Interflora

 As I spent half my life in the UK prior to moving to NZ then I still have many connections and family back home. I completed all of my schooling in England, and my nurse training. I was 27 when I moved to NZ.

So, when I heard that a very dear friend had lost their mother then I needed to pay my respects. Now for obvious reasons, attending the funeral was not going to be a happening thing, so the next best was to let them know they were being thought of.

With online shopping a way that has made the world so small nowadays then sending flowers was never going to be an issue. Although I am always wary of what I am going to pay for and what actually arrives?

This time, I was happy with what arrived, and the flowers received were appreciated for the gesture that they were intended.

Jigsaw 12 - Sunny Villa

 When one thinks of a summer holiday then this is what I think of, plenty of sunshine and a quiet area to swim in the pool whenever you want during the day.

New Zealand has some amazing summers, but it doesn't hold the temperature from the day into the night when outside. I remember summers in America, and it was just as hot at 10pm as it was at 10am, and you could swim most of the evening and not get cold. Here you definitely need a sweater and jeans by 8pm if sitting outside as it gets a lot cooler.

Jigsaw 11 - Paint Craft

 The final one in the series of four from the Artistic Flair series that I completed the other 3 of last year in April and October.

I am glad that I had taken time out and done other styles in between as this would have been boring immediately after the others due to the design of the cat, the shelves and the general theme. But glad I was able to complete the series as it was still one that I really liked all the pictures in the series, despite the slightly boring repetitive nature of them.

Hospital Again

Yesterday I got hit with pain again. No explanation, just as sudden an onset as last time and no way of managing it at home.

I have been to my GP and have a referral to a private specialist to rule out some conditions, but I am now sat waiting for an appointment, although I always ask to be placed on the cancellation list, as I can usually drop everything to get to an appointment within 24 hours' notice.

With no idea on how to manage this pain, and obviously not having access to IV drugs at home, I did the next best thing...I called an ambulance.

Scared the crap out of youngest son who was away at a friend's house, as we have a doorbell camera and his phone gained a notification at 7pm that someone was on the driveway and he checked to see what we were doing, only to see an ambulance pulling up. He was quite concerned when he called to ask what was happening. Poor thing, he cares really, just doesn't like to show it too often. Bless him.

Anyway, their decision was that I needed to be checked out, again and to have some of their IV pain relief. So, back up to the hospital emergency department, a quick consult with the doctor, a silly nursing decision by me, that if I had some strong pain relief to have at home then I wouldn't need to bother them by visiting the hospital as I could manage this all myself at home, so happy to go home. She agreed and 3 hours later, home I went.

Definitely a bad nursing call but nurses are the worst patients, we know too much, self-diagnose and generally would talk our way out of any situation where we think we know better! It is also a long weekend here so nothing much is going to happen if I did stay in hospital, plus I have a private appointment in 2 weeks' time, so fingers crossed we start getting some tests.

So, I never really gave them the option of anything other than a script for some strong stuff and going home.

Jigsaw 10 - Sewing Love

 I knew as soon as I bought this one that it would be one that purely got completed with the picture in my hand constantly!

Every piece was more or less the same and the picture/words on the end of each spool is repeated at some stage, so it took concentration to ensure you were putting them in the correct area.

Once I had pieces laid on the board things suddenly came together, and I was able to finish without the picture but that was only because I had got use to the spools and what they said so I knew where everything went!

Mother's Day Again

 Being home on sick leave today did have one advantage, being able to receive the package that was sent by Ben, with a gift for Mother's Day.

He bought me flowers, well, Lego ones, that I had to make myself!

But I didn't care, I loved them and happily made them. A gift that gives a gift of craft.

Thank you, baby, they are perfect 💗

Mother's Day

 Today was Mother's Day in New Zealand.

With one son living away from home now and one living at home but always working on a Sunday then this is a quiet day.

However, for me, this weekend has not been pleasant. I started the day yesterday with some upper gastric pain, for no reason. It settled but was a niggle throughout the whole day. It didn't stop me sleeping last night, but food has not been my best friend at all. Leads to increase in the pain. Not uncomfortable to eat, just the colicky pain that I sustain afterwards.

Never had any issue with my gallbladder but pain is also not in the area that I would say is gallbladder related. Well, that is my clinical nursing diagnosis.

After considering all options, all theories and all ideas on how to settle this and not have to suffer any more, I went to the hospital. For some reason, no one else was there (totally unheard of in this current health crisis) and I was seen quite quickly.

A consult with a doctor, some strong IV morphine and I was sailing nicely on a sea of drugs. He diagnosed a form of gastric reflux and gave me relevant medication to assist. Whilst I was sort of happy with this diagnosis, it didn't explain some of my other symptoms but let's wait and see what happens.

Never had IV morphine before but definitely know the nursing care to be applied. Once the nurse had administered it to me, I checked my watch, Steve asked what I was doing and I explained that I needed to know what the time was, as I was pretty certain the nurse who had just given my IV meds was not coming back to check on me within the next 15 minutes!

She had completed no assessments on me prior to administering the med, so had no baseline to measure from and was going, I think, purely from the assessments completed nearly 90 mins beforehand! She did not set me up on the monitor and could have easily attached a BP cuff and a pulse ox to my finger. As I couldn't say if I had ever had this drug before, she needed to check on me within 5 mins to ensure no major reaction or breathing difficulty. She did none of this and in fact, I don't think I ever saw her again during my time in Emergency.

I survived and came home about an hour later, with instructions to follow up with my own family doctor if symptoms persisted.