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Agent Hunter [Website Review]

This is a site review. Agent Hunter website shows lots of really good writing tips. Interestingly, it complies lists of numerous agents and agencies, which is very helpful. It has different packages that are affordable too such as: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

I came across an event ‘Festival of writing’ on their website. The event seemed to be a great idea for any writer willing to make the most out of their writing. It is worth attending.

However, if you are on the completion phases of your work and no longer looking for agents, you might not enjoy the site that much.

I recommend the website for authors looking for agents.

In my experience, I have perused and seen the resources they have but not searching for agents at the moment. Will definitely use them in my next project.

What Tenses Suit Your Writing?

Hi friends, in the course of editing the manuscript for my new novel, I realised there are lots of words I repeated more than the others. You need to see how many times I have edited this work – Ah!

I have noticed that most novels are written in past tense, in the sense that the writer narrates what had already happened. In my initial drafts, it was mixed up; both present and past tenses. My novel is a fiction.

Are you are a writer or have such knowledge? I will like to know what works for you tenses wise. For instance, ‘had and would’ are always handy for me.

To be honest, the writing was kind of easy-going, because I wrote as the ideas came along and at the times and the days it did came; simply hitting the keyboards however, this editing phase seems to be more than I had imagined. It’s taking a lot of time and am yet to get it to the level I want. It has been edited by other people and a professional editor too.

On a different note, I read about book promotion before publication. Have you tried that? How did it go? I will like to try it in terms of creating more awareness.

Blogmas- Christmas Favourite Song

I’m writing this post in the spirit of Blogmas. Blogmas is simply about bloggers or vloggers sharing ideas about Christmas daily. However, am gonna opt for weekly. I will paste a link below that explains Blogmas in details.

So, I’m sharing my favourite Christmas 🎄 song. I love the following songs: ‘Silent Night, Long time ago in Bethlehem, Noel Noel, Joy to the World’ but my the top on my list is ‘Away in a Manger’.

<<<<
yrics of these songs make me so much want everyday to be Christmas😄

‘Away in a Manger’ is my favourite Christmas song. I normally attend Christmas carols just to sing these songs that I love so much.

What is your favourite christmas song?

Have a beautiful Christmas 🎄 celebration.

The Link for Blogmas explanation:

https://www.thewildhideaway.com/blog/blogmas-post-ideas-and-tips/

No Time is Late For God

Do you have that specific pressing need or problem that you thought you would have solved before the year runs out but do not see it materializing?

The year is almost coming to an end and you seem so clueless. There are Christmas decorations everywhere and it all appears to be hopeless. Do not give up! Have faith.

God is still God. There are still have lots of days in December. Needless to say, God can rewrite anyone’s story within seconds, as it pleases Him.

It can be very difficult and emotionally draining to simply wait for a miracle but His timing is always perfect, comes with exceeding joy and worth all the wait.

Don’t give up. Have faith and keep up with your good works.

P.S.

Sending you warm wishes of love 💗 and peace ✌️ as Christmas 🎄 approaches.

Change Your Style

At times, we get used to some habits that we feel we cannot do any thing about them despite knowing deep down we can do better. It gets worse when we know our close friends are so accustomed to them too and do not complain any more but is that the way forward?

There are a lot we can do to improve on our selves. I like to think that as a person, you owe it to yourself to do things rightly before you begin to think of the impact of your actions on others. In my experience, I function better when I set myself a task to accomplish because I  find the problem, come up with a plan and set the deadline which is very different when am doing it to please someone else. I know this is very different for everyone.

Having said that, I do not imply that we make efforts to change our personality completely. No, because that is who we are. However, we can easily modify  by adjusting to better ways and not dwelling on certain ill habits because we think others tolerates us.

You can make an effort to improve. Do not forget that even the most lenient person has a limit to what they can handle. Don’t wait till something terrible happens while you can do something now. I know it can be very challenging to curtail certain habit but I guess that is what differentiates adults from kids because you know what’s good and the bad: even why you decide not to let go of them.

When you pick out that habit you want to ditch or curtail, push your self to see how far you can go. For instance, if you always make negative comments knowingly or unknowingly, try a whole day not to do it. When such moment is about to occur, pause and re-frame your words, take a deep breath or ask yourself,  is what I’m about saying that necessary?

Try it for a day… 3 days… a week … and see where you go from there. Your close friends might notice you sound very different but in a nice way. You would be amazed by what you have done for yourself.

You can do it, especially for you.

Hello WordPress

Hi Friends, I recently moved from blogger to WordPress and my old blogs migrated too.

I thought it was high time I took my writing seriously and write more. I have heard a lot about WordPress and its benefits for bloggers. Well, I don’t consider myself a blogger yet but in contexts like this the word becomes handy. This is simply because I enjoy writing certain kind of stories and do just that.

However, I intend to write more often now and give you the contents your time deserve. Also, I’m going to try to be consistent. So, here I am trying to find my way around WordPress. There are lots of plugins, tools and other stuffs to choose from and various designs to explore. I hope it is worth all the hassle.Do you know any must-have plugin or tool in WordPress? I will like to hear from people with similar experience.

My blogger domain is writingisrewarding because then at the time I started it I clearly wanted to explore my style of writing to see to if anyone would connect with them and was not keen on having a domain with my name. In WordPress, I decided to use Viviensvoice because I realised there are people who connect with my stories.

Please subscribe to my blog posts and updates. Thank you.

Have a productive week.

 

One Pence

Hi my lovelies, I have a beautiful story to share with you.
It was a mini exercise we did in the church: please keep reading. So, during sermon, the priest asked if anyone had one pence coin and that they bring it out. We did.
One Pence

 Photo credit: depositphotos.com

We were asked to look at both sides of the coin, close our eyes and differentiate between the two.

Most of us weren’t able to do so. Then, he asked us to pray for the blind.
He asked that we look at the side with the picture of the queen’s head and pray for the country and other nations. We continued and turned to the side with the picture of crowned portcullis with chains and prayed for all prisoners.
Lastly, he made us hold the pence in the center of our palms and prayed for beggars.
It was an exceptional experience for me: having to meditate, think about different experiences and challenges people face in their daily lives.
I love it when the word of God is so simplified and yet mysterious.

Have a blessed weekend Friends.

P.S.

Sorry Friends, I had to re-post as the previous one would not open. Thanks to a loyal reader that made me aware.

Cradle Cap in Babies

There are lots of cradle cap remedies online but I will tell you what worked for me. By the way, what does cradle cap look like?
Photo credit: Wikipedia

It is oily yellowish patches that appears on the scalp of babies. It is mostly common within 3 months of life and can last up to 1 year. It is not contagious and does not harm the baby.

In my experience, my little one had it and I was really worried but the GP said not to worry that it goes away before most babies one year birthday. However, that was not enough for me. I simply wanted it to go away as soon as possible.

I read a lot online, watched YouTube videos and was not happy with my findings. None seemed to be say what I wanted to hear.

Many sources recommended the usage of olive oil and combing it out after 15 mins. Meanwhile, that was my baby’s hair oil. Strangely, the front part of the scalp where I cover with lots of oil was coated with cradle cap.

I was convinced that ‘Olive oil’ was the culprit and cannot be my solution. This was further confirmed by an article I read too. The link to the article is available at the end of this post.

I searched for shampoos but was worried trying those chemicals on my little ones scalp. Then,  a friend told me she had same issue but theirs was very little and gradually disappeared. She said her GP prescribed Capasal therapeutic shampoo for her baby but she never used it.

It was as if that was all I needed – something prescribed by a professional!

I used it on my little one and it worked like magic. The first time,  I was really careful both on application and on combing of the hair. It worked and I was happy. The second day, I was more confident in using it and most of it came off. On the third day, my baby’s scalp was neat, no traces of cradle cap.

I could not believe the past few weeks and all the time I had spent online reading lots of stuffs that amounted to nothing.

I hope this post gets to someone who needs remedy that I needed or to someone that knows someone. However, every baby is different. What worked for mine might not be suitable for yours.

Below are sites for further reading on the topic. I found them very informative.

 


Disclaimer: This cannot substitute for a professional medical advice and treatment. 

The Master Planner.


 2017 has hit the ground running. I wish us all the very best and all the good things we wish ourselves. Let’s take each single day, week or month as it comes. If  the previous weeks have been good, let it prevail if not, better days are ahead. 

I ran into a friend who told me about her recent encounter with God. She began by saying that she had applied for a programme in the university over a year ago and was looking forward to it last August. Then she got pregnant and was very determined to carry on as planned.
According to her, she simply taught babies only sleep and eat in their initial months of life. A colleague at work had tried to discourage her and advised  her to defer the course because of the pregnancy and how difficult it would be when baby arrives but she felt like no way. To her, the year was already sorted and she could see herself doing them all.
Two weeks to the commencement of the course, she got an email from the Uni to say they are not able to carry on with her chosen programme and offered her another programme which she rejected outright. She could not believe her situation. She felt so shattered and disappointed. She was so desperate and wouldn’t let go. She went to God in prayers.  
Luckily, she was able to find another Uni that was running the programme for september but this time it was online. She felt consoled at last. Courses began, pregnancy going well and then baby arrived. She couldn’t believe herself; babies don’t just sleep and eat like she had imagined; they cry a lot, you barely sleep and becomes physically, emotionally drained.
She struggled so hard with her online courses and still on it. She told me she would have simply deferred the course if she were to attend to the classes. Now, she clearly understood what her colleague was talking about.

“I can’t believe I thought I was going would be able to leave baby and go for lectures. Like how?” She asked me. All I think about now is baby and baby. My baby comes first…

God knows it all my Dear, was my response. He is the master planner. I believe Him any time.
Finally, I know as humans there are times we tend to question God but in all things trust Him. Let His will be done.
Lessons learned:
Do challenge yourself. You can do it. Believe God.
She is studying like she wanted and baby arrived but God made it all prefect for her.

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome commonly known as ARDS is a life-threatening medical condition whereby the lungs cannot provide sufficient oxygen for the body.
Causes
This condition develops when the lungs has become infected or sustained an injury leading to inflammation. The inflammation causes fluid from nearby blood vessels to leak into the tiny air sacs in the lungs, making breathing increasingly difficult.

Inflammation can be caused by:

  • Sepsis
  • Pneumonia
  • Severe chest injury  
  • Accidental inhalation of vomit, smoke or toxic chemicals
  • Acute pancreatitis
  • Blood transfusion reaction
Clinical Features
Theses can occur within 24 to 48hrs of illness and can include:
  • Severe shortness of breath
  • Rapid, shallow breathing
  • Low blood pressure
  • Tiredness, drowsiness or confusion
  • Feeling faint
  • Organ failure
Normally, these patients are so sick that they cannot complain of symptoms.

Diagnosis

A full assessment is carried out and include the following:
  • Physical examination
  • Blood test to ascertain oxygen saturation and check for signs of infection
  • Arterial blood gases(ABG) for continous monitoring of respiratory state, blood volume and electrolytes.
  • Blood and urine culture
  • Pulse oximetry test for continuous monitoring of oxygen saturation
  • Chest X-ray and a computerised tomography (CT) scan – to look for evidence of ARDS
  • Echocardiogram to picture the heart ; to rule out heart failure.
  • Sputum culture and analysis
  • Broncoscopy can be carried out in certain cases.

Treatment
-Admission into intensive care unit for breathing support via Ventilator. 
-Antibiotic administration to fight infection.

*Prone position have been found to be appropriate in the management of ARDS.

My Encounter with ARDS patient
I had to look after after a Mr. X diagnosed with ARDS and Intracranial hyperosmolar. It turned out to be a very busy and interesting shift.  

  • Cardiovascular: Blood pressure was initially high but was supported with Noradrenaline infusion and it was managed. – 
  • Respiratory: Was intubated and ventilated. Settings include: pressure control mode of 24, peep 14, FiO2 70%, respiratory rate 15,  peak 38. The above high settings were changed slightly throughout the day. ABG revealed; high PCO2, low O2, high hydrogenbicarbonate, high base excess, high sodium, low potassium and high glucose. All electrolytes were replaced and a slidiing scale was in place to control his blood glucose level.
  • Neurologically, he was sedated and paralysed using Propofol and Actracurium infusions.  Fentanyl was given for pain. Pupils were 2 and nonreactive. Richmond sedation agitation score was -5(deeply sedated and unarousable)
  • Nutrition: on nasogastric feed- Nutrison  and ng water at 40ml and 30ml respectively 
  • Elimination: Good bowel movement and urine output. However, furosemide was given to push more fluid out of the lungs. 

I hope you are getting the gist? I am not going to bore you with my nursing care bits. So, let me wrap it up by telling you the issues and plan for that day. 
Problems:

  • ARD
  • Septic shock
  • Neutral fluid balance(off target)
  • Electrolyte abnormalities
  • Permissive hypercapnia
Plan:
  • PC Ventilator settings – sedated and paralysis
  • Manual recruitment post sunctioning
  • No nebs – Suction 6hrly
  • Ng water @ 30ml/hr
  • Furosemide infusion Urine output greater than 100ml/hr
  • Continue antibiotics Meropenem and Teicoplanin
  • Discuss with microbiology daily.

Lastly, ARDS is a killer illness. I was practically on my feet throughout the shift as Mr. X was unstable and I had lots of infusions that were running out at different times amongst other tasks. Suctioning was quite scary that day as Mr. X could desaturate within secs. Oh! I ended up staying 45mins extra to do my documentations.

References 
NHS Choices (2015)

P.S.
Thanks for reading. Sorry for the medical jargons- I tried to minimse them. When your loved ones or friends are sick or look unwell, please encourage them to go the hospital to get a medical assistance.Ours lives are so precious. 

Disclaimer: This cannot substitute for a professional medical advice and treatment.