Too early?

Is there such a rule that states a person should not put up a christmas tree in the house 4 weeks before christmas day?

Well I hope not!

Because I just set mine up a few days ago! =)

hehe...I have been looking for the so-called "perfect" tree a few weeks ago...well, to be honest, ever since I saw christmas decos in the shopping malls. I thought about getting a nice lovely black tree, rather than the traditional green one.

So I went hunting, you know, whenever I went out for a little shopping spree. Finally, I found the perfect tree! I am sure everyone would agree that you can get almost anything from Argos. Yeap, I stopped by Argos last weekend, and looked through their christmas catalogue.....and hold and behold, I saw a tree that I liked.

It was a 6 foot tall ash black xmas tree.....the fact that it was discounted, made it even more attractive. So I purchased it without much thoughts. I also bought new white LED lights to match it.

When I got home, I could not wait to put it up.... (I know, it is pretty pathetic). To be honest, I am sucker for things like this. I like to see nice little things in the flat, I like to feel all christmassy....I mean, it is only once a year...so I might as well enjoy it to the max. hehe.

Anywho, with some help from Kevin, my brand new tree is all set up! There are a mix of red, gold and purple baubles. It looks absolutely lovely! It is so therapeutic just looking at it, especially when the white lights flash around. I actually look forward to turning on the lights when I get home from a tiring day at work. All I need now is to get a few christmas pressies to put under the tree.

It is amazing how simple things in life can just make it so much more colourful.

30 days and counting down to Xmas..... =P

Doubting Myself

I just completed a set of night shifts. I was really frustrated last night...because of A nurse in this haematology/oncology ward. I am happy if she wanna tell me what to do...but to say that she's not happy with my instructions until i speak to the consultant? now....does she think i'm rubbish? or what?

There was a very sick young boy last night. I told her I was going to check his blood gases (ie, to check the oxygen level in his body). And this nurse said, "Oooh...no...you cant do blood gases. It's not appropriate in these patients...we do not do blood gases in this ward."

I was like what? How can you say that? How do you know its appropriate or not? It isn't very helpful to say such a thing especially when somebody is so ill. Blood gases are indicated if a patient is extremely short of breath, and is not able to maintain his own oxygen saturations such as this poor sick boy.

So then, I thought, right, maybe I'm not doing it right....I doubted myself...which was so silly of me. Anyhow, I contacted the consultant to inform him about this ill patient, just to inform that about what I have done so far and if he has anything else to add. He also advised me to check his blood gas....

Later, she refused to give this poor gentleman paracetamol until I speak to the consultant first?! Now....i think that's just taking the mickey. Apparently this man has been sneaking some paracetamol of his own, and has been told against doing so. But that story was a good 3 days old. If worried about an accidental overdose, his LFTs and coagulation screen would be off by now. But they aren't. His temperature has been sky high all day and night...clearly he hasn't taken any! She said she's not happy to give him paracetamol, unless the consultant gives the heads up. Luckily it was nearly 7 in the morning when this incident happened...and I didn't feel too guilty contacting the consultant. Imagine, making the phone call at 3 am???

We were all trying to work in the patient's best interest, but I didn't understand why it didn't feel that way.

Would You Like An Eye Opener?

It was 8.30 am in the morning. I was on-call overnight, and was just trying to get things ready for the morning ward round.

While looking up a patient's blood results, a heard a patient calling me.

"Doctor, doctor, can I go home?" said patient G.

I turned around to see who that was...and soon realised that patient G was admitted overnight with an impulsive overdose of his epilepsy medications. He was drowsy initially, but he had obviously improved.

"No, not yet. The consultant needs to review you first."

"Oh ok. Errm, can I get a bottle of vodka please?" asked Patient G.

"Errmm...no. This is a hospital. You can't get vodka in here. Would you like a cup of tea instead?" I replied.

"No doctor, you don't understand. I need my vodka. I normally drink some first thing in the morning," added patient G.

It was very unprofessional of me to chuckle to myself after he went back to his bed. But, I found him really amusing, because he was really honest about needing an alcoholic fix.

This is a classic patient we normally see in the hospital. He clearly has an issue with alcohol dependence....and he would score a point with the CAGE questionaire, for needing "an eye opener" to steady his nerves in the morning. With the help of a nurse, we managed to sit him down, and offered him chlordiazepoxide instead. Unfortunately, it didn't work very well...and he started to pace up and down the ward. We had to give hime some benzoes to calm him down before the consultant finally discharged him home.