Another week in the life of............

I can't believe how time has flown! Here I am just finishing my first week of orientation at my new job, and I survived it! It's funny a few of the gals there have asked me on more than one occasion if I like it and if I am going to stay? Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.... after getting over the initial jitters I must say I am enjoying it. I love learning new things which is a good thing as there is so much to learn.

I think some times I am very hard on myself. I for some reason figure I should know more than I do. But how can I in this environment. I mean I had a general understanding of what went on in PACU having taken report and received many a patient from PACU directly to ICU, but hands on direct patient care in PACU I haven't done. It has been very beneficial having my Critical Care training, the ABC's(airway, breathing, circulation) are always the same, and if I remember that I think I will do ok.

Like any new job you have to learn the paper trail, the administrative side to things. For me I have also changed work environments, I have gone from a small rural hospital to a hospital who boost the 4th busiest ER's in the province. Which potentially means lots of surgeries!

It's a learning curve but not insurmountable. I am keen, reading whatever I can get my hands on, jumping in to take the admissions as they come, and some days you can't even catch your breath. I think one of the things I love about this unit is that you truly work as a team. There is not designated patient assignment you decide when the call comes from OR who is going to take the patient and then who is going to be your 2nd RN, and that is how it works. It's just awesome. They have all been so welcoming to me. I think partially that the group I was working with this past week are also fairly new to the unit, with two of them coming from ER background the other with telemetry background, all of them under a year on the unit, but all very seasoned RN's, and bring a wealth of knowledge.

Another thing I have enjoyed is the instant repoire we have with the anesthetists and surgeons. Everyone is called by their first name and treated with respect. I was always greeted by the doctors with a big welcome and often humour.

I think my biggest adjustment are the hours. Having never worked rotating 8 hr. shifts it does take a little getting used to. Case in point this week I have worked an 08-16, 10-18, and three 16-24, all great shift times. However, three of the shifts have mandatory overtime ie. oncall. So for example if you are the evening person working 16-24 you are then oncall from 2400-0600 and then expected to report to work at 1600 after coming off of call at 0600. I am told that it doesn't happen to often that you get called back often it's staying late. Like the other night the evening staff had to stay until 0500 and then come back to work at 1600...ouch! But I guess I will get use to it.

Now, some fun stuff. As you know before I started my new job I took a week off. Spent the one day at the spa and then spent a few days on the in-law's boat. The weather was sunny and warm. The first day we spent travelling up the inlet to eventually get gas. When ended up spending the night and a friend of mine and her daughters came to the boat for a visit. We set out early the next day. The skies were blue the sea was calm it was perfect. We actually even put down a line to try and catch some fish...but they weren't biting. We ended our day by setting anchor in a very tranquil spot. Hubby bar-b-qued and we sat on the deck with our glass of wine and just enjoyed the surroundings, the loudest noise was that of the seal slapping on the water playing with their catch of salmon.

The next morning we set sail with the intention of dropping anchor in another bay at days end. Well that didn't happen. Although the sun was shining, the winds were gusty. Weather report were for winds up to 25km. We started to pull up the anchor with the automatic winch....the anchor stopped....for the life of me I couldn't get it going again. Hubby was up on the fly bridge steering the boat and trying to give me instruction but it just wouldn't work....we had to change spots, I had to steer and keep us away from the rocks(remember I mentioned about the winds)while he worked on the anchor. He figured it out....a fuse had blown he fixed it and we were off. We made our way out through a passage which eventually led us to open water. Let's just say it was a rock'n roll time. Hubby says the swells were about 5 - 6 feet with a 2 foot chop....that means something to the seasoned sailor but to me it was just darn rough! It's a good thing I don't get sea sick. It was a little unsettling for awhile but once we were able to turn and head into the direction we wanted we were travelling with the waves. I mean who needed a roller coaster when you've got this...LOL

We made it to a lovely little cove were we took shelter for a couple of hours and then decided it was time to venture out to the bay we had initially intended on staying. The winds were still strong and the water still rough. Then it all changed. One of the engines gave out....yup....just died. I won't go into the details of it all but it made steering of the boat a little more challenging. The winds into the bay were strong so we opted not to drop anchor.....at this point we were not to far from home so we opted to go home, moore the boat and just have dinner down on the dock. Then things changed again, engine two would only go in forward, no reverse and no neutral. Not good. My hubby planned to drop anchor in the harbour and see if he could have a look at the engine. Then he thought that if there was a slip at the end of the dock that we could just tie up to we would just do that, but there was none. That is when it got really scary. Hubby was attempting to turn the boat around when the winds caught us and pushed into the row of moored boats....I was already on the bow with the gaffle hook in hand, and bumpers down....we were heading right for the stern of two boats.....hubby cut the engine......I pushed with all my might with the hook and then using my body to kick us off of the boat...hubby flew down from the fly bridge off of the boat and threw his body between us and another boat...an older gentleman who just so happened to be on his boat jumped in to help....it was all very frightening...but we stopped tragedy from happening....not one scrape or dent in any of the boats, and us...well that is another story!!!! I don't know how we managed to prevented hitting the other boats but we did....thank god! So there we were stalled, the winds continually pushing us into the boats I am still trying with all my might to keep us off of the boats....the old man went and got the harbour manager and a helper .......with all of them we managed to tether the boat to the end of the dock and moore up against another boat. Whew!......I needed a drink and debriefing after that. What an adrenaline rush.....and then the let down....I think both hubby and I were just mentally and physically beat by the end of it all. We tidied up the boat and decided that we would go home, call the in laws tell them what happened and deal with the rest the next day.

And that is where I will leave this story......I have some photos of our short trip....enjoy!

The boat......32' Bayliner Avanti

The cove, where we dropped anchor

The Captain, my hero!

And me the first mate!

"Sister's Islets" Lighthouse....this picture doesn't really give you an idea of the swells....they were a little calmer here.....I can imagine for some sailors in rough seas that this is a beacon of hope that shore is close by.....