Bye!

My bags and suitcases are packed.

A lot of personal belongings are put away at secure places.

Much to our surprise we got the opportunity to work in Africa.
We had to decide within a few days and leaving was within a few weeks.

We had to arrange everything, including the shots needed for another continent.

I've handed over the account to Laane.

She'll keep my blog online until I'm back again.

Because we havne't figured out how to change the names under the posts, you'll find hers.


Wish me well!




Renate

the elderly lady

The summerseason has started.
For community-nursing it means taking over the tasks of collegue nurses.

Yesterday I had to visit an elderly lady.
She was very nervous.
A new nurse!

The whole year she'd been cared for by the same nurse, which is a miracle in itself this time.
And now she got me.

I didn't go to her home with nothing.
Ofcourse we had a meeting at the office to see what care she needs.
And when I saw she had no change of nurses this year at all, I thought it to be wise to call her nurse and ask her for specifics.

To the lady's surprise I made her coffee the way she wanted, and made her bed the way she liked it, with the top slapped open to the side.
I made her injection on a special plate and I knew that she wanted to have her back rubbed first when stepping out of the shower.

She was surprised and very happy.

Because there was no need to ask how she wanted things done, we had time to sit down for a talk before I had to leave.

That one phonecall to my collegue really paid of.

Ingrid Betancourt is free!

I hope the news that reached us is true: Ingrid Betancourt and 11 0r 14 other hostages are freed from the FARC.

Ingrid betancourt has been held hostage for over 6 years.
The last reports about her told about her bad health.
She was in need of treatment, otherwise she might die soon.

It's said that a special division of the army freed the hostages and no one is wounded.
According to the minister of Defense of Colombia: Santos, all hostages are healthy.

Let's hope this news is true.

no smoking

I'm a non-smoker, so my world is changing today.

Like the world is changing for the smoker.

Today it's forbidden to smoke in restaurants, cafés and other public places.

I'm very happy about that, because it opens a whole new way of living.

I haven't been able to go to dinner in a restaurant, have lunch somewhere or spend an evening with friends in a café without taking medication and wheezing the night after.
People who smoke don't understand what it means to deal with it, and even though some of them protest and tell us their freedom is at stake, it has nothing to do with their freedom.

Just with their addiction to nicotine.

They can freely enter a restaurant and enjoy a meal, as long as they won't smoke.
We were never able to enjoy a meal without smoking, because their smoke was everywhere, influencing the health of other people.

I'm SO happy, I can finally just walk in a restaurant and sit down...

as long as they don't have those plug-in air deodorants and other artificial smells.

Life isn't always as easy as it looks.

Nightshift

This was the last nightshift for a while.

When I was young I was able to deal with these shifts far better.
Sometimes I even skipped a complete period of sleep and never experienced problems.

Now I sleep less hours at a time, but I can't skip a period of sleep.

In the hospital they have a normal routine of 10 nightshifts, 5 days free, 10 dayshifts.

Because I had so much trouble adjusting my biological rhythm I have more days on a dayshift and also more days on a nightshift.

The overlap is great, because I sometimes know things about children and their parents that otherwise would be lost with changing teams.

The last two nights it has been very quiet.
We had lots of empty places and almost no serious cases.

So that gave us plenty of time to kangaroo the little ones.
That means keeping a premature close to our heart.
It's better for most of them than laying in the incubator.

We tossed for who had to be available for other duties, like the ER and the delivery rooms.
It was so quiet that we had plenty of coffee, and I even dozed off.

Now I can't sleep...

Gardening in the jungle

I saw last week that the good weather with the days that the rain poured all day has been far too good for the front garden.

It looked like a jungle.
Branches interwoven, plants growing too tall.
It was a mess.

So I tried to prune a lot this morning,
and I have to say: part of the garden looks far better than before.

Problem is that I have filled the greencontainer completely.
No problem, as it will be emptied tomorrow.
But I'm far from ready with the job.

It's getting far too hot.

My face looks like a tomato.

When I've finished my coffee I'm off for a shower.

Tomorrow is another gardening day.

A band-aid was enough

Late afternoon.

The humidity was almost unbearing and I was sitting in the garden with a glass of icetea, nearly dozing off.

Suddenly the doorbell rang three times.
It sounded alarming so I shot out of my chair and ran to the front door.

A little girls gazed at me with big eyes, ten suddenly started yelling
"he's hurt, he's hurt."

Yes, he was.
His skateboard was on the street a few meters away
and he was looking at his knee in utter disgust.
"It's bleeding".

So I told him I'm a nurse and I'm able to help him.
With the help of a larger boy he went with me.
I cleaned his wound,
and put a band-aid on.

Then I took the tin with cookies and wanted to give him some.

In the meantime he was already standing on his feet, ready to leave the house.

He nodded "no", and thanked me for helping him out.

Within a few seconds he was gone outside.

A band-aid was enough.