What's In a Name?

This week (and of course by week I mean weekend) at the hospital I have had a patient who knows my name. I introduced myself when I was first assigned to him on Friday and he told me that his mother had my name (which makes it a lot easier to remember). So really, I guess not all that remarkable. But then, he uses my name. He calls me by my name. He introduced me to his wife and daughter by my name and now they call me by my name. Today they said "Hi Katie, how are you today?"

It's made me realize that we (or at least I) don't name people a lot. In most of my e-mails and text messages I say "Hey" or "Hello" and then blast off into whatever the message is going to say. On the unit it's "8 bed 1 wants a pain killer, 14 needs to go to the bathroom, 32 needs to be turned" Which I understand because it's the best way to keep everything straight...trying to remember where 19 patients are (when they can change daily) is hard, but I tend to try to say "Mrs. X in 8-1 wants a pain killer, Mr. V in 14 needs to go to the bathroom, etc"

Because it's great to be named. I think it's fantastic that Mr. H calls me Katie, says "good morning Katie" and introduces me to his visitors.

It's interesting.
And I'm going to try to use peoples names more often. So that maybe they'll feel special too. Or maybe it's just me...and I'm crazy.

from the hospital

It's my 2nd of 3 night shifts and tonight i'm on first break which means i'm on break from 0130 to 0300. So I decided I had better update since Katie does read this.

For starters: if you find yourself wondering when you can watch a nice old shoot-em-up movie I can tell you that CBC has them on like right now.

My schooling is apparently picking up speed. I've passed my midterm evaluation and am aiming for December 11th as my last shift as a student (and for the record Sunday night is going to be the LAST night shift I work without being paid!) And once the school is done I guess I have to start real life...and what better place to start real life than Winnipeg? (ok, so there are probably way more exciting, exotic, or warmer places...but I think Winnipeg is a good place to start for me). I just have to update my resume and actually send it. I keep procrastinating. Shame on me.

Hospitals are very quiet at night. And dark.

I've recently become very addicted to Prison Break. My roommate Kyle and I watched all of Season 1 in less than a week and then the moment we finished it he went and got the 2nd season from our neighbours. But he took the 2nd disc with him to Vermillion for the weekend. Not impressed (although I didn't even realize he had taken it until he told me in a text message today...but I feel that I ought to be unimpressed on principle). It's a good story. Dthat's pretty easy to get caught in. And it helps that Michael is really really good looking. And an engineer. And you know what they say about nurses and engineers (ok so I don't actually know what they say about nurses and engineers so if you do...please enlighten me!)

So instead of noticing that disc 2 was missing I watched Penelope. It was a cute movie and I liked the story but by far the best part (and the only person I know who would actually appreciate this little story is Aaron and i'm not sure if he reads this...) was at the end of the movie when he just realizes it's her and the background music starts to play. Like 3 notes in i'm standing up on the couch yelling "It's Hoppipola!!" Great song.

I feel so random and disconnected tonight. And while my phone is great because I get to sit in the lounge chair with a warm blanket (probably the best part about being in the hospital...I'm telling you! If you ever have to be in the hospital ask for a warm blanket every chance you can, you'll regret it otherwise)but my phone screen doesn't really give me an accurate impression of just how much I am making you read. So I think I shall just end here for now and start updating more frequently.

0400

In a desperate bid to stay awake on her break Katie Swan tried to update her blog but quickly realized she had nothing to say and succumb to the incredible weight of her eyelids.