The great escape

Thank god I'm home.
My 3-night 'vacation' turned out to be 5-nights and by day 6 (Monday) I had an impressive escape plan hatched inside my head, should I need to 'break-out' if they didn't give me the okay for discharge. Luckily after more x-rays, bloods and a spirometry test I was given the all clear and practically ran out the door of the hospital Monday afternoon! I decided to stay Monday night in Kal so I could grab a few things from the shops (at a gentle Nana-pace of course) in the morning before heading home. I checked into the Broadwater Hotel... where I lazed in the spa bath, sprawled across the not-plastic-covered King Size Bed (like a big fat octopus) and ate real non-hospital food. Yeah...it was pure heaven. Anyway I'm all better and don't plan to repeat last weeks events anytime again soon. (fingers crossed)

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I would like a dollar for every time I was asked in hospital how many children I have.
When I answered 'none' I was shot looks of utter disbelief and sheer horror, quickly followed by the question 'why not?'
Does it not occur to people that maybe not all women of child-bearing age want to actually bear children?
Isn't it just a teeny bit rude to quiz a person as to why they don't have children??
Is it really anyone elses business?
I'm not usually that sensitive about it, however explaining it over and over (when I'm not entirely clear in my own head the reasons why I don't have kids... nor if I will or won't have them) is rather dull and tiring and uncomfortable and weird.

Is it bad if we decide not to have kids... like not...ever?? Will we end up bitter, lonely, selfish old sods who have nothing but each other? I'm not opposed to kids, heck I love the little suckers...as long as they're someone elses. The maternal desire is yet to smack me over the head and at 34-years of age - I'm kind of thinking it never will... and I'm fine with that. Husband shares my thoughts exactly - not opposed but not really into it either. We kind of have a 'lets re-evaluate each 6-months' theory and that suits us fine. Just wish it was tattooed on my forehead so I didn't have to explain myself over-n-over-n-over.
( NOT having kids this week... so don't ask)

Maybe I'm looking into it too much, maybe people are just trying to make conversation... who knows. Can't they just stick to questions about the weather?

Vacation time

Yeah well... I'm in hospital with Pneumonia. What a spaz.
Off I go to Kalgoorlie Hospital for a 'Recruitment and selection' workshop (ugh) and I manage to listen to about 45 minutes of the workshop (I got to put my name on the registration slip... so i hope they credit me as having done it) before I wound up wheezing and spluttering my way to the Emergency department for a neb and some oxygen. I then won myself a 3-night all-expenses-paid vacation to D-Ward Kalgoorlie Hospital.
Anyway, I feel much better now. Oxygen, IV Antibiotics, Nebs and steroids are now on my list of all time amazing inventions of the world and favourite things.
I'm a bit embarrassed (actually a LOT embarrassed) by all the fuss thats been made, I've been sent choccys, flowers and cards galore, not to mention that the hospital staff have treated me like a queen...aww, shucks.

Husband drove down from Leo yesterday afternoon and he has been keeping me amused and eating my chocolates. (Of course)

I'm sure I will be back jogging to Gwalia again in no time flat. The enforced rest has done me the world of good... it should be an annual compulsory requirement for everyone to lay in bed and do nothing for a few days.
Although personally I'd prefer a King Size pillow-top mattress and non-plastic-covered pillows next time.

night bath

Husband bought home half a cow tonight. It's gross. It's now laying neatly in two huge hunks in the bottom of our fridge awaiting slicing and freezing tomorrow after it has been allowed to 'air'. (I don't quite understand the whole air thing, but his strict instructions were it required 24 hours airing??) I don't mind a bit of steak every now and then, but I have trouble coping with it en'mass like that.... put some fur on it and it could almost walk around moo'ing.

Tomorrow I go to Kal for two nights for more management/work stuff. Joy.

I just washed my work car at 9:45pm at night. weird. It'll probably look like crap considering i did it in the dark. I'm not sure what inspired me to do it that late (except for the Kal trip tomorrow, but it didn't need to be clean for that) i hope i didn't wake the neighbours with the vacuum cleaner.

I had a gym session with Lewie this arvo. We did legs only, and although it was only short bursts of cardio/weights it killed me. I'm really wheezy and chesty still and think it'll be a while before I'm back to road running.

Better go pack my bag... and a heap of note paper since my voice is still on strike.
What if it never returns??

Perfect wife

I took this photo of Murphy tonight sprawled out snoozing. It's not really a glamorous look, but it made me laugh.

I worked this morning with no voice.... nothing, zilch, zip... not even a croak. It was a weird experience. How come when you whisper to people they automatically whisper back? It's like they're worried they might wake someone up. Some of the patients I saw gave me strange looks like I was playing a practical joke on them. Nope... 'fraid not. One guy laughed at my whispering efforts and proceeded to tell me I would be a 'perfect wife'!! Nice.

Even the dogs are looking at me weird 'why isn't she talking to us?'.

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I'm still working on my Election homework... 3 homework chapters to go. Must do them tonight, we have training tomorrow and I don't want to get detention for not having it done.

My diet and exercise this week have been crap.

Please God, let me have a voice tomorrow (a proper non-croaky one would be nice, but I'm not overly fussy, an audible tone of any kind would be appreciated at this stage)

Over n out

Don't count ya chickens...

Yeah great. I bounced off to bed last night with the glorious illusion I was all better.
I woke at 4am feverish, achy and feeling like crap. Hmph, that'll teach me to boast about wellness.
The good thing about my new job (the ONE and only solitary-single good thing about my new job) is that my hours are flexible, so as long as I work my quota per week it doesn't really matter when I go in, so I stayed in bed till 9am. Then I moved to the bath for a long soak. Then I finally made it to work at about 11am to find it mega-busy. The aircon in my office has carked it and it's a major sauna in there, so I was glad to dodge it as much as possible and help out in A&E. I ended up staying till late because the nurse on needed to do a patient escort. At the start of the shift my voice sounded like a boy going through puberty with its squeaky uneven tones, by the end of the night I was barely audible and very husky - kind of like a gnarly hooker.

Geez, what a moan-fest.
I guess after to listening to everyone elses woes all day at work, I felt I had to vent my own.

Munching on dead things

Even though it was a million degrees outside today we decided to do the good parent thing and take the dogs for their nightly run on the town oval. Its the only place that offers a bit of green lawn, where we can safely let the dogs off the lead. Tonight we fed the dogs before their run -(coz we left a biter later due to the heat) but it seemed the mutts thought dinner was merely entree since they snacked on every damn dead thing they could find at the oval. Faaar out. Murphy ran off into the yonder and did hist best to demolish half a rotten roo before husband caught up with him and kicked his arse for it. I know eating a bit of road-kill isn't a major problem, but it IS when your dog spends the rest of the night puking his guts up. Diesel then found a dead pidgeon and ran up to me with feathers hanging out his mouth (I had visions of Sylvester with Tweety) before I squealed ooohhh groooosssss and made him drop it. Did the heat make them extra hungry or something?? Yuk. We only did one lap of the oval before banishing them to the car in disgrace of their poor taste & headed for home.

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I've been sick since Monday. Today I started feeling well this arvo and it's FANTASTIC! I even shuffled myself off to the gym with husband where I bravely trained with Lewie for an hour. It nearly killed me (it was only a gentle session) but it felt good to be out of the house and out of bed. For someone that loves their bed like I do, thats a tough call, but I have spent so much time over the past 3 days horizontal trying to snooze away my aches and pains that it's glorious to feel better again.

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My Mum has been to Leo working again (bless her size 12 cotton socks!!). She has escaped for a couple of weeks back to the cold south (and my Dad) but will hopefully be back to help us out for a couple more weeks before Christmas. This time of year is always AWFUL for nurses. This year seems particularly bad and I'm not sure how we're going to find enough staff to run the hospital. Anyone know a nurse who wants a summer job??!

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My sister and her husband are coming to Leo for Christmas! That should be great fun (if they don't keel over from heat exhaustion). My niece is here working, so it'll be the most 'family-orientated' Leo Christmas we've had. Cool. Oh and did I mention my sis is a fantastic cook? Yum, I can feel a Chrissy feast coming on (hint hint Jo!)

Enough babbling, I'm off to do my 'polling day homework'. Somehow JB conned me into helping out for the Federal Election next weekend. The next thing I know I'm not just helping out - I'm Officer-in-Charge (WTF??!) and I have this huge file to study with HOMEWORK!! Ha! Its like I'm back at school. She owes me.... big time.