Random notes

Did I actually say I probably wouldn't have anything exciting to talk about? No offense to any of my British friends, as I think there are several of you who occasionally have a look at my blog, but as one of the ward doctors said to me today "If you think of America as being kind of first world in medicine, the UK is more third world in medicine." You'll see what I mean in a minute when I write about the acute wards for the elderly.

Wednesday I started at work...I haven't actually done any work as of yet, since my supervisor has been out sick yesterday and today. I've just been shadowing others really and interestingly enough, most of the therapy staff are multinational rather than British...South African, Australian, Indian, etc. The uniforms are awful, I'm still working on sorting out the banking and such...but I've been told I absolutely must take 3 days off before April 1, and then will get 27 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays from April 2006-April 2007. Not bad, eh? On the other hand, I have been somewhat in shock at the state of some of the hospital wards. It's a bit much for a blog entry, but in a nutshell, most of the hospitals are old...Whipps Cross is one hundred years old, with the newest part being 30 years old. The acute wards are as they probably were in Victorian times, with something like 30 men or women all lined up next to each other in one big room, with only curtains on tracks to separate them. So if one of them gets diarrhea, it just goes round the room! It feels a bit middle-agey!

Today I followed along on a home visit for a man who's in hospital...we went to the pub he lives above and met with the pub owners/"landlords"...the pub was okay, i guess, but upstairs oh my god! The stairs were steep with loose boards, not to mention three huge labradors ready to bowl you over. The bathroom has a handle that pulls 3 inches out toward you when you pull on it to open the door, and the floor slopes up, which is just an accident waiting to happen in the middle of the night, or if someone's drunk. The place had stuff everywhere covering every surface, it was a hazard to average healthy people let alone a 78-year-old man!! The landlady told us she'd caught him using a litter pan as his toilet in his one room. It's a very long story, but we basically suspect they dropped him off in A&E (ER) as a way of getting rid of him, because they were essentially illegally boarding him, and now that they're going to get the living quarters above the pub fixed up, they needed him out. And then I was dropped off home, because the two OTs I was with decided there was no sense in my going back to work even though they are not my manager or supervisor!

Anyway, my mobile is now working, so you can reach me on that number as well. I will let you all know when I've chosen a contract phone and at that point the number will probably change...unless, well, I don't know how they port numbers here, so I'll just let you all know what I've done after I've done it.

One more thing-- it's been snowing most of the day here! It changed to rain for a bit, but then right back to snow. Nothing's sticking, but everyone's accusing me of having brought the snow over with me!