nursing

I thought these were funny

I'm no super skilled assessor (yet), but already I use my stethoscope to determine if my patients' might need a breathing treatment or have fluid around their lungs, I have heard heart murmurs and valve clicks, and have heard bowel sounds which tells me their digestive system is working, or not.

No one likes having their job belittled, so seeing a lot of nurses upset and posting responses, both funny and just simply providing education has been interesting.

I don't watch the View, I don't need the drivel and gossip, but I looked up Joy Behar to see if I could find out how she has never come across a nurse before. I guess she was a receptionist, a producer, comedian, and then tv host. Fair enough, that is totally a different realm than healthcare. And maybe she has been lucky enough to not be in a hospital yet, however, at 72 that will likely end at sometime, but still not to have visited someone and seen a loved one cared for? Anyway. I saw that there was a challenge for her to job shadow that Miss Colorado for a day to see what it is like in another person's shoes, I think that is a great idea, but pretty sure she won't do it. Interesting.

mini projects

How could I have forgotten this DST pic I laughed at?! Yeah, we've adjusted now, but this year I did DST wrong and woke up with 15 mins to get ready for church instead of the extra hour I'd planned on. Whoops!

one set of doors done! That looks nice, and keeps September from jumping up there and clawing her way on our clothes to the top

So one little mini project was moving the hampers to the laundry room from the 'office'. I had one big hamper, and Doug had one. But then I'd still have to go through 2 hampers and sort into my whites/mediums/darks piles. So it was a waste of time.

A sort of 'before' picture:

So one trip to Wal-Mart and $21 later found 3 matching bins. They are more appropriately sized too, so now I can just wait till they are full to do a load instead of cramming the size of my old bin into the washer.

This is more like a 'progress' shot:

I found homes already for my bigger, perfectly good, but now redundant laundry bins. But still need to find a slimmer trash can so we can have an 'overflow' trash that will tuck in next to the laundry tub. I was telling Doug the 'overflow' trash can is called the dumpster outside! But he likes to have an extra place for bigger things. It makes sense I guess. So as soon as we find that our laundry room will be much more streamlined and efficient. We are still planning a bigger project to turn our big laundry closet into a pantry, and re-vinyl that floor in there, but that is scheduled for May. But the little bit of organization helps make it more efficient so I like it.

I have my first full day on the floor tomorrow and I am nervous! There's been so much paperwork, and decisions for retirement and health ins, and computer training. This batch of cookie making was necessary

I guess I've always been a person who gets super overwhelmed at stuff. I remember in high school crying about some paper and my mom helped me with it. (ooooh!) But yeah, I was in training yesterday thinking, maybe I don't really want to be a nurse, I can just walk out of here.... I do want to, and I'm excited for it, but it's scary. And it really sucks the amount of paperwork and charting we are forced to do. A lot of it is necessary to communicate with other health-care members, but some of it is solely for protecting ourselves (and the hospital) from getting sued, and that stinks because it takes so much time away from patient care. So we'll see. Hopefully I can learn prioritization and time management skills early so I don't end up like so many overworked burnt out nurses!

Anne, R.N.

Today I was all prepared to blog about the nursing job that I got. But I very wasn't excited about it. It had been my last choice of my 3 interviews, but they were the only offer I had, and I was starting to wrap my head around working midnights. Except, this morning I got a phone call the that job I really wanted - wanted me!

I felt really bad making that phone call to tell them, in essence, 'nevermind'. I hadn't started the new job yet, but I did go in yesterday for the pre-employment physical. And I had emailed the manager that I was excited to be part of the team. And honestly I was getting a little excited about it.

But I am more excited to work during the day and to be working for such a great hospital. They say new nurses always get stuck with midnight shift, but that it's good for them too because there is a little more time to spend with your patients and get a handle on what is going on with them. The day can be very busy with tests, meals, families, etc. I just really hope I can do my best and take great care of people. I had originally prayed that I would get just 1 offer so it would be clear, but then I was upset it wasn't the offer I wanted. And just yesterday I had accepted that God had opened the door for me, and decided to make the most of it. And then today, the second offer. So I don't know what to make of it. But Doug and I decided that I wanted day shift eventually, and I wanted that hospital eventually anyway, so if I was being given the option of now vs. eventually - I should take it now. So I did.

There is still a full month before I start orientation though. It would probably be a good idea for me to go over my books some, as now it will be 5 months since I got done with school!

I saw one of those things on facebook the other day about the best career for your Meyers-Briggs personality type

It's a match! I really hope I can be a great nurse.

life lately

All my studying paid off!!

I'm so glad since that test was crazy and I seriously felt like I studied all the wrong stuff the last 3 weeks. So, WHEW!!

On Friday I walked in the graduation ceremony. Here is me with my friend Ashley. I love this girl, she's like 10 years younger than me, but we get along good, she's so sweet, and going to be an amazing nurse.

a bunch of us from our class decorated our hats (mine was upside-down, whoops!)

so cute, Doug helped me decorate.

Today Liz and I went and stood in line for 2 hours to be the first hundred people in line at a new restaurant, and we won free tacos for a year!

So that's cool. The line for free stuff was not the nicest assembly of people though, this guy was calling some lady fat. So rude, who does that?! But 2 free tacos for a week, pretty cool, except I see it's dine-in only so a little less likely to happen all that often.

Tonight I'm hosting book club, and soon Christmas and New Year's and applying for jobs!

one week to go!

another busy week.

I took my last exam and now I am a graduate nurse!!

Doug took me to Chili's for dessert to celebrate and we had a good time playing Plants vs. Zombies on their tabletop computer things.

So addicting!

Other happenings this week:

The cutest little girl in the world turned 1!!

Oh my gosh I'm so sad to be so far away while she grows up :(

I went up to my parents and made desserts for our dessert buffet.

my favorite ginger molasses cookies and Hershey's chocolate cake

my grandmother's hot milk sponge cake

while I was home I harvested the crop of gourds we planted for our wedding. A bumper crop it was not, but how cute are these little guys!?

Friday night Doug came with me to an unofficial pinning ceremony with my nursing cohort. I guess our school used to do a ceremony but they don't anymore. Lame! So we did our own. This girl has this awesome barn and we all went over and brought food and drinks and bought our own RN pins and pinned each other. It was fun.

They had remodeled the barn and had this wall made of old MI license plates, it was really cool

We're so proud! 26 out of our class of 40 came while we were there, it was pretty fun. Those 2 years flew by! Now to pass the NCLEX and get a job!

sweetest day

My sweetie brought me some treats for sweetest day.

Fun flowers and chocolate covered strawberries, mmmm

I had made this cauliflower alfredo from my favorite food blog girl.

I had that cauliflower in the fridge a couple weeks, I just never felt like making the recipe. But no grocery shopping in a couple weeks has made me desperate, and so I cooked it up. It was quick and easy. And honestly it was delicious the first time. But Doug didn't love it, and it wasn't quite as good the next day, so I'm not sure if I'll make it again.

Speaking of my favorite blog people, food blog girl had a baby and has been much less active, another favorite blogger has almost completely dropped off the face of the internet, and my very favorite home blog has decided to stop blogging after 7 years. I applaud their decision for their family, there were some definite sacrifices being made there, but I'll miss it. And just when I'm getting a home!! Alas. I do still have a few more blogs I really like, I hope they stay! :)

Sunday I spent most of the day studying

Jill cooked up a feast

it was glorious

she made chicken stir fry from scratch and chicken biriyani from a starter packet (I will definitely be buying that, it was so good!)

And today was my LAST exam!! (of my ADN program, I still have to do the BSN completion program) I ended up passing this last semester with an A and a B+. Woot.

Seems like this 2 years flew by. I remember my first day, and my first exam where I sobbed in the hall after it, and many many times saying 'no' to stuff so I could study. I can't believe there was a time where I thought I would go to nursing school and not tell anyone till my surprise graduation. Haha, I think that stemmed more from a fear of public failure, but I'm glad I let people in, I have needed this support and encouragement!

October 2014 future RNs:

Yay! We did it!

4th time the charm?

Another attempt was made to start an IV line

my lovely assistant

So, I got a blood return!

aaaah! too much blood, too much blood!

alas, I could not thread the catheter. That combined with forgetting to take off the tourniquet and I had a bloody mess.

Maybe the 5th time??

Other events of this week were making these cookies that seemed to disappear

Becks and I went on a nice walk and saw this funny door warning

and other than that, feeling very busy. I'm back to work part-time and back to school which will be VERY busy last 8 weeks. Tons of homework, reading, group projects, computer tests, papers...

food and bdays

I found this old celery in the back of the fridge:

Jill has a trick to wrap them (when fresh) in foil to stay crisp longer, but a bucket of water and capillary action also works wonders:

TA-DA!!! (a few days later)

The perfect studying snack

Apples and pb, and ants on a log (nevermind those ants are really chopped up valentines day truffles and not something healthy like cranberries)

Also this week I made beef stroganoff. It was the meal that almost wasn't. I'd been planning on making it for awhile, but when I was cooking I saw that I didn't have any frozen peas. (luckily Jill had some broccoli that needed using) and when I reached for the sour cream, I saw that it was really an old container filled with (now very old) lentil soup Rachel had made for me and stuck in a deceiving sour cream container. Nooo! But then in the far recesses of the fridge did I find some sour cream leftover from taco night (also kinda old, but still smelled fine!). So beef stroganoff cooking could continue.

Pretty much I just loosely go off of a recipe I googled.

I realize it may not photograph that well, but sooo tasty. (and thank you Doug for your pantry-cleaning-out-noodles!)

The last few years I have been unable to celebrate my parents March birthdays with them, but this year, I got to do both! Last week during the car craziness I was up at my parent's and celebrated my dad's, and then this week Mom invited Doug and I up to celebrate hers.

Dad grilled steak, we had salad, and one of her friends dropped off a very tasty pasta salad and carrot cake. And I made chocolate dipped strawberries, mmmm. We got to celebrate with her and watched the pilot episode of Season 1 Downton Abbey that she finally decided to join the rest of the world in watching and received for her birthday.

Also, I had another opportunity to practice on my pincushion, I mean boyfriend. So my boss at work told me I will never be able to start an IV while only a nurse tech, but I had already brought the needles home to practice and had a willing victim. And on my 5th try, I finally got some blood! Although I still failed because I think I hit a valve and couldn't thread the needle. And then when I went to take out the catheter it started gushing blood and I panicked and started yelling until mom just told me to remember to take off the tourniquet. It's very exciting these IV starts I guess. I better not ever work anywhere with gushing blood.

the anatomically correct post

ok, this one is going to have a lot of stuff about nursing in it, be warned.

I watched 2 circumcisions last week. I was with another student crowded around this doctor who was performing a circumcision on a little day old baby boy. She clamped the foreskin and then was sticking in this metal tool to "loosen" the skin from the head of the penis. Then they screw on this metal thing that protects the penis, and draws the foreskin over the metal thing, and then they just slice all the way around it. Meanwhile baby boy is sucking on this pacifier and they're squirting sugar water in his mouth to distract him, he cried, but it did work a little. Then the doctor unscrewed that metal part and the tip of his penis was all purple and shiny and I started to feel sick. So I went out into the hall, and I meant to just lean back against the wall but I think I thumped against it pretty hard because my instructor ran out and was telling me to sit down, etc. I didn't faint, it was like the opposite, she said I was bright red, even my eyes. Weird! After a while I started to get curious so I went back in there. This doctor was explaining how she did it, and what could go wrong. Then she said the worst case scenario they have to amputate the penis. This one girl in my class has never even held a baby and she was like 'oh my'. haha, she believed it. So then my instructor says, "they're doing this new procedure where they use the foreskin to make new eyelids.... the only problem is they look a little cock-eyed".... she said it completely deadpan so I wondered if it was just an odd choice of words, but then I did one of those really loud laughs and then everyone else laughed.

It reminds me of this funny comedian joking about circumcision.

Some people in my class are really funny too, I love my group. The other day in class we were talking about ectopic pregnancies (fetus grows outside the uterus) and this one girl was like 'how did it get there?' and another girl goes 'well, Chelsea, you see... when a man and woman love each other...." and we all laughed. And another time the teacher was talking about a fetal diagnostic tool called C.V.S. and someone asked what that was again, and this hilarious guy in the back says 'it's kinda like a rite-aid'. Anyway, probably had to be there, but good times.

And sad patient-education times at work when the other day when I had to explain to this 20 year old girl how bleeding from her vagina and bleeding from her rectum were different. Did you miss that day in 5th grade!?!

Weekend Update

I feel like my blog post titles are so lame, it's always 'weekend update' or 'catching up'.... but that pretty much is life lately, school, cooking, and work! It's not all that bad though, I like all those things :)

This weekend I had plans to go dancing with one of my girlfriends from church. So the day comes and she said her brother (who was going to come with us) wanted to go downtown instead because one of his theater friends was doing a one man performance. So I'm imagining comedy, or even my mind went to imagining him with a drum strapped to one leg, a horn on the other, a harmonica strapped to his hat, etc. I guess that's a one-man-band btw. Anyway, so we thought it could be fun and we went.

Yeahhhh.... the first few minutes was him laying on this big block with his back to us pretending to nap. I was whispering to my friend, did I just pay $10 to watch a guy take a nap?? I mean you seriously never know these days what people consider "art". Someone even had on facebook today about a guy in Russia sat naked on the street and nailed his balls into the ground and put out a little sign that read: A naked artist, looking at his balls. Which actually when I read the article I kind of respected this guy. Anyway, back to the theater... eventually he did start talking and then it was an hour and a half of him ranting on and on in a series of tangents with absolutely no storyline, no plot. And 3 separate times he said something like "and I went to the toilet, and I vomited, and I vomited" as he crawled around the floor in his gym shorts and hanes white tee and laid his head on a big block and fake puked. It was crazy. At the end of the performance I refused to clap, well then he was looking right at me, and I clapped twice, but in my heart I only clapped in thankfulness that it was over. So yeah, won't be doing that again. The rest of the night was fun as we made fun of the show and went out to a bar and got some good snackie stuff. My friend was flirting with these bar guys at the table next to us and they told me that when I went to the bathroom one drunk guy had said: I'd give her my last name, haha, oh yeah, still got it.

Yesterday I had to skip church to go to the NICU. It was a good experience, had a great nurse but saw some sad stuff that continued to reinforce that I don't want to work with babies. A 1 lb baby that they said was going to die any day and a baby going through withdrawal (it's been 2 months now) cause mom did drugs during her pregnancy. Sad!

Then I had another dad/daughter dinner date. We went to Applebees and got dinner and talked. It was really nice, good talks with Dad about relationships, work, loneliness, and life. I felt like a big jerk today because I gave him an empty jar to take back home from tomatoes my mom canned and gave to me, and in there I had put a mini snickers from my goodie bag and gave to him because it's his favorite and I don't really like Snickers. Anyway, my mom who has been gone for 10 days calls me today and said she was eating a snickers and thinking of me, and I was like 'hey, that was for dad, the jar was for you.' So rude! I don't think she took it that way exactly, but I laughed about it later as I felt like a jerk. Hey why don't you go can me some more stuff. I think a mom/daughter date is in order!

Since I had to do that school thing on Sunday I felt like I didn't even get any kind of break at all this weekend. Sunday is the one day I get to sleep in past 6:30, and now it feels like forever till the next sunday.... oh well.

At clinical today I saw my first vaginal birth. Scary. First I stood in the hall listening to her screaming for several minutes. Then my teacher got permission for me to come in and the first thing I see is a little head coming out. And fluid spurting. And the nurse was yelling because mom was digging her nails into the nurse's arm. And then dad was yelling because mom turned her head and bit him in the stomach. Yikes! So then baby was born. And doctor is down there delivering the placenta and then he is yelling at mom 'stop moving!' as he pulled by her little cord coming out of there. Apparently he was going to cut something, but she flinched and I think messed up whatever he was about to do. He later apologized. I don't know, I haven't given birth before, so I was thinking mom was entitled to do whatever she needed to do- but my teacher said that was unusual. Actually I believe the phrase she used was 'that mom was like the exorcist'. Anyway, ouch! At the end of the day the mom thanked me for being so kind to her. I was kind of surprised because all I did was get her new socks and a gown and got some food for her. I really hope that that won't be her only kindness during her stay :(

Tonight I made dinner and tried to catch back up on my studies.

stir fry with lo mein noodles

cranberry chocolate chip muffins

nursing

Today at work I almost had this scene from Monty Python:

Luckily I didn't say it, but I was sure this old guy was an old lady.

I cannot figure out what is going on with my patients, and why so few of them have teeth. Everyday I say to myself, stay in there teeth!!!

I passed another class, ob/gyn part a. One more section to go and then Christmas break! Woo, I am excited. I'm super excited to meet this beautiful baby girl!!! (shout out to Sarah the most amazing photographer I know!)

In school-baby news I'm finding myself not that crazy about ob/gyn. I'm kinda surprised because I always loved those TLC baby story shows, but this isn't that great. There is sooo much charting and boring make-sure-the-hospital-doesn't-get-sued that is just such a shame as I feel the time could be much more valuable with actual patient care, and labor coaching and teaching. This one birth I saw the first labor of it and mom was on bed writhing in pain, dad and daughter (who knows why she was there anyway) were watching cartoons, totally ignoring mom. And nurse looked at the monitors and left. I think I would like it if I were the midwife and I was at some home-birth, but I'm not crazy about this hospital way. Plus the smell of blood... shudder. But I guess it's good I'm seeing what I like and don't like, as otherwise I've liked everything and haven't felt much direction for a future specific area.

Made a few foods this week:

Thai Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers .... lots of chopping, and just ok :/ not nearly as good as her other veggie burgers that I love

Jill's recipe of chili, topped with store-brand 'fritos' (not as good, but good-enough and saved $1, haha)

Also this week I made my box for Operation Christmas Child!

My favorite thing this year is the glow-in-the-dark build-it dinosaur skeleton :) ... and I like the harmonica. I hope some 5-9 year old boy somewhere out there has a good Christmas this year!

And tonight after a long day at work, and evening at clinical I came home and found this:

Jill met with her mentor tonight, who brought over candy bags, and one for me too! Awwww, so thoughtful. I may or may not be typing this with a chocolate mustache right now :)