Time to change tune

I have had sore throat and cough for more than a month. It's the longest that I've been coughing persistently since childhood [when I coughed over 3+ months, and I suspect, resulting in asthma]. Over the past 5 weeks and 6 trips to my hospital's A&E, my diagnosis has changed from:

1. URTI, to
2. URTI with Eye Infection, to
3. ?Sinusitis, to
4. Rhinitis [after Sinus-XR ruled out sinusitis], to
5. Acute Bronchitis, to
6. Acute Bronchitis with Asthma.

After 3 rounds of antibiotics [Augmentin, Ciprofloxacin, Zinnat], switching between cough suppressant and expectorant, loads of mucolytic and lozenges, some painkillers and Sofradex eyedrops, I am still having chesty phlegmy cough on-and-off, resulting in persistent sore throat and an attack of bronchospasm (on my 1st night-duty, self-diagnosed based on pain radiating from right sternum to the right middle lobe of lung). Yet, over the 5 weeks, I have been given only 1 + 2 + 2 = total 5 days of sick leave. Knowing the hospital's HR policy and culture, the resident doctors are reluctant to give any more than 2 days of MC each time. I wonder how it can be cost effective for the hospital not to give staff a week's sick leave to fully recover from illness. I know I'm not the only one returning back to work just as my health improved slightly, only to get worse. SSN Y also only got 2 days MC and returned to work with a hoarse throat. Similarly for my ward manager.

Given the hospital's severe shortage of nursing staff [and now even the resident doctors], the message I get from its actual operations is that staff's health can take a back seat to reaping in the profits, regardless of whatever management or its policies state. In fact, down the line of hierarchy, someone somewhere would re-interpret the policies to suit their vested interests.

E.g. There was a recent incident where we had an physically+verbally abusive 7 year-old girl with brain tumour and her equally verbally abusive mother. Despite what the DON said to me about taking staff abuse (physical or verbal) seriously, my ward manager's response [my guess is to keep her own image that she runs her ship well] combined with the other staff unwillingness to report the abuse they suffered [despite widespread complaints amongst staff and, I heard, even on Facebook over this patient], resulted in me being the only person to log an incident report. You can guess where the blame goes to from there.

I decided that it's time to change my tune. As people who meditate would attest to, the mind is like a magnet which draws into one's life whatever one focuses one's energy/attention on.

E.g. The ward manager was returning from a long annual leave and had a double shift on her 1st day back to work. Given my non-optimal health condition and the ward's chaos [yes, it's still chaotic after 1.5 months since the new rooms opened], I hoped that I would not have to work with the ward manager in-charge on her 1st day back [IMHO, my ward manager has a Type-A personality.]. Just before the end of my 2 days MC, SSN Y called asking me to be the only SN in-charge of 3 days of night shift, because several of my (S)SN colleagues are on sick leave as well. Thus, I got what I wanted, since the ward manager is not on night-duty. [In fact, 5 of 8 day-shift SN/SSNs have taken sick leave since the new rooms were opened.]

I am spending more of my time-off researching about my future home, enjoying my small collections of various stuff [which I would have to pack for shipment], planning my finances for relocation, reflecting on and getting tickled by simple serendipity in life.

• E.g. There was a day when I got ~666 and 088 in my queue number at 2 different service counters.
• E.g. At an ATM queue standing behind a lady (probably grandmother) of a toddler (approximately 1 year old). The toddler dropped the brochure that she was holding and I picked it up for her. She repeated, I picked it up again, but putting it on her stroller beyond her reach this time. I stood observing the girl, she is so beautiful. As they were about to leave, the toddler turned around and sent me a flying kiss. Her grandmother remarked, "You are so lucky, she doesn't do it to just anyone, not even for me!"
• E.g. Looking a my list of diagnosis above also brings a chuckle.

Yes, I am sick of ranting. Time to change my tune for now, until I get sick of being chirpy, ha ha.