Farewell 2017!

With 2018 fast approaching, social media will inevitably start to become flooded with New Years resolutions including the obligatory and well-intended "New Year, New Me" posts that generally last through January before everyone then indulges at Valentines and it's all downhill from there!

You can probably guess that I'm not one for making resolutions, I like to reflect on the past year, evaluate what went well, what I achieved, what I didn't achieve and how I can improve. With this in mind, 2017 has been a bit of a rollercoaster year. It started well with me being in a relationship, I started a new job, was half way through my Access course at college and had been accepted into University. All good things. As you know, life is never plain sailing and as far as the relationship goes, this came to quite a sad end in August.

I completed my Access course with mostly distinctions which also qualified me for a scholarship! Bonus! I then began University in September this year. Its tough going but I know it will be worth all the blood, sweat and tears in the long run.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you will have remembered my post about my daughters father, who had some pretty terrible news about his battle with cancer. For now, this seems to be stable and he's doing well which is something to be thankful for, for sure. (See my blog here - http://zoemporter.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/standing-up-to-cancer.html)

This leads me onto the things that I am thankful for from 2017.


1. My beautiful daughter - she is learning and growing every single day and becoming a lovely little human with such an outgoing character, I couldn't be more proud. She's also a bit of a chatterbox (no idea where she gets this from!)

2. My family - for supporting me through college and my crazy ideas that pop up now and then. My mom in particular has been an absolute godsend, helping me with childcare. Without her I wouldn't be able to pursue my dream and build a better life for Elsie. I'm also really thankful for my dad. With no permanent male role model, he continues to make the effort with Elsie, even when she refuses to show any affection towards him. Haha. We also welcomed to the world my beautiful niece, Mollie, who is a little miracle rainbow baby who could not be more perfect! I'm so proud of my sister and her partner, they're wonderful parents.

3. My friends - Old and new. Inevitably as we grow up and start our own families it becomes difficult to keep in touch with people, my friends have been so supportive and understanding and even though I've not seen them nearly as much as I'd like, I'm so thankful for their friendship. This also goes for my new friends that I've made through University. For all the constant support through assignments, placements and the memes to keep us laughing even though we're all at our wits end already!

4. My health - Its no secret that I'm slowly falling apart, but if this year has shown me anything, its that I'm in pretty good condition. I don't have anything major to complain about and for this I'm extremely thankful.

There are plenty of other things that I'm grateful for, I could probably write a book, but for now I will leave it here, and for 2018, I am going to make sure I focus on my studies, improving my health where possible, and making more time for friends. I also lacked on my charity work this year, so I've already got a few plans lined up for the coming year that both myself and Elsie will be taking part in. Watch this space for details!

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If you like my content, please like, comment and share! And thank you for your continued support of my little blog through the last year! ♡

My First Experience on Placement

Yesterday was the last day of my first block of placements, I'm not going to be back now until Feb, but have got an exam, assignments and University to deal with in the meantime.

I wanted to just write briefly about the last 6 weeks. As you know, I am a first year student in Adult Nursing and I'm placed on a Vascular and General Surgery ward. When I received the placement I was excited but not really sure what to expect, and my goodness I was not prepared! We deal with everything from abdominal pain to leg amputations and everything in between. It seems like there isn't really much on this ward that I wont get to witness. I actually really like this aspect because it is giving me more exposure and increasing my knowledge while still having the opportunities to really get down to business with the Vascular Specialist side of things.

So far I have done all of the usual nurse-type activities such as observations: Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Saturations, Temperature, Respirations and pain scores. I've also removed cannulas, changed dressings, assisted with moving and handling, admitted patients, discharged patients, administered medications (including subcut injections) etc and assisted with more complex dressings such as Vac dressings. Anyone who follows me on Snapchat will have seen my little video blog about this experience! This week I accompanied one of our Vascular Specialists down to the Outpatient Clinic where we saw patients that had been referred from elsewhere which was a really interesting experience.

Over the last few weeks I have been able to work with people in various roles including Novice, CSW, Staff Nurse, Sister, Specialist, OT, Dr, Jr Dr, PA and a few others and to my surprise everyone has been so welcoming. This is one of the things I was really nervous about but its been lovely to be on the ward.

With yesterday being my last day, I was determined to make it a positive experience, and although the day started off a little rocky, I made the decision to brush it off and make the most of the afternoon. The patients I was taking care of made my last day an absolute pleasure, they kept me laughing and were so friendly, regardless of their situations and the reasons they were there. And one lovely gentleman ended the day by singing to us and it nearly brought me to tears as it reminded me so much of when my granddad used to sing. It was the perfect ending to such an eye opening and enjoyable placement.

Now its time to relax, get the last few things ready for Christmas and start preparing for an exam in Jan!

Merry Christmas to you all and I hope anyone that's been on placement for the first time has enjoyed it as much as I have!

Follow me on Instagram for more regular updates - @zoe.m.porter 
If you like my content, please like, comment and share! And thank you for your continued support of my little blog through the last year! ♡