Aaaand breathe.

I don't know where to begin! I feel FREEEEEEE. :-) Let's start about where I was flipping out this time last week about the final on Thursday. Never had I had a full throttle panic/anxiety attack like I did last week; uncontrollably shaking and crying, felt like doom. It was terrible. My really good friend Julie called right in the middle and since we're practically the same person, she could sense something was wrong so by the time I hung up with her, I felt a bit better. I finally had to accept the fact that if I did not pass, I did not pass and that's the way it goes. I studied and worked my BUTT off but sometimes that's not enough (obviously I am only coming to this realization AFTER knowing I passed because I certainly would not be this calm about not passing last week. Heh. The final was tough but I felt ok about it... I definitely was flipping out but had said my prayers asking God to grant whatever He thought would be best for me. And He apparently keeps believing in me because by His grace, I passed my third semester of nursing school.

Being appointed the unofficial social director of our class (jealous?), I had arranged for whomever wanted to come to have lunch while we waited for our grades. It was a fun time to just R-E-L-A-X and talk about normal things, not studying. The moment of seeing the fact that I had passed is something I can't even explain. It was like 10,000 lbs of stress that was released off of my shoulders.

Could not get through this program without these girls.



My twin... we are one in the same person. <3



4th semester!!!!

Afterward, Julie and I went to get pedicures and felt so weird not having to rush home to study. I'm still in shock and if you've never been through nursing school, it's truly nothing you've experienced before. It's like a pyschological experiment and it's extremely trying. I wish I had some other way of explaining it so that people don't think we're all overexaggerating but alas, I do not. So take my word for it. Yes, of course, in the end it's worth it. Aren't most things? But it's still ridiculously hard. I kind of explained it to my mom like we're coming back to civilization from being excluded from everything for so long. We have a LIFE again.

After being super excited about being done, my friends from high school and I went to the city to spend the day there. We walked from the train station to the Bean and took crazy photos. Walked down Michigan Ave to sweetwater for lunch. The onto Chanel so my friend could use her gift card, Sprinkles for some AWESOME cupcakes and then we went on a carriage ride along the lakefront. It was fabulous and the weather was perfect. For dinner, we went to Dick's Last Resort which is one of those restaurants that are terrible servers on purpose... like Ed Debevics. Hilarious.

Yeah... LOL



There's of course numerous assignments to do over break to prepare for 4th semester but I can breathe a bit. I really want a massage, my hair needs a trim and I can finally paint my nails!! Life is good right now... life is good. :-)

Final Simulation- Check!

Yes ladies and gentlemen, you're looking at a crisp, brand new pink slip from simulation today. I got to campus around 730am even though my scheduled time was not until 0940. When I had gotten there, there were a few people that were not there yet (even though they were the first people to go) so they started taking people that were there early. The funny thing was I got there early because of that reason; I wanted to go early to get it over with because I'm pretty sure my heart was going to beat out of my chest and every time someone mentioned 'sim', my stomach churned. But I ran off. LOL I had JUST gotten there and needed to breathe aka I'm a chicken. ;-) It's ok though because I actually ended up going earlier than my time anyway at 0830. I was done by 0940 which was great. 

The sim went pretty well and was set up as follows: they brought us into the hospital three at a time and we listened to report using headphones on three patients; an OB patient, a Pediatric patient and a Med Surg patient and had to choose the priority patient based on the report by the "night nurse" which we listened to on the computer. My priority patient was the OB patient (yay!) so I looked at the MAR for her meds ordered and her chart and then proceeded to the room. It went pretty well; I figured the scenario would be a full bladder causing her to hemorrhage which it was. I had to straight cath the patient which, as you can see, was my pink slip moment. I contaminated my sterile field but verbalized it so that was fine... she said she was giving me the pink slip because I just need to work on my organization for straight cath (well, when the mannequin cannot move her legs and you try to move plastic legs, it makes for a hard area to work in a sterile field). Whatevs, I can always use the practice. I think everyone that came out of the OB sim got a pink slip LOL Me thinks that's not just on the students... eh? The instructor that was in the room with me said she was really impressed with my communication and how calm and focused I remained throughout the whole sim, regardless of anxiety my patient was displaying so that was really nice. She also said I was the first person to get the Pitocin rate correct :-D and honestly I have no idea where I pulled that from. LOL It said Pit was to run at 10ml/min so when she asked me what I'd set the pump at, I thought about it and knew it would be a large amount of Pit to contract the uterus so I said 600ml. She almost jumped up and down. Hahaha... that was a God moment because I literally just blurted it out. 

Anyway, it's over with and I'm pleased. I knew going into it I'd be getting a pretty piece of paper, along with 20 other people so I'm A-OK with it. We'll all be called The Pink Ladies. :)

Here's what the facesheets for simulation looked like (the backs just have the medication information and assessment I'd do)

Now I focus on Peds and some of Med Surg. I feel like 10 lbs is lifted from my shoulders. Praise the LORD.

Hand ups, everyone.... we're going down.

Another week down... one more full week to go. Passed my Peds exam on Wednesday, clinical on Thursdayat Shriners (sad patient; 17 yrs old with the mental capacity of an 8 yr old) who was burned on 45% of her body in 2009 and had many terrible things occur during her hospitalization in the course of 3 months. She was a very sweet child. One more clinical to go at Shriners... and I'm in the OR so no clinical eval next week. WOOHOO! 

I met with Julie, Lauren and Angel today to run through simulation facesheets together, at Panera, which was productive. Meeting with Julie again tomorrow morning to go over it and walk through skills (wish lab was open tomorrow). Tomorrow after that will be spent reading renal for med surg and finishing the article for Peds due on Wednesday. Sunday is Mother's Day and unfortunately I'll be spending it studying for my Peds final. Hopefully we'll do breakfast or dinner. I usually send out cards to all my friends that are awesome mommies but this year is just not a good one. :( I'm surprised I remembered to get my own mom something... so I apologize to my girls who are also terrific mom's. 

Monday is final sim. *enter dum dum dum music here* I'm trying realllly hard to not get freaked out about it. I'm preparing as much as possible and am prepared for a pink slip (remediation). At this point, if I walk in and they give me a pink slip, I'd be fine with that. I need to focus on studying for these two exams.... so after simulation on Monday I'll spend it doing more renal studying with some Peds... Tuesday will be all Peds studying and getting together with our article presentation group. Wednesday is our Peds final and presentation. Thursday final clinical! Friday Exam 4 for med surg... and it's stressing me out like crazy. I need a 29/35 to keep on truckin' in this class. It'd be wonderful to get a better score than that, but I am just asking for the bare minimum to pass me. Once this week is done, I feel like I'll be able to focus more on the Med Surg final which is a week from this coming Thursday. 

It's so bad that not only am I looking forward to the fun things I have planned for this summer... I am also happy I may finally get some time to make a dr's appt to see a new endo to get my thyroid back under control. I just haven't been feeling 100% lately and have a feeling it has something to do with that... but I haven't had the time and would feel guilty doing that when I could have been studying or practicing or something of the like. Also looking forward to focusing more on my health and losing some of this ridiculous weight I've gained from eating convenience foods rather than healthy foods. I don't want to take my photo in my nursing cap lookin' all nasty. ;-) 

As always, prayers are always welcomed. Especially this week and for my final. 14 more days....