The title is fairly self-explanatory really. I’ve just finished what I hope to be my last ever night shift in the Emergency Department. Let me tell you, it’s a great feeling! Never again will I have to see countless drunk or drugged up violent people in the small hours of the morning with a multitude of problems from self-harm to assaults. No my friends, I am off to the wonderful world of ENT (and then, hopefully, surgery) where I’m hoping for a slightly higher class of clientele!
A small part of me will miss working overnight in the ED though. You get a lot more autonomy and a better chance to chat to your colleagues as (normally) the department is a little quieter.
I can’t really complain about the last set of nights that finished this morning though – they were actually fairly painless. Of course I was cast to the B-side but I didn’t mind – I got to do a fair bit of suturing, which I enjoy. I even sutured a chap’s face back together (I think I did a reasonable job although he’s probably going to end up with a Harry Potter-esque scar.
I have had a reasonably productive day so far. I got back home just before 09:00, had some breakfast, showered and then grabbed two hours of sleep. I had to get up to let the shipping guys collect all of our possessions that are being sea-freighted back to the UK (seven boxes in total). It’s costing Fi and I just over AUD $2000 (roughly £900) to ship stuff back and insure it (it’s insured for AUD$ 19,000) which is expensive but there’s no real way to get around it. It will take 8-12 weeks for the stuff to arrive back in the UK. That gives us a good chance to settle in somewhere back home.
I went back to bed for an hour-and-a-half and then forced myself to get up. I strolled into Glenelg for a coffee and a Subway before heading to the dentist (via the Salvos to drop off some things for charity). I cracked a tooth a few years ago that was filled but the filling has worked itself loose and was causing me a bit of pain every now and then and a sharp bit of tooth was catching my tongue. I decided to bite the bullet (no pun intended) and get it sorted before we went back home (since I’ve got a couple of days off now). The whole experience wasn’t too bad to be honest. I had a check-up, a clean and a polish, an X-Ray and a new filling and it cost me AUD $360. Not that unreasonable I suppose (damn I should have been a dentist!). The dentist was rather pleasant really – she seemed quite interested in how we manage tooth problems in the ED (I essentially told her that we send them in their direction!). She used some rapid-acting topical anaesthetic before injecting the local so I barely felt a thing. My left cheek and half of my tongue and lower lip are still numb (I’ve been out of the dentist’s for over an hour-and-a-half so far) and I’m hoping it’ll wear off soon. Rather disturbingly, she told me that the hole in my tooth was so deep that I may end up needing root canal surgery back in the UK and there’s a (small) chance of getting an infection in the tooth following this filling. I wish she had told me that before she started! She gave me a script for some Amoxicillin to take if it starts getting sore but I may just take it anyway – the last thing I want on a long-haul flight is an infected tooth. Apparently, my tooth should be good to use as normal once the anaesthetic wears off but that I should expect it to be a little sensitive for a day or two. Hopefully it won’t be too painful…
We’ve also sold our car. Unfortunately, it didn’t make anywhere near what we wanted it to at the auction. It sold for AUD $6100 which means that Fi and I would take AUD $5500 (as the auction house keeps 10%). We were hoping to take at least AUD $7500 but given that we have to sell it by next week we’ve decided to cut our losses and take the money. We’re pretty peeved though as we paid AUD $12500 only 15 months ago! I really don’t have much luck with cars…
Speaking of cars, Jess (one of the nurses at work who I’ve been working nights with) has agreed to lend Fi and I her car from tomorrow until we leave, free of charge. It’s a 2004 Mitsubishi Mirage. She just brought a new car and isn’t planning on selling the Mirage (I think she’s going to give it to her sister in a few months). I must buy her a nice bottle of wine or something to thank her.
I’m just waiting for Fi to get home from work. She should be back in an hour or so. We’re thinking of eating out tonight – perhaps at Zucca. Hopefully the anaesthetic will wear off soon…