Festive Period

To everyone who reads my blog, I just want to say have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I hope 2005 brings you all your wishes and is filled with happiness.

Take a moment to think about the less fortunate of us who have to work over Christmas / New Year!

Have a good one whatever you are doing.

Exams

Well I survived the terrors of the Assessment, yes for those of you who understand the stresses of this type of assessment, then you will sympathise with me when I say that I have just finished a 3 hour written assessment after a previous on the road assessment this week with my Training Officer. All I can say is YEAH!!!!!!!!! I PASSED, I PASSED, I PASSED :)

Christmas Shopping

Why is it that when you have a day off and you think to yourself "Oh I will go and do some shopping for prezzies whilst it is still quiet" you get to the shops and everyone else in the world has the same idea. You stand for ages trying to get to the counters to pay for the goods, stand in line waiting to find the items you are going to purchase only to be pushed, pulled and shoved all over the place by some mad woman with a SCREAMING child clinging to her!!!! Then when you think you have successfully got what you need and get to the tills to pay, the pre-pubecent teenage chewing gum machine behind the till is too busy talking to her colleague to take notice of the fact that if she does not remove her finger from her a** and do some work the queue that is forming will probably cause a crush within the tiny area in front of the counter which is surrounded by items stacked so high you cannot actually reach anything on top to buy it without causing yourself some injury. OH I hate Christmas shopping!!!! Don't get me wrong I like shopping, I like looking at things and thinking yeah that would be nice for ..... but not when the whole bloody world has gone MAD and no one actually wants to serve you in the shop!!!!!!

Anyway I am now fully de-stressed at the minute, just finished wrapping some of the items I actually did manage to purchase today, but now studying for a 2 1/2hrs written exam tomorrow before I start my night shift. Oh god how I have a great life!

p.s. if my boyfriend is reading this, your prezzies are hidden at my folks... :P

Death

I know that it is still a taboo subject in some peoples eyes, I have recently experienced my first "Cot Death". It was a strange surreal experience, which, not withstanding the emotional aspects left me thinking about what had happened. I have spoken with some of my colleagues about the incident and when I got back to my boyfriend's flat I could not speak fully to him about it, even although I am sure he would have understood. The call was a typical call to start with, however, we were updated by the EMDC (Control) that it was a cardiac arrest of an infant, with CPR on going. It was then that it started to hit us, we were going to a baby (not long into this world) who had died. When we arrived on scene we went into auto-pilot and did what we had to do, we then transported the baby to the hospital and it was then that it started to hit us fully, seeing this baby, who looked so peaceful and doll like, lying on an adult resuscitation room bed, with the full resus team working in him. My partner left to complete her paperwork and I stayed in the room, willing the baby to start breathing, there was a moment when the team thought they had a pulse, but this was due to the CPR ongoing. After I went back to the vehicle and started to clear up with my colleague it finally hit us both, full on like a train traveling at 100mph striking us clean on in the face. We both cried, my colleague probably more than me as she has a young baby boy. We eventually cleared at the hospital and were returned to the station, where we sat and spoke about the incident with our other colleagues who were on the station. I felt so sorry for the parents, to have lost a child must be the worst thing that could ever happen. I hope I never find out how that feels.