Exhaustion and Night Duty.

What do you do after working 14 hours night duty and feeling exhausted!!, go to a quilt show, no less. my excuse was.....at least it is on the way home! The annual airing of the quilts, presented by The Caring Hearts Quilt Group held in conjunction with The Arms of Australia Museum in Emu Plains. The quilts made by this group are donated to worthy causes, eg oncology patients and local hospitals in the Hawkesbury, Penrith and Blue Mountains area. 25 of the quilts will also be donated to brushfire victims as well. This was my first visit to this show as I am usually working days and unable to get to go. What was interesting at this quilt show this year was a display of vintage quilts from the private collection of Kaye and Bruce Brown. A very impressive collection as well.  I have compiled some photos of the vintage quilts on display below.

Most of the quilts are  late 1800's to the 1930's.

A gorgeous red work quilt, made in 1925.

I just love the colour of this one.

Appliqué and hand quilting!

Baskets!

I also purchased some great books and some liberty fabric, off home to bed to tackle another night.

Bush fires and evacuation

IniWell it is going to be a hot start to summer, today saw temperatures rising above 30 degrees. I am on night duty and was sleeping when the home phone calls commenced, being on night duty  usually I ignore the house phone, whilst on nights. At 1345 hrs the doorbell was rung, so I got up and put on my dressing gown, there was also loud yelling,  from my neighbours, to alert me to the evacuation. I went to see what was happening and the whole of Windsor Downs was being evacuated, extensive bush fires had broken out in the Hawkesbury district. The police had door knocked and had asked all residents to leave Windsor Downs, I had slept through it all. My hubby had been trying to call to call me so in desperation he called our next door neighbour to alert me. Things to think about when asked to evacuate... My hubby' s priority was for me to get his hard drive, mine was the dog, laptop, computer and engagement rings,funny I did not grab my sewing and did not think about that until things were settled and I had time on my hands. Where to go when all roads are blocked, drove out of our beautiful estate, tried to get to my son's place, road block, so sat outside in my car with Xena for 2 1/2 hrs, walked to the servo to get some water for myself and Xena, then at 1600 hrs made the decision to get somewhere, I took the long way round but after 1 1/2 hr drive finally got to my son, s place, normally this would take 10 mins. Night duty will be put on hold for me tonight.

In the daylight, a thick blanket of smoke lingers and the RFS has worked all night to contain the fires, below is the aftermath of the fire in the reserve opposite our house. We were very fortunate not to lose any houses in our estate but 2 houses were lost in other fires in the Hawkesbury District. 7 firefighters were injured, no lives lost, that in itself is a blessing, I just hope that our wonderful wildlife that lives in the reserve did not get harmed. We have a number of kangaroos with joeys living in the reserve, as well as other animals. A challenging time for all.

Smoke is still smouldering in the reserve opposite.

 

This is the reserve where our wildlife lived. All food has been destroyed, hopefully we will see them on our lawns, feeding until their food supply regrows, bring on the rain.

Night duty and not existing.

Been quite for awhile and not blogging, very busy on nights, helping to save lives. Funny how a day in the life of a NETS nurse can be steady, but when the dark of night  appears the emergency calls seem to come in thick and fast. At least I do derive some comfort in the knowledge that the babies and children of NSW have got the most dedicated medical and nursing teams sent to retrieve them. Our medical teams provides intensive care with specially built medical equipment that can be transported by road and air. The NETS teams are sent to smaller regional and rural hospitals that do not have  specialist care within their hospital. Winter is the time for viral and flu like  illness which makes our small cargo very vulnerable and on a lot of occasions, need respiratory support.  The downside of retrievals in winter is the extreme weather conditions such as fog, icing and turbulent winds. The combination of these adverse weather conditions can make the distances that we travel very difficult and often teams have to travel long distances by road, which incurs quite a lot of overtime, it may also take many hours to stabilise our patients and that in combination with  hours of travelling  are exposed to fatigue. What is admirable Is that no matter  how tired the teams are they just soldier and obtain the goal of stabilising and transporting sick children to a large tertiary hospital that can provide intensive care,  nurse them back to health and return them home.

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Photo shot of  NETS and Child flight, this photo was taken in 2007.
Many changes have occurred since, Child flight is no longer operational since December 2012 and now our dedicated helicopter is. Care flight. Of course many of the nursing and medical staff have left and new staff have joined. I no longer do retrievals, but now work in the clinical coordination centre of NETS.

20.6.2013 Night Duty

Returned to duty last night on nights, I work 10 hour shifts and each month see's me working 4 -5 nights. After 39 years of being a nurse I am still not used to working in the night time. When the children were small I did night duty as a necessity, so my hubby and I could minimise childcare. When you work nights for a number of months, it becomes routine and you get used to existing on 4- 5 hours sleep. With one getting older now, I am finding it harder to exist through the day, mainly sleep and do not get out of my PJ's. The good thing about being on nights, is through the day I can catch up on a lot of preparation for my next quilt and some hand sewing. Something below that I am working on..

Working night duty in the winter months, is always a challenge for our retrieval teams, because of the availability of Fixed wing and Rotary wing aircraft due to freezing levels and fog. The only way to get the teams to children that are sick, is by road. NSW is a large area to cover and it may take a number of hours to reach certain hospitals. Teams have had to drive for 3-4 hours at times. The good thing about winter, is the hearty soups, I am always trying to find new soup recipes, that I can make.  When in Peru recently I had a Peruvian soup that had quinoa in it, I found some recipes in Good Taste and have cooked it, a great tasting soup.