I want to write profound thoughts about life and death in the NICU, somehow convey how sad and also happy it is, how loud and also quiet. But I can't, and frankly am too tired to try.
So instead you are all the proud winners of a ( meme )

I am officially returning to my beloved homeland later this month. My ticket is purchased (thanks mum and dad), and my metaphysical bags are packed. Although I'm somewhat fond of Boston, it just doesn't compare to Montreal. Sometimes at work, I mentally plan my apres-hospital day and I catch myself envisioning wandering around the Westmount ( Read more... )

What possessed me to post? I've no idea. I have completely lost the ability to think creatively, or to string two words together without having to resort to "um ( Read more... )

Is it wrong that I want to adopt various children I come across in the hospital? Not regular children, with regular parents, but the ones who actually *need* adopting ( Read more... )

After having looked over my last entries, I've realized that it's been a *shockingly* long time since I updated. Life has been speeding along, days all blurring into nights, one long sleepless stretch. I finally finished my NICU month - and with a bang ( Read more... )

The NICU is a whole culture unto itself. As you walk into the unit, you wouldn't think that eighty tiny babies are tucked away in incubators. Most overwhelming is the incessant beeping and noise, and it takes a little while for your ear to pick out the weak cries of babies swaddled up in incubators. The littlest ones, those who weigh under a ( Read more... )

I think I literally spend most of my hours at the hospital, dividing my time between the three general pediatrics floors. The 4th floor is for infants, the 5th for toddlers and school-age kids, and the 6th for adolescents. My nights on call (which are every fourth night) are spent prioritizing my sick patients. Should I interrupt admitting this ( Read more... )

Forgive me, gentle readers, for being so remiss in my entries. Unfortunately, my life has been of late dominated by puke, cancer, puke, meningitis, puke, complex congenital heart disease, puke, valium ingestions (found in mum's purse, thought they were tic-tacs...oops!), puke, rheumatoid arthritis, puke, pneumonia, and what was the last one? Oh, ( Read more... )

I don't know why I was so tickled pink over this quiz (snaffled from moireach). It tweaked me funny bones.


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These evenings when I struggle to leave the Emergency Room and go home, I feel like I'm trying to swim to the surface of a lake with pockets full of stones. I get dragged back down by prescriptions needing to be triple-checked, suturing, questions, fluid orders. Some days I love this. Healing the sick, stitching up wounds and dispensing advice ( Read more... )