Unreal

I shouldn't even be online right now but I need to jot down my experiences today before I lose the essence of it.

It's been another week at Bankstown hospital. I have kinda adjusted to the ward, most of the work is actually during new admissions where I need to gather data on the patient and do his ECGs and all sorts of other obs. So far so good.

Today was the first time I got to see a dead person. I was not there when the resuscitation was going on, but I was there to help clean up the body. I do not know what happened to him but I gathered it was organ failure. He was still warm to the touch, looked perfused and had a dramatic look on his face with his eyes open and his mouth open. We had to make him look presentable for the family and take him to the mourning room where his family can gather. The man was only in his 60s, and was of medium build.

The experience I got from this was unexpected. I kill heaps of stuff on the internet and in games, I watch brutal movies where massacres occur while eating, I can even watch though a whole surgical operation without flinching. I thought this would be nothing to me.
However when I got in, I felt a bit weak in the knees. My heart was pumping rapidly and it just felt a bit unreal. I had the urge to say that I am sorry to the body, but I resisted it because I felt a bit stupid doing so. Anyway overall it was acceptable. I did not cry or feel scared or anything, the feeling I had experienced was indescribable.

We also celebrated a friends birthday party today. That explains why I am typing this at this time of the night. Anyhow I feel dizzy. Jacky out.

Bankstown

I have been placed in Bankstown Hospital in the emergency ward for 3 weeks. I can honestly say that I am loving it!
I can't think of anything to complain about in Bankstown hospital. The patients are great, the nurses are great, the doctors are great, even the cafeteria food is great!
I admit I was a skeptical at first because everybody I knew told me how bad Bankstown was but I gotta say it is way better than the others I've been in.
The only issue is probably the lack of equipment in the Emergency ward. One would expect the ward to be full of equipment and supplies because we are the frontline health professionals patients see upon admission, but alas; thermometers, stethoscopes and other basic obs equipment are always a rarity.

This experience would not be possible without my great friend Marlo, who had changed from a hospital placement 3 minutes drive away from his house in order to accompany and drive me to Bankstown hospital single day and night.
My appreciation increased even more when one day his car battery went flat when we were on the way home after a shift. I had to call another close friend Jem to help come up and connect up the cars to start it up. If Marlo had been stuck in Bankstown it would have all been my fault!

I feel that clinical placements allow me to learn heaps more than the paperwork mass offered by university. Somehow I think I have regained my passion in nursing. What a miracle.

Powerslam

With all the conflicts and struggling going on in the world right now, how can anybody truly enjoy the Olympics?

What an upset.

Shane

Shane had enlisted in the war as soon as he heard that Britain needed Australia's help. Young, inexperienced, and naive he believed that his input would make a contribution for the greater good.

Having lost many of his friends and and been on the brink of death many times, Shane finally sees how idioitic and immature he was to waste his youth in such an unrewarding event. Not only was he was not saving any country or people, he had abandoned his family role supply food and money to his family.

It is now nearing the end of the war. Hardened and psychologically scarred with the horrors of war, Shane is filled with regret and self hate. He had wasted the best years of his life doing something he did not enjoy, and he will always remember for it through medals and badges.