Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Alcoholic and helicopter

I really don't want to disturb my circadian rhythm, but it is unavoidable because of the nature of job. Last night was my first night. Most patients were elderly people brought in by ambulance. Nothing exciting. Seeing them, doing initial investigations and making management plan are our routine during on-call hours.

I started working with the annoying person who was with the history of alcohol excess. He has been on detox regimen. But still wandering around the ward. I gave him two more tablets to calm down. A rather high dose of medcaion did not touch him. He absconded. In view of the fact that he still confused and no capacity to decide to go home himself, we needed to inform the police.

We heard helicopter noise 15 min later flying over the hospital. Soon after that, patient was brought back by two police officers. Apparently, the police helicopter spotted him at town (town center) about 1.5 miles away from the hospital. Police claimed they had to spend tax payer's one year contribution because of him.

While staffs dealing with that alcoholic, someone has been passing massive amount of blood from the back passage. He needed urgent transfusion. Surgical team reviewed. Later stable.

In the early hours of morning, some one got an acute shortness of breath. He was a known blood cancer patient with some fluid in the lung. I was dealing with him. At the same time, it was reported that the 94 year old woman got a bout of vomiting. I asked someone to see that frail lady as I was busy with above man. Unfortunately, the arrest call went on 5 minutes later. Someone from other ward got heart arrest. We all had to go down. He agreed to give up him after several cycles of resuscitation. When I came back, I was informed by my junior, the old lady already die. Family informed. Probably the cause of death would be aspirtion after vomiting.

The same as usual. No 30 minute proper break time in 12.30 working hours.

Friday, February 05, 2010

Heat free supper




This evening, I felt a bit bored and I did not want to cook or warm up any food. So I just tried this. Very easy. Preparation time was only 2 minutes.

Recipe? Very simple. Readily sliced Chorizo was placed on the plate first. Chorizo is fermented Spanish pork sausage. Fresh Chorizo needs to be cooked. But we normally eat fermented one without cooking as Europeans do.

Then, I grated mature organic English cheddar cheese. In a separate bowl, cheddar, 4 or 5 slices of Prosciutto and some wild Rocket leaves were mixed with 2 spoons of virgin olive oil. I stirred all together briefly. Then, it was put above the slides of fermented Spanish sausage on the plate.

That's it! No electricity, no gas required to cook. Prosciutto is my favourite. It needs no cooking or frying (just info for orientals) . It is thinly cut ham from Italy, air cursed with salt for a minimum of 12 months. Nice.

Again, Spanish pork sausage, Chorizo is already fermented. If you fry, it will lost its original taste and nice smell. In fact, it looks like Salami, an Italian sausage, which can be stored at room temperature up to 10 years.

Scientists claimed that deep fried foods, such as traditional bacon and sausages, could cause cancer. But I have not read the research papers about the outcome after eating uncooked foods. Maybe I will come across such report at one point. At least I would say heat free foods are more or less environmental friendly. It is green. Green foods!!!

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Unplanned holiday, jokes and Inglorious Basterds

It is unplanned holiday. It just happens. That means no flight and hotel booking. I feel staying at home quietly is sometime the best holiday option after working non-stop, seeing sick people and dealing with anxious family members.

I popped in to local Waterstone book store, where I picked up some books and DVDs.



This is from the book I took to intend to read at bed time. More than half of the jokes from the book, compiled by Ivor Baddiel and Ian Stone, made me laugh. The title is “The best pub joke book”.

A surgeon came to see his patient on the morning after her operation. The young woman asked him, somewhat hesitantly, how long it would be before she could resume her sex life.

"I really haven’t thought about it", gulped the stunned surgeon, “You’re the first patient who’s asked me that question after a tonsillectomy!

This is about a lawyer.

I man calls his lawyer and asked: “How much would you charge me to answer three questions”
“£400”, the lawyer replies.
“Jesus”, says the man, “that’s a lot of money, isn’t it?”
“I guess so” replies the lawyer, “What’s your third questions?”

Here is husband and wife.

A man rushes in to his house and yells to his wife, “Debbie, pack your things, darling. I just won the lottery!”

“Shall I pack for warm weather or cold?” asks Debbie.
“I don’t care,” the man responds. “Just so long as you’re out of the house by noon!”


Another husband and wife.

John’s wife was not so good with money and , determined to economise, he’d decided to have a chat with her about it. The following days he met up with his mate.
“So” asked his mate, “do you think your little chat worked?”
“Yes, I think so” said John. “I’m going to give up beer and fag.”


The ultimate book of rude and politically incorrect jokes” is a top-listed when we browsed joke books in online stores. This is something adult jokes.

An old couple went into the chemist’s and the old man asked for a packet of condoms. “We’re having a dirty weekend,” he said.
The chemist said “But you’re both pensioners aren’t you?
He explained that a woman over 60 could not become pregnant.
“It’s not that", said the old man. “She just loves the smell of burning rubber”

Last night, I watched Inglorious Basterds which is one of the Oscar nominees. Brad Pitt was talking in a funny accent. Christoph Waltz appeared as sick Nazi colonel. It can be said that the film is an outstanding performance of Vienna born actor, whose action dominated the American A class star as a whole. At the end of the film, it seemed to me that it was a sort of comedy.

Someone recommended that it was worth watching it. It was Avatar. The News paper claimed that Avatar sinks Titanic record. I noticed that the director was James Cameron who was the director of Titanic, Aliens, Rambo and Terminator series. Perhaps, I will watch it before going back to work.

Update: 18:34hrs (4th Feb 2010)
I did check what's wrong with people to spell "Basterd" , in stead of Bastard. The Urban Dictionary describes the meaning of Baterd. A couple of interesting meanings are as follow.

Basterd
1. A clever misspelling of the word BASTARD used to ensure your movie title stands out when Googled.

1. When someone is too stupid to spell bastard, basterd is often the result.

:)

More on Urban Dictionary here