2011: a review

It mostly sucked.
Moving on...

spinster aunt

It seems that I have, at work at least, turned into a sort of universal spinster aunt of yore. The man in the opposite office has two young children and every morning I am treated to the stories of how they slept, and how often he or his wife were woken in the night.  Pregnant Doctor likes to use my office to have a quick 5-minute sit-down and rub of her belly while she tells me how difficult she is finding being pregnant.  A friend's wife is recently (as in about 7 weeks) pregnant with twins and I have daily updates about her morning sickness and their worries about how to tell their 4-year-old son to expect siblings soon. And finally, Dr Old-School is going to become a first-time grandfather in a few months, and shows me his daughter-in-law's scan photos every time she has one (which is every few weeks as she is part of a research study).
I try, I really do try, to maintain my happy face each time.  But I admit here, in this place of safety and understanding, that each day my heart breaks a tiny bit more.

two

Two years ago today.

gold, frankincense and erm...

My phone rang at 8.32 this morning.
"Hello, Illanare," said the voice of Indie Nurse.  "Patient X is here.  She's brought in her urine sample."
I was so busy enjoying my first sips of peppermint mocha and being glad that Patient X had arrived early that I didn't notice that Indie Nurse's voice was at an unusually high register.  I trotted over to the clinic and was stopped in my tracks by what sat proudly on the counter.
A week ago I had given Patient X a sample pot to take home with her.  We all know what they look like, don't we?

Patient X brought one of these in instead:

1.5 litres.  Full.
Apparently I hadn't been clear enough.  When I said "come back in a week, with your first sample of the morning", Patient X thought I had meant "come back one morning with a week's worth of first samples".