LE SICKO.

cough cough sneeze sniffle cough sniffle ugh...I need to work on building up my immune system. I'm taking a sick morning to sit around my apt and drink OJ and Green/Pomegranate Tea. But I do plan on dragging myself to class @ 1:00 in an attempt to get permission to stay home from clinical tomorrow. Or since I sit in the front row I may just let the sneezing/sniffling speak for itself and call in the morning...my pt is already worried about germs as it is!

I'm also waiting for my 2 referencees to email me with my ref letters which are due tomorrow morning. Seriously people you've had a month to write it!

I hope i don't get rained on when i take the big trek downtown.

Ugh.

MONSTER HOSPITAL...CAN YOU PLEASE RELEASE ME

The next 6 weeks I am doing clinical at the Mental Hospital (addictions and mental health). My first week was very interesting to say the least. One pt told me he like my hair...

Oh. Thank you.
yeaaa, it's purple like mine, but mine is from a hit of acid. yeaaa.

Another pt keeps paper balled up in her ears, wears safety glasses and walks really fast so that the pollution molecules cannot get into her bloodstream. She was brought in by the police because of an excessive amount of garbage in her apt, but is extremely worried about bacteria and will not sit on a chair before covering it. She also doesn't think she needs to be at the hospital.

Many of the pts are very young and are even registered students at the University (obviously taking some time off...) While the days can be quite long since I don't have actual nursing 'skills' (i.e. vitals, baths etc) that needs to be done, interacting with these pts really makes you think. What exactly is normal? Who are we to decide that these people are not normal and lock them up with no privileges? I've taken psychology and i'm in mental health nursing now, so I understand a little bit about the brain and diagnoses and all that, but I still find myself thinking about it from the pt's perspective ...feeling locked up against their will...(however many of the pts are there voluntarily...)
Really I think i'm just scared someone might hear me talking to myself on the street and call the cops and i'll find myself slapped with a Form 1 wondering if I'll ever be able to go outside again...

Bam-chick-a-bam, chick-a-boom-boom-boom
Sha-lang-sha-lang-boom, sha-lang-sha-long-boom