Not a very nice day at the care home. . .

Hello! 1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days!!!

I worked 7.30am until 6.00pm yesterday, also worked til 9.30 pm the night before so I didn't get much sleep in between. The day started off with me being paired with another carer who was so patronizing and kept putting me down all the time! I hate carers like that so much. There had to be two of us to help three of the residents get up and dressed. She did things so fast and was really rough with them and it made me feel like just because I wasn't at the same pace as her that I wasn't as good!

For example, she said 'comb his hair for me' and so I did it gently and at a normal pace! She was like 'you can do it harder than that you know! ' she said the same thing when I was washing one of the residents.. I can't help it if i'm a gentle person! She goes ' young people these days hey! ' and kept showing me up in front of the residents saying 'she's only a young girl' and stuff like that. She told me to take one of the residents to the toilet which I did, I was standing outside with gloves on while she was still in there... then she goes ' you can get 'Mrs blank' up from the table while you're waiting you know! ' So I went to get her up and she goes ' seee you can do two things at once!' the b i t ch!

First of all, she was already in there cleaning up and she could have done it herself and second because I had gloves on and the woman who I took to the toilet is quite quick & doesn't like being left on her own for a long time so I was about to go back in !!

It really annoys me as I'm 20 years old and I don't think my age has anything to do with how capable I am! Just because i'm not as fast and rough as she is! I've not been working in the care home for long but long enough that I'm not shadowing people anymore and getting them up by myself, she made me feel like it was my first day or something! And how she kept telling me to do things? I mean yes at first I got told all the time but I have worked there for 4 months and I know the routine and how to do things now! Yes, I take my time doing them because I want to get it right! She just made me feel so useless and like I shouldn't be doing that job! i've never felt like that before, most of the other staff are lovely though!

Later in the afternoon it went from bad to worse! I was in the lounge/dinning room and was just cleaning the tables after dinner. One of the residents started choking! I went over and she wasn't even coughing or anything she just couldn't breathe at all and was turning a funny colour! She started to get up from her chair and walk towards me even though I told her to try and sit down. It was like she was trying to wave to me with her hands for help! It was so scary because it's the first time i've been in a situation like this on my own and she looked so close to death! I quickly hit the emergency button and the others came running as fast as they could.It really shook me up though and I burst into tears afterwards! and so did other staff members & even the manager had tears!:/ I felt like right idiot though and I should have coped with it better! When she was choking I kind of froze for a few seconds then thought should I press the emergency button or not and I looked at her and thought 'this is definitely an emergency' and pressed it!

Also earlier in the week I found out that one of my favourite residents has got skin cancer! :( and that it has spread to her lymph nodes! They gave her the option to amputate her leg which she refused or to have radiotherapy which will just probably make her a bit longer. It's very sad. She also has parkinsons and diabetes! I said to her how do you feel about it and she just said it hasn't really sunk in yet. Which I can understand. I had a little cry on the way home, I have to let it out otherwise it'll all bottle up inside.. no of my friends my age really understand so I can't really talk to many people about it. That's another reason I can't wait to start nursing to have people who actually understand how hard it is emotionally.

I've got 4 days off now yey! So going to relax. I went to see JLS in concert on wednesday night they were really good! :) I forget sometimes that i'm still young and I get caught up in all of it. I still need to enjoy these days otherwise I might regret it one day. . .

2 Months today....

I start my nursing course! :D Can't believe how fast it's come around! I remember in September thinking 'I can't believe i've got 6 months, it's going to go so slow!' but 4 months have just gone by so quick!

Today i've got the day off! :) I've worked so much this week and did an 11 hour shift yesterday so have been exhausted!
Next week is going to be even worse... but I'm going to see JLS in concert one night next week so that will cheer me up! :D

I really need to get down to the gym! Even though i've been ill and lost weight over christmas, i've now manager to put some back on aswel! My membership for my gym has just run out so I will have to renew it. It's just finding the time to go though.
One of my friends popped into work to see her great-aunt (who's a resident there) it was really nice to see her! she's starting nursing in March too so we are gonna go out for a meal sometime soon! Which will be nice to catch up.

I'm off now to do a bit of shopping! and i'm going out for a meal at chinese tonight which will be niceee :)

Still not well but back to work!

Hey so it's 2 months and 5 days :)

Its getting close now! I had my Occupational Health appointment on Wednesday and got lost on the way to the University! I'm going to have to practise driving there and back a lot of times before I start! She asked me about my immunisations and said I didn't need a blood test because I had had enough MMR jabs. She also told me to talk to my doctor about hepatitis b jabs but said if they charge then don't worry about it the University will do it on induction week. The doctors said there would be a fee so I will have to wait until induction week! :-) It was weird going to the university, I felt like a student already as I had to find the building and room! :D I've done my CRB form online and sent of my bursary forms! So feel kinda organised.

I've not been very well for a long time now... seems to be one thing after another, in my last blog I think I mentioned I had tonsillitis... well it got really bad to the point where I couldn't swallow my own salvia :( was horrible. I had to go to hospital and my dose of penicillin was doubled(in liquid form) well I started with a horrible rash and on the 10th day I saw the doctor on friday and she told me to stop taking it and that i've got an allergy to penicillin! :/
so now i've got a really bad rash!! my ankles are the worse but it's all over my body :( annoying so i'm taking anti-histamines daily at the moment! doesn't seem to be doing much though.

I also had my hosptial apointment about my wrist. . . it has been confirmed that it is : arterio venous malformation - AVM = is an abnormal connection between veins and arteries, usually congenital. This pathology is widely known because of its occurrence in the central nervous system, but can appear in any location.

She said that there is a procedure called 'embolisation' where they can reduce the swelling but something would have to be injected. She said it's not dangerous and wont spread so they are going to monitor me for now and will see me in 4 months. I'm kind of relieved but still feel like i'm back to square one!

I started back at work on friday first time in a month!! everyone was so nice and asked where I had been! :) I had missed it there and especially the residents!
I better get some sleep now... i've got to get up at 7am tommorow :/

Will try and write sooon!

Not a good start to a New Year

Well it's 2010. I've not really had a good Christmas and New year as i've spent most of it being ill, which is really not fun. I've got tonsillitis/glandular fever. It's the first time i've had it and I feel absolutely awful! I've had it for a week now and just as my wrist had recovered from my operation, I was planning on starting work this week aswel. It's one thing after another.
Yeah so I can't wait to just to go back to feeling normal! Its horrible.

Tommorow, I'm off to the hospital to get the results of my biopsy for my wrist! Well I think it's the results. It takes an hour to get there and my mum has kindly said she would take me so I wont have the stress of driving.

As for Uni - 2 months, 1 week and 4 days!

I've got my OH appointment this wednesday, ive been sent papers through the post about CRB and bursary so need to start them sometime soon! Just not very well at all.

I'm watching Celeb big brother at the moment - getting quite into it this year for some reason! :)

Will write sooon when I have more interesting things going on :)