Post by MICHAEL J REKAL on Feb 13, 2015 21:05:18 GMT -8
michael james rekal leo critical care nurse Twenty-six August 7th homosexual DAVE FRANCO  |
general likes Medicine; it's kind of a given, especially with the profession. It's one of his biggest passions, really. Being able to get just a few pieces of information from someone over the phone about someone, then being able to potentially change and save someone's life gives him an amazing feeling, as well as knowing he will have built up a bond with not only them, but the family with it. Coffee. Well, it's a standard go-to when he is at work, or when he is getting ready for work, then it's always a good excuse to just get out of the house on his days off. Alcohol: Vodka, tequila, sambucca, beer, wine, amaretto, Jack Daniels, whatever you throw at him in a club, he will down it in one. It's not often he manages to get a chance to go out for the night, so when he does, he goes big time. Usually maybe once a month or so, simply because of how often he works. Spending time with friends, it's always a good stress reliever, even if most of his friends are from work, it seems. this would be because of his immigration status and the fact he hasn't been living in Modesto for too long. Skyping his family is another major thing for him, they're always there for him whenever he is doubting that he can make it here, when he wants to move back home, etc. His phone is one of the things that he loves, he can't get away from it. It is always in his hand. Hardcore metal music. It's been his jam since he was a young teenager. Singing. Who doesn't love a good old sing-a-long in the shower? dislikes Conceited people who can't see the world through any opinion apart from their own; people who won't give someone else's view a shot are not worth his time. Bad hair days; self explanatory, right? Student nurses. Although he was one himself once, critical care is not the environment someone who is still learning how to nurse should be in, in his opinion. They just get in the way and there's not really a lot that a student nurse can actually do that's actually helpful. Working the emergency department. Anyone who says they enjoy working it are either lying, or they're just plain insane. Pop music, as a whole, admittedly there are a few songs that he does like, but the majority of it, to him, sounds like a load of garbage. strengths He is absolutely fantastic as putting his point across, often to the point where he has changed people's minds on what would be the right plan of action for something simple, such as where to go for the night out, or to something that can change a patient's life. His confidence has got him through a lot in life. Having the ability to flirt with people; he's got the confidence, as mentioned, and his flirting skills are ontop of their game. The fact he doesn't 'look or sound gay' helps him in life; when a patient's male relative is kicking off, or when someone in a bar is giving a friend hassle, he can easily step in and give the same effect that a straight man would. His singing is definitely something he has become good at, or rather he was always good at it, but he never pursued it. If there's an open mic night and he's at the bar anyway, he won't turn down the chance to belt out some sort of classic. weaknesses His ability to be too upfront and honest with people has often caused rifts in friendships, sometimes unfixable ones, which has caused him to lose friends. While he has the confidence of a lion, and the honesty of someone under some sort of spell where they can not lie, he will always avoid talking about his true feelings. If someone asks him if he is okay after just losing a patient he had developed a strong bond with, he will always just say he is fine and it is part of the job, then get on with the next task while over-analysing everything he did for that patient that shift to think if he could have done anything to change it. Nine times out of ten, he needs someone to tie him to a chair and make him spill everything. He panics. As good as he is at his job, he panics on the job, but he hides it well. It may not be a weakness, per-say, but he does have a nicotine addiction. An addiction which he will only fulfil by smoking cigarettes. He has tried nicotine patches and the e-cigs, but they don't cut it for him, and he can't seem to quit. fears Ending up in critical care, not because of how unwell it would mean he is, more because he couldn't bare the idea of his friends and family treating him. Mentally breaking down, giving in and deciding he had to go back to the UK. habits He has a terrible habit of looking in a mirror whenever he walks past one. His addiction to cigarettes. personality Michael's confidence has quite often got him into a lot of trouble with others, it can quite often be perceived as cockyness and arrogance, which as much as he argues it isn't, nine times out of ten, it is. There's a fine line between the two and he hasn't quite mastered it. There's been times he has been dragged into the office at work over the fact that he has been too blunt with a patient, or their relatives. He has also mastered the art of not caring what people think of him. There's no illusion for him that he isn't perfect, he often tells people that they just haven't seen him at his best yet, but the way he sees it is why should he answer himself to other people? Cockyness. Arrogance. Right there. While he is usually a happy go lucky kind of person, there's times when he gets down, everyone does. He wouldn't ever dare let onto anyone that was how he was feeling, putting on a pokerface has become one of his biggest skills, he can deal with something that would put someone into therapy, or leave them breaking down crying like a five year old, and he would simply walk away and put on a poker face and get on with the next thing. It has made people believe he has a heart of stone, if any heart whatsoever. Don't let that there fool anyone, though, when there's a party and he has the weekend off, he is there. Quite the life of the party, actually. Michael is that guy who will turn up with something for everyone to begin shotting, and will have them poured out no later then ten minutes after his arrival through the front door. All being said, if someone takes a turn for the worse after drinking his shots, he will always make sure he looks after them and gets them in a taxi home, or, God forbid, in an ambulance to hospital. history 7th August, 02:47 HRS. An ambulance pulls up to West Middlesex Hospital, just on the outskirts of London, England, with a lady, 19, and her doting boyfriend of 23. She was obviously in pain and heavily pregnant, and evidently, she had just gone into labour. He was attempting to help her, in whatever way he could, but was essentially getting in the way of the paramedics, who were attempting to get the mother into the hospital, so she could give birth safely, to their baby who was already beginning to show signs of distress. 7th August, 04:40 HRS Baby is finally born, but taking up to NICU, the area where babies are taken if they are born with high risk complications, or are ridiculously early. So, here we are, Michael has begun his life, he is being taken straight into an intensive care setting, away from his mother and father, who want nothing more than to be with him, birth, however, brought on more complications than they thought. Unknown to the little man, no older than an hour old, his mother had suffered a huge bleed and was currently fighting for her life up in the operating theatres, while his father was in a hospital bed himself after passing out from the whole situation. All this was going on while he was nicely tucked up in the incubator, not a care in the world. 9th August, 11:03 HRS Across the hospital, multiple pagers went off at once. The five chilling words that any doctor or nurse could hear on their bleeper. Adult cardiac arrest, maternity ward Mother dearest was gone. They fought for an hour and a half to bring her back, but nothing they could do was working. Motherless and still up in critical care, Michael wasn't aware what his life was about to be. His father was about to become a single father with a child to raise all by himself, and also have to manage running the house. A few years went on, his father seemed to manage to get over the death of his girlfriend, Michael's mother, and Michael? Well, he had the attitude that he never really knew her, so he wasn't going to mourn over her, he just had to adjust to life with no mother, when everyone else was being picked up by their mum in the playground at school. From the age of seven, he knew that he wanted to work in a medical field somewhere. He wasn't sure if he wanted to work as a doctor or a nurse, or even in the labs. It wasn't long before he found himself researching what sort of qualifications he would need in life to be able to get to where he wanted to be, at the age of eight he had his mind set on working as a nurse in an acute medical setting, or as he called it, 'where people are really really sick'. His father would often ask 'why not be a doctor?', which Michael replied 'because I'd end up as a GP and I don't want to do that.' Michael's father, Jamie, began questioning what Michael's sexuality was. It didn't bother him, but he wanted to be able to support him if he was gay. When Michael turned ten, he found he had a lady sitting in his house a lot, talking to his father, and there was another person, at the age of seven in the house. Twelve years old and Michael was attending his first wedding; the wedding of his father and step-mother, welcoming the lady and her son into the family. No, this isn't an 'evil step mother' story, if anything, she was the total opposite. Until he came out. She got funny, attempting to keep his step-brother away from him, as if he was going to convert him. It caused huge family rows, his father always on his side, and she was refusing to see what she was doing wrong. As it turns out, she was pregnant herself with another child on the way. Keep in mind that at this age, Michael is now fifteen, so there'd be a fifteen year age gap, and a twelve year age gap between Ryan, his step brother, and the baby. University. Southampton University, ranked within the top 3 in the UK for nursing, what more could he ask for? He had a cracking social life, a great set of house mates, and a boyfriend. His first real heartbreak. At eighteen, he felt that they would be together forever and always, how much more wrong could he be? By the age of twenty, they were broken up. Just before his 22nd birthday, Michael qualified as a Registered Adult Nurse, and landed his first job on a ward for the elderly at his nearest hospital. Things weren't working out there; he knew he had to get out. Then the perfect job opportunity came up. Critical care nursing. In California. Moving to California. He applied for the job, and in the application he stated that he could be ready to move out to California within three weeks, but he would not be able to attend an interview prior to moving, but would be more than happy to have a video interview over Skype, or over the phone. The interview took place over Skype, which lasted a whole hour and a half, where they offered him the job, with one year's paid accommodation. Which he then accepted on the spot, too. Saying goodbye to his family was emotional, but he knew it was for the better. Being 24 and having moved away to another country was something he hadn't seen himself doing, but he definitely did not regret it. |