Going down in a blaze of mediocrity....

Test #2 completed. And I got another 'C.'

Hissssss.......


W. :)

Myspace ate my time....

So I have recently become a Myspace/Facebook addict. Does anyone have any idea what a time sucker this thing is?!?!?!

I have been sooooo busy. We have a HUGE test tonight. (gall bladder, pancreas, liver, spinal cord injury, MS, MG, Parkinson, ALS, and I think I am forgetting something....) You know, a piece of cake. GAAAACKKKK!!!!

PCT work is still happening once a week. Overall, my whole PCT experience has shown me that getting old SUCKS!!!!! Last night, I worked on two different floors in my 8 hours, and I was running the whole night. Today I feel like I worked out for 3 hours.

Clinicals are going swell. I have gotten loads of skills under my belt. And next week we are finally moving off the ortho floor. Now we will get to experience trach suctioning (gross). This past weekend, I was made charge nurse over two of my fellow students. That was an interesting experience.

Oh well. I have wasted enough time on this for now. Will post when I have more to report. Thanks for stopping by!

W. :)

Explaination, in case anyone is interested.....

Because ours is a part-time class, we are pinning with the winter graduating class. We will have our last semester (Leadership) in the spring, but the semester is only 5 weeks long. We would have to to wait for the full-time class to catch up before we could pin and that would be in April or May.

So rather than making us wait, they are pinning us early. We still have our graduation ceremony in April.

Our class will be about 100-150 nursing students. There will be another hundred in the spring. (Ours is one of the largest nursing schools in the country.) They hold it in the gymnasium of the largest campus (Kendall).

W. :)

Pinning update!!

Last night we found out that we will have our pinning ceremony on December 13th! I'm so excited. We will be pinning before our last semester, but it's better than waiting until May, when we will have finished classes in February.

Now, to figure out what I'm going to wear, and how to get a cap.

W. :)

What a weekend!

I have been running forever, or so it feels.

Thursday, I went to the hospital to get my preassignment for this weekend. Thank God I did, too. This time the instructor picked our patient's for us. I got a patient that was hit by a car a month ago, and was just transferred to the ortho floor last Wednesday. She had 4 fractures. (Left pelvis, left acetabulum, right open tib-fib) Plus she lost about half her teeth, had had internal bleeding from the fractures, and needless to say, excruciating pain. My nurse that day was awesome. She left me in total care of the patient, let me hang her IV's, push her morphine, and do her dressing changes. I was busy from the moment we got there, and I totally missed post conference. I feel like a nurse more and more each time we have a clinical. My nurse had only 4 patients, most of with many extensive injuries.

The instructor basically left us on our own this week. She was watching over the student I wrote about last week, and wouldn't leave her alone for a moment, for various reasons. None of them good.

She also informed us that we will be caring for 5 patients on our own next semester. Not right off the bat, but definitely by the end. (Note that the semester only lasts 5 weeks.)

Saturday afternoon, right after clinicals, I raced off to the softball game. VEU (my team) killed my school's team. They had something like 27 hits, and the final score was like 14-3. Still it was so much fun to spend the afternoon out at the field, in the sunshine, cheering my team on. Even if I did have to do it in my whites. I can't wait for February.

Saturday evening, we went to dinner, and the bookstore. I fell asleep in one of the big comfy chairs at B&N surrounded by Las Vegas travel books. (Yes, I will blather on about this trip until December. Why do you ask?) Mind you, I had been up since 5:00 am, had about 4 hours sleep the night before,put in 7 hours at the hospital, spent 4 hours at the ballpark, and was still wearing my whites at 9:30 PM. When I got home, I brushed my teeth, crawled into bed, and became immediately comatose.

Sunday, did some morning chores, fought with the husbeast about when I would be able to work at the hospital. Figured out that I am going to have to miss clinicals this weekend, due to I have run out of babysitters, and husbeast has to work on Saturday.
Went to work at the hospital, and ended up sitting again. I really prefer the floor work, believe it or not. Time drags on forever when all you do is sit in the room. I did get to watch Zoolander and The Mind of Mencia, did get to study for a bit, did end the evening with 2 clean, sleeping patients. (I had heard that one of the patients have the PCT the night before a really difficult time.)

Now, here it is....Monday again. The bright spot on the horizon is knowing I will have Saturday off to perform a good thorough house cleaning. Get my laundry and groceries done on Saturday, so I can relax with my family on Sunday before going to work.

W. :)

Something to look forward to....

Saturday begins softball's fall season. YAY!!!!!! I will be racing to VEU to witness my team battle my nursing school's team. Oh, there is no contest who I will be rooting for.

Let the fever begin, again. Only to have to wait another 4 months for more.

W. :)

What happened...

Well, we think Shadow got a toad.

Down here in Miami, we have these toads that excrete poison from glands on their backs. It is extremely toxic, and for an 11 pound cat, deadly.

Tuesday morning, I went out to the garage, and all the cats were there making nuiscances of themselves for breakfast. 30 minutes later, when I was leaving for work, I poured the cats food, and Shadow did not come. Now, he is usually the first one there, pushing everyone out of the way, meowing his head off, and knocking stuff over. So, his absence was very obvious.

I thought maybe he had followed me into the garage, and got locked in. I went back out to check, and he did not come out when I opened it up. So, I didn't know where he was, but had to get to work. He sometimes went to our neighbor's yard to hang out. In the evening, when I got home, I checked the garage again, and still no Shadow.

However, Bear, my dog, was acting like a lunatic. In perfect Lassie mode, I said, "What's wrong girl? What is it?" And she went running over to some bushes by our fence. And that's when I saw him. Looked like he was sleeping. No visible injuries, bleeding or any of that. He was just sleeping. My heart just stopped.

I told my son, who reached for our kitten, Shimi, and started petting the hell of him. My husband buried him under our mahogany tree. I'm going to miss him terribly.

*******************************************************************
So Kim at Emergiblog sent out a general tag to the internets.

List five songs that I would want played at my funeral.

1) Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day
Life is all about choices. I hope that at the end of my life the choices I have made positively impact those I love, and who loved me.

2) Beautiful Boy - John Lennon
For my son. No matter what, he will always be my beautiful boy.

3) The Last Words You Said - Sarah Brightman
For my husband.

4) How Fair This Place - Sarah Brightman

5) Il Mio Cuore Va - Sarah Brightman
This is "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic all in Italian. Cheezy, but I do love the song. Just not Celine Dion. I'll never let go, Jack. I'll never let go.

W. :)

My poor baby......

My baby, Shadow, died yesterday. He was only 2.

My dog let me know where he was. They were best mates.

My first "C"

I got a C on my first test. Mind you, it was an 81.56, but still a C. I am actually quite happy to have passed the test. I really didn't put as much effort as I should have, and I knew whatever I got I deserved.

W. :)

Registered!!

I am now registered for my final semester of nursing school. My graduation date is April 28, 2007 at 2:30 pm. My last class date is February 19, 2007. My pinning ceremony will be on April 25, 2007.

My last semester will be class Monday night from 6-9:00 PM, and 2 days of clinicals (Saturday and Sunday 0700-1800). Plus working full time at VEU.

This past clinical weekend was strange and awesome. Thursday, I went to the hospital and got all my patient information. (Fell off a roof at work in 11/05, and broke his tibia. Got an external fixator put on, and never went back for follow-up. Developed a huge infection and the fracture never healed.) Made a beautiful careplan, which after completing at midnight on Friday, left sitting on my desk.

I seriously considered not coming in or arriving late. Called my instructor, and she said "Think critically.... What should you do?" I went in. After getting report, and assessing my patient, we had preconference. As the teacher was going around the students, she got to me, and said, "We won't ask you, since you forgot your information." I said, "Ask away. I can tell you everything you need to know. Meds, PMH, procedures, and what I am planning on doing today." So I told them everthing, and the teacher was impressed.

I gave my very second injection ever (SQ Lovenox), and a dry dressing change.

As Kim and I were charting in the report room, the teacher walks in and says, "I need you and you to come with me before I have a stroke." She takes us into a patient's room and tells us to get him cleaned up and comfortable. The patient was lying on the edge of the bed, against the bed rails, clearly uncomforable, and with a HR of 145. He had a R heel fracture, and a fractured L femur with external fixation. His linens were filthy with drainage from the surgery he had the day prior. We told him we were going to make him more comfortable, and get him cleaned up, and he kept saying no, no he's fine. We said that he looked uncomfortable. He grimaced at that, and said he was.

I fixed his NC, and Kim and I moved him into the center of the bed. We changed his top sheets, and he pillowcases. We cleaned him up the best we could, without making him uncomfortable. I taught him how to use his PCA, and we told him to take some deep breaths, because he was breathing too fast and his 02Sat was at 93%. We helped him to get comfortable, and then Kim and I left.

The student assigned to him, kept coming to me every time there was any sort of beep in his room. Everytime he moved his arm, his IV pump would beep. I told her how to fix it. His pulse oximeter was not working, I fixed it for her. Every time she'd go in his room, the machine's alarm would go off. Because, just her being in the room would aggitate him, and his HR would go over 100.

The instructor told the student to thank us for saving her butt. I am not sure how I felt about that. I mean, it was nice that even though, I came without my paper, I was still prepared to take care of my own patient, and that the instructor thought well enough of me and Kim that she has us helping the students who are struggling.

However, I don't know if having us going in and rescuing the students is doing them a disservice. As the instructor is sending the students out of the room (and lecturing them in the hall), they are not learning from Kim and I. So, I am looking at it from the perspective of the patient. We are rescuing the patient. The nurse is expecting their patient to be taken care of, and therefore is interacting with the patient very limitedly while they are in our care. The patient had received 3 hours of sub-par care under that student. We came in, made him clean, comfortable, and lessened his anxiety. So, while our fellow student may not have benefitted from our assistance, the patient did, and that is what matters most.

Called out last night from the hospital. I, silly me, am turning into the Jamaican skit from the old "In Living Color" shows. I have taken on yet another job. Now I do scorekeeping at the VEU volleyball games. Which I did on Friday and Saturday night. Then, Sunday after doing groceries at 2300 on Saturday night, and doing 5 loads of laundry on Sunday morning, I just couldn't bear to go to work and leave my family again. I had not seen them in forever. So I called out, and went to the movies and dinner with the fam. I've missed them so much.

We decided that the best course of action for me to continue on with this would be to go directly to work after clinicals on Saturday. Have one hellacious day, and have Sunday off. Either way, I am going to have to quit my second job come next semester. No matter what I do there is just not enough days in the week. Perhaps I would be able to take a leave of absence for 6 weeks, being a per diem PCT. I just can't leave VEU at the moment, since my insurance comes from here.

Tonight, I get my first test grade. I know I deserve whatever I get. I studied like crap, missed the first class, and just generally overextended myself. This time, I have preread the powerpoints, have some personal knowledge of cholecystitis and pancreatitis, and overviewed the material.

I feel much more prepared going into class tonight.

W. :)