I guess this case and points (can one use this phrase as a verb?) my second sentence. That said, I have 22 days to put my 2004 resolutions into motion and complete them....anyone think I can learn to play an entire Matthew Good tune on my guitar and read, write and speak fluent Hindi in this time frame?

Another night shift. Its actually quiet for a change. The fact that I told my patients that they were allowed to use their call bell only once tonight and to be very very wise in their one-time call as eventually they would need to pee, could have something to do with it...if only. My days on this ward are soon coming to a close. I'm excited to start with the little guys and even more so, to be a full-fledged student (well to a certain extent) again. I can hear Sandra groaning and throwing things at me in the distance....

I really have this craving to go the movies right now. Among all the seasonal promotional flicks, there are some good ones coming. Oceans 12 for all the wrong reasons, The Aviator and A Series of Unfortunate Events!!!!!! Has anyone actually read the series? I've been meaning to.

Just finished reading the newspaper. Read a rather engrossing story about an octopus in an Alaskan aquarium who is pregnant - don't really know why this is news, but interesting nonetheless. Never knew that the female octopus stops eating when she is pregnant so that by the time the babies are born, they are either dead or dying....now thats effective parenting. Amused by Canada's new "no special-permit strippers" legislation.... at least Romania will be a happier, more naked country as a result of this law.

Oh, a patient has just cashed in their "one-time" call privilege, must run.

Maknoty??

Tonight has been an especially crappy shift at work. Only now at 3:10am have I finally gotten the chance to sit down - it has been BUSY. I came on shift to have a fresh new post-op and a guy who had had a chest tube put in the wrong spot in his lung (not a good thing). I got to assist with my first chest tube insertion, which basically involves the MD shoving a giant tube in the patients chest...lots and lots of Xylocaine.... Thankfully, the charge got the workload nurse to help us. Without her, I'd probably still being doing my 20:00 vitals.

Life right now has been nothing but work, work and more work. I am delerious over the fact that I am off until Tuesday - wow a whole 2 days off...I dont know how all you normals do it. I NEED MY 5! Going home to Sry tomorrow to eat and watch television....I am super excited.

Attempting to catch up on my crosswords....anyone know a 7-letter word for "Knot" craft...I really feel if it was any other time than 03:20, I would know this...It starts with an "M"...

Sorry for the rather crap entry. Its a reflection of the night thus far

mystery solved!

Today was another day where the nursing students left us boxes and boxes of really good chocolate. While the gesture is nice, it makes me want to kick the nervous little peons in the seat of the pants as it sheds light on the time-ending question of why all nurses are or will eventually be stupidly fat.... Its only 5am and Ive eaten more than my fair share of treats. We also did a Tim Hortons run and from that I learned that a large sandwich, really is a large sandwich. What makes matters worse is I will more than likely go home and eat more. One consumes the strangest things at 07:23 after a night shift, I think my oddest being Karee (Indian corn flour yogourt soup thing) with rice and a side of nachos.

Its my fourth night shift and fifth shift. Im really really tired. I look like a drunk, Im surprised my patients are letting me inject them with stuff. Its also my first shift being in charge. I would have thought I would have gone mad with the power, but so far all Ive done is reject a bunch of patients from emerg....really, not all that glamerous...

Tomorrow I have a day off, well I get off of nights in the am but still. My plans include starting and finishing a paper. This course Im taking is by far, the most useless course on the planet. Its really quite embarassing actually. I mean in between having to make a collage for my first course and now having to write a 4-page paper on why I think I would make a really good nursing teacher, this NICU certificate is really starting to hold very little weight! Are all BCIT courses like this? I only ask considering how many of my friends are currently enrolled at the school.

New Years eve is fast approaching. My little cousin Gaurav is coming to town. Anyone have any suggestions for what we can do? We were contemplating the aquarium party, anyone ever been?

great now I have a blog...Im officially a nerd.

To my many friends who will no doubt laugh and jeer at me because I have a blog now, here is my disclaimer: I work a lot of very very loooong nights, I need something to do in between dysrhythmias, projectile vomit and the hallucinating elderly.... Besides, this way I can share my fun nursing stories and indulge in medical rheotric. Besides, you all know how much I love the sound of my own voice....

Today has been a slow night. Well, I think one of my patients may have a full-fledged myocardial infarction (heart attack) before the shift is over (his telemetry is not looking promising) but aside from that, all is well. Mind you, I may bring on this heart attack as I keep walking in there every half hour or so asking him if he is having a heart attack....hey, Im just being thorough... This is the same patient I had a few nights ago who was hallucinating so bad he though I was a pious virginal church maidservant.... he tried to save my soul many times that night until finally I had to call security and get him restrained. Im glad he's calmer tonight.

Only a month or so of shifts left before I say adieu to the elderly and well, anyone over 1 month of age - hurrah!!! Baby poop is actually adorable - only a fellow nurse will understand this.

I can't believe its Dec. 1st....only 18 more days until the end is near....25 years old.... Im hoping I'll be in the same shoes as my hallucinating patient that day....that'll soothe the pain.....