Monday, Monday........

Monday I register for the next semester...... Peds for 7 weeks, then OB for 7 weeks, and somewhere in there, 40 hours of community health. I am so excited and terrified at the same time. (Nothing like panicking now, about a class that starts in January)I am excited about the clinical locations. One is the public hospital (JMH), and the other is the children's hospital, where I take my own son.

I definitely got a "B" on my Pharm test. I am satisfied with that grade, considering it took me until the day before the test to come up with a study method that made the material stick in my head.

However, I spent so much time on Pharm, I fear that I may have hosed the Neuro test in Med-surg. I had a wiggle room of 7 to pass. Here's hoping. Damn seizures....Oh, well. Past is past. On to Respiratory.....

My son and I had a much needed date last Saturday. We have not spent any us time in ages. We went to our favorite pizza joint and then the movies and saw "Just Like Heaven."

David spent the morning cleaning his room and earned a few dollars, and, boy is it strange what kids will buy with their own money. We were passing through Winn Dixie on our way to the theater (air conditioner - break), and David saw they were selling Halloween items. He saw a hockey mask, and it was $2. He was so excited, "I have $2!" We went to the self-checkout, and David did the whole thing himself. And I went to the movies with Jason, Jr. Willie gave him a dollar on Tuesday morning, and we had to go to Target (my favorite store) to pick up a few things, and David used his dollar to buy a bunch of fake moustaches. Now, the Jason mask has a moustache as well. And he saw a t-shirt at Target he wants for his Halloween costume. It says, "Don't as questions...just put the candy in the bag." That, and the mask with the moustache. Yup. He's growing up. I think this might be the last year for Santa, too. (sniff)

Tomorrow, back to the hospital. I missed last weekend, due to my grandmother being admitted for a pacemaker replacement. I was the picker-upper. Up at 5:00 AM, which means no South Park for me, tonight.

W. :)

Nine days later.....

I passed my first pharmacology test. Thank the Heavens!!!! I don't know my grade, but I think I missed maybe 4 or 5. Which still puts me at a B.

We had a hurricane (sort of), again. And this one, has yet again turned into a monster. (I am praying for you, Texas.)

My one and only program that I watch has come to its finale, and a new lead singer for INXS has been chosen. Mr. JD Fortune.



Awefully cute. Way cocky. Canadian. And definitely the best fit, vocally and artistically, with the band.

In clinicals, I passed a rite of passage this past weekend. I had my very first bedpan. How I made it through two clinical rotations without encountering one, is beyond me. I was so freaked, when the nurse told me the patient was ready, I go bouncing over to the patient to help her, and realize.....

I'm not wearing any gloves.

and

I don't have any supplies to clean her up.

So I grab a couple of washcloths (commence laughter now) snap on my gloves and realize.....

a couple of wash cloths isn't going to be much help.

I forgot to get a linen bag to put the soiled cloths into.

and

The patient needed to go some more.

So the bedpan goes back under her. And I fetch all the stuff I will need.

Bag. check.
10 cloths. check.
warm water. check.
diaper. check.

GLOVES! check.

In the meantime, the nurse keeps asking me if I am ok. Yeah, and could you not ask me that, because it really doesn't help.

Our instructor has been trying something new the past couple weeks. I am not sure I like it. She is pairing us up to work on one patient. One person is in charge of looking up meds, labs, tests, etc. And the other person performs patient care, and administer the meds.

I may have control issues or something, but I am not in favor of giving meds that I have not personally verified the orders for, and looked up in the drug book. Don't like it at all. We all have our own working styles. I like all my med orders on one sheet so I can easily verify it, check them off, and list what I am giving it for.

My partner this past week gave me 9 index cards with side effects, and no information what the med was for. How am I supposed to do patient teaching with no information what I am giving the med for? I went back and verified everything myself, and made my partner mad. But you know what? In the end, the person who is responsbile for what goes into the patient is me. I handed her the pill cup and made sure she swallowed it. I signed the MAR.

I am going to try this one more week. If it doesn't go better, I am going to do things like I did before. All on my own.

Well that was a long post.

Happy Friday!!

W. :)

Apparently, I am.....

Normal. They found nothing in my head that should not be there. The MRI couldn't even find traces of the tumor that was there 10 years ago. So why would my hormones be elevated? Ah... more questions. More doctors, more tests. No transphenoidal surgery! Yay!

My biggest fear with having the brain MRI was that they would find something somewhere other than my pituitary. I may now exhale. Wooooshhhhh!!!!

Other exciting news...I got to assist in triage this weekend at clinicals. It was our first day back, and we had no patients assigned. So, our instructor had us working down in the ED. Some went to the cardiac side, others to the general side, and a few in Fast Track (in & out). I did the vital signs, fetched patients, ran the forms to the various places. The last patient before we left, I actually did the interview. Good learning experience.

Also, for more learning experience, I am going to be working the first aid stations at the Miami Hurricanes games. When there are not inebriated college football fans coming in, I can use the time for studying.

Oh, and I am now officially a Soccer Mom. My son is starting soccer on Monday. His karate school was badly damaged in the hurricane, and closed. We signed him up, and got his equipment on Friday. He is so excited. I really hope he enjoys it.

Only 8 days til my first pharm test.......yikes.

W. :)

You know it's a bad sign when......

Your former teacher expresses her condolences that you have Ms. SO&SO for pharmacology.

Also, in knitting related news, I am proud to reveal my Secret Pal benefactor. It is........ Purls Gone Wild . Christina, Art Education Major, almost 19. Ah, to be so young, again.......

Christina, you have been an awesome, generous, and kind.

I have decided that I want this to be my job. Baby Panda Monitor seems like an awesome career.

Last night in class I asked my teacher if she had any books to suggest to make the pharmacology information a bit easier to digest. She suggested this book . She had it in class, and it is great. Lots of fun little cartoons and word associations, all peppered with a bit of vulgarity to make it really stick. My kind of book.

I am totally inspired by the latest Knitty . There are so many cute sweaters and shawls. I suppose I will be printing out a bunch of patterns to add to my collection. Le sigh....

Last night in class we were discussing the different types of intracranial surgery, and the nursing process for each. The most disturbing was the transphenoidal for accessing the pituitary gland.

I have a pituitary tumor. That surgery scares the bejesus out of me. I have to have an MRI tomorrow of it, and then see an endocrinologist in the next two weeks. This will open a whole battery of tests. And then hopefully, I can treat the tumor with meds. Please let it be meds.

More on that tomorrow.....

W. :)

Holy catecholamines, Batman......

So, pharmacology. I read the chapters, which are refreshingly short compared to med-surg. However, this is what I get out of it:

Blah, blah, blah, neurotransmitter, blah, blah, dopamine, blah, blah, blah, parasympathetic nervous system, blah, blah, blah.

Hoo, boy!!! So,I guess I will be reading the chapters, again. I even had to put the med-surg reading on the back burner for a bit, and am using the cliffs-note version (ATI book/dvd). Our teacher is being "nice," and starting us off with the hardest chapters to get them out of the way. Sort of nice....sort of sadistic.

Long weekend was very nice. Did some studying, some movie watching ("A Lot Like Love" was super cute), some shopping (yay Bloomie's Labor day sale!), and some family time.

W. :)

The flood gates have opened......

I can't stop crying.

My heart is breaking. To see the desperation and suffering. To see the lack of response. To see people dying in the streets, children with no parents, people with no homes, no anything.

I guess we were lucky to be without power, because no words read, or spoken on the radio, can translate accurately what has happened.

I hope help gets there before it's too late. But I know that when help does finally arrive, there will be more chaos and violence. Simply because the people will be like starving animals. Some will be trampled. Some will be injured in fights over the first wave of food and water. Because the confidence that there will be more coming won't be there.

We don't have a lot, to give. Especially with all that has happened here this past week. However, I did give some to the American Red Cross. And my city is doing a food drive for non-perishables to send up there. I am cleaning out my pantry and sending all I have. I want to feel like I am doing something to help.

W.

Let there be light....

Our power came back on yesterday. We had been living like nomads. Coming home to feed the pets, check the mail, and reload our baggage. Thankfully, some of our family members were kind enough to put us up for a couple nights. Life is back to normal, and I am ever so grateful that that was all we had.

My heart truly goes out to all those in Louisiana and Mississippi. Even having gone through Andrew and the surrealness that surrounded Homestead in the weeks afterward, I can not fathom what these people are going through. The devastation is just too much.

And now I already see how this is going impact the whole country. Yesterday morning, the fuel prices were $2.69 for regular. Yesterday afternoon, $3.05. In Atlanta, $4.99 for regular!!! Regular! This will affect the price of everything, from clothing to groceries. It will be too cost prohibitive to travel anywhere. My husband is a home inspector, which means he drives all day, every day. It will be too expensive for him to continue with this job in the very, very near future. I guess it will be back to electricianing for him.

I am going to start walking to work on the days that I don't have school. Maybe those days, as well, and take the bus to school.

I passed my midterm. I got a 91.75, which in nursing school translates to a "B." Tonight was the first night of pharmacology. This class is going to seriously kick my behind. Our clinical instructor told us that only 10% of students pass our teacher's mid-term. Yikes!


W. :)