Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 November 2004 19:53:51
Today's shift at the hospice was lovely - really quiet, and no really cranky patients, which meant that we could do our work and take our time rather than rush round like headless chickens. And the ward manager was a friend from church and the Ship, it was really lovely working with her and not weird at all (I thought it might be, as I'd not worked with her before - although we did have a "roll-eyes" moment when the other staff nurse asked us how we knew each other!). I did however suffer the embarrassment of, when squatting down to empty a catheter bag, the button from my trousers snapping off! (I blame the Cathedral - must've been the biscuits). Fortunately there was a handy needle and thread kept for just such occasions, so I sneaked into the office and sewed the button back on in a slightly more realistic position!
During our break we were sharing our funny work stories. As it was a hospice, this was high on the "funny things that happened when I was laying out a dead body" (I've got a classic from when I was a student nurse, although it works best when I can describe it with gestures as well as words so I'll spare you that for when I see you in real life), but it also (as I'm a health visitor in real life) had plenty of "funny inappropriate things that kids say at the most embarrassing moments possible". The other week I visited a family with a new baby, and the baby's 2 year old brother not only proudly announced that he'd had champagne when the baby was born (much to his mum's embarrassment - "I really don't think the lady needs to know that!"), but also announced to me in no uncertain terms that I had bosoms like his mummy (ah, so *that's* what they are!). It doesn't matter how embarrassed I should be by what they say, you can guarantee the parent is always so much more embarrassed that it just ends up being funny. Another example: when I was district nursing a few years back I remember visiting a little old lady of 100 who smoked like a chimney. By the time I left her house I dread to think how much stale smoke my clothes had absorbed. My next visit was to a woman in her 30s with two children, the oldest of whom was about 4. After she'd let me in, the 4 year old piped up VERY loudly, "What's that smell? Ew, it's the NURSE!!!!" I just had to take comfort from the fact that the mum was a million times more mortified than I was!