With knowing for weeks that I had this practical exam Bill chose to go fishing yesterday!! Grrr!! Meaning I was working on my feet all day in the shop and by 2pm my ankle had blown up like a balloon. I needed to get it elevated before my exam at 7pm! He walked in at 2.20pm and I asked him how long he would be. "Won't be long, just have to fillet the fish" He said. One hour and forty minutes later I was still working!! By 4pm I was in such a foul mood and yes a few of those unspeakable words came out of my mouth (under my breath of course). So when the staff arrived I took off to the station without a word to Bill. (He did apologise later saying it took him that long to fillet the 45 fish they got ... yep 45!!!)
When I got to the station I was so hoping mad, I went straight up to the evil snack box! What's the most wicked thing I can eat??? I put my money in the box for a bag of salt and vinegar chips. By the time I came down the stairs I realised what I was doing. Light bulb moment!!! I eat when I'm angry!! Not out of comfort but a need to punish someone. Punishing myself wasn't the answer and put the chips down on the coffee table. I grabbed the keys and went down to the local subway and bought myself a 6" sub and vegetarian salad instead. I did it! I recognised the trigger and stopped it! Half an hour later I put the chips back in the snack box even tho I couldn't get my money back. My weightloss this week is worth far more than $1.50!!
Three of us sitting at the station waiting to do our practical assessment and what happens?? The pager goes off and with it goes one of our assessors and the 'actor patient' ... off to a job! So a last minute ring around and we manage to get someone else to fill in.
Half an hour after we were supposed to start we finally get our assessments underway. Meanwhile our nervousness had shot through the roof. Lucky for all of us our assessor was a really laid back guy which made things more relaxing.
We were all marked on our questioning, assessment of a patient and patient care. It's always alot harder in a 'make believe' scenario than on the road, not sure why. Maybe because we know there is someone watching us, making sure we do it right and maybe because it's hard to actually feel like it's real.
After a quick 'paper, scissors, rock' I was second in turn. My scenario ... 48yr old male with unrelieved chest pain and no cardiac history. Nervousness took over a little meaning I couldn't find the ecg dots in the pack and put them on the wrong way. I didn't want to rip them and 100 hairs off the patient to reposition them so took the opportunity as 'senior officer' to tell my junior to 'fix it' while I kept questioning the patient. Don't you love delegation? My assessor had a chuckle when he told me he noticed my mistake. The only other thing I did wrong was not getting the oxygen on quick enough. But other than that I passed!!! wahooo!!!
Then last night was my first shift back onboard ... and what did I get for my first job at 2am??? Unrelieved cardiac chest pain with no cardiac history! lol and what was one of the first things I did?? Put oxygen on of course!! heheh Won't make that mistake again! The job went without a hiccup thanks to my 'practice run' earlier in the night!!
Back into bed around 3.30am, couldn't sleep much with a little too much adrenalin pumping round my body. Takes a bit to get back into the swing of things with having 6wks off. Then the alarm went off at 5.15am, up and getting ready for my day shift at Waihi Station.
A little nervous today. I'm senior officer with a newbie onboard. I'm sure all will be fine. Last night was a good kick start back into it. And so glad to be back!!!
Weighin tomorrow morning and waiting to see what my $1.50 weightloss will be ... heheh!
