Saturday's Saying...

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
~Richard Wagner

Awkward Convos Over Cake!

Welcome Wednesday-ers!,

So this week has been an interesting one to say the least. Oli's birthday has been and gone and I (intending to make a good first year impression) baked a cake. 

Unfortunately it has transpired that even though things were good, and in my opinion remained good, that we are going to stop with the whole dating thing as he has some stuff he needs to sort out. Whilst I understand and do not hold his against him, I cannot deny I am disappointed. Things were going so well but then maybe I'm just planted firmly behind rose-tinted glasses on this one. 

We're now in this weird limbo phase where we are trying to work out if we can still be friends  To be honest this is my fault as I'm not sure I can do it now after knowing how close we came to it being something more. Not gonna lie I fell hard for this guy and now I discovered if you fall far enough you'll hit the ground...hard

I'm just taking some time to get my head straight and then hopefully we can meet up for coffee and carry on with just the friendship side He's a nice guy and I don't want to lose him from my life completely.

Works going well. Don't worry I'm not going to bang on about it :) just a quick note, I've been invited out for a meal, the weekend after next, by work peoples, but unfortunately I have visitors that weekend so I've had to take a raincheck.

Talking of visitors this weekend my mate Sarah and her partner Tim are popping down. They're arriving on the Sat evening and stopping until Sunday afternoon. It'll be the first time the guest bed gets a trial run so I hope everything runs smoothly and I can fold the damn thing out without having to reorganise my whole living room! Figers crossed and wish me luck!

Right well I'm offski then!

Your ever humble Blogger,
Alikay x

Saturday's Saying...

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.
~Emily Dickinson

Go Hard or Go Home

Wondering Wednesday's Words

Hello my lovely Wednesdayer's,

So I'm shattered...It's been a rough one today. We've been 5 members of staff down and had almost 4,500 samples over the day. Thanks to the cuts to the NHS budget and cascading on down the cuts to our department we had NO staff able to co
ver for the bout of sickness. We also have NO budget for overtime. I have been pushed hard. to the point where I forgot to drink water all day XP.

I've had what nearly everyone in the lab agreed was the worst day in a long long long time and I still love my job! I think I can feel a little bit of relief knowing that on a really bad day my new job is not half as bad as a mediocre day at my last one :) 

I'm noticing my general stamina is increasing these days. I took it on myself to walk the three miles to work each day. Whilst there has been the odd day where I have, for what ever reason, stooped to use the bus, I can now make the journey into work and not feel like I'm going to pass out!

To be honest I have some brilliant incentives to walk it in. For a start the health benefits which I'm sure my doctor wouldn't complain about. Secondly it gives me an hour each day where I can think without having to focus on anything else, I'm now at the stage where I can autopilot my way there, leaving my conscious mind free to file, sort, revisit and delete the thoughts I need to whilst, my unconscious mind does the general "left leg up, left leg down, right leg up, right leg down" humdrum thoughts.

All the leaves are brown...

But the sky wasn't grey...

Thirdly the walk is very pleasant, there are no horrible hills or massive amounts of steps. Lastly the walk is very pleasant lol. This time I mean the surroundings are at some points pretty beautiful and make me glad to be alive. I took some pictures the other day as the sun through the leaves was just really striking. I get to look at that

nearly every day and I am grateful for it.

I've got a pretty bad headache at the moment, thanks to dehydration. I shall be wrapping up pretty soon but I guess I should say that I still hold out hope the others will join me again on here. I realise that the are too bus right now but even a few lines of each of us would be a great way of keep up on all the big news. 

our ever humble blogger,

Alikay

Mix It Up Now

Wistfully Wishing Wednesday Would Wed!

Hello, wonderful Wednesday-ers,

This week has seen the little World that is my life take a turn for the better. To start with I'm now only on the Sorting section when I'm rota'd to be on it so I get a whole lot of time off it! I'm now training to Book In.

Hello I'll be handling your sample today...

This is where we scan in or enter the information off of the manual forms into the computer, check everything is as it should be and then print of the labels the analysers use to recognise the sample and what test need to be preformed. I'm enjoying getting to sit in front of the computer for a change! It is highly repetitive but that's ok because the GPs throw in the odd mistake to keep us on our toes. Well I say odd mistake....my first pile of forms had so many that my supervisor swapped with me to stop me losing the will to live.

Now try it with gloves on!

Javi also decided that as I'd sneaked on the booking in section for a few moments at the end of the shift when I had nothing else to do, that he wanted to start me training on labeling also! This means I'm training on my third and fourth sections at the same time and that I'll only have one more to go when I'm finished there! Yay for competencies being signed off!

Got to keep on top of it all!

The last section I'll have to learn to cover is the Urgents section. This section deals with samples that aren't seen in the normal part of the lab such as Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP), Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) and Compliment (Comp/C3/C4) the three easiest to remember to look out for while I'm sorting; The dodgy political party, the person with a lisp, swearing, and the terminal I use to write this blog XD

Urgents is also where you have to do everything other than the sorting for the samples you receive. They even have a tiny centrifuge all of their own!

Bring it!!

Ok so that's all the work stuff dealt with I'll explain why my world is looking up most importantly. I've met a guy...He's called Oliver and he makes me happy. I'm not going to say too much just yet I don't want to jinx anything this early on but he has made it clear that he feels similarly to how I do. I'll update later with any news but for now I'll simply say he's lovely :D

Ok well I' feeling all embarrassed so I'd better shoot off,

Your ever humble blogger,

Alikay

So When You're On The Ward...

Ward Wandering Weirdos Walk Weakly Wayward!

Hello my lovely Wednesdayers!

3 weeks in and the instructor still hadn't noticed the
smell of rotting corpses

So I have literally just got home from my third and, thank God, finally day of incredibly long and useful Mandatory Training!! Three whole days of Health and Safety (also known as "Common Sense"), Non-Patient Manual Handling (also known as "Common Sense"), Equality and Diversity (also known as "Common Sense"), Mental Health Awareness (also known as "Common Sense"), Confidentiality (also known as "Common Sense"), Fire Safety (also known as "Common Sense"), Hand Hygiene (which to be fair was taught well and was a good laugh), and Safeguarding Adults and Children.

That last one, Safeguarding, turned out to be two and a half (none consecutive) hours of horrifying pictures, stories and case files, that left me in need of several hours of therapy. Seriously, the human race can be vile sometimes! 

Dave didn't get the memo that "Comfy" day had been canceled!

I think what made the sessions slightly worse was the fact I am not patient-facing. I exist in a dark, damp lab where no member of the public ever dares to tread. Well, the lab is actually quite pleasant but, I'm so far away from the general public, I can turn up in my most comfy trousers and t-shirt, put my lab coat on and no one at work cares. This did not however prevent all but 2 of the instructors from assuming I was clinical and constantly try to convince me I worked on a ward! This even annoyed two nurses I got to know over the three days, who both worked in A&E, not to mention the 5-10 clerical staff, 4 Biomedical Scientists and 1 member of management who were also on the course.

Not quite what I meant!

I'm glad it's all done and dusted though! Now I only have to top it up in a years time. Getting to Watford was Hell on Earth during rush hour! I spent £25 on a taxi the first day as my bus didn't turn up and was late the second day when it did turn up only to park on the Hemel Hempstead Road for 45 minutes! Let's just say I'm glad I don't have to do that trip every day or I'd quit work and become a hermit! :P

I'm back in the lab tomorrow and raring to go! I don't care how nasty sorting blood can be it will beat 8 hours of mind (and ass) numbing training sessions a day, any day!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Quickly before I go; on the topic of "nasty" and "samples": Last Friday was Halloween (or Samhain) just in case like our hermit friend up there you live under a rock! I was sorting samples as I described last week when I came across the perfect Halloween "Trick or Treat" sample! I opened a sample bag to retrieve the Microbiology form for stamping and out came a urine sample pot full of water and....and I kid you not!....A LIVE INTESTINAL WORM! It started flailing inside the jar and it took all my inner resolve not to throw that thing right across the room! It was HUGE! The size of a medium earthworm and it was literally swimming in the pot. Turns out it's quite rare to get a sample such as this, so it quickly became a hit among the staff. We called him Freddy and bid him a sad farewell when Micro came to pick him up to take him for parasitic analysis!

Buh bye Freddy! Buh bye to you guys too!

Your ever humble (if a little bit creeped out) blogger,

Alikay