jenny sudell wrote:
> What are you all doing for Christmas?
> we are moving on the 18th December to a new job, and I intend to sit
> on a red hot beach, in my new house which is in 50 acres of woodland,
> and watch the sunset while eating barbequed christmas dinner and
> hoping to get a glimpse of a whale if Im not too late in the season.
> Our first post here didnt work out well, too bloody busy, 4900
> patients, a hospital a full pharmacy no pharmacist, single handed and
> covering an area about the size if England with only the flying
> doctors for backup. 24/7 on callno breaks, (Chris got 47 phone calls
> one sunday when he was covering for 5 other docs in the area between
> 8pm and 8am and then had a 40 patient surgery booked in the next day)
> On the plus side i am now a fully qualified xray operator so learnt
> massive amounts while being here.
> Also I ran the pharmacy so know a hell of a lot more about pharmacy
> now too.
> I have been slapped, spat at, sworn at and the latest has been a guy
> who told me he was on his way to the surgery with a gun and he wasnt
> afraid to use it on me!
> What doesnt kill you makes you stronger for sure, including my latest
> bit of fun when I felt a sharp pain on my boob, only to discover a
> redback spider in my bra which bit me and then scuttled off before I
> had a chance to stomp on it. I looked like I had grown a third breast
> and wondered how long it would be swollen, and if there was a bra
> manufacturer that could accommadate my new figure.
> It made me really ill, sytemically I was in a poor way for a few days,
> Arthritis, temp, visual and auditory disturbances, weird. I can see
> how it could be fatal to elderly and youngsters. Made me feel bloody
> rough. Anyway apart from that I have no regrets about leaving the UK,
> although i do miss the rain, of which we get virtually none, and there
> is a pipeline that brings water from Perth to Kalgolrlie hundreds of
> miles, so waterwise is part of life here, no green and pleasant land
> and living in a desert is a real change of lifestyle to living on the
> isle of wight.
> Poppy (my 12 year old) is doing well learning to fly, and will get her
> pilots license as soon as she is old enough.
> cool! So be grateful when your teens pester you to buy them a car,
> mine are pestering me to buy them a plane.Happy Christmas Jen and Chris
Ah, you've answered my question.
Of course, you and Chris could have come to Redcliffe, have a job just
like English GP, no on-call AT ALL, no hospital , no nothing you don't
want to do, take an hour off early as I did today as it was a bit warm
out, and earn almost as much as a full-time locum back in Blighty. I do
as much as I feel like, no responsibility as I work for someone else, do
whatever I feel skilled enough to do [ Friday I remove my first melanoma
- at least I reckon its a MM on dermatoscopy [another new skill] - and
if it is confirmed I'll pass it on to a better colleaugue to do the wide
excision].
Now enjoying a Cabernet Merlot that cost £1.50 [glut in S.Australia at
present] and enjoying the balmy evening, 80 deg F with a lovely sea
breeze. Apols for the attachment but I'm feeling very mellow and
couldn't resist! [View from my unit [aka 'flat] about 50 yards from
surgery.]
--
Cheerio,
Graham
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