Bullied! In Hospital?

Well, not really. Haha!

You see, during hospital admission 1, I was asked by a young nurse if I could paint her portrait for her. I said ok but didn’t get round to doing it. The excuse I gave is because I did not have a good photo of her! 

Fast forward to hospital admission 2. Still not done. I was busy with Christmas postcards. After Christmas was over, I went into flower overdrive…

I think all the nurses were curious to see her portrait. But eventually, they stopped asking if I had done it.

Finally the person in question herself couldn’t stand the suspense any longer and asked me if I had done it…hahaha

That’s when I got down to doing it. A promise is a promise.

I DID 2 VERSIONS NOT JUST 1!

The first version took 2 days to do. 

By now, 

lesson number 1 from art has taught me is that it is sometimes better not to do things in one go. Better to do it halfway, take a pause, see the big picture before finally completing it. 

I had the overwhelming desire to correct her features as I started. I wanted to do “cosmetic surgery” on her…like make her slimmer, especially the face. But I resisted temptation and tried to keep it to as real life as possible.

Several parts where challenging especially the face and eyes. 

Lesson number 2 – when you make a mistake, you can try to cover it up or leave it. Both having different consequences. In my case, at the last minute I decide to “lower” one of the eyes! After patching that part of the face, I sort of regretted. Feeling that it would have been wiser if I had left it alone. 

Kind of like similar lesson from lesson 1! Too much meddling is not good!

So I completed the portrait but somehow still not feeling satisfied, I did a fast watercolour pencil sketch version of her. This time it took only an hour or so to complete. I did a less is more approach and only deliberately painted several sections like her hair. The result was a lot more fluid and a lot more like my style.

Mixed media portrait using watercolour and gouache 

Fast watercolour pencil sketch cum watercolour highlights

FUNNY FACTS ABOUT THE GIFTING

Rewind to 2 nights before I gave the portraits. Our said nurse (let’s call her J!) had been on night shift and kept looking at my paintings. I am not sure it was meant to be a hint or she genuinely felt my paintings were nice and came in every time to admire them?!

So when I finally gave her the portraits, she asked me how come she never saw them. I was like … of course I won’t show you right? Otherwise, there won’t be any surprise right? 

I thought she would say she likes the face or the hair or the hand that is doing the Korean heart sign most. But no! She says the likes the way her other hand is resting on the banister! What a random comment! 

But I am in full gratitude that she really appreciated my gift and was so in love with it that she said she needed to show or give it to her boyfriend. 

But yes. It feels really good to gift…

TRIVIA TIME! 

By no means trivial ya!

FUNNY HAPPENINGS WITH J THAT LIGHT UP MY DAY 😊

About the beef steak being rock hard…

J said throw it at my doctor. I ask her why she choose my doctor.  Afterall he's quite important to me you know?! As in he’s quite crucial for my wellbeing, yes? Then she proceeds to say she chose him because there’s no other reference point lol! She proceeded to say that if he gets a concussion, to put him in the next room to me. Really cracked me up!  She is wise not to choose any of her nurse colleagues wahahahaha.

Watch the video of her hamming it up, demonstrating that the scrambled eggs were equally hard as the steak! So hilarious!

2am perimeter check

J was on night shift and came in to take my temperature at 2am. 

She cannot see because the room is dark. She accidentally switches on the main lights in the room. Flooding the room with bright light. Then she says sorry and switches it off. Then a moment hesitation and then she said, “little while only ah” She then re-switches the light back on, rushes over to take my temperature and then switches the light off finally. 

By which time, I am rather awake already. Coupled with 6am draw blood. 

The quality of my sleep that night was not good. Sigh!

But still hilarious enough to share this incident with you. 

Showering

J is very sweet to want to shower me….

But J used to have a habit of wrapping my arm which has the central line in it too tightly…ouch.

Said nurse also did battle with the micropore tape many many times. I felt I had to help her and show her how to fold the tape, and so on. Quite hilarious really!

We eventually got it right though!

Her mannerisms and expressions!

Super cute!  Overall, I am grateful that for the jolliness and the laughter! 

Hope you enjoyed the little insight into life with #aml #acutemyeleoidleukemia #hospitalstay #staycation #nurse #life #round2