Students and their emotional baggage.

Students and their emotional baggage.

group of people wearing face mask
Young students and their emotional baggage (Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com)

I have taught diploma nursing students as well as degree and working nurses. The former group seems to have more unresolved issues than the latter. I got them to write an essay about their family and discovered the amount of emotional baggage some of them carried!

“I hate my lecturer parents! They are so strict! I have to go back home before 10.00 pm, and I can’t stay overnight at my friends’ house!” Some of the classmates agreed. But some explained that her parents were strict because they loved her! Now she is a successful entrepreneur and has teenaged children herself!

“My father used to beat us at home. He died of cancer when we were young. If God can give me my father back, I don’t mind being beaten a thousand times every day!” This girl got the whole class crying, including me! Now she is a nurse manager. She has two young boys.

Quote:

  1. “Emotional baggage is like the dead skin of a snake. If you don’t shed it, how can you grow emotionally?” ― Khang Kijarro Nguyen
  2. “…anger helps us repel forces that are detrimental to our survival and well-being.”- Dalai Lama

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Writing on an almost-deserted Covid-19 morning

Writing on an almost-deserted Covid-19 morning

I hung the clothes at the balcony. My family had reminded me to take my daily dose of vitamin D. But the sun was just rising. And the street lights were still on. So I stood and watched on.

joyful asian woman near rope with painted fabrics
Hanging clothes (Photo by Teona Swift on Pexels.com)

A lonely bus passed by. A lonely masked passenger slept against the window. She probably could not work from home.

I heard an approaching conversation blocked by the top of a tree. It seemed loud on a silent morning. Three men and a woman walked by leisurely as if they owned the whole width of the road! They skewered to the roadside at the sound of oncoming vehicle.

I was distracted by something darting about below. Two squirrels were chasing each other playfully around the pots of plants, while the morning birds criss-crossed up above. A lonely basketball stood at a corner of the garden, untouched for many moons already!

Where are the noisy school buses and the many parent- chauffeured school children? Where are the masked traffic-minders?

And I started to write on my mobile on this Covid-19 morning.

****

Covid-19 continues and the sky is crying.

Covid-19 continues and the sky is crying. (poem- a haiku)

thoughtful androgynous black woman standing near window at rainy day
the sky is crying (Photo by Klaus Nielsen on Pexels.com)

I sit in my room
the sky thunders and rumbles
as rain lashes down.

Covid-19 news
updates global statistics
of fatalities.

The sky is crying
for the sudden departures
of many loved ones.

Covid-19, the garbage truck and the reassuring smell

Covid-19, the garbage truck and the reassuring smell (poem)

*****

It’s the garbage truck

overloading garbage spills

where comes these rubbish!

****

Market and food wastes

Smell of decomposing loads

yet reassuring!

photo of a dump truck across buildings
Decomposing garbage (Photo by Kelly Lacy on Pexels.com)

Humans seem to spew more rubbish than any other living beings on Earth!

Walking past a garbage truck or driving behind one, used to be an annoying experience.

Ironically, with Covid-19 around us, the smell seems tolerable and reassuring!

This is reassuring because loss of smell (anosmia) is one of the symptoms in diagnosing Covid-19!

******

I will give you the moon!

I will give you the moon!

woman holding a moon
I will give you the moon! (Photo by Ruvim on Pexels.com)

Who would go

to the end of earth

to ‘get you the moon’?

Your answer:-

  1. A sweetheart
  2. A spouse
  3. A parent
  4. A child

****

When ‘papa’ toilet-trains a puppy!

When ‘papa’ toilet-trains a puppy!

One day, Tommy excitedly

brought back a little puppy.

He fed him using a milk bottle.

The other siblings were equally excited

squatting around

the puppy’s lined basket.

Puppies (Photo by sergio souza on Pexels.com)

Then…

We heard him running

to the back of the house.

And he sat there,

waiting, waiting…

This went on the next few weeks.

He was toilet training the puppy.

*****

Papa was very annoyed.

“Very noisy, very noisy!

Yelping the whole night!”

Tommy had to close the store room

for the lessen the din.

Very active dog (Photo by Helena Lopes on Pexels.com)

As Max grew bigger.

He was very active.

He would go round and round

and between our legs

as soon as we entered

the gate from work.

” Move, move away,

you are such a nuisance”

Papa was so irritated!

Grown up dog (Photo by Adam Kontor on Pexels.com)

The following fifteen years

saw papa feeding Max

because Tommy often forgot!

Papa would religiously

wash down those poops

at the back of the house, too!

*****

Both Max and incidentally papa

were very well trained indeed!

****

Four years degree course is not effective to provide productive workforce in manufacturing and economic development — Learnography

Four years degree course is not effective to provide productive workforce in manufacturing and economic development — Learnography

Primary school system deals with the development of the motor cortex of human brain known as motor learnography.

Secondary school system is designed to develop the proficiency of object language in the basal ganglia regions of brain known as basal learnography.

High level learning transfer occurs in university knowledge transfer system known as cerebellar learnography.

Students make brainpage in the learning process of classroom, instead of listening to teaching performance.

Please read more in:-

Four years degree course is not effective to provide productive workforce in manufacturing and economic development — Learnography

Private hospital clients: we pay, so don’t make my mother…

Private hospital clients: we pay, so don’t make my mother…

In a private hospital (Photo by Erkan Utu on Pexels.com)

Ten days after

a major ostomy surgery,

Mimi’s mum was in so much pain!

“It’s already four hours.

Can you give her

another injection for pain?”

Mimi’s sister interjected,

“… And remember, we pay,

so don’t make

my mother moves!

Attend to her in bed!”

****

Ms Chen happened to do student

assessments in that hospital.

The nurses complained to her because

they knew this patient had a stoma

which is Ms Chen’s field.

****

Ms Chen found her abdomen

was so distended,

the skin was pulling

on the main suture line.

No wonder she was

in so much pain!

****

Gently coaxing her,

Ms Chen wound up her bed halfway,

“ouch, ouch, ouch..”

and…

” bloop, bloop, bloop!”

Her stoma bag became full

with flatus!

We had to open the bag cover

to release the gas.

Ms Chen continued to wind up

the bed upright.

And more flatus came out

into her stoma bag

which was emptied another two times.

“Ah…I feel so much better now!”

She was relieved

as her abdomen was softer then.

****

Later we got her to sit out of bed.

I heard she didn’t need

the four hourly injection, thereafter.

She understood the importance

of ambulating after that painful episode!

*****

When I was attached to an Australian hospital, an obese woman with similar abdominal surgery was wheeled into the bathroom for a refreshing shower on the third day post operation! A plastic sheet was taped to cover her wounds and stoma. ( Our Asian clients here will need some persuading to get out of bed for a shower in a bathroom!)

Nurses (especially in private hospitals) need to be firm when necessary, in caring for their clients to prevent complications. After an abdominal surgery, even the guts get lazy!

Peristalsis of the guts help to expel gas from the large intestines. Otherwise the abdomen gets bloated. It can be very painful when the skin pulls on an abdominal wound.

*****

God is fair: He gives some, He takes some

God is fair: He gives some, He takes some.

hands people woman girl
God is fair: He gives some, He takes some. (Photo by Public Domain Pictures on Pexels.com)

That was Mary’s answer as to why she runs an orphanage. It was a second Christian home that Anna had stepped into.

“I looked after His lost lambs here. Some lost their parents. And some are here during the day only. Their single parents need to work.”

“When I am not around one day, I know that God will have someone to help my older son. He has to look after his younger and mentally- challenged brother,” Mary explained. “I have one bright and successful son and a differently-abled son.“

“So you see? God is fair,” (nodding her head absent-mindedly into the air), “He gives some, and he takes some!”

*************************************

On the contrary;

“Life is not fair; get used to it.” –Bill Gates

“Who says life is fair, where is that written?”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

*********************************************************

Tuhan itu adil: Dia memberi sebahagian dan Dia mengambil sebahagian.

Itu adalah jawapan Mary, mengapa dia menguruskan rumah anak yatim. Itu adalah rumah kristiani kedua yang Anna masuki. “Saya menjaga anak-anak -Nya di sini. Ada yang kehilangan ibu bapa mereka. Dan ada berada di sini hanya pada waktu siang kerana ibu bapa tunggal mereka perlu bekerja. Apabila saya tidak berada pada suatu hari, Saya tahu bahawa Tuhan akan mengaturkan seseorang untuk menolong anak saya yang lebih tua menjaga adiknya yang terencak akal, ”jelas Mary. “Saya mempunyai seorang anak lelaki yang cemerlang dan berjaya, dan anak lelaki yang berbeza keupayaannya. Jadi anda lihat? Tuhan itu adil, (menganggukkan kepalanya). Dia memberikan beberapa, dan dia mengambil beberapa! “

Sebaliknya;

“Hidup ini tidak adil; membiasakan diri.” – Bill Gates

“Siapa bilang hidup itu adil, di mana itu ditulis?” – William Goldman, Pengantin Puteri

********************************************

上帝是公平的：他奉献一些，拿走一些。

这就是玛丽为什么要经营孤儿院的答案。 这是安娜进入的第二个基督教家庭。 “我在这里照顾他失落的羔羊。 一些人失去了父母。 有些只在白天 因为他们的单亲父母需要工作。  我知道上帝会有一个人  帮助我的大儿子照顾  他的弟弟和精神上受到挑战的兄弟。”玛丽解释道。    “我有一个聪明而成功的儿子，和一个异类的儿子。 所以你看？上帝是公平的， （不专心地向空中点头）。 他给了一些，他给了一些！”

反之;

“生活不公平；要适应它。” -比尔盖茨

“谁说生活是公平的，那是写在哪里的？”
―威廉·高德曼（William Goldman），《公主新娘》

Denture Hazards and Estate Quack Dentists

Denture Hazards and Estate Quack Dentists ( a poem)

Estate quack dentists and loose denture – drawn by author

In road accidents

sweep mouth for foreign bodies

loose dentures’ hazards

Many years ago, it was night duty. One could hear this high-pitched noise before entering the ward. Sounded like stridor.

This estate worker had a motor vehicle accident. An emergency burr hole operation was done for her head injury. The next three days after removing the endotracheal tube, her breathing was so loud, piercing the usually quiet environment in that ward. Her daily chest X-rays and blood gases were normal. She was fed through a nasogastric tube.

As stridor could denote a blockage near the voice box. Nurse Anna went through all the skull x-rays. There was a very thin white line at the throat level in a few old skull X-rays (see skull picture above) that were done before the operation.

The doctor came in the middle of the night and removed a loosened ill-fitting denture!

I don’t know if there are still such estate quack dentists around. But in an accident, that is one of the reasons why one needs to sweep the victim’s mouth for foreign bodies before inserting an airway device!