Life's Ripples

I thought it about time l return to bloger land. Update everyone about things and get reading all the blogs l enjoy but have let lapse over the last 2 or 3 months.

My dad’s funeral was on Friday and l have to say the funeral home made it go very smoothly and have been excellent. It turns out they have a tie in to the co-op group. We get free legal aid but when the legal department rang me l had done all that was needed so far. A big relief l now know l have done the correct things just a few jobs left l asked about but those were also confirmed as right. Thank fully because all was in joint names l do not need probate, that was so far my biggest worry.

It was nice to see the family and some of their youngsters who l haven’t seen for years. Boy the small “kids” have grown!.
I gave a eulogy at the funeral and managed to hold it together although l nearly broke down a couple of times. Thankfully there was a mic there I have yet another bad cough and lost/husky voice, a flare up of my before xmas problem.

2 Days after my dad passed another special friend Adrian died. It was to be his 65th birthday on the Saturday and he was a very special person. He had a massive heart attack. Speaking to his wife he also had a horrendous time in hospital. I am not sure if she will take or further.

I have had a letter back from the hospital in sympathy for my dads passing and if l prefer to have the complaints results in writing they understand. If l want a meeting with some deputy head of nursing let them know. I want the meeting and have told them l will let them have some dates.

Work was hard going during January and February l was on the 22-08 shift while a new nurse was found and employed. I was only getting 2 to 3 hours sleep day or night l think through stress. That let this blasted cough hammer me again. I have been doing 13:-23 shifts last week, problem was l did not have a meal all week just a sandwich and bag of crisps each night instead which didn’t help my on board reserves so am feeling even more drained.
I am doing nights this weekend and then a week off and then 13:-23 shifts for the foreseeable future while another new nurse is found. The present one is off to the “dark side” as we call nhs nursing.

It has been a mixed bag at work. The normal amount of dangerous dogs spending the night before going off to kennels, some very sweet others totally evil. The usual misconception that big is nasty and breed specific, when all too often the small and/or other breeds can be just as bad.
The government are on in lala land trying to make everyone have insurance for their dogs. Get the animals, neutered, get trained dogs AND owners and then worry about insurance.

Problems come in batches and we seem to have had lots of epileptic dogs in the last couple of weeks. Before that we have had the diabetic animal batch. And as always the RTA cats come in. Petplan estimated that a cat was hit in the UK by a car every 2minutes. Judging by the amount we have in via one small corner of UK that may not be a high enough figure.

Nearly got myself clawed badly by a cat on Thursday, l was holding for the heart referral specialist to scan. The cat came out of his sedation unbeknown to us as the lights were off…ok and we were chatting which was interesting as both of us have bad coughs and throats. All was well until l stretched my one arm in the air, the arm that had not even been holding the blasted cat.
The cat decided to go nuts on a ketamine bender. I managed to pin it so that MH could get more sedation in it’s iv catheter before the cat ate us both. Of course this happened 5 minutes before we finished so the cat slept another 40 mins more than it needed to had it just stayed relaxed.
Cat’s own fault he had to wait an extra couple of hours for his chicken. Something he loves and was already angry at having missed a couple of good meals of during the day as we k new he would be sedated.

I organised the night staff “post xmas” bash, after a complaint was put in that turning down night staff for a 4.99/head xmas meal was tight to say the least considering it is a dedicated night staff who only work unsocial hours a change of heart was had. As l live down the road from the pub l said l would do it. Was not to bad 16 managed to arrange to come. The one that h/o cancelled before xmas had 21 but a couple of staff had left and others were unable to come for various reasons.

I have worked at a couple of other “normal” day vets which has been nice, seeing life during the day, doing nurse clinics and home sensible hours. Having said that l still enjoy the locum work and do not want to go back to set shifts, asking for time off and the general dog eat dog work of a set routine. No matter how much l may moan about work.

I went mad and bought 14 books off Amazon ¾ of a series of books l have been reading. Not ordered books off Amazon before and was pleasantly surprised all arrived even the ones from Germany and US, they got to me quicker than the uk ones.
I held off getting the books in the l have read will get those soon and a couple are just out so still very expensive. Brilliant writer she writes a lot of different supernatural books. These are sort of vampire based the series called the Dark series by Christine Feehan
Her one book Dark Celebration is set at Christmas and as a treat has 40pages of chocolate deserts at the end of it that people have sent in. I wish l could cook instead l sit and drool looking at them.