4-month Old Iñigo

Iñigo is four months old already! He sure grows so fast! I can’t wait to be home and be with my son whom I have seen only in pictures.

My Name’s Hidden Meaning

Check out your name’s meaning by going to this site.

What NELSON means…

What Nelson Means

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don’t get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are the total package – suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don’t always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don’t have as much going for them as you do. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.

What’s Your Name’s Hidden Meaning?

Pumogi ako sa pangalan ko ha! Hehe!

In Case of Emergency: ICE

I worked as an ER nurse for two years and part of my job was to take shifts in riding the ambulance whenever necessary. When attending to an accident scene, we usually needed to check the victim’s belongings to check for his identity. This is important especially if the victim is unable to think due to confusion, or is unconscious to be able to speak or dictate phone numbers of relatives who need to be contacted.

 

During my time, we usually search the victim’s wallet for identification and telephone numbers. But that was many years ago when the use of cell phones is not as much as it is nowadays.

 

I came across a personal safety campaign related to this from Aidisan recently and it is called the ICE (In Case of Emergency) Campaign. The idea is to enter in your cell phone’s address book the name and phone number of the person you want to be contacted “In Case of Emergency.” As hundreds of names could be listed in your Contacts List, the names of contact persons should be entered under the name ICE, so that the emergency services will be able to locate easily who your next of kin are and be able to contact them quickly.

 

In case of more than one contact person, the other names should be listed under ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 and so on.

 

Locating a relative during an emergency is important not only to be able to relay what happened to you, but also to find out from your nearest kin if there are other things that need to be considered in your case, such as if you have any preexisting medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or cardiac problems. The relative might also be able to provide vital information such as the name of medications you are currently taking, if you have some food or drug allergies, or if you are wearing implants such as pacemakers or AV fistulas.

 

Nowadays, paramedics usually turn to a victim’s cell phone to find clues for that person’s identity. So to make it easier for the responders to get the information they need, people are encouraged to adopt this ICE idea.

 

It would only take a few moment to do this on your cell phones. You never know, by so doing, this could save your life or could put a loved one’s mind at rest. Please help spread  this campaign.

 

 

Picture from citynews.ca

my space

I am four days off. I decided to give my space a new look by doing some general cleaning and arranging. Here’s how my flat looks now…

I am lucky to have this spacious unit. I heard that in Dubai, a flat this big would cost around Dh 5k or about P60k a month. I am getting this flat for free because I decided not to take the housing allowance given by the hospital to those who wanted to rent outside the compound.

Thanks for the visit!

Patience.

If you choose to become a nurse, I think you should have a lot of this: P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E. Last night shift was another test of how long my patience could be stretched.

 

I had another difficult patient last night. Not that his case was complicated. He was just a 16-year-old chap with fractured pelvis and femur post vehicular accident. He has external fixators on his pelvis making him unable to move a lot on the bed. These did not sound so complicated for me, but the patient’s behavior made me classify him as a “difficult” patient.

 

He pressed the buzzer several times to call for a nurse and I think I made about thirty trips to his room. Initially, he was having left foot pain. I gave him some analgesia. He called again several times after I gave his pain medicine, so I had to explain several times that the drug would not effect immediately, that he needs to wait a couple of minutes. Later, I decided to page his doctor to get a telephone order for a stronger analgesia. The medicine ordered was an intramuscular injection which took me a lot of my convincing powers before I was able to give it to him.

 

He also complained several times of itchiness on his back and left leg. I had to turn him several times in order to massage his back to apply some lotion or some damp wipes. I also had to do the same for his left leg and I had to reopen and close his knee immobilizer often for that.

 

I would not mind relieving all his discomforts, for that was part of my job. But the problem was the way he talked to me. He shouted and yelled at me as if he was talking to a slave. He seemed like a spoiled brat, because the parents were there and they just tolerated it and they even add to the shouts and yells. Initially, I had to tell them that they do not need to raise their voices, but then I felt I was talking to deaf ears. That explained why this patient was being rotated to different nurses each shift. Nobody seemed to like entering his room.

 

A couple times I had to be asked why I was late coming in to his room, when he was buzzing for a long time. I had to explain myself that I was looking after five other patients who were as sick as him. I knew I should not be explaining myself because I knew that they were not really waiting that long, that they were just exaggerating.

 

I never felt that he got satisfied with everything that I did for him, and I never even heard him or his family say some words of appreciation. All I got from them were complaints, smirks, and pouty faces. Each time I had to enter his room, I needed to take a deep breath, in order to give me enough powers to smile in front of them.

 

Every time I leave his room, I just tried to understand his behavior. But to feel bad about how people treat you is but human. I have my own emotions that can be hurt and I could not be blamed for feeling that way. Nurses are not stones.

 

I know patients deserve all the care, and understanding they need, so I just shrugged everything off. I do not allow situations like these go through me, around me, and never ever allowing the emotions stay inside of me. If I do, I could not continue my job. I had other patients who need me and who knows how to appreciate other people. And it is because of them why I am coming back for my next shift

 

Nursing was never an easy job, especially if you work in a busy surgical unit like mine. You have to have a lot of patience in order to deal with the demands of the profession. Most of all, you need to have the versatile heart to feel for other people