Last Night’s Bday Dinner

It was one great evening last night. It was the first time that my flat was filled with people and it was so strange to look at my living room full of guests, when most of the time it was filled by no one but me.

 

People started coming in half past seven. Some came from the morning shifts. Most of my guests were my batch mates – the same people who took the same plane coming here for the first time in UAE. Everybody had their new stories to tell, after having worked in our own respective units for the last three weeks. 

 

My preceptor Jaime came in as well and gave us some info about the in and outs on working in the UAE.

 

I wished there were videoke and some dancing, but I did not have the appliances yet for that. Well, it’s understandable since I have not even worked for a month. I only had my laptop’s media player for the background music of the night.

 

By the way, they loved my world-famous spaghetti! They also liked the buttered veggies! Successful home-cooking!

 

It was a nice evening when my flat was filled with stories, laughters and cheers.

 

After my guests left, I did a quick party “post-mortem” care. 

 

I woke up this morning and made some more cleaning. I’m working three nights starting tonight. Hell, I’m back to reality. 

Bday Dinner Preps

It is 530pm and I am still waiting for my guests to come in. I have prepared dinner for my newly-found friends here in UAE. My birthday is actually on the 28^th, but I will be working on a night shift on that day so it’s impossible to hold it on the actual day.

 

My preparations started about a week when I started buying stuffs for this evening’s affair. Whenever I did my grocery, I include bits and pieces for my planned dinner. I have already bought some canned goods, pastas, paper plates, spoons, forks, cups etc etc. It’s better than doing the shopping in one time when it will be heavier to carry all the plastic bags.

 

The last major shopping was last night at Carrefour. I bought the last items I needed for tonight – chicken drumsticks, rice, and drinks.

 

I started cooking this morning. I prepared the fruit salad first since I need to chill it the whole day, so that it will be cold and ready by evening.

 

I had limited casseroles so I had to really plan my cooking. I cooked the pasta for the spaghetti, and used the same casserole for the spag sauce. Remyr came in around lunch time and helped me with the chopping of vegetables. After cooking the veggie dish, we had the spaghetti for lunch. Remyr had to leave after because he needed to sleep in preparation for his night duty in the evening. He will actually be missing tonight’s event,

 

Karen came in around 3pm and helped me fry the chicken drumsticks after rolling them in a breaded mix. She left later to go to the gym, and promised to come back for dinner. Meanwhile, I cooked rice while starting to clean out the place. I brushed the living room carpet, and scrubbed the bathroom ceramics.

 

I felt the food might not be enough so I called KFC to post an order for a bucket of chicken. The delivery man came in few minutes later with the chicken, pepsi, coleslaw, fries and bread.

 

I found out from a text message that my wife is also having a party back home in the Philippines. Her officemates threw in a surprise baby shower party for her. She received lots of baby gifts, she mentioned. Wow, talk about simultaneous parties…

 

I took a quick shower after that, and started preparing myself for my night.

 

I think everything has been prepared. And now, it’s just the guests that are missing…

 

100 Things About Myself

It’s my birthday on the 28^th. So whether you like it or not, I am going to talk about myself, and nothing but myself today! So here goes 100 things about myself. I had a lot of fun writing it, so I hope you have fun reading it, too.

 

1. My name is Nelson.
2. Relatives call me Bobot.
3. I was once called Tuesday and Chuchu.
4. I’m the second to the eldest.
5. I have two younger brothers
6. and my sister is the eldest.
7. I grew up in Bulacan
8. and studied there too.
9. I hated bullies as a child.
10. I licked slippers when I was a toddler.
11. I look up to my father.
12. I admire my mother.
13. We were very poor before.
14. I worked my way to college.
15. So that means I have been working since I was 17.
16. I worked as an office assistant
17. and caretaker of a small library.
18. I competed in drawing contests.
19. I can still draw today, but I have no use of my talent right now.
20. I was a cartoonist in our high school paper.
21. As a child, I wished I was a comics writer and illustrator.
22. So I made my own comics using bond paper.
23. I also competed in declamation contests in elementary
24. and oratorical tilts in college.
25. I performed in a stage play before
26. and played the role of a bitch’s younger bro.
27. I feel sad realizing that the guy who alternately takes my role in that play died last year.
28. I like to sing
29. but I’m not a really good singer though.
30. I love videooke.
31. I’m a registered nurse.
32. I’m also a USRN.
33. I was once a private nurse,
34. ER nurse,
35. and neurosurgery nurse.
36. I was a nursing clinical instructor.
37. I was a local board exam review lecturer.
38. I worked seven years in Saudi Arabia and now I’m in UAE.
39. I like the high of riding in a speeding ambulance.
40. I need to cry when my patient dies.
41. But I do it where nobody can see me.
42. I can organize parties.
43. I can cook a bit.
44. My specialty is spaghetti.
45. And it’s my favorite dish too.
46. I like Italian food.
47. I’m allergic to seafood.
48. I like galaxy chocolates.
49. and moist chocolate cakes.
50. and cinnamon rolls.
51. Iced tea is my favorite drink.
52. I like coke, too but I’m trying to avoid soft drinks lately.
53. Superbowl restaurant is the best for me.
54. I play table tennis
55. But the last time I played was very long time ago.
56. I tried Aikido before.
57. I met my wife when we were 10 years old.
58. but we only got married when we were 32.
59. I am married to a civil engineer (and yup, I’m the nurse… not the other way around).
60. I am going to be a father soon.
61. I think first-time fathers are the most excited people in the world.
62. I always dream about how my baby will look like.
63. I enjoy staying in huge toy shops.
64. I want to give the best for my child.
65. I like to window shop
66. I dream a lot.
67. I might be in the US soon.
68. I treasure good friends.
69. I like people who can think of jokes very fast.
70. I love stand-up comedians.
71. I wish I can fly.
72. I am not into material things.
73. I value time.
74. I am not afraid to die
75. But I am afraid to lose a loved one.
76. I have never tried illegal drugs.
77. But I can inject a drug on myself using a butterfly needle.
78. I’ve done that for therapeutic drugs.
79. I’m a social drinker only.
80. I don’t smoke.
81. I’m not into pets.
82. Navy blue is my favorite color.
83. I want to give a poor deserving child a scholarship if I have the money.
84. I want to write a book
85. but I can’t think of anything to write about.
86. I love the internet.
87. I can spend the whole day without eating just surfing the net.
88. My favorite animation hero is Jin of Tekken.
89. He’s my friendster background theme
90. If I’ll have a tattoo on me, I’ll put Marvin the Martian on my back.
91. I like collecting things
92. I collected stamps, and key chain holders.
93. My weird collection included restaurant tissues, clothes tags, and chocolate wrappers.
94. I will only collect something that I don’t need to buy.
95. I took a video of myself posing like a ramp model last year.
96. It’s so funny but I hate watching it now.
97. I wish I can direct a film, but I know it is a very difficult job.
98. I wish I have more computer knowledge.
99. I wear contacts.

100. I love myself.

My First Night Shift

Whew! I just arrived home after surpassing another milestone in my budding nursing career in the UAE – my first night shift (7pm to 7am). This was after a year of having my nights spent on sleeping, and the days on working. I knew I had to make adjustments in my body clock.

 

My preceptor and I had 7 patients last night. The cases and activities were as follows:

 

1. A patient with cancer of the larynx who had tracheostomy and PEG insertion. Because he can’t talk, I had difficulty trying to understand him. I had to clean the Swedish nose attached to the trache twice because there’s no stock of that at the moment so we could not throw that one away. His IV line got infiltrated so a new line was inserted. He had very difficult veins, and after several tries, one of my co-nurses managed to put one. He’s a sharpshooter! He needed that for his IV antibiotics.
2. A patient with cancer of the pancreas, who had a whipple’s procedure two weeks back. He passed BM twice and everytime he did, I had to change his bed linens because he messes everything up. I also did his abdominal dressing which was very mucky, because aside from the oozing wound, it was stained by his stool. I got a low blood sugar from him in the morning, so I encouraged him to eat something. I rechecked his blood sugar after an hour, and it picked up to within normal limits. His IV line got infiltrated as well but reinsertion was unsuccessful because his veins were all so bad.
3. A patient with Osteomyelitis on the right femur who previously had an Incision and Drainage surgery inThailand. His wound looks infected. He’s in the hospital for pain management.  
4. A patient post road-traffic accident with compound fracture of tibia/fibula. He recently had removal of the external fixator, with intermedullary nailing. This guy is already mobilizing full weight bearing, and is for possible discharge today.
5. A patient who was admitted for hematuria. He was on a foley catheter draining reddish urine. He called twice just to get his urine bag emptied when it was only half full.
6. A diabetic patient who had amputation of the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th digits of the right toes two weeks back. He was scheduled for Angiography today, so I inserted an IV line on him last midnight and started him on IV fluids. I did not have any difficulty inserting a cannula for him because he had very visible veins. His blood sugar shoot up in the middle of the night so I had to give him some regular insulin. It went down to within normal limits in the morning. His groin was shaved in the morning in preparation for the angiography.
7. A patient who had renal stones, and had undergone urethroscopy to remove ureteric stones. He complained of flank pain around  1030 in the evening, so I gave him a tramadol injection in the right gluts. He complained again at 2am and said that the injection I gave did not work much. I then gave him a more stronger analgesia – Pethidine injection on the left gluts. That knocked him down, sleeping till the morning. I feel he needs to be reviewed again this morning because of these pain episodes even if he is for possible discharge. He did not have an IV line but he had orders for IV antibiotics this morning so a line was inserted using a butterfly, and I removed it after the medication was consumed.

 

And that goes my first night shift. I survived. Glad to be still alive. And yup, I have another night tonight.

Our First Year

A year ago on this day, I was waiting at the altar for my bride to come. When she finally came in, flowers came falling down from the heavens. She walked down the aisle while the enchanting music of Lea Salonga’s “Two Words” was playing. Our guests in the church just looked at her in complete astonishment. Didith was a perfect bride.

 

People started shedding tears, and there were goose bumps all around. I saw smiles and happiness. Witnessing that, I felt an overwhelming feeling of euphoria, knowing that the people around us were happy to see us come to this point.

 

As I stood there watching as my lady walked towards me, I thought I was going to faint, as I was showered with all the nicest of emotions, that my heart cannot contain anymore. I was a very proud groom.

 

Looking back, I realized how much we have grown over the year, and that there is still so much ahead of us.

 

Today is our very first wedding anniversary.