I feel great this week – I’m motivated, I have energy, my mood is good… “Sounds like she’s reached the nesting phase of her pregnancy,” many of you might be thinking.

Actually it’s more like, “I called in sick twice this week and now I realize just how much working in the MICU strips me of my mental health and physical well-being.”

Thanks to the previous post, I’ve been doing some serious thinking about my health and well-being. As a result I made the decision to call in sick for two of my night shifts this week. As many of you know, this is not an easy thing for a nurse to do. We seem to have this work ethic and sense of duty that makes us crawl into work or else feel eternally guilty for not making it in. And for those of us who have no sense of guilt or work ethic, we have the on-call system.

The on-call system dictates that I am required to sign up for 2 on-call shifts every six weeks. If two nurses call out, they bring in the on call nurse. I’ve always believed in the “on call kharma” …meaning if you call in sick too much you can be sure to be called in soon enough. The evidence doesn’t really support this, though. I’m about to reach my 2 year anniversary at Ghoat and I have only really been called in twice, yet, I’ve called in sick many more times than that. However, the majority of these call-outs have been during my pregnancy, which everyone seems to agree, is a good excuse.

And yes, my guilt for calling in sick was eating away at me for a few brief moments, but you know what? It’s worth it because I FEEL FANTASTIC THIS WEEK.

But am I really nesting? Let’s explore this question…

Is my nursery set up?

No, the finishing touches of paint are still being applied by the wonderful husband of pixelRN. All the baby stuff that’s thus far been acquired is sitting around in boxes and bags…

Am I cleaning my house? No, there are tumbleweeds of dog hair everywhere, thanks to the wonderful dog of pixelRN.

What can I say? I’m usually a big fan of vacuuming (really – I am), but not while pixelRN junior is sitting on my lower spine causing this nagging (but not really severe) lower back pain.

So what have I been doing?

Surfing the net, dude. (OMG that is so 1997)

Resdiscovering my love of graphic design + the internet.

Rediscovering blogs.
And working on my swanky new gift shop.

Where you can buy these fine products…

Nothing like a little art therapy + capitalism to get me back on track.