Week 5...

5 more weeks... Tuesday I had simulation for autonomic dysreflexia. My partner that I went in with did not know what AD was because she missed that lecture (and why bother looking it up, right? :-| ) so I filled her in on the systemic manifestations we should look for. Went into the sim hospital and did the sim... I straight cathed the "patient" and broke sterile field (which I knew) but was so focused/scared, I did not verbalize it. So I got remediated for straight cathing. My clinical instructor was the instructor holding the sim for us so she said I did just fine and was the leader in the sim. My partner however did not do so well... she looked at me like I was stupid when I asked her to do things that related to AD and my instructor noted that and questioned why she did so. 

Wednesday was our first Peds lecture exam, which I passed thank goodness. I thought I did better than my actual score but didn't so I'm going to review the test tomorrow. I also have to take the dosage calculation exam again because I got 14/15 and we must get 100% on this test. Most frustrating part is the answer was right, I just forgot to convert it to teaspoons. :-| Maybe not having a test immediately following a 7 hour clinical would be a better idea... 

I hate pediatric clinical. I don't know what it is but I am not enjoying it; all of these calculations and safe doses etc is so annoying. I'm actually looking forward to Med Surg clinical Tuesday because I feel like I know what I'm doing there. Peds is a crapshoot and the instructor is a bit hard to read. 5 more clinical days there... only 5. 

I was off this weekend so I tried to finish my holistic 50 page pediatric assessment which I am about 90% done with now after spending all day Saturday on it. Today I met with some friends at Corner Bakery to study for Neuro... man there's just so much information for a 35 question exam and so much pressure for me to do well on it. So nerve-wracking. I also have a 'well child' growth and development project to complete (not sure when exactly that's due but the sooner the better) and a pediatric article to present (not sure when THAT'S due either...). All I know is two more med surg clinicals (Tuesday and next Tuesday) and then I can focus on passing that class (and of course Peds clinical/lecture). And of course on Friday, after the Neuro exam, we have a Peds simulation on sickle cell crises; something we've not even covered in lecture yet so I guess it's a 'learn on your own' sim. Great. So I'll be in lab practicing G Tube meds, buretrol med administration etc. Needless to say, can't wait until week 5 is over.... c'mon week 4!

eHarmony and school.

Alright so I joined eHarmony again last month just to see what's out there again. They had another one of those deals where you pay 19.99 a month for 3 months. I figured 'what the heck?', it's been a few years since the first disaster date, why not? I swear to God, men are getting stupider by the moment. What kind of idiot puts a photo up, holding up a peace sign with his fingers and his lip pouted out? I mean seriously. I'm losing hope here, people. Right now my excuse works; who has time for a relationship in nursing school? Super busy. But soon I'll be 50 and the cat lady thing won't exactly work for me because I'm allergic so I can't even have cats :-( *sniff* I know, it happens when you least expect it and I know I'm super picky and not like most girls... but there's gotta be someone out there... right? I don't even want an answer to that question unless God Himself tells me because He's the only one that knows for sure. It's just frustrating... :-\ 

Anyway, enough of my pity party ;-) 6 more weeks of school but so much packed into those 6 weeks.... tomorrow I am studying Neuro with friends at the library in the morning then I work my 4th day in a row. Tuesday I have a simulation *sigh* and then study Pediatrics all day since my first exam is Wednesday morning at 8am. Wednesday I work again... Thursday is Peds clinical (ugh) and Friday is lecture. Luckily I don't work this coming weekend so I can really focus on studying for the Neuro exam the following week (which I must do well on). I'm just looking forward to being done and having somewhat of a life back during the summer (though looking at my schedule in the summer, I feel like it's already super busy). It'll fly by and sooner rather than later, I'll be back in school.... hopefully my last semester though. ;-) Seriously, PLEASE JUST LET ME PASS THESE NEXT 6 WEEKS :(

Hello... Good Bye Spring Break.

Spring Break was this past week and man am I going to miss it. It started off with my sister's surprise bday party for her 21st. She seemed surprised and there was karaoke so it was fun. The next day I spent with my good friend Tara... we went to a mall about 25 minutes from us because she wanted to go as a nurse for Purim (she works in marketing for a Jewish high school) so she wanted the full costume hence the scrubs store. Plus I needed another pair of white pants for clinical. We had lunch at Ruby Tuesday (mmmm salad bar), grabbed a Starbucks and then headed home. It was a fun day and a nice start to the break. 

Sunday I had brunch with my good friend Hope. The brunch was amazing... mimosas and delicious food plus, a chocolate fountain. YUM. Conversation was great and then we walked off the food at the mall. Then there were nursing get togethers and a Chick Fil A visit (FINALLY). Most importantly I got to see friends I haven't seen much of. :) I also got together with a couple of girls from school for breakfast and we studied for Med Surg. 

I'm so glad I'm done with my 134 page holistic assessment for Med Surg this semester. My plan was to finish it over break and I succeeded. Hopefully it's up to my instructor's standards. :-\ I'm almost done with my reading for med surg and will start Peds sometime today. I also have to seriously do something about the bomb shelter that IS my room. Eeesh! 

7 weeks until summer... and then I will *crossing fingers* hopefully be in my last semester of nursing school. :-] Prayers, as always, are being accepted. 

Nursing Pool Party Monday

Margaritas Wednesday

Karaoke Friday :)

And an update.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written here... lots going on with school and it's about to get worse. Plus we've been planning my sister's 21st birthday surprise party which is this Friday and I've had to make a DVD montage of photos for it on top of everything else. And I've been sick since Friday... was sooo hoping to wake up feeling better today but it seems to be the same. I took NyQuil last night to get some sleep and woke up 2-3 times because I couldn't breathe. This is getting super old. Why this couldn't happen this weekend so I could have Spring Break to feel better is beyond me. Today I have to work, tomorrow is clinical, Wed is Peds lecture and Thursday is Peds clinical followed by 4 hours of lab. 

I'm not doing well in Med Surg II at all. Did horrible on the first two exams and we have two more and the final. I'm meeting with my instructor on Wednesday to go over my last exam and to ask her for suggestions since she makes the exams (besides the usual read, do NCLEX questions; which I already do). I am so incredibly nervous that I won't pass this semester. I'm done with OB as of last week so now I move on to Pediatrics and my friends who were in Peds last 8 weeks have said it's difficult plus there's just a lot of paperwork. :-\ I need to get at least a 29/35 on the next Med Surg exams (Neuro and Renal) and then a 55/70 on the final to get the bare minimum in the class, on top of everything for Peds. The only advantage I have is I have Spring Break (next week) to study for Neuro and I have friends that do well that said they'd help me. Spring Break is going to be one big 'work ahead' week. Some days I know I can do this, most I am not sure. All I know is this program is one big psychological experiment and it's affecting me in more ways than one. 

I hate complaining about it and I KNOW there are bigger problems out there than nursing school but holy crap, I knew it would be hard and trying but never like this. You can do everything right and still feel like the gum on the bottom of someone's shoe. And it's always 10 times worse when the room feels like it's spinning, can't breathe and am blowing my nose so much I think it may fall off. 

On the plus side, I am doing well in Med Surg clinical and my instructor, after meeting with her for midterm, said I was one of her top students. That's always nice to hear when your self esteem from the lecture portion is 6 feet under. :( I don't get how I can do well in clinical and not in lecture but retaking this class is not happening. OB was great as well; a B in both lecture and clinical... unfortunately 1 point away from an A for the clinical portion but these days, anything that is passing, I will take.

I'm just going to need a lot of prayers to get me through these next 8 weeks. 

Oh what fun.

Kind of an uneventful (but busy!) week... had my first OB lecture test which I passed (yay), and in case any of you think 'well duh, of course you should pass, working in OB and trying to remember all the material you learn in a few weeks time is a little different. Med Surg clinical went ok on Tuesday, just hoping this Tuesday's clinical goes just as well. I just pray it goes by fast and without issues because yes, my instructor is crazy. 

OB clinical went well Thursday; I was in mother baby and after coming out of my patient's room, my nurse asked me if I've worked in a hospital before because I seem to know what I'm doing... I normally don't tell people I work in a hospital as a tech because there's that expectation then of knowing what you're doing. It made me feel good though that I come off knowing what I'm doing LOL

Monday I had my annual job evaluation at work and it went very well. :) My boss wants to know what my plans are after graduation (whether or not I'll be working in mother baby or not). This is the struggle... I really want to stay in mother baby; I have awesome friends there, am super comfortable there and know I'd enjoy my job thoroughly. On the other hand, I do love my time in Labor and Delivery in clinical. Being a part of someone's life when a child is born, that is something that is beyond amazing and such a privilege. Now, mother baby is also wonderful; teaching new mom's and dad's life skills that they'll take with them throughout life. Both are such awesome feelings. So I have no idea and I have to tell her by May. :-\ I get conflicting advice; go to L&D first because you're young and you'll get great experience, learn new things etc. Then I get the other side of it; 'Why stress yourself out? You know you love Mother Baby, stay. You're almost guaranteed to have a job'. That's the other part; I have no idea if L&D would even hire me (if they're even hiring new grads next year). ARGH, I just don't know. I did contact the L&D educator and asked if I could arrange a day to job shadow one of the nurses in L&D one day. We'll see if that happens. I'll definitely pray about it and see what path God wants me to take.... hoping he's vocal about it! LOL 

This week should be ok; I was downstaffed from work today so I got a lot finished for school... all of the case studies are finished and I finished my 500pg holistic assessment that's due in a couple of weeks. I work tomorrow night, with a meeting at 1:30pm for work, Tues is med surg clinical, Wed is OB lecture and work, Thursday is OB clinical and Friday is my first med surg lecture exam (hopefully I can get together with Julie and study a bit). Also hoping to get together with Tara for some girl time on Friday and then babysit for my cousin's 2 kids on Saturday night. Busy but productive week :) Hope everyone's week is marvelous.

Crazy past couple of days... I had my first "official" clinical days this week. Tuesday was Med Surg and that went ok. Nothing spectacular. My instructor is a friggen... ugh I have no nice words to use. She expects a lot from us; our usual 500 page eval after every clinical due Thursday by noon (which is really Wednesday for me since I have my OB clinical on Thursdays until 3pm) plus a concept map for our patients, a lab sheet, a med sheet and a head to toe assessment completed and turned in by the end of the day for each patient that we have. The other clinical groups with NON INSANE INSTRUCTORS have to do a clinical eval and a concept map. That's it. @@ I am so over her. I do not have the time for extra paperwork thank you very much. :-| We had to do a complete head to toe assessment in front of the instructor on our patients last Tuesday; I had to say everything outloud to the instructor. I did well she said except I missed foot pressure (I guess the fact that the pt walks without issues means nothing but whatever), didn't say the RATES of the pulses outloud (seriously?) and didn't mention anything about the patient's emotional/anxiety level. :-X

After the clinical on Tuesday, I went to another hospital to visit my dad who had surgery. I stayed there until about 8pm and then headed home to try to work on my 567 papers due for Med Surg. His surgery went well and he came home Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday I had lecture, practice in the lab for an hour and then went to work. I was miserable with some sort of sinus issue that would not let up. It felt like someone kicked me in the nose and nothing worked to make me feel better except a hot pack on my face but you can't exactly walk around with that on your face. LOL 

Thursday was my OB clinical and I was in Labor and Delivery. It was friggen amazing. I know people tell me all of the time (when they ask where I want to work) that I should do med surg first and then later do OB but after my clinical on Thursday, I just want to say that people need to keep their opinions to themselves. It was absolutely wonderful. My patient was pregnant with her third baby and came in at 3cm dilated. By the time we gave her Pit, she progressed and delivered at 1:57pm. I got to hold her leg and coach her and have never been so close before. It was truly a miracle. I of course cried and had to control myself from just flat out bawling. Yeah the whole process can be gross at times but in the end, the whole thing is beautiful. <3 I loved my clinical.

After my clinical on Thursday, I came home to pack and left for Wisconsin. I don't know how I drove those 4 hours because I was utterly exhausted. I opened the window many times, turned up the radio etc but still felt my eyes falling. I was so tempted to stop halfway and just leave earlier Friday morning to bring my grandma to her PET scan but I made it. I got to the hotel, ate a little something and went to bed. Friday morning I picked up my grandma at 8am and we headed to Green Bay to go to her PET scan. We're hoping for shrinkage and that the tumor has moved away from the aorta so they can operate. *crossing fingers* She was in good spirits and seemed to have had a good time while I was there. We headed back around 11:30am and met  my grandpa for lunch at a little cafe bakery called Scaturos. I went back to the hotel after that to try to get some school work done but my grandma called around 1:30pm to see if I wanted to go to the boutique stores with her so I did. After a few hours of shopping, she dropped me off at the hotel so I could get ready to go to a fish fry with them. They picked me up and we went to dinner and then saw a play at the playhouse in town. It was a great night and it was so nice to see them <3 This morning I met them for a quick breakfast at the Inn where my grandma works. After saying good bye, I headed to Green Bay to meet up with my friend Leah, which was so awesome! Unfortunately the cafe we met at closed at 1pm which we did not know about so we sat there talking and I noticed the lady working there was mopping and then turned off the 'OPEN' sign. I asked Leah if they were closing and then asked the lady, who proceeded to tell me they closed 15 minutes ago. O_o Whoops! So it kind of stunk we had to cut our visit short because of that but we had a good hour and 15 minutes of chat time so it was still a great time. :-) Hopefully we'll be able to do it more often!

Now I must finish my OB clinical eval, redo my med surg concept map and plan my teaching material for this stupid teaching assignment for med surg due Tuesday. @@ @@ @@ As well as study for my first OB lecture exam on Wednesday.... Is it May yet?

Lotsa things...

What a crazy week ahead it will be. Today I'm excited to see Aidan play basketball at the YMCA. I haven't seen him in so long. Jane and I were supposed to get together for coffee together this morning but she forgot Aidan was playing so I'm going to see him and talk with Jane at the same time. I just can't wait to give him the biggest hug... I was texting Jane a few days ago about these plans and she said Aidan asked who she was texting. Jane said Amanda and he asked "My Amanda?" <3 Melts my heart! I love that kid.

This Tuesday is my first official 2nd year med surg clinical... always nerve wracking with a new instructor. Wednesday OB lecture and Thursday first official OB clinical (since the snow canceled what was supposed to be our first one this past Thursday). Right after clinical on Thursday I'll come home and change and then head up to Door County. My grandma has her last PET scan to see if the tumor has shrunk (God willing!!!) and my dad is having back surgery this Tuesday (surprise!) so he's unable to take her. My uncle that lives across the street is out of town and my other uncle said no. @@ 

Hopefully I'll be able to meet up with my friend Leah, who lives in Appleton, WI. We keep meaning to every time I go to Door County since it's on the way but it never works out. Busy busy week. I'm just glad I'm off next weekend so I'm able to do this. It totally worked out that I don't have class Friday morning, thank you Lincoln's Birthday. ;-) 

Now if I could just feel better... strep test was negative yesterday but I still feel like poop. It's been so long since I've been sick... and I said that outloud a few days ago so I consider this my own jinxing. ;-)