catching up

i am so thankful for today.... no class and no clinicals. in fact we are done with the complex care portion of this semester's clinicals and will soon switch to mental health. for that we go to the VA hospital mental health ward in topeka. that means, we leave about 5:30am and get home about 6 or 7pm. long day but it's only 1 day per week and it sounds like it's really going to be a nice break. my friends come home with hilarious stories to tell and we don't pass medications or anything like that with the patients, we just talk with and play games with the patients. we also watch tons of movies it sounds like, so boring but it will be a nice break from the really quick thinking, fast moving pace of the ER. i will miss it terribly though. if i could just have a break for a few days, and get to go back to the ER, i'd love it!! my favorite er nurses were both working yesterday and so i told them that i knew they were going to really miss me and they both said "oh, you'll be back. no doubt, we will be working with you again". they are probably right. if i didn't have such a strong desire to do labor and delivery (and i do, it's overwhelming actually), i would definately be an er nurse. i just love the unpredictability and the pace. yesterday was interesting. we were waiting for an ambulance to arrive with a head trauma who was severely hypoglycemic and combative (probably due to having such a low blood sugar). so were were all waiting in the trauma room for them to roll in, and lise (nurse) said, "ok, if i were you all, i'd get those white lab coats off and gloves on now. we don't know how much blood there is going to be"...so that's when we really knew it was going to be something. it ended up that there was just a big cut that needed stitched, but the care that is taken to ensure that the patient remains safe and aligned to prevent any potential worsening of spinal cord injuries is pretty neat to watch. there was a lot of blood. i don't really mind that. we also had a 20 year old girl come in who was a screamer!! she is apparently a drug addict (according to her family physician) who wouldn't allow us to give her any narcotic pain medication. she said her hip was hurting her. so she laid in the room screaming and crying for "someone to please help her" sad really and i wondered why mental health wasn't called but we did give her 3 IM pain injections and she still left screaming and angry with the er staff. she wasn't my patient but i got to hear her anyway!! then, i had a 3 1/2 year old little boy (i always race to the little ones) and he was truly the best patient! he likes going to the dr so he was so cooperative (of course i was also playing with him and gave him stickers)!! he did manage to puke all over but i happened to be out of the room when it happened so i was clean!! he had a respiratory virus and needed a breathing treatment, that combined with the steroid we gave him, made the little guy sick. poor thing, but really such a good boy!! i'll miss all this er craziness!!

we have managed to lose 3 students in my class this semester so far. all 3 were in the OB/Pediatrics rotation so that's a pretty small group these days. i'll be in that rotation during the fall semester of my senior year next august. kind of scares me!! we know for certain that 1 and likely 2 actually, were officially kicked out of the program, and the 3rd was a little more voluntary i guess. kind of crazy~!

on a "so proud of her note" my jess stops smoking on saturday!!! she has been taking a medication that has allowed her cut down for the last couple of weeks, and sat is actually stop day!! it's important for her health, and MINE!! heaven knows i don't want to get on an 18 hour flight to greece if she is still smoking!! no way!! i've seen what happens when things get stressful and she really wants to smoke!! things like, as soon as she gets outside and the lighter won't work, it gets chucked across the parking lot and tears begin to flow!! very funny in retrospect but not so much right then!! i have been seeing jess everyday this week and i LOVE IT!! i miss that girl when our schedules conflict. i spent time with her sat, and we have been at water aerobics together mon, tues, and tonight for sure!! then friday night were working on bracelets so i'll see her then too!! YEA!!

i start my diet today...i'm very excited actually but my family is already like, "lets go out to eat sat night, and let's go out to brunch next sunday" ( i think we're actually going to be in sedan--hope you don't care theresa!! that weekend) so i said, go ahead, i can't eat it anyway so don't re-schedule for us! i actually am required to have 1 real meal per day so i could eat it then, but i'm very serious about maintaining this and don't want distractions that i can easily avoid. so...i guess i'll have to be unsociable for a while!!

boy howdy--our march weekends have filled up quickly! this weekend we have a birthday party of one of the day care kids, next weekend my niece's birthday party and trip to visit chris's parents, the weekend of the 17th, i'll be out of town with my nursing friends, and then march 31st is caden's birthday party!! so, a busy month ahead!! that's it for now!!