Here is to You Dido

My Grandfather passed away just over a week ago now, and I find it interesting that in this last week I have learned more about his past than I did durning the 20 years he and I where alive together. From what I have learned, I have gained so much more respect for what people living in Europe durning the World Wars have gone though. That being said my grandfather that I write about is not my genetic grandfather, my real granddad was killed when my father was 3 in a tractor incident so I never really got a chance to know him. Anywho, the grandfather for which I write about was born on a farm in the Ukrainian around the time of Stalin. Now if you know anything about European history you know that this was not a happy place to live at that time. Most of what farmers grew was either taken by the government of stolen by people more hungry than you. Many farmers, even though they had decent amounts of land where unable to feed their own families. So my grandfather helped out on the farm till he was 18 then he felt home and joined the Ukrainian Army to fight world war II. The Ukrainian Army was fighting for the Germans durning this war, now durning battle my granddad was shot in the stomach and had to spend some time in Hungary recovering. Shortly after he was sent back to fight (far before he had properly healed) his group was captured by the British and he was sent to a POW camp in Italy for four years. All this time his family had no idea where he was or if he was even alive. When the war ended, he was sent to work in England more or less as a slave to a rich family for several years. He was allowed to emigrate to Canada after his God Father sponsored the move. He moved to Edmonton and worked as a labour for a year before he met and married my Grandmother.

Now I look back at my life and think I had it though. I cannot even begin to imagine what my grandfather went though. Haveing to grow up an a farm where you where under constant threat from the government and theives. Then fighting in a war where you are underfed, trained and equiped. Then spending four years in a POW camp. Then off you go to work for nothing in Britian. You then move to Canada to find that you know noone and finally you luck looks up when you meet a wondeful woman and have great kid.

I had always known that my granddad had had a tough life but I had not even begun to imagine how tough it really was. Here is to you Dido, You will be missed.

Property vs Life

I'm sorry but this post relates to my job again, as I'm sure many more will but something happened at work today that made me think. I received a 911 call today from a lady who had a grass fire approaching her house. This lady was quite upset on the phone and she keep yelling at me at getting upset as I asked her the questions I was required. This seems to be a common trend, there is a possibility that there is a fire in or near ones house and they are distraught on the phone. I can understand that a fire is a big thing that can be scary, but all the fire calls I had noone was in anysort of danger. Now we look at the 911 calls I receive for ambulance and the callers are far more calm and easy to talk to, even if the call involve the loved one of someone who is very sick, injured, or dying. Yet they are calm on the phone as they tell me about how their loved one is dying. It seems strange to me that the distruction of one's property would envoke a higher emotional response than a sick or injured person you know.

The Problems with Health Care

Every day I go to work it becomes more and more apparent to me that there are several nurses who really don't provide patient care at all. When I was picking up a patient to take them back home to their nurseing home, I was attempting to get a patient's history from this nurse and she knew nothing about the medical history of her patient. Correct me if I'm wrong but itsn't it the job of a nurse to know what is wrong with a patient so that it can be corrected. The scary part is that this is not the first time I have had this happen. It seems more and more nurses are not providing the care that one would expect goes along with having the title nurse. Now there is always the argument that nurses are overworked and underpaided. BULLSHIT!!! A nurse makes 4 to 5 times as much money as I do and work far less hours than I do. Most of the nurses I know work 40-50 hours a week. I work at least 96 some times as much as 168hours a week, in fact some of the easiest days I have had in my healthcare career where when I was working in a hospital on my practicums. So to sum up this rant, Nurses learn and take care of your patients. Take some pride in your work, do the job you are makeing so much money to do.