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Tomorrow is my last day at the Children’s Hospital. The kids were pretty fun in general but I don’t know if I could ever work there. It is so incredibly sad and depressing seeing the sick kids. Cute kids with bathing suit tans but crappy organs or Stage 4 cancer, kids with horrible infections. It just sucks. Children should not be allowed to get that sick. I got all tear-y eyed if I looked at them too long.

Dad says that maybe working there would be the most rewarding, but I dunno. I dunno if I could/want to handle sick kids every single day.

Anyway.

Scott and I got to have dinner with a friend from Ottawa and her son the other night. (Hi Jane!) She was in town visiting her family and emailed me out of the blue inviting us out for dinner. We had a tasty dinner at Trilussa on Main Street. We ordered a whole bunch of the pizzas and shared them all. The best part was the strawberry and nutella dessert pizza. Mmmm.

So looking forward to this long weekend. I’ve got VGH work drinks tomorrow, I’m visiting one of my classmates at her family house on the Sunshine Coast, and then Scott and I are renting a car and going shopping in the US as well the day before school starts! Fun times ahead!!

Oh lastly, here are my Children’s Hospital inspired nails. I haven’t been painting my nails lately because of work and my weird hand skin problem, but the latter is getting a little better now and I figured this rotation was my chance to wear a little colour on my nails for once. Excuse the wear and tear, I have to wash my hands a lot, and I did this manicure last Sunday!!

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We finally found out our fall and spring hospital placements. I got what I wanted (St. Paul’s Hospital for fall, and Surrey Hospital for spring) so I am pleased. I will be the only student at both of those hospitals, which is OK I guess?…. more attention for me at least.

I am not looking forward to this upcoming school year though. We have 33 hours of class a week this fall!! OMG. And while I will get to see the other half of the class every Friday in the fall semester, we won’t see the other group AT ALL in the longer winter semester and that bums me out a lot. :(((((((

I think that entire last paragraph is why I’ve been having terrible insomnia for the last week or so. :(

ALSO! I finished my time at VGH (did I say that already?). My last performance evaluation was pretty good so I guess it went well there. I hope they remember me next fall when I’ll be looking for a job!!

Now I will spend the next two weeks at the Children’s Hospital and that is going to be intense/interesting. I have no clue how I am going to do with the children. And the parents. At least I will not be expected to do any injections. Whew!

Last thing, Joe Fresh school supplies are sooooo cheap!!! Packs of paper for 17 cents? Cool looking spiral bound notebooks for 15 cents? 6 highlighters for 50 cents? WHAT IS HAPPENING! I bought all my back to school stuff for like $3 at Superstore. SWEET.

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First day of August = time to review my progress on my summer goals again.

  1. Finally paint the cheapo wooden drawers we got from IKEA.
  2. Make delicious popsicles in my new popsicle mold. once (strawberry lemonade). twice (strawberry frozen yogurt).
  3. Go swimming in the ocean for the first time in Vancouver. done!
  4. Ride the rides at the PNE.
  5. Watch fireworks. done.
  6. Finish my Settlers paintings.
  7. Sell a pair of shoes or a shirt or a painting.
  8. Go to one of the night markets in Richmond. done. twice, actually!
  9. Regularly visit the farmers market on Saturday mornings. once. twice. does that count as ‘regularly’? not sure.
  10. Read some books while I actually have the time. Insurgent (Veronica Roth), Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson), currently reading The Art of Fielding: A Novel (Chad Harbach). I <3 you Kindle.
  11. Make a nicer looking menu planning board. done!
  12. Find a new person to play board games with.
  13. Try a new fruit.
  14. Do a successful venipuncture on a real patient. I’ve done about 60 now.
  15. Make a new blog header.
  16. Take more pictures. definitely failing at this so far.

Getting there!

I’m totally looking forward to this upcoming long weekend, and 9 AM start time at work for the next two weeks. Two more days of early mornings and busy days giving injections.

We’ve been asked for our top three choices for hospital placements for the fall and winter terms (we alternate two weeks at the hospital and two weeks of classes for all of second year). So many factors to consider… commuting, convenience, hours, friends, educational experience, potential jobs, etc etc. I’ll let you know when I finalize my choices.

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I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday. I can’t believe it’s already nearly the end of July. The days and weeks are just slipping by me!! Another month-ish and I’m back at school???!!?!?!

Work is pretty tiring every day because everything is new and I have to be alert ALL THE TIME. By the time things start to feel a little routine it’s time to start a new rotation!

Hot lab rotation has been pretty fun so far. I’ve done about 20 injections in the past three days. :D I saw the images from one patient I definitely remember injecting and it was perfecto – no hot spots in the elbow from a bad injection. WOOT. I don’t get to see all of the images so I’m not totally sure how I’m doing though. I’ve had a couple failures for sure, but I’m getting better I think.

Yesterday I cooked lamb shoulder in the slow cooker. I chopped everything up for it the night before, then Scott dumped it in and set it for 8 hours before he left for work yesterday morning. When I came home in the afternoon the ENTIRE APARTMENT BUILDING smelled like lamb. Not just OUR apartment, I mean the hallways, the lobby, etc. HA.

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Thanks to our friend Stew, we got to go to the Florence + the Machine concert last night for free. :D We are lucky to have nice friends with connections. The show was in Deer Lake Park in Burnaby. Lucky it didn’t rain.

The show was pretty good! She was running and prancing and jumping back and forth all over the stage. Also she sings really HARD, she must have muscular vocal cords.

I finished my fourth rotation at the hospital (two more to go). By the second week of it I was doing a lot of the work by myself. It was just the same thing over and over again so it wasn’t as challenging. Next rotation I’m on the hot lab shift and I already know it’s going to be intense. Lots of new things and lots of injections. O_O Scared.

We bought a popcorn maker for $10 and a hand mixer for $7 from Superstore today! How is it so cheap???! Hopefully they don’t start any fires. I am excited to make popcorn at home. Now I just have to figure a way to get a little salt to stick on without using a lot of butter. Any ideas? Is coconut oil popcorn a thing? (I mean using coconut oil as a topping, not to pop the corn… it’s an air popper.)