Open Book Blog Hop – 24th July

Today’s topic is ‘What Kind Of Lessons Could Anyone Learn From What You Do In Your Career?’

I’m a medical secretary and have just gone back to work after a 3 year hiatus to recover from cancer treatments.  I previously worked in the Cardiology, Pain Medicine and Dermatology departments, and believe me, you can learn quite a lot from the job I do.  I’ve made a list below, in no particular order, of all the things I’ve learned over a 13 year period while working in these 3 departments.

• Keep your weight down to prevent joint pains, backache, and heart disease (one consultant used to say that the only way to prevent backache is to have your jaws wired together!).
• Use a high factor sunscreen on your skin during the summer months.
• Acceptance of your pain, disease or discomfort is the only way forward.
• There is no pill on earth that will stop the pain of arthritis.  You have to change your lifestyle instead.
• Look after your body by exercising daily and keeping the joints mobile.
• Sitting down all day is bad for you.
• Keep an eye on changes to your skin/moles.
• Quit smoking because it clogs up the airways (you only have to listen to my neighbour hacking away every morning to know that’s true – he’s smoked since he was 11).
• Quit eating high fat foods because they clog up the arteries with plaque, which causes heart failure.
• Prevention is the key.  Bust your butt to stop getting the disease in the first place!
• A melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer, and it needs to be diagnosed very early.
• The more your skin is exposed to the sun without any protection, the more age spots (actinic keratoses) will appear as you get older and the more likely you are to develop skin cancer.
• Skin cancer can be caused by sunburn suffered decades before.
• The only way you can move up the waiting list for a procedure is if your pain is due to cancer.  There is no need to keep ringing every 5 minutes saying that your case is urgent.  There’s another 1000 people in pain who are all in the same boat.
• Add pineapple, ginger and turmeric to your diet to offset arthritis.
• Pilates will help with lower back pain, but the relief is not instant.
• Yes, it CAN happen to you.  You are not the exception to the rule unfortunately.
• Men who take opioid painkillers for a long time might suffer with low testosterone levels.  A low testosterone level could cause a man to have hot flushes, just like a menopausal woman.  Hot flushes are a sign of low hormone levels in both men and women, and nothing else.

I’m now covering holidays and sickness in every department!  I can’t wait to learn more by typing new clinic letters.

What have you learned through your career?  Read others’ blogs or add your blog to this one by clicking on the blue button below:

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Open Book Blog Hop – 10th July

This week we’re giving readers an insight into our other non-writing career, and so as I’ve recently gone back to work part-time to cover holidays and sickness,  I’d like to give you a day in the life of a medical secretary. 

The job has changed dramatically from when I first started 13 years ago.  Now the system is totally electronic and we don’t have to deal with trollies full of patients’ notes, so here’s what I would have to do in a day:

1. Check answerphone messages from the previous day and deal with those.
2. Collect and open the day’s post and deal with each piece of correspondence.
3. Collect patients’ folders from Medical Records who are attending your consultant’s clinic on that day.  The folders just contain address labels in case the patient has a further appointment or procedure, and blank clinic headed notepaper for scanning after the consultant has written on it.  In the past it would have been thick wedges of notes, but now these have all been scanned onto the hospital system.
4. Take the trolley of patients’ folders to the clinic consultation room ready for the doctor.
5. Finish audio typing the previous day’s clinic letters if these have not been done.  In the past secretaries would have been using dictation machine tapes to type from, but now the doctors dictate straight onto the computer.
6. Try and audio type fast enough in order to keep up with your consultant as they dictate the current day’s pile of letters!  Sometimes during the day the doctor will stand over you and watch you type an urgent letter as they talk.  Fun, fun, fun.
7. According to the letters and any accompanying forms in the patient’s folder, make a further appointment for the patient or take a completed form to the Waiting List Office if the patient needs a procedure.
8. Prepare to be interrupted several times in any half hour period while you’re typing away by the phone ringing.  Deal with patient enquiries, which are usually about how much longer they have to wait for a procedure.
9. Take the patients’ folders to the scanning room when you have finished typing the clinic letters and booking further appointments.
10. Filing letters from the day’s post when the doctors have finished with them, or taking them to the scanning room if they should be filed in the patient’s notes.
11. Photocopying.

Thankfully though, as I have a bank contract, I can work as and when I want to!

What do you do in a day at work? Please click on the blue button if you wish to add your blog to this one.

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Open Book Blog Hop – 3rd July

This week we’re writing about the next vacation we’d love to take.

Apart from many breaks to seaside resorts in the British Isles, over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to visit various places abroad for holidays; Chania in Greece, Zakynthos in Zante, Alcudia and Costa Brava in Majorca, Binibeca in Minorca, Portinatx in Ibiza, New Orleans, The Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, and many of the Caribbean Islands including Grenada, Dominica and Jamaica.  I’ve also sailed towards The Pitons in St Lucia on a catamaran whilst dancing to reggae music and watching the sun setting.  All these continental holidays have had one thing in common – after a couple of weeks I always look forward to returning home!

I’m sixty this year, and have had enough of travelling.  To be honest I’m a homebody really, and now prefer my lovely holiday home on the Isle of Wight, which we purchased earlier this year.  Sam and I will be making many trips there this summer by ourselves and also with our grandchildren and/or extended family members.  Here’s a photo of it which I took in April.

The beach is but a five minute walk away.  It’s not too hot, I don’t need to take my trusty brown medicine to ward off alimentary canal dysfunction (which I’ve had to take to every country I’ve visited so far!), and I can sit on my decking and watch the world go by.  I can cook the type of food I like to eat, and sleep on a memory foam mattress with a memory foam pillow whilst listening to the sea in the background.  Bliss!

Below are the golden sands of Puckpool, which is about a 10 minute drive from our holiday home.

Call me boring, but I don’t care.  The Isle of Wight rules as far as I’m concerned!

Where would other blog-hoppers like to go on vacation?  Click on the blue button below to find out.

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Open Book Blog Hop – 26th June

This week we’re writing about what advice has stuck with us for a long time, and who gave us that advice.

Nothing was ever sugar-coated for me as a child. My mother Dot, with her typical East End tell-it-like-it-is attitude, drummed the following advice into me from a very early age:

‘Never get old and fat, because first you’ll see ’em with one stick, then you’ll see ’em with two sticks, and then you won’t see ’em at all, so everything in moderation.’

As a child this always gave me a terrible mental image of an unfortunate whale-like, wrinkled person stuck and floundering in an armchair like a flapping fish.

Up until the age of about 12 or 13 when I was given pocket money, sweets were rationed to one small bag on Saturdays only.  If Dot saw me trying to take more than 3 biscuits, then the tin would be quickly whipped away and my protestations would be ignored.  Vegetables were always put on my plate and I would be expected to eat some whether I liked them or not, but by the time I reached late teen age I was eating everything put in front of me; vegetables, liver and onions, stews, casseroles, and boiled fish to name but a few.

Now I’m nearly sixty I finally get what she was trying to teach me.  I’m thankfully still mobile, and am glad she gave me the advice.  Both our granddaughters are overweight, and when we recently paid an unannounced flying visit to drop something off, both of them were sitting in front of the TV, each chomping on their own large mixing-bowl full of crisps and sweets.  We were horrified and wondered if this was a regular occurrence, but could say nothing.  The youngest granddaughter complains that her legs hurt and chafe if she walks too far.  I can see diabetes, heart disease and early-onset arthritis waiting in the wings ready to pounce in the future. Somebody ought to take those mixing bowls away… I’m sure Dot would if she could!

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Open Book Blog Hop – 19th June

This week we’re writing about what life events shaped us into who we are.

1.  Being an only child.

Being an ‘only’ child gave me much time to use my imagination and play alone.  I had an imaginary friend for years!  It also made me self-reliant, independent, and a bit of a loner.

2.  Not having a childminder.

I was further schooled in the art of self-reliance by being left alone in the house during the school holidays from the age of 9 while both my parents worked.  At times I also had to look after my 5 year old cousin.

3.  Winning an inter-schools’ story competition at age 11.

This win and the coveted certificate that came with it gave me the encouragement to write more stories.  I’m still writing them 48 years later!

4.  Early death of father at only 49.

I had to grow up quickly aged only 19 and be the supportive rock for my mother.

5.  Becoming a mother at the age of 24.

Giving birth to Leon and raising him to an adult gave me a gift of patience and tolerance that I never thought I’d ever have, all due to his hyperactivity, petit mal, tantrums, and general pain-in-the-arseness (I love him really!).

6.  Becoming a mother-in-law at the age of 46.

I learned to curb my impulsive nature and keep my mouth shut.  So far it seems to have worked – my daughters-in-law and I get on really well!

7.  Being diagnosed with thyroid cancer 12 years ago.

The three major operations, vocal cord palsy, 4 radioiodine treatments and 30 radiotherapy treatments I’ve had so far to try and beat this disease has taught me how to endure.  I’m very good at it!

8.  Caring for my  92 year old mother in the last years of her life.

This gave me understanding and compassion for elderly people in their day to day trials of just trying to live a normal life and maintain their independence whilst dealing with a body that is deteriorating and virtually immobile.

What life events shaped you?  Please link to this blog by clicking the blue button below.

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Open Book Blog Hop – June 5th

This week’s topic is how we schedule our working week.

Well, I think I’ll give you an example from when I worked as a medical secretary, and also an idea of what I do now.

In 2002 I would get up at 05:10 and jog around the village for half an hour, before leaving for work at 06:30.  After arriving at the hospital I would then start typing letters around 07:20 and not counting a half hour lunch break, carry on typing until 3pm.  Then it would be a half hour drive home to start preparing the evening meal, sorting out my sons with their homework, and doing any household jobs.  I did this for years!

Now I’m retired.  I get up when I want to and have a nice 40 minute walk around the village about 08:30, acknowledging anybody I see and generally enjoying the early morning quietness.  Then I return home, make a cup of tea and start checking my social media sites for a couple of hours.  I’ll then have another walk or do some gardening, and in the afternoon I like to write blogs or continue with whatever novel I’m working on.  I like having no deadline to work to, and I’m lucky enough to enjoy a stress- free life. If I don’t fancy doing any writing, then I’ll read or find something else to do.

All I can say, is that I’m really enjoying being retired and having no schedule!

Is your working week packed to capacity, or do you get some free time?  To find out other blog-hoppers’ schedules, please click on the blue button below (you can also add your own blog).

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Open Book Blog Hop – 29th May

This week we’re writing about our motto for life.  This is a scheduled post as I am currently sitting on my decking on the Isle of  Wight.  I will reply to any comments on Wednesday.

I have several mottoes for life, so I’ll list them all below.  I tried to raise my sons with the following ethics – some of them I learned from my own mother.  One son took great note of them all, and one pushed the boundaries a bit but fortunately realised just in time that his old Mum wasn’t talking a load of shite:

1. Don’t do anything to others that you wouldn’t like done to yourself.
2. Live true to yourself, as life is not much fun if you’re living a lie.
3. Live within your means and don’t borrow money that you can’t afford to pay back.
4. Take care of your body, as it’s the only one you’ll ever have.
5. Don’t take good health for granted, as disease can strike at any time.
6. Work at your marriage, and don’t give up at the first hurdle.
7. Persevere to achieve your goals.  If you try hard enough you’ll get there in the end.
8. Life is short; make the most of every day.

I’d also like to share these 10 life lessons from Malala Yousafzai, the young lady almost killed by Taliban terrorists.  Thanks to Lindsay Lovin’ Life for bringing this to my attention:

https://lindsaylovinlife.wordpress.com/2017/05/22/10-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-malala-yousafzai/

What’s your motto for life?  Add your blog, and also find out what other blog-hoppers’ mottoes are by clicking on the blue button below:

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Open Book Blog Hop – 22nd May

Today we’re writing about what’s on our bucket list.

This year I was fortunate enough to be able to tick one of the things off my bucket list that had been on there for some time; the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  We had previously been to Rio’s Sambadrome to see the carnival parades there, and this February had a wonderful cruise from Fort Lauderdale, taking in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Costa Maya, and New Orleans.

Also this year due to an inheritance from my late mother I was able to tick another one off the list; buying a holiday home on the Isle of Wight.  Sam and I will be catching the ferry again at the end of the week and enjoying the warmer weather down on the beach at St. Helens.  We’ve been travelling to the Island for as long as I can remember, but now have our own little bolt-hole to escape to.  Our sons are looking forward to taking it over during August!

Is there anything else on my bucket list?  There’s just one thing; to live long enough to see my grandchildren grow up.  I’ve no idea if I’ll be lucky enough to achieve this, but after the radical cancer treatment I’ve just had, I think (and hope) I might be in with a good chance!

What’s on your bucket list?  Add your blog to this one and find out what’s on other blog-hoppers’ lists by clicking on the blue button below:

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Open Book Blog Hop – 15th May

This week on the Open Book Blog Hop we’re writing about what inspires us.

I’m an aesthete and can be inspired in many ways.  I’ll list a few of them below (not in any particular order).

1. Nature in all its glory, especially an early morning walk when the sun is rising and the birds are twittering.
2. A panoramic view over rolling hills and dales (I could stand and gaze at a good view for hours!).
3. Watching a rushing river or meandering stream. Don’t know why – just like doing it.
4. Reading names and epitaphs on gravestones.
5. Sitting in my den in the garden, which is enclosed by trees and greenery.  Nobody can see in, but I can see out!
6. A kind word or gesture.
7. Selflessness.
8. Endurance.
9. Triumph over adversity.
10. A particular song or piece of music.
11. Some books and/or poetry.
12. Listening and watching the wind rustling a huge tree in full leaf.
13. Watching a field of ripened wheat waving in the breeze.
14. Sitting on the decking of my holiday home on the Isle of Wight listening to the sea in the background.

What inspires you?  To Link your blog to this one and find out what inspires other blog-hoppers, please click on the blue button below.

Open Book Blog Hop – April 10th

This week on the Open Book Blog Hop we’re writing about the one thing we look forward to most at Easter.

You may have noticed from past blogs that I’m not particularly religious, having been raised with the philosophy that you can live a Christian life without always having to go to church.  So, for some years now the one thing I look forward to at this time of the year is when all the family get together on Easter Monday.  Every so often another family member is born, and now with extended family there’s usually about 16 of us who need to sit down for the Easter meal.  My youngest son’s in-laws usually host the dinner, and afterwards there is an Easter egg treasure hunt for the children in the garden.  It’s not often we’re all together, and it’s a lovely day that we all look forward to.

Of course this year we also have the holiday home to go to.  We have kept Easter Monday free for the get together, and Sam and I will catch the 9.30pm ferry to the Isle of Wight on Thursday evening, but will make sure we are back home by Sunday afternoon.  Easter, like  Christmas, is the only time all the family manage to meet up.  Shame, but that’s how it is when everybody has such busy lives.

What do other blog-hoppers look forward to at Easter?  Click on the blue button below to find out:

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