Wigan woe

Originally drafted in a strop, in my new notebook (that irritatingly had neglected to tell me it was blank not ruled)...

Wigan has not made a good first impression on me.

I arrived on Sunday in a bad mood. This was partly due to the 15hr shift I'd just done, partly the fact I was feeling horribly ill and had lymph nodes sticking out my neck like golf balls, and partly down to crappy internet directions (and perhaps bad navigating by my friend) which had meant the journey had taken double the suggested time. It was almost midnight, which meant all obvious entrances to the hospital were locked. After what seemed like an age stood shivering outside (apparently it was warm, but I was awfully feverish) we decided to do the naughty thing and go in via A&E. Luckily a nice receptionist took pity on us and took us to switchboard to get our room keys. The man informed us our accommodation was on site, and that 'we couldn't miss it'.

We could. It took 3 circuits of the service road to locate it. It wasn't identifiably our block, but we tried our code and the door opened, so we breathed a sigh of relief and went in. My friend and I had been told we were in the same flat, me room X, her room Y. I opened the flat door and stumbled straight for my bed. My friend knocked on my door, whimpering, 'There is no room Y!'

I took some more paracetamol and tried not to cry. All I wanted to do was sleep. It took until the early hours to try her key in all the doors in the block and eventually find her a room in an entirely different flat. I passed out without unpacking and had an awful night's sleep.

I awoke early, still feeling ill. More paracetamol, then to the shower. Cold. Freezing cold. My bad mood escalated.

Our new consultant hadn't sent us the timetable he'd promised so we headed off to find someone that might know where he was. On locating him I was handed a page of pencil scrawl- my new timetable. A month of full-time, plus 2 on-calls a week. He suggested weekends, but as I'm still working long shifts at the agency to be able to eat/drink/drive (not all at the same time) I firmly declined. We have to get our timetable signed morning and afternoon to prove we've been in. I don't mind this (it stops me being lazy and makes sure I get the most) but towards the end of this attachment I have a 4000 word assignment to write, and I'd like to think I can be trusted to use the time wisely and decide when I'd be best off in my room at my laptop. Its not like there's internet access to distract me!

The rest of the morning was spent doing irritating admin tasks- ID badges, parking permits, computer logins. Then in the afternoon, still feeling ill, I headed off to another site to see some scans, and tried not to infect any pregnant mothers.

I got to leave a little early, so was back in my room (via a shop for more paracetamol, you apparently can't buy it in the hospital) by 5pm. I immediately fell asleep, and woke up a few hours later for long enough to be sick as I tried to take my next dose. I've not met my flatmates yet, but I'm pretty sure they'll have heard me retching into my sink. Joy.

Took Tuesday off. Now I'm missing two signatures on my timetable already, and have no way to contact my consultant and let him know why. I bet he thinks I'm a slacker. Really, I'm just scared of vomiting on small newborn babies.

I feel that's probably frowned upon.