I had a little glitch with my last blog.
It refused to show up in my list of published blogs and subsequently didn’t post to FB and Twitter. Very frustrating.
I’m hoping I’ve just found out what my little glitch was so I am posting it again as a test so remember, this was originally written on Tuesday morning.

So, my bruised tailbone has not been as big of an issue as I thought it would be.
It’s still difficult to pick things up and climb the stairs and sitting for too long gets a little uncomfortable but I have managed to get through a placement shift this week and a study day yesterday.
Friday will be a test as it’s a full 12.5 hour shift. I must remember to take pain killers with me and not over do things, but if this is as bad a it’s going to get until it’s healed up, then I can live with it.

Anyway, the study day yesterday was very interesting. Wound assessment and management. Learning the difference between moisture and pressure lesions and categorising pressure lesions.
Lots of lovely (pretty grizzly) pictures to show the differences. YUM!
Anyway, I can now ‘hopefully’ identify and categorise lesions and know how to use the hospital formulary to identify and get hold of appropriate dressings.
I just need to take it back to my ward and put it into practice. Not that I see an awful lot of pressure sores in paediatrics…. thankfully.

Uni…….
Ok, I have made a tentative start on my first presentation. WOOHOO!!
The realisation that there are less than three weeks until we have to make the presentations really kicked in yesterday, so today and Saturday and Sunday are going to be Uni work days with the aim to have a complete presentation to show a Tutor on Monday and hopefully get a little feedback before finalising.

Let’s see, what else has been happening this week?
Oh yes!!
Dharma. My beautiful baby girl who finished school less than two weeks ago and is heading for college in September, had her very first job interview yesterday and walked away with a job!!
To say I’m so proud of her is an understatement.
She will be working alongside her older sister at MacDonalds.
Don’t knock it. The pay is good and they are very accommodating and flexible about shifts which is great for a college student.
I can’t wait for her to get her first pay check. She has really been feeling left out over the last two years watching her older sisters with spending money.

Speaking of older sisters.
Marjorie has had to go back to the GP about her Frieburg’s disease.
Quick recap….
6-7 years ago she developed excruciating pain in her right foot that wouldn’t go away. After Orthopaedic investigations it was discovered that the blood supply around the base of one her toes has died so the cartilage has crumbled to nothing and the joint is now bone on bone. It is a lifetime condition that she has already had one round of surgery on.
The surgery was two years ago and things have been pretty good and although she was discharged from the Ortho’s, they did say they would no doubt be seeing her again.

SO….
Because she is discharged from the Ortho’s, when she starts having problems again she has to go through the GP to get a new referral.
Here’s where things get silly.
To get referred to Ortho’s you first have to be referred to Muscular Skeletal to be assessed and they usually want to do everything in their power to not make a referral by sending you on countless trips to physios and orthotics teams first.
Now we did all this when she was first diagnosed, so we know that physio does nothing to help and orthotics do nothing to relieve the pain and when we discussed this with the GP, he completely understood and wanted to refer Marji straight to Ortho’s but he had to ‘discuss’ it with his boss first.

He apparently lost his argument on that one because we received a letter for Muscular Skeletal this week.
Thankfully she is only having to wait until 11th July for the appointment and both me and her Dad will be in attendance.
The first question to them will be…. ‘Do you know what Freiburg’s disease is?’ because everytime we see someone knew, GP, Physio, etc, Freiburg’s is so rare they have to look it up!!
Anyway, the aim of the MSK meeting will be to get Marji referred straight to an Orthopaedic surgeon, preferably the same one who dealt with the Freiburg’s the last time and who has also known her since she was 8 months old with her hip dysplasia!
Anything else will be a complete waste of time for everyone involved.

And we still haven’t heard anything about Ian’s referral from Addenbrookes for Injections into his neck and shoulder so he is still soldiering on with the help of work colleagues to get to and from work. He’s getting a little frustrated now.

So that’s where we’re at now.
I’m going to have a hair cut at noon and then I’m knuckling down to that presentation.
Exciting!……. NOT!