Our usual doctor wasn't in and she ended up seeing Dr. Quack, which is probably the nicest thing I've called him to date. The first day daddy took her in he basically said she has a cold and welcome to day care. Two days later the other doctor she saw sent her to the ER. The "cold" was actually bronchiolitis. I was at work and text Ben on my lunch break to see what the doctor said. Imagine my surprise to find out she was down in the pediatric ER. I ran down on my lunch to check on her and give her cuddles and a feed. I went back up after my lunch was over and word had circulated through my ward that I had a sick baby. My awesome boss told me to go take care of my baby and let her know if I needed to rearrange my work schedule. I go back down and we spent the next 8 hours in the pediatric short stay unit. Thankfully, she didn't get worse, I'm a nurse, and we live near the hospital which meant we got to go home and not be admitted.
Over the next couple of days she managed to get conjunctivitis and then both of her eardrums ruptured. Oh, did I mention while all of this was going on, Ben and I both got sick with her. Yeah, when I went back to work I started spiking fevers and had to go home. Poor Ben didn't get a chance to really be sick because he was having to suck it up and take care of us. I felt like I had the flu and didn't feel well for about a week. Ben says I had the man flu because I stayed in bed with the baby moaning and groaning unable to do anything. Every time he tried to be sick, I was sicker...lol He's still not had a chance to properly enjoy his illness because there's always something going on when he's unwell.
We have all finally recovered, but in the meantime I was working working working. So, how is work going for me? It's going really well. I enjoy being back in my element. In case you didn't know, I'm working with moms and babies again, so I'm happy!! My ward has a great manager, great staff, and I couldn't be happier. There's some adjustments I'm having to make, but that comes with any new position.
The hardest part about nursing here is having to relearn all the medications. I just thought I said goodbye to drug cards when I graduated nursing school. NOPE!!! Guess who's been making them to learn the new meds!! It's not that we have completely different medications here, it's just that the names are different. Take Tylenol for example. In the U.S., the trade name is Tylenol and the generic is acetaminophen. In New Zealand, the trade name is Panadol and the generic is paracetamol. Same drug...different names. So, to all of my nursing school instructors that I use to think were spawns of the devil for requiring drug cards...I take back all the nasty things I thought about you and would like to say I'm sorry and thanks!! I'm really not going to bore everyone that isn't a nurse with all the nursey talk. If you want to know more, feel free to send me an email.
What else has been going on? Oh, we made a trip down to the southernish part of the North Island. We went down to Ben's marae to celebrate Nanny's 90th birthday. It was the first time I've been to a marae, and it was an incredible experience. Ben use to say things about Maori culture and tell me I "wouldn't understand" which always resulted in me rolling my eyes and thinking, "yeah, whatever..." After experiencing what being in a Maori family actually means, I realize how right he was. It wasn't something that could be explained; it had to be experienced. I'll talk more about the marae another day.
Backtracking a bit, we made the drive down, and I got to see the beautiful scenery. Since we were trying to hurry on the way down, I didn't take any pictures. On the way back, I took some, but not many because I was just tired and slept most of the way home. Here is one of the photos I did take
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| Desert Road View |
So, that's been us. I hope all of you have been doing well! I'm back, so be sure to keep watching because there's a few changes that will soon be taking place here. Until next time!
