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october update
saturday, 10th october, 2009 |
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Since getting back from holiday in August I have had 3 different jobs. I came back doing my old job of Assistant Ward manager, then I became the Ward Manager while she was away on holiday for 3 weeks, and now I have started my new job of Ward Clinical Educator (the equivalent of a Practice development sister at home). This is a new position that I get to develop over the next few weeks and then hand over to the person for next year. It is exciting and I get to do lots of teaching and training which is fun. It is weird not being on the ward so much though, and I do miss the interaction with the patients but this job is much slower paced so is much better for me at the moment.
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On the ward we are coming to the end of plastics season so the ward is jam-packed!! There is one special patient here and that is Esperanza. I wrote about Esperanza at the beginning of the year - she is the lady who I first nursed in Ghana in 2006 and who recognised me on screening day. I hadn't realised that she was back on the ward till I heard someone shouting out my name as I walked down the corridor. She had to tell me who she was because her face was covered with bandages and a little swollen so it was a little difficult to recognise her! I have been visiting her most days now, she's been telling me about her family and reminding me of things we did together on the Anastasis in 2006. It is wonderful to have her here, especially as I feel that this part of my life is coming to a close. If/when we return to Mercy Ships I will be working in a very different capacity so things will not be the same again. Seeing Esperanza now is a huge encouragement after 4 years working on the ward, to see that people are really changed and transformed after what we do here, and not just physically but emotionally and spiritually too! The communications department are currently writing a story about Esperanza and I so we will post that as soon as it is written.
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I am now 20 weeks pregnant and certainly getting a bump. I seem to be over the worst of the sickness although this ship does move a lot and some days that doesn't help! We have to leave the ship when I reach 28 weeks so we will be leaving on the 11th November. It's a little strange trying to pack up all of our things and work out what to take home with us but the time feels right and we are both looking forward to being back in the UK.
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When we get back we will be heading down to Exeter for a scan and check up at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital as I missed my 20 week scan being here. After that Drew will probably do some short training courses before Christmas. He also may be asked to come back to the ship for the sail to Tenerife but we are waiting to see about that.
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For the first month and a half we plan to mostly be based in Surrey with my parents but will be travelling round seeing people as well. From January we will be moving to Exeter to stay in the Devon & Exeter Missionary home. We will then have the baby in Exeter (due date is the 9th Feb) and hang out there for a while after the baby is born. After that plans have changed slightly. Drew was originally looking to start Officer training in April in Newcastle but they were running out of places so we had to make a decision about what to do as the next course was a September course in Southampton and this also had only 4 spaces left. We decided that although we don't have Drew's notice of eligibility to do the training yet we would put a deposit down for the September course in Southampton. This will mean that we will be in the UK until about April 2011 now rather than January.
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Our plans have also become a little more flexible about what we will do after the course. As I will not be working we need to look at where is best for Drew to have his first experience as an officer. Mercy Ships, although home, only sails twice a year which is not so good for an officer just qualified! Because of that we are thinking about working with OM for the first couple of years Drew is qualified as then he will be sailing every 2 weeks and get a much better grounding in all of the things he will learn on the course. As with most of our plans this is still pretty flexible and to be honest we don't know what will happen after that. We feel that Mercy Ships or OM is where we are meant to be for the next few years so we will let you know if anything changes!
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