70!!!!!!!!!!!

I've lost 70 pounds now, or 32 kilos in weight lost to us Aussies! Whoo, I finally did it. That 32 has been just within my reach for a bit now, and while I honestly thought I might gain this weekend - due to copious amounts of red wine and lots of pickies, it seems I had a drop. I love my last fill. I think, too, that it might be all the walking I'm doing with this new venture. I reckon - and it's just an educated guess - that I must be hitting close to 10,000 or more steps. I walk (FAST!!!!) round and round and up and down those long corridors dozens of times per day and I'm constantly running between the nursing home and the dementia ward too (I counted that run, it was 367 steps one way and I do that maybe 6 or seven times a day.) Today was almost the full 8 hours, too. I only managed a 5 minutes break about 10.30am and then my lunch of a half hour was cut short too... sigh... but it's all good.......especially if it's helping kick this weight loss of mine fully into gear. I still find I'm having trouble eating breakfast because my band is tight first thing in the morning and I'm having trouble eating at 6am but then by 9am I'm starvin' marvin'. No choice to hold off though until around the mid-morning when I can have my break. I usually have a health bar then (or a banana or a small yoghurt.) 

I also wanted to give a massive thank you to Sandi-Lee, Jenny, Bianca, Debi and Athena who nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. You girls are just wonderful and I love the support you give me. It's always a two-way street and you help me as much as I help you :) xx




I finally think I'm getting the hang of this nursing home caper, too. I did much better today (not that I've done 'bad' by any means) but I seem to be gaining confidence more and more and are being left alone to do more and more. I did four showers on my own ... including unbeknownst to me at the time, drawing the lucky straw to shower and get ready for breakfast one of the more 'difficult' of our residents. While she has had a stroke, she still talks fairly well and is very definite as to what she wants. Ear plugs while I wash her hair, she washes some spots, I do others, she wants this shirt, these pants and these shoes etc... I finished with her and as I wheeled her down to the function room looking good and smellin' fine.. she called out to the EN's and R'N's (and another carer) that I had earned a gold star as I did such a great job. I was like.. ?...... Turns out she wants me again tomorrow. Is that a good or bad thing? lol. 


Oh, and I got belted a good one by a lady of 102  this morning who didn't want to eat her breakfast and was getting cranky with me... giving my arm a good claw with her long nails at the same time. I finally got her to eat by telling her that her mother said if she didn't eat she would get sick. Did the trick and she ate everything. Go me!! Take the good with the bad lol. I ended up in the dementia ward with all my favorites again for the last hour of the day. As I went in search of the RN that I worked with on Friday so she could sign me off (we have to have a booklet signed each day to say that we are fulfilling our side of the training)... she mentioned to another RN who was with her that I loved working in the dementia unit and that I was bloody good with the patients. The other girl was amazed. She said that a lot of trainees are scared of working there and that if I was interested I should fill out an application. They have trouble getting enough people to work there due to the scare factor. I'm still thinking about that one (the application I mean lol.)


Thats it for me today. I hope I don't bore you with all this nursing home talk... but you're all a good sounding board. So much is happening that I would take pages and pages to get it all out but I will spare you. Hope you had a lovely Monday...... I am looking forward to sleep tonight.. I'm a tad weary lol.


Seeya all,
Cara xxx