The things we have to do to get a cold front around here....

Hurricane is over. We are all fine. My grandmas screened in patio is gone. The battery on the laptop is dying. Cell phones dead. Food in fridge quickly going bad.

But.....it is 62 degrees!! And sunny, and gorgeous. Last night after the last of the storm clouds disappeared, you could see a zillion stars because all the lights in the city are out. We laid our sleeping bag out on the lawn, and just laid there looking at the stars and feeling very tiny. We say six shooting stars. All of David's wishes were for Gamecube. My wishes were that he always be safe, happy and healthy.

Will report further and have pictures once the power comes back.

W. :)

Ok, I am thinking about the test.....

The test was frustrating and disappointing.

The teacher specifically said don't worry about learning drug names, just learn the classifications and what they do. And the entire test was not only the generic names, but brand names as well.

The teacher specifically said don't study the insulin chart in the book, use the one she gave us in Med-Surg. The last 6 questions were taken directly from the book's chart and included an insulin that was not included on our chart at all.

It sometimes feels like we are set up to fail on purpose. I know some of my classmates are beginning to re-think their choices to become nurses. I know I have no other choice but to pass this class the first time around. I don't have the time nor the financial resources to repeat classes. For me this is a one shot deal. I was so shaken by this test, if I get a high "D", I will have to rely on that combined with my "B" to carry me through to the next test.

Lesson learned..... Study everything, no matter what the teacher says.

Next up......Test in med-surg next Wednesday. GI & respiratory.

Only 1 year and 7 months to go. Only 1 year and 7 monthes to go.

W. :)

I will not think about the test.......

1. Open up the music player on your computer.
2. Set it to play your entire music collection.
3. Hit the shuffle command.
4. Tell us the title of the next twenty songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. That's right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It's time for total musical honesty. Write it up in your blog or journal and link back to at least a couple of the other sites where you saw this.
5. If you get the same artist twice, you may skip the second (or third, or etc.) occurrences. You don't have to, but since randomness could mean you end up with a list of ten songs with five artists, you can if you'd like.
6. Tell a story about each song

"If I Were You" KD Lang (I have had a crush on her since I was 16.)
"Who Do You Think You Are?" Spice Girls (Girl Power!!!! Yes, I liked the Spice Girls. You wanna make something of it?)
"Don't Speak" No Doubt (I just like this song)
"Come Back & Stay" Paul Young (I love Paul Young's lesser known songs from the early 80's)
"Send Her My Love" Journey (Journey......Steve Perry's Hair.....Steve's Perry's voice....)
"Love Is No Stranger" Whitesnake (I LOVE WHITESNAKE!!!!! Starts all soft and sweet and then tears into a rocker. YEAH!)
"Rock The Casbah" The Clash (Not even my favorite Clash song.)
"Whatcha Waiting For" Gwen Stefani (Kind of a get off your butt and get moving song)
"Dr. Feelgood" Motley Crue (just a real good time)
"Run To You" Bryan Adams (I have loved this song since its release, and it took until about 3 years ago to realize HE'S CHEATING ON HIS GIRLFRIEND in the lyrics)
"Slow Ride" Beastie Boys (ok, I am beginning to see a pattern of not giving up my youth here)
"Tasty Snaks" Trophy Wife (I used to work with the lead singer of this band. Kind of a funky hippie chick. The song is about being out in the middle of the night, and buying food at the gas station)
"Don't Stop" Fleetwood Mac (When I was a little girl, we used to have the Rumours album on 8 track. I would listen to it all the time.)
"Fashion" David Bowie (this was the first video I remember seeing David Bowie in where he did not look totally wierd)
"No One Like You" Scorpions (one of the most recognizable openings of any song)
"Down Under" Colin Hay (yes it is the Men At Work, but Colin has gone solo, and I like this version better)
"Good Beat" Deeelite (World Clique is one of my favorite albums ever. I'd gone through three cassettes before I finally got the CD)
"I Hate Myself for Loving You" Joan Jett (Joan Jett.....'nuff said)
"California Dreamin" Mamas & Papas (awesome song)
"Faster Than Light" Duran Duran (reaaaaallly early Duran Duran)

So there is a wee sampling of my musical library. A lot of 80's stuff. Because, by golly, that was the best and worst music ever.

W. :)

Ah, son of a crap.....

HEY, WILMA!!!!!!!!!

Another hurricane. yippee. Another missed clinical. My son's first soccer might be cancelled. grrrr. Global warming is for the birds.

I had my very first opportunity this past weekend to do anything that requires injectibles. I got to do an IV push. Still no SC's or IM's, but we are progressing.

My pharmacology midterm was today. Our clinical instructor was kind enough to inform us that 90% of students fail the midterm. Wonderful. However, I did not let that psyche me out. I have studied like a fiend. My undereye bags have bags. I had to get new glasses because I am going blind from too much reading.

Here goes nothing.

W. :)

Me me, me me!

So there is a new meme floating around in the Blogiverse. You google "yourname needs" and then see what comes up. Then you post 10 to your site.

So what does Wendy need?

1. Wendy needs a furrever home for Christmas!
2. Wendy needs every measuring cup and teaspoon she can find.
3. Wendy needs resources which can help her
4. Wendy needs to grow up
5. Wendy needs our support now more than ever
6. Wendy needs a little time, Dress her boy up, Take him out on parade.
7. Wendy needs to stop whining
8. Wendy needs a Splackavellie
9. Wendy needs to learn how to read Nala's body
10. Wendy needs to calm her nerves with a f**k

# 10 sounds about right. What is a Splackavellie? And who is Nala?

W. :)

A little nonsense, and something serious....

Your Hair Should Be Pink

Hyper, insane, and a boatload of fun. You're a traveling party that everyone loves to follow.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

How very appropriate. I had actually considered dying my hair pink (or at least part of it) a few years ago. Then I started nursing school, and that was that. So I got a tattoo instead.

School is seriously kicking my butt. I am not doing poorly, however, I can't keep up with all the reading at the moment. The balancing act of life, work, family and school it a bit too much. I feel like if I only had another 6 hours a day when I was not working and not sleeping and not exhausted, then I could get caught up, and maybe even a little ahead.

It is bad that I am feeling so burnt out at the half-way point. I don't want to go to school any more. I've been going for 4 years already. I don't want to get up at 5:00 AM on Saturdays for clinicals, when it is dark outside, and my family is all snuggly and right there. I don't want to have to tell my son, "I can't right now, I have to study." I don't want to have to miss out on doing things with my husband and child, because actually, I really could use the time they are out of the house to get more studying in. I want to have a few hours to clean my house, put away the three baskets of clean laundry that has accumulated in my bedroom, to read something that is not a text book, to work out, to do anything not school or work related.

I have heard that after completing this semester, I can sit for the LPN test. I have considered it. Working three days a week, having whole days not working free to study. Then I think, am I really ready to take that on? I don't know. I don't know if I have the skills yet to be a NURSE. It scares the crap out of me. At this point, I feel like I am pretending to be a nurse at clinicals. Yes, I am taking care of this patient, and bathing them, and making their bed, and changing their dressings, and giving them their meds, and tending to their needs. But I am sure the "real" nurse has to go in behind me and fix all the mistakes I have made. I have the skills, but lack the confidence.

Before I came to the University, I had worked in a place for so long, that I was the go to person. I was an expert in the company, on running the office, everything. Then I left, and came to this totally foreign environment. I felt lost, and clueless. Now, it has been almost a year that I have been here. I feel 10000% more capable and knowledgable. I am a go to person, again. When I leave here, I will be starting all over again, again. That is scary.

We are still doing the group nursing thing at clinicals. I am finding more and more who I work better with. There is one person that I worked with this weekend, that I would never want to work with again, because that person is dangerous with meds.

They could have, potentially, bottomed out the patient's pressure with a mistake they made by giving clonidine that was supposed to be given overnight that wasn't, and they gave the med (not listed on the MAR, but in the patient's medcart tray) along with another antihypertensive. Her pressure, did drop very significantly (179/82 down to 99/66), but then stabilized. This was after they had already made two other medication mistakes with other patients. Dangerous.

I'll stick with my best friend, Kim. We work pretty well together. She is really type A, super neat and anal as all get out. I am more laid back in my personality, however, we are both very careful when it comes to patient treatment. We foil each other perfectly. Kind of like the Odd Couple. She is Felix to my Oscar.

Class tonight. GI. Ho hum. I hope to get out of this slump, soon.

W. :)

Registered....

Classes are all picked out and registered for.

This past weekend I volunteered at the Miami Hurricanes game at the Orange Bowl in the first aid station. I figured 58,000 inebriated kids on a Saturday night....surely it would be busy. Oh, how mistaken I was.

We had 1 guy come in 10 minutes before game time with a 1" head laceration from where his friend had closed the tailgate on his head in the parking lot. Then nothing until half-time, when a guy so totally inebriated that he was toxic came in. So he sat in the station until the Fire Rescue guys could come get him. That was it. What a let down. I hope they have more night games, so I can go some more.However, due to the lack of patients, I had ample study time, and read all about TB.

When I was a teenager I used to volunteer at the OB. This was WAY back when the Dolphins used to still play there. It was wierd to be back there again after so many years. Somethings have changed so much, other things (like the WWII era hospital bed in the first aid station) stay the same. Last time I had gone there my cousin was 10 and tagging along behind my aunt and grandma, now he is 26 and runs a station all by himself.

Speaking of my grandma, she is not doing well. Her heart is dying. Her pacemaker is the only thing keeping it beating at all. I had come to grips with her mortality when she had a heart attack 5 years ago. I realize that she is not going to be here forever. But, imagining my life without her in it has me really down. She has had such a profound impact and influence in my life. She is the person in my family I admire the most, and would most like to be like. She has touched so many lives, and hearts. She is, literally, the glue that holds my family together. I love her so much. I found out yesterday that she may only have another 6 months to a year.

Aging sucks.

W.