Hello All, I haven't written in my journal for a few days so I thought I would fill you in into what's been going on. Last time I wrote to you was Saturday. Sunday, we went to watch a rugby match between the Wellington Lions play Tasman. We went to the WestPac stadium which is build on reclaimed land several mile out of the town centre. We met a season ticket holder in the queue who sold us 3 $50 tickets for $10 each and in a much better location than the $20 ones we were looking at! The stadium was huge and it wasn't a great turnout but it was kids day there so it was all in good spirit, a 6ft lion called Leo, kids having their faces painted, the under 7's match between the 2 opposing teams!! They also had a competition where they selected a few people to kick a ball through a cut out lion's mouth, probably double the size of a ball and the prize was a years supply of beer or 520 bottles! No one won though, shame! It was a gorgeous clear day but it was absolutely freezing, I could've done with a woolly hat! So with a couple of beers and fries in hand we watched a really good game. Wellington were the better team throughout which is hardly surprising when Tasman comprises of the North Western tip of the South Island and the majority of the area it covers is the Abel Tasman National Park, not a huge population. There were a couple of players from the Wellington side that I'd seen before and after a bit of internet research I discovered that they had played or were playing for the All Blacks. One of them had played for nearly 10 years and was the captain in 2004/05, so I was pleased that for my first proper game of rugby I was watching some class. After the match we went to the pub in town and I had a roast which warmed me up. Monday saw the start of a new week in the ED. It was very busy and quite a few of the doctors were on exam leave so they were quite understaffed which was good because it meant that I was involved a lot. I had some interesting cases again, abdominal pain in a woman in her 12th week of pregnancy, a man with a red eye, a hypoglycaemic coma, a flare up of ulcerative colitis in a young girl and an old chap presenting with falls due atrial fibrillation. So quite a varied day, it was certainly hectic which explained why I hadn't eaten or drank anything for 6 straight hours!! That gave me a headache I can tell you. Tuesday, I was allowed to go sightseeing again and so I went off to look at the Parliament buildings including the beehive and the old and new cathedrals. The cathedral by New Zealand's standards was old, being built in 1866 in an English Gothic style, made of New Zealand timber throughout. It was a very beautiful building with stained glass windows brought over from the UK and a lovely beamed ceiling. It was going to be knocked down in the 90's because there was no such thing as heritage buildings so the government bought and now it is just used for Weddings and Baptisms. Following this cultural experience I was a little peckish and I fancied seafood......so yep, mussels it was (again!!). These were green lipped mussels native to NZ and were huge, I had them with chilli, garlic and coriander, they were amazing. I thoroughly recommend! Another unique food experience of the day was a little hot chocolate shop I found which hand makes chocolates and was meant to do great hot chocolate, so I thought I would have a break from cappuccino and give it a go. In this shop they have soft chocolate which they make on site that are different flavours and with consistency like butter it is scooped and put at the bottom of your cup. The flavours ranged from orange and lavender to chilli. I tried a chilli one which with the chocolate sitting at the bottom they pour either hot frothy milk, or coffee to make mocha, over the chocolate. They then give you a Stroon (half straw, half spoon!) to slurp up the yumminess and any lumps of chocolate that can't be slurped can be scooped up!! Genius! As you can tell I thought this place was incredible, what a find! That night we went to one of the backpackers hostels where Rik had bumped into a girl on our course (Nicky Sui) earlier that day who was just passing through on a bus tour, so we went to meet up with her. Today (Wednesday), I woke up feeling tired and wanting to ring my mum because it was her birthday, but couldn't because it wasn't her birthday yet where she was, weird!! I went in to work and the morning was quiet, the patients weren't outnumbering the doctors for once....until the afternoon! I shouldn't be surprised that it's never quiet, the GP's are private over here and each consultation has to be paid for so many just come to the ED. Again I had some more interesting cases, an elderly lady with Respiratory distress caused by pneumonia, a young boy with a pneumothorax, a teenager who fell and injured his shoulder and had a seizure, a lady with hip pain and a history of bilateral hip replacements and a chap with perforated ear drum. Very varied, that's why I love the ED, you just never know what will walk in. I like the uncertainty and although many people have said in the past that I may be curious as to what happened to the patient, on the whole I'm not, I am just happy that I have done my bit for them, am I wrong to think in this way? Of course getting to know your patients is great and following them through is satisfying but with emergency medicine it is your job to stabilise them and then make sure that they go to the right place to be followed up correctly, I think that this is just as much of a privilege, if not more. Other interesting things that I saw today were..... Our hostel flooding when the outflow pipe started spilling out huge volumes of water down from the roof on to the road, this was ok until it started to come through our ceiling in our lounge and corridor at a phenomenal rate! It's so luxurious here!! Also one of my patients had a blessing read to her by 2 young guys wearing identical suits and rucksacks, who I later found out were Mormons. What an interesting religion, I am intrigued as to how you get the status to read blessings to the ill when you are so young. You see a lot of things like this in the ED, you are seeing people at very vulnerable times and it is interesting how different people respond to how you think they might. Well on that note, I think I have gone on too long again! Thank you for reading this far if I still have your attention! :P Thank you to those that have sent me emails and messages, I look forward to checking my journal because it makes me feel very loved! Take Care, Nina x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x