SUCCESS!

So I've been nothing but successful in cutting my caffiene intake! Yippee for me. Yesterday I was too busy at work to even think about having a coffee. Today I had a steamed vanilla latte at lunch and didn't even think about coffee all afternoon. I win! Two days in a row! I'm on a roll and feeling good.

Work today was CRAZY busy. Holy cow. This morning was full of prenatals, baby check-ups and physicals. For every prenatal patient I have to check their weight, blood pressure, gestation and urinalysis. For every baby check-up I have to check their weight, head circumference and length and for every physical I have to check weight, blood pressure, urinalysis, medications, allergies as well as recent medical/surgical history. I between all those patients I had to take care of the patients for the other docs too and take their histories, vitals, check their meds, book appointments outside the clinic, phone in prescriptions...etc, etc. It was sooo busy today. Jane has delivered a lot of babies in the last week and now they're all coming into the clinic for their first check-ups. We had a waiting room full of crying babies this morning! This afternoon settled down a little bit. Dr. MacDonald, the surgeon, has been teaching me how to do a lot of little procedures lately. I'm not sure whether it's because he's being lazy and wants me to do more of his work or what but he seems genuinely interested in teaching me at every opportunity. So today I learned how to do Rapid Strep tests, treat warts and make fiberglass splits and set joints. So he's going to start letting me do throat swabs whenever I think they need to be done, burn off warts and set joints. Cool eh? More responsibility for me and using my judgement and assessment skills to determine treatments. Someday he said he'll teach me how to do stitches. As if I'm not busy enough already though. Some days it really is like working in a mini ER. I found time this afternoon to have some minor surgery of my own. I had one of the docs biopsy a few skin spots. It's so convenient working in a doctors office :0) And it's SO important to have skin spots checked out and there's really no use for them so why not have them removed!

It's snowing like mad here again. We're supposed to get 15cm overnight. Sue and I were planning on going to Calgary tomorrow but we'll see just how much snow there is in the morning. Tommorrow is March, spring is supposed to be coming, not more winter!!

Caffiene Cut Countdown

Ok, so the first day of the Caffiene Cut Countdown was a complete failure. Darn it! I'm really trying to drink less coffee, well espresso really. So I had my customary latte this morning, I don't think I'll ever give that one up, and I had full intentions of having a steamed milk this afternoon instead of a latte. I had a good feeling that I would make it through the day without having another cup. Even though my meds that I take at bedtime leave me groggy for most of the morning I really thought I'd only have my morning latte and that would be it. I got to work, feeling groggy but functional and optimistic that my first day of caffeine cut countdown would be successful. Well, I blame it all on the coffee addicted doc that I was working with today. He always has me go and get him a coffee at some point during his day. Since when are nurses, in this day and age, doctors servants who run errands for them and fetch them their coffee?? That's another story entirely but anyways, 10am rolls around and he offers to buy coffee for the office manager and myself, of course I had to go and pick them all up. How could I say no to a free coffee? I mean, it's free and the bakery downtstairs has excellent coffee. It's organic and I think that's what makes it taste so good cause I don't normally drink filter coffee but I like theirs. Anyways, it's all his fault. I had to go down and get him and Laura a coffee how could I not get myself one? It would be sacreligious, or something...and it was very good. Then 3pm came, when I usually hit a wall and NEED a caffeine fix. I figured that since I'd already ruined the caffeine countdown I might as well completely abolish all thoughts of not having coffee. So I went down to the bakery and had a vanilla latte. However, I only had two shots of espresso, not three. Good for me. At least I cut down on something. Gotta focus on the positives cause that's what's going to get me through. And I was going to get a ginger cookie but decided against it! So that should count for something cause I love ginger cookies especially with vanilla lattes, it's my favorite thing in the world and I said NO! Good for me. Hmm...I really need to drink less espresso. Maybe tomorrow, but tomorrow is my day off so I get to sleep in and I usually only feel like I need one latte, albeit a triple shot, on my days off. It's when I'm at work that I have a problem and having a bakery downstairs with fabulous coffee doesn't help, and I get discounts there! Gosh this is going to be difficult. I need a twelve step program.

SNOW!

Yippee! I have today off work!! It's been snowing like mad here. All day yesterday and it looks like all night too cause our courtyard is full of new snow! I'm waiting for Sue to get home. She spent a few days at mom's and in Kamloops and she's supposed to be getting home on the bus today. She was scheduled to leave Sicamous on the 2:30am bus but due to the snow in BC it didn't actually arrive until 5:15am. So instead of being home now, at 9am, I expect that she won't be here untl afternoon. That's going to be a really long bus ride for her. So other than wait around to pick Sue up, I don't have too much planned for today. I am enjoying my vanilla latte and going to have some breakfast soon. Rice Krispies I think. Then I have to go downtown and pick up my new contact lenses. I had my eyes tested last week and every time I go get them tested, they get worse. This time it was only a small change, but noticable. Then I might go and check out the library to see if they have any books on spinal injuries. My neck has been giving me grief lately. Speaking of which, I have to remember to call my lawyer (note to self). My muscles in my neck and shoulders have been so unbelievable tight and giving me such bad headaches and overall pain, it's been a tough few days. It's very convenient working for my doctor though. She's changed a few of my medications around and so far they seem to be helping because the pain wasn't as bad when I woke up this morning. She has me taking Valium at night, just a small dose, to relax the muscles. I hate taking medications but I'm still too paranoid to try massage therapy or anything where people have to touch my neck. I havn't reached that comfort level yet. So anyways, my lawyer needs to get his ass in gear because if I don't start improving my next job change will be from full time to part time and I can't afford to do that yet. It's been a stressful few days thinking about all of this. Not fun stuff to have to worry about. I just keep reminding myself that it could have been worse.

Anyways, enough doom and gloom, I have to tell you about my new favorite thing. I'm trying really hard to cut down my caffeine intake but I really like having a hot drink in the afternoon. So I tried a vanilla steamed milk. I love it. I never thought that I could drink straight milk but so far so good. Unfortunately it's not helping the caffeine problem, because now I have a latte and a steamed milk in the afternoon, but just think about how awesome my calcium intake is now!

For anyone who loved the Shopaholic series you now have to read Can You Keep a Secret? also by Sophie Kinsella. I'm just finishing it and it's so good but maybe not quite as funny as the Shopaholic books. Definately worth the read. I'm waiting for Sue to finish The Undomestic Goddess so I can read that one too. I love her books and every time I look at it, it reminds me of my little neice Sophie cause they have the same name! Silly I know but fun.

Hmmm...I think Snap, Crackle and Pop are calling my name from the cupboard. Emma you really need to come back and teach me how to make more than bagel sandwiches cause while I love cereal I just don't think it's appropriate for two meals a day, a bagel sandwich being the other meal.... Speaking of cereal for dinner, have you talked to Lee lately?? ;0) Gotta run, happy Friday!

Poor kids....

It was a stressful day at work today. I had to start an IV on a 6 year old girl. I've never started one on a kid, babies but not kids, and it's always hard on me when I have to give kids needles. I hate making them cry, but this little girl was braver than most adults. She's here on vacation from England with her parents and had been throwing up all night. Since their travel insurance is responsible for paying for their visit, we do everything we can for out of country patients. I think I've started more IV's in the clinic than I ever did in the hospital. So I settled the little girl on our stretcher with a comfy blanket and told her to look at the cartoons we have on the wall and when I put the needle in her arm, she barely even flinched. Her parents were both leaning over my shoulder watching and I didn't hit her vein right away and I'm thinking, "oh dear where's her vein, I really don't want to have to poke her again!" I'm starting to get nervous cause I can't find her vein, her parents are leaning over me and all the while she's telling us about the butterfly cartoon on the wall, while I'm digging around in her arm with a needle. I couldn't believe it, I was so proud of her. She was so brave. We gave her some Gravol, some fluids and she had a little nap on the stretcher and she was cured. I gave her a Winnie-the-Pooh sticker and she walked out of the clinic with rosy cheeks, telling her parents she was hungry.

Then this afternoon, I had to give another Gravol injection to a 6 year old girl. This one was not quite so easy. She was crying before I even gave her in the injection. I had her mom hold her tightly in her lap and even though, she managed to jump so high that the needle came right out of her and I ended up having to poke her twice :0( She was wailing at the end of it all. I felt so bad! The Tinkerbell sticker when she left made her feel better though. Poor kid, I felt terrible.

Last week I had to do immunizations for a family going to Mexico for vacation. An 8 year old and a 4 year old. Not fun. The 8 year old cried for a minute afterwards but then turned into a hero when it came time for her little sister to have her injection. She held her sisters hand and gave her a hug afterwards to console her, it was so cute. The little sister screamed at the top of her lungs the entire time though. That's my least favorite part of the job. I love working with the little ones but I hate it when I hurt them. I need to get some suckers at my desk for them. We have stickers but sometimes I think suckers would be better. I'd rather have a sucker than a sticker :0)

My sanity is in question....

I think I might be crazy. I'm working all day, 9am-5pm in the clinic today and then I'm going to Calgary tonight to work a night shift, 11pm-7am. It will help fill the dent in my bank account that Lululemon caused last weekend but at the cost of my sanity. I'm going home straight after work this afternoon and hopefully sleeping for at least 2hrs. I might even bring a blanket and pillow with me to have a nap in the car before driving home in the morning. At least we get a 90min sleep break at work. What was I thinking when I agreed to do this??!! Oh right, my bank account. Oh well, I miss the babies and it will be good to catch up with some of my Calgary co-workers. The rest of this "Family Day long weekend" is going to be a total write off for me. Have a good weekend everyone and get lots of sleep, since I won't be :(

It's FREEZING!!

Yikes it's cold here! This morning was -31C. Sue was checking online this morning and apparently it was warmer in Nunavut than Canmore. Crazy! Anyways, I'm going to have a hot bath and go to bed and try to keep warm :0)

This is the dophin from the Vancouver Aquarium. Cool eh?

Girls Weekend

Girls weekend this past weekend in Vancouver was awesome! I left work early on Friday and got to the airport to find out that my flight was delayed! They had the Olympic opening ceremony on TV at the gate so I got to watch a bit of that. When I finally did make it to Vancouver the girls were waitng for me. Jen's flight had arrived an hour before from Prince George. We dropped our stuff off at the apartment and went to Yaletown for dinner. The apartment we stayed at was gorgeous. It was right downtown Vancouver on the waterfront. The views were amazing.
Friday night we went for dinner and martinis at the Yaletown Brewery and then dessert at Death by Chocolate. They have the best peanut butter bars and lattes ever! We went back to the apartment and stayed up talking till the wee hours of the morning. Just like the sleepovers we used to have in highschool! Saturday we went shopping at Lululemon on Robson St. I love Lululemon! We all ended up buying similar outfits and people in stores actually started referring to us as the Lulu Crew. Then we went for all you can eat sushi lunch. I'd never had sushi before, it was so good! I stayed away from the raw stuff though, I'm not that brave yet. Saturday night we went for dinner at the Cat's Meow on Granville Island, dessert at The Sand Bar and then Theatersports. Theatersports is an improv competition and it was soooo funny. On Sunday we had a lazy morning at the cafe by the apartment. We had lattes and cinnamon buns for breakfast. Yum. Then we went to the aquarium at Stanley Park. My favorites were the beluga whales and the jellyfish. Then before we knew it, it was time to head back to the airport. However, my flight was delayed again so I got to spend a few extra hours at the Vancouver airport. We had a great time. Hopefully we can keep up the annual trips, if not more often. Next time in Canmore!!

Announcing.....

Monsieur Poisson!

Hee hee. Just kidding, that's a shark from the Vancouver Aquarium.

Here's the real Monsieur Poisson

He's much smaller, and not as deadly!

Monsieur Poisson

I got a fish! He's an Oscar Black Tiger fish and his name is Monsieur Poisson. He's a very cool fish. He's black with orange stripes and he hunts his food just like a tiger. He'll swim around it and then pounce from behind. He's kind of agressive, I don't think that I'll get another fish to put in with him. He gets really mad when you look at him. He'll swim back and forth and into the side of the tank, he's got a temper. Hopefully Sue remembers to feed him this weekend while I'm in Vancouver! Only 2 more days!!

Thanks

Thank you all for your words of encouragement. Good to know that you are enjoying my blog. I had something in mind that I was going to tell you all about today but it has completely escaped my mind. It will come back as soon as I leave the internet place.... Hmm...well there are some other things that I can talk about..

The most exciting thing in my future is Girls Weekend 2006 in Vancouver next weekend. I'm so excited I'm almost bursting. I'm getting together with a few of my life long girl friends from highschool. Jen McG, Erin and Jen R. (now Dupuis I guess). We all finally connected again this summer at Jen's wedding and decided that a girls weekend was definatly in order. I got to hang out with the bride and bridesmaids the night before the wedding and we could have spent hours catching up so I'm sure that next weekend is going to be busy. I'm so excited. It's been awhile since I've been to Vancouver too.

Sue and I are all moved into our new place. I still have some minor unpacking to do and then we have to move all the stuff that we're not using into storage. Our place has heated underground parking and storage. That will be my task for this weekend as I finally have two days off! I'm probably going to go into Calgary on Saturday too. I'm getting a pet fish! I'll probably get another Siamese Fighting Fish cause they're so pretty and I've decided that I'm going to call her Poisson. What do you think? Suitable eh? More details to come once I get her....

Well, whatever I was going to write about still hasn't come back to me...maybe tomorrow.

Little Lessons in Life

I was reminded of a very important lesson in life the other day at work.

I had a little boy, about 8 years old maybe, come into the office on Saturday with a bead stuck in his ear. I sat him up on the stretcher in the treatment room and asked him how he managed to get a bead stuck in his ear. He replied, looking rather sheepish, that he had no idea how the bead got stuck in his ear. Of course he didn't, why did I even bother asking :0) So I was going to try and flush the bead out of his ear with water. We use a squrit bottle with a long tube attached to it to flush ears. When I pulled it out of the cupboard his eyes were as big as saucers staring at it. He was so cute he said "whoa, that's huge!" Well, I told him "you should see the one I have for kids who stick things in their nose!" So I put the tube in his ear and had him help me by holding the water bucket underneath. On the first squirt he let out a scream like I've never heard before. He thought the water had gone into his brain and that his brain was coming out of his ear. Poor kid. So I explained to him that his brain was one of the most protected parts of his body, completely surrounded by bone and he didn't have to worry. That calmed him slightly, at least enough that I was able to eventually get the bead out. The whole time he was promising me and his Dad that he'd never stick another bead in his ear. It was pretty funny. He kept the bead and when he left the office he told his Dad "I'm never getting another bead in my ear and especially not my nose cause I don't want to see the bigger squirt bottle!" He learned a valuable life lesson that day, never stick things in your ear or up your nose. :0)

Moving Escapade!

So Susan and I have now learned how NOT to move! It was terrible. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did.
It all started on Friday morning. We went to Enterprise to pick up the truck that I'd arranged to rent for the day. They needed a $300 deposit which was fine but I had to call the bank and move money around so no problem but it took a lot longer than it should have. Then we get home and load up the truck with my bed, chair, boxes, skiis and snowboard. We loaded the car up to the max with boxes and pretty much anything we could fit. It's amazing how much a Honda Civic will actually hold. So then we tackle the task of securing the load in the truck with tarps and rope and bungee cords. I had to send Sue to WalMart to buy more bungee cords and when we finally figured we were secure we hit the road. Not even 5 mins down the road we had to pull over cause the tarps were shifting. So we readjusted and hit the road again with Sue following behind me and a set of hand signals and plan for her to blare the horn should anything shift again. Not even 2 mins down the road, at 40km/hr, does she frantically signal for me to pull over. The wind kept catching under the tarp and threatening to fly away. So we drove, very slowly, to Canadian Tire where we bought every bungee cord we could find and pulled them as tight as we possibly could over the load in the back of the truck. We thought for sure we had figured it out this time. We hit the road again. We made it maybe 5 mins this time before I hear the horn blaring and Sue frantically waving for me to pull over. Well we were on a major roadway with semi's and cars whizzing by so it wasn't so easy to pull over this time. I slowed to 30km/hr and pulled off at the first opportunity I had while trying to frantically signal to Sue to not follow so closely behind me should something fall off the truck. So we pulled over into a parking lot at a strip mall ready to quit and turn back home. We were standing in the middle of the parking lot staring at our load of stuff and not quite sure what to do now. Some old guy came over and donated 2 more bungee cords to our cause and wished us luck. I sent Sue back to Canadian Tire to buy 2 more as well. So we hit the road again thinking for sure that we'd be ok now. I've never seen so many bungee cords in my life and we figured the tarps were now secure. This time we actually made it to the highway and I had almost breathed a sigh of relief when I hear the horn blaring again and Sue motioning for me to pull over. So I pull over into a gas station and we finally realized that in order for the wind to not cause liftoff under the tarps we needed to provide an air outlet. So we started ripping holes in the tarp at the back of the truck. We were pretty pleased with ourselves for thinking that we'd finally figured out the problem. So we hit the road again but decided that we should still take it slow so I set the cruise control at 70km/hr heading down the trans Canada highway. Not even 5 mins down the road the tarps go flying off the truck, Sue's driving behind me, having a coronary, laying on the horn. I was ready to sit on the side of the road and cry at that point but Sue made me pull it together and we decided that we had to ditch the tarps and hope for the best. We rearranged things as best as we could so that stuff wouldn't fall out and with our numerous bungee cords, we strapped everything together. Success. We drove an entire 20 mins or so before having to pull over again. We were concerned that the bags on my mattresses were catching too much air and threatening to whip the mattresses out should I take a corner at over 50km/hr. It didn't help much that it was like the windiest day ever! So we pulled over again and yet another good samaritan also pulled over and donated another strap to our cause to help secure the mattresses. That strap was the only reason my mattresses made it to Canmore in one piece. Thank god because I love my bed, I would have been heartbroken if it didn't survive the trip. So we're heading down the highway at 70km/hr and I'm constantly watching in my rear view for Sue's hand signal should I need to pull over. Thumbs up, finally! We made it in to Canmore, an hour and a half late, and the clouds have started to come in and it looks like it could start to snow. Just what we need, snow, with no tarps on the back of the truck. Luckily, something finally went right and the weather co-operated with us. So we finish the walk-in inspection with our new landlord and start to unload the truck. By this time it's 4pm and Sue has to leave for Calgary in an hour to get to work. I was planning on leaving the truck in Canmore and going back to the city with her. Well that plan went out the window, we speed unpacked and didn't make it in time. Sue left for work and I unpacked the rest of the stuff on my own and drove the truck back to Calgary. Well the Enterprise is now closed so I had to drop it off at a different location, farther from the house, and take a taxi to Sue's work to pick up my keys and the car so I could go home, load it up again and head back to Canmore. By the time I finished that day it was after midnight, my neck was killing me, I could barely move and I had to go to bed so I could get up and go to work the next day. Brutal. We finally finished moving yesterday and we only forgot a few things in Calgary. I'm going to have to go in next weekend to pick up my bike that I forgot in the garage and Sue's laundry bin wouldn't fit in the car so I had to leave that with Lindsay. Almost done. Sue's been home unpacking all day today so hopefully there's not much left to do by the time I get home :0 ) I'd better head home though. It's been snowing all day and even though I'm not commuting to Calgary anymore I still have to drive to Canmore.

You Are Sunshine

Soothing and calmYou are often held up by others as the idealBut too much of you, and they'll get burned You are best known for: your warmth Your dominant state: connecting

What Type of Weather Are You?

Pet Peeves

Ok. I have a few things that I need to get out so I'm using the power of my blog to vent. I have some certain pet peeves that have been especially irritating lately. Here goes:

• so this morning at Starbucks, I'm in a hurry and it's like 7:30am and all I need is my morning dose of caffeine to get myself going...well there's a group of maybe 12 year old girls in line with a guy who must have been the Dad of one of them. First of all, who lets their kid drink coffee? Secondly, their 12 (at the oldest) obviously part of a carpool, and stopping at Starbucks on their way to school? Thirdly, if you don't know what you want, go to the back of the line and let the regular, of age, customers go ahead!
• if you're going to the doctors for a physical or bladder problem, don't pee before you go to the doctors because they're gonna want a urine sample, duh, that's why you're there! honestly people, use your head!
• the WalMart parking lot. Need I say more? Don't walk down the middle of the road. Walk to the side so that people driving have room to drive! If you notice someone backing out of a parking spot, stop and let them back out, don't swerve around them and make them slam on their brakes! If you're walking and notice someone backing out of a parking spot, stop and let them back out, don't walk behind the car and make them slam on their brakes! If I die and go to hell, it's gonna be a WalMart parking lot.

Ok, I'm done now :)

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello! Welcome to my Blog. I'm following Jen's and Elizabeth's lead and creating a blog of my own. I know I've been really bad at keeping in touch with family and friends over the last few weeks so hopefully this will make up for it. Now you can check in with me anytime you want and see what I'm up to!

Right now my life consists of working, packing and moving. Since starting my new job two weeks ago, life has pretty much been put on hold. I've been commuting to Banff from Calgary every day so even though I made the switch from 12hr shifts at the hospital to 8hr shifts at the clinic, my days still feel really long. We're moving to Canmore on Friday so my days of commuting are almost over! Super excited. I'm very excited about living in Canmore too. I have a good feeling about it. I think it's smart move for Sue and I. We managed to find a pretty decent apartment too. We were lucky because at this time of year it's pretty slim pickings. I'll attach pics of the new place once we move.

I'm exhausted so I think I'm going to head to bed. I hope you enjoy my blog. Feel free to leave me comments!