At 5:45 am I opened my eyes. As usual just before the alarm was set to go off. Piril jumped off the pillow where she was curled up next to my head, Funky jumped off my legs and Topsy sat up and began licking my hand. We followed the usual morning routine: I fed the dog and cats, Tor made the coffee. After coffee we had our breakfast of yogurt with muesli and a nectarine. On the way out of the house I stopped by the cabin in the garden which is Ingvild's room to say good morning, good bye and good luck with her semester finals in jazz dance and ballet. She showed me some of her ballet moves yesterday afternoon. I am really impressed. She is graceful, controlled with a lovely expression of joy in the movements, not that fake smile you so often see. I'm sure she will do well.
Had a short day shift, ending at 2 pm. Most of my patients were planned admissions. You can often have quite interesting conversations with these patients, and get to know some interesting people. My last patient was an emergency patient, quite a complicated case: He initially presented with stroke symptoms and had a history of diabetes. The first set of vitals uncovered a fever of 102.2 and rapid breathing with an odd pattern. This caused me to take arterial blood gases, which showed an elevated blood sugar, and a urine speciman, which was positive for nitrite. So now we had a hyperglycemic diabetic with a urinary tract infection, hyperthermia and stroke symptoms. So I was kept busy initiating fluid replacement and giving medication to bring down the blood sugar and fever...
I had brought a rhubarb cake to share with my colleagues, but was busy with this patient and thus didn't get to sit down with them while they were having it. Everyone seemed a little surprised that I had brought cake on a Thursday - we usually have cake on Fridays - but only one person actually asked. So then I had to admit that it was my birthday, every one said "Happy Birthday", but I was out of there, leaving the cake for the afternoon shift when they came.
When I got home there was a present waiting for me on the dining room table. It was from our neighbors across the street. They had left it in the mailbox. Otherwise I had calls from all the kids, as well as from Father and from my friend Nils. Husband had big news. He has been offered the new job he had applied for: running the isolation unit for up and coming artificial insemination boars that the pig breeding association has. It's a part time job, and the boar barn is only a 10 minute walk from our house. Better pay, retirement package, regular hours. I think he will be happy there!
In the evening we went orienteering. They only had advanced level courses so I chose the shortest: 2.6 km. It still took me an hour and a half, but this is the first time I have found all the controls on an A-level orienteering course.
When we got home and had showered I called our neighbors across the street to have some of the delicious birthday cake that Tor had made me. It was a whole wheat sponge filled with sliced banana and caramel cream, and iced with whipped cream and almond caramel sauce.
After they left, we had just made our evening cocoa and were about to sit down to a few quiet minutes of crossword and griddle solving, when Ingvild called to say she had missed her bus home. Off I went in the car to pick her up. One of the unfortunately quite common aggravations of living with a teenager. To be fair, she has only missed the bus twice in the past many months, only it wasn't so long ago last time it happened.
When I got home, my cocoa was cold, and Tor was already in bed and practically asleep. Topsy was curled up at the foot of the bed. I crept under the covers and withing minutes Piril came poking her nose to get in under them with me where she curled up against my side with her head on my arm.
And that was the end of a typical Thursday, which was also my birthday.
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