Dr. Bailey is BACK!!

I love it!! The opening scene with Dr. Bailey and the interns was classic Dr. Bailey!! And what's up with George? Since this mess with Dr. Torres and his dad, he has turned into a total jerk. I want the old George back. I miss the old George. And the whole conjoined twins surgery was incredible! I know we're talking drama here, but I love it. As if I don't have enough drama in my life, I have to escape to Seattle Grace once a week. The whole family theme was awesome. Meredith helping her step-sister deliver her child. George's dad and all his family. The scene at the end with Meredith telling Christina that she is her sister and all she has followed by the scene with her mother ~ incredible. I love Grey's. Is January here yet? I can't believe I have to wait four weeks for another new episode. I'm off to bed ~ have to work early, and it's freezing with icy roads.

Let it rain, let it sleet, let it snow.

Welcome to north Texas. Yesterday the high was almost 80. Today our high was early this morning at 34 degrees. It is now in the upper 20s and sleeting like crazy. Class was not cancelled today, which isn't necessarily a problem for me, since I live less than a mile from the school and the roads hadn't started freezing yet, so most of my classmates were ok, too. Around 11, things started getting bad. The temps were continuing to drop and the sleet was really starting to come. I really am thankful to live so close to school. They didn't close campus until 3, so we had to stay for class until 1.

I'm staying inside where it's nice and warm. I'm getting ready to start a fire in my fireplace for the first time this season. I made a nice pot of tortilla soup that is delicious. I'm looking forward to a relaxing day at home. Oh wait, I have a TON of psych paperwork to do. I guess it won't be so relaxing after all. I'm going to do that paperwork and then relax.

If this cold front hit you, I hope you stay safe and warm. Have a great afternoon.

Running behind

Let me start by apologizing for being absent for a few days. I've been kind of busy with work and school. I will update you subject by subject starting with the one dearest to my heart!

Derby update
All is well in land of Derby. He is finally responding more actively when I remove his igloo from the cage. He is eating and drinking well and not sleeping near as much. It has been wonderful to watch him recover so quickly. He loves his antibiotic, so there is no fight trying to get him to take it! That makes my life so much easier.

School update
Things with school have been absolutely crazy over the last few days. I wasn't able to get as much school work done over the break as I had hoped, but I'm not behind. I'm right on schedule. I prefer to be ahead, but such is life in the real world. I only have one more lecture day left. I can't believe it. This semester has just flown by!! I finished my psych clinicals today. It was a good day to end on. Had a classic manic patient. It was interesting to watch. All in all, school is going pretty good. I'm just ready for this semester to be over. I'm ready for this break.

Work update
I worked Saturday and Sunday. It wasn't too bad this weekend. I was able to give the kind of patient care that I like to be able to give. I had one of my favorite patients in the hospital again. I hate seeing the same faces over and over again, but there are some that really bring joy into my life. Sunday, I had a minor incident while I was giving a bed bath to a patient in the afternoon. I was done with the bath and just needed to finish changing the sheets. This particular patient had SCD's on and the machine was on the end of the bed. As I was walking around the end of the bed, the SCD machine fell onto my left foot. It hurt really bad, but I checked to make sure that nothing was wrong. I elevated it for a few minutes and put some ice on it. And then hobbled through the rest of my shift. All is well now. I just have an ugly bruise on the 2nd toe of my left foot.
I also sat down and talked with my boss on Monday afternoon about my status. After the first of the year, I will go part-time at the hospital instead of PRN. I will start getting PTO and EIB time, as well as qualify for health benefits. I need all of that, and will also have more time to work. It was a good conversation.

Life update
Not much else is going on around here. I'm really just trying to maintain my sanity. It seems that no matter how hard I try, my house stays in disarray. It has taken a back seat to all my other priorities in life right now. At least I have the pleasure of living alone and being the only one who has to deal with my mess. When it starts to annoy me, I clean up. That's all there is to it.

Well, I guess I've taken enough of your time tonight. Thanks for reading. I'll try to be better at posting, but won't promise anything since finals are creeping up very quickly. Until later ~ cj

Cleaning and studying

I made it home safely and much faster yesterday evening. I got home in time to watch Grey's. What an episode. I sat here in shock most of the night. Lots of lessons can be taken from last nights episode. I think the biggest one I got was ~ no matter what the consequences may be, if you have made a medical mistake, be sure to report it. Don't let things get out of hand. Christina and Burke let things go WAY to far. Know, Burke probably won't get to be Chief because of it. (just my speculation). Anyways, enough of that. I could go on and on.

Thanksgiving day was nice. There was a total of 20 at my grandparents house. Most of them I haven't seen for a year. Some were cousins of my dad who I don't ever remember meeting. We had lots of good food, and lots of good visiting.

I got up this morning and picked up Derby from Holly's. He looks so much better. He was squealing his normal Derby squeals while I was petting him and nibbling at my finger like it was a carrot. He has eaten well for Holly and is slowly getting his energy back. I have to continue his antibiotics for a total of two weeks and I will probably continue to feed him by syringe when I am home. He really likes the baby carrots (go figure). He's eaten some of the pears. I'm going to try to find some others that he may eat. I've got to get him back to drinking from his water bottle, though. We'll see how it all pans out.

I've rearranged a little bit to move him away from the draft of the door. It's required much cleaning. Since I was in the cleaning mode, I kept going. My bathroom got an overhaul today, as well as my bedroom. It's been awhile since I've done real deep cleaning, so I figure it's time. I'm just about done in the bedroom and then need to get a little more done in the living room. Mostly my books and school papers. They are a pain to keep up with, but I must have them. After I finish that, I'll get on paperwork for psych. I have quite a bit to do for the rotation as a whole. I only have a little bit of it due Monday. My goal is to finish the stuff for Monday and start on my major psych nursing care plan. We'll see how much gets done, but I'm supposed to work all weekend, so I need to hustle to get some of it done. I also need to read for class on Monday. Ugh. My med-surg text always puts me to sleep. Oh well, only 384 days left until graduation!!

I must get back to the task at hand. Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Traffic

I made it safely to my destination in Waco. I left McKinney at 10:30 this morning and everything started off ok. Traffic was a little heavier than normal on my way to 35, but it was tolerable. I like to take 35W down through Ft. Worth rather than going through Dallas because it cuts quite a bit of time off my trip. Plus, I don't have to deal with downtown Dallas traffic. Things rolled along pretty smooth until I got just north of Ft. Worth and things slowed down to a crawl. It took me an hour to that point (which is a tad bit longer than usual) but I had my patient pants on ~ because after all, it is the day before Thanksgiving ~ and I'm not the only one driving somewhere for the holidays. I passed a really bad accident that had the highway shut down to one lane. I finally got back up to speed and was contently driving along. I had to make a stop on the south side of Ft. Worth because by this time I had already planned on being in Waco and I had a Route 44 iced tea from Sonic with me that was already empty. I got a couple of snacks and got back on the road and things were rolling along great . . . until . . . everything literally STOPPED! I was just north of Hillsboro and there was a warning sign that the speed was ~ 22 mph, but little did I know that I wouldn't go anywhere for quite awhile. It literally took me 25 minutes to go 1 mile. Thankfully I had my handy nursing magazines sitting in the front seat and was able to read a couple of articles while patiently waiting for things to start going. The gentleman behind me was rather amusing. He was obviously annoyed that traffic was stopped and was talking on his phone and looking at his map trying to figure out if there was a way to get around the mess we were in. Once we started moving again, things picked up a little bit. This stop was due to another very bad accident. Thankfully both accidents had police and medical personnel already on the scene ~ so I didn't feel like I needed to stop (though I would have if I needed to). I finally got past the accident and I was pretty much home free. I pulled into Waco right at 2:00. It took me 3 and 1/2 hours to go 150 miles. That is a bit crazy. Oh well, the important thing is that I made it safely and I'm here with my parents, my grandparents and my aunt. The rest of the family will be here tomorrow mid-morning or early afternoon for lunch. I'm not sure what time I'll leave, but I'm not in a hurry. I'm going to sign off for now, but I have a special guest who would like to say something, so for now ~ have a great Thanksgiving ~ cj2

hi all!!! This is cj1...she is cj2. We are having a totally awesome time in lovely downtown Waco bonding with family....can hardly wait til tomorrow when the rest of fabulous Boggs family descends on the homestead. Have a wonderful Turkey Day tomorrow and keep up the great work learning to be the best nurse ever....I'm getting older and will need y'all to take care of me in style I would like to become accustomed.

New Day, New Piggie

Before you freak out, Derby didn't die and I didn't get another piggie. When I got up this morning, he was pretty much in the same shape he was in when I posted yesterday. Still not eating or drinking and just laying on his cage looking sick and pitiful. I went to clinicals and came home to find him in exactly the same spot I left him in. I called one of my good friends (she is also in nursing school ~ a semester ahead of me) to see get some more advice on what to do because I felt bad watching him suffer. I didn't want him to just die of starvation or respiratory distress and in pain. If he was going to die, I wanted it to be done. She has a classmate who works for a vet that deals with little critters and they were willing to give me a very good price break on putting him down. When I got back with the vet, she was sooooooooo sweet. She asked me about Derby, how old he was, what happened to bring this on, and why we couldn't treat it. I explained that I didn't have 300-400 dollars to spend right now because of my living situation and school and that I just didn't want him to suffer. She really thought he would be ok with some antibiotics and an antiinflammatory. She weighed him ~ he weighs a whopping 1.5 lbs and then went to get his meds. She came back in with my instructions and also gave Derby a subq shot of saline ~ just to get him rehydrated a little. She waived her office visit fee and only made me pay for the meds ~ which turned out to be under $6.00. That alone had me in tears. She also told me to give him his medicine, water and feed him baby food through a syringe. Why didn't I think about baby food? He eats regular carrots ~ so why not mushed up ones? My dad told me that I wasn't supposed to think about things like that because I'm not the vet. I guess he's right, but now I kinda feel bad for those days that he didn't eat. I wasn't even able to get him to drink through a syringe.

Well, we left and my friend took Derby with her because I go out of town tomorrow for T-giving and my grandmother wouldn't take too kindly to a guinea pig in her home. He needs A LOT of TLC and she has three boys who love Derby. He gobbled down his first dose of antibiotics like he really liked it (he only gets 0.1 cc of antibiotic and 0.03 cc of antiinflammatory) and then he sucked down 3 cc's of water like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't believe it when she called me and told me this. I called her after dinner with my folks to make sure I didn't need to bring anything extra over and he was still lying on his side, but wanting more and more water. By the time I got there with his cage, water bottle, and pellets, he had already eaten a carrot and a half, several cc's of baby food (pears and carrots), and quite a bit of water. He was also standing up. He hasn't stood up since Saturday. I was seriously almost in tears again!! He's in good hands and I'll get him back on Friday, but I leave early tomorrow and wanted him to not be tossed around too much more today.

I am more excited right now than I even was about my test! I can't believe that he's made this awesome turn around. Thank you all for your kind words of support. When he gets back on his feet, I'll take more pictures and post them. The pics that I have posted (way back in my archives) are from when he was a baby. He's grown quite a bit since then.

On another note, driving back from the airport after dinner with mom and dad, I saw a shooting star. Don't ask me what I wished for because I won't tell you. But seeing shooting stars always brings a smile to my face. I just wanted to share.

I'll try to post while I'm out of town, but I'm not making any promises. It may be Friday before you hear from me ~ so just in case, I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your family and friends, or whatever else you may be doing. For those of you nurses (and other medical/service personnel) who have to work, THANK YOU!! I know it's a big sacrifice, but our patients need us. I hope your hospital or other venue has a wonderful meal for you and that everyone else brings lots of baked goodies! I love the holidays!! TTFN ~ cj

Derby and test update

Well, I guess I should start with the not so good news. Derby isn't improving at all. In fact, I think he's getting worse. He hasn't had anything to eat or drink all day. I can't even get him to eat his favorite food, carrots. It's very depressing, but I'm trying to focus on all the smiles he has brought to my little apartment. I've cuddled him a lot today (since I've been up since 3:30 this morning). He likes to snuggle right under my chin. I can't tell for sure, but I don't think he's running a fever. He is having some problems breathing, which leads me to believe he has a respiratory infection. And, he's still VERY lethargic. Probably more so than the other day. I'm just trying to keep him comfortable and let him know that I love him. I keep hoping that he'll pull through, but am also trying to be realistic about it all.

As I mentioned earlier, I was WIDE AWAKE at 3:30 AM!! This is VERY unusual for me. I was very anxious about my test/Derby/school work/etc. I got up and showered and headed to IHOP a little earlier than anticipated. I was able to make it through all the NCLEX questions r/t the test as well as the review questions in our books in 3 hours. I felt very well prepped after that. Plus, I had delicious french toast and oatmeal at 4:30!! I came back home around 7:00 (I only live a mile from school) and cleaned up around the house a little, cuddled Derby, filled out my scantron and headed to school. The test itself went ok. I knew when I left that I had done either really well, or really bad. I finished a 100 question test in under 1 and 1/2 hours and I took my time!! I re-read questions, made sure I didn't miss important words and still finished under the amount of time the other tests have taken me. I was kinda worried.

I came home and cuddled Derby some more, then went to lunch. Lunch was at a wonderful place called Poppy's here in McKinney. Very relaxing and delicious place to eat. Back to school for lecture on ortho problems. (I'm making you wait to know how I did because I had to wait to find out and if you want to know, you'll either read the whole post, or you'll skip down to find what you want to know ~ either way, I feel like I've accomplished something). We also had a thing on MI's today. It took up the last hour of class. Nothing major.

Finally, test review rolled around. I got my test back and we went over the answers. "Man, I missed the first question. How could I miss that question? I knew that answer? Oh well, there's 99 more to go, maybe it'll be ok." I could go on like this, but that would be cruel and unusual punishment. I did very well on this exam. My raw score was 82. I will probably get at least one or two points back from badly worded questions. This is my first B this semester, so I am very happy with that. I needed it to be higher than that to pull a B for the whole semester, but it's still not completely out of reach. I'll know next week what I have to do on the final to get a B for the semester. I would love to pull that off, but I don't know if it's going to happen or not. Time will tell. I'm going to start studying for the final over Thanksgiving. The only new material we cover is musculoskeletal, renal, and blood. The rest is comprehensive. Should be ok. I'll just keep telling myself that.

Well, my rant has gone on long enough. A piece of chocolate of your choice if you've made it this far without skipping anything is in your future!! (And the calories won't count!!). I hope you have a good week. I'm off to a different psych facility tomorrow. Will be interesting to compare and contrast the two. Until later ~ cj

Derby - pt. 2

There's really no change in Derby. Thank you for your kind words of support. I was just laying in bed trying to go to sleep when something dawned on me. Late last week or early this week, Derby got ahold of a business card that was on top of his cage. When I cleaned his cage yesterday, I don't remember the card being in there (and I don't think I took it out of his cage because I saw it as I was walking out the door late for class). I wonder if the ink on the business card has caused this. Keep in mind that I use shredded paper for his bedding, so he is exposed to inks some. Petey (my first piggie) had a bad reaction to newspaper ink, so I couldn't use that for him. I am not using newspaper for Derby, but shredded bills and other papers that could be recycled. Just a thought. I had to get it off my mind so I could go to sleep. I plan to get up early and go to breakfast at IHOP and review NCLEX questions for a couple of hours before the test. That seems to help me get into test mode. We'll see if that pans out or not (I have to be able to go to sleep first). I'll let you know how Derb is doing as well as how my test goes tomorrow. Until then ~ cj

My piggie - Derby

For those of you who don't know, I have a guinea pig. I've had him over a year. He makes my day better when he squeals for carrots and runs around his cage. Well, somethings not right with Derby today. I noticed this morning when I got up that he wasn't his jovial self. As the day has progressed, he has grown very lethargic and uninterested in what's going on around him. I picked him up without him running away (very rare) and finally got him to eat some carrots. I clean his cage on a weekly basis, but today, I'm scrubbing it and bleaching it. I don't know what's wrong with my baby. He looks so sad and pathetic that I don't even want to put him back in his cage. He has curled up on my chest and doesn't move unless I move. His squeals sound sad and depressing. Everything I've read online tells me to take him to a vet ASAP, but I can't afford to do that. I'm going to baby him the best I can and hope that he gets better.

Why is it that when you have a ton of stuff to do, some crisis like this always happens? I must get back to my books. I'm making great progress, but still have quite a bit to go. I'll keep you updated (though I'm really just posting for my sanity). Thanks for reading. ~ cj

Test weekend . . .

I will be very busy this weekend. I must pass this test, I must pass this test, I must pass this test!! I will be spending the weekend in my books and my notes. After all, we did get a fairly good review. I have a great study guide worked up (at least I think it's great) and will read all the chapters again. I need to pass this test! I'm off to get a few more things together for my busy weekend studying. I'll touch base if I have some down time, but don't count on it! ~ cj

Change of Shift is up

Change of Shift is up over at Life in the NHS. If you have a chance to read through it, you might find some interesting stuff. I have submitted my first post ~ AND it was included. Tho, if you are a regular reader, you have already read the post. Hop on over and have a read!

I woke up . . .

This may not be a big deal to most of my reading audience, but I actually got up on time and made it to Terrell way early. I only have one more day out there. Today was a much better experience than last Wednesday.

I'm feeling some better today. However, the albuterol makes me very jittery. I'm not coughing near as much, so something I'm doing is working. Thank you all for your well wishes and "kicks in the butt!" Goodness knows that we all need to be reminded to take care of ourselves. I have closed my window and intend to keep my promise not to sleep with my window open anymore. Goodness knows, I don't need to get any worse than I am.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving break. I have to take a test on Monday and then have a clinical day on Tuesday, but then I have the rest of the week off. I will be going down to my grandparents for a pretty large gathering ~ including my folks. It will be good. I will be there from Wednesday to Friday and then work Saturday and Sunday. I can't be lazy the whole break, I still have bills to pay. I'll have a little bit of clinical paperwork to work on, but other than that, the time is mine!!

Uh oh

If you were to talk to my parents, they would tell you that when I get something in my head that I'm going to do, I WILL do it. Some people may call me stubborn, but most of the time it works to my advantage. Today, however, was not the case. You see, another cold front came through north Texas over the weekend, and I thought it would be nice to sleep with my bedroom window open. I don't know why I continue to insist on doing this because most of the time, it flares up my asthma something fierce. Saturday night it was in the upper 30s and last night it was in the upper 40s. This morning I woke up with my tell-tale cough of my asthma attacks. I left for school without my inhaler (duh, Crystal!) I seriously feel like I'm going to cough up one or both of my lungs. A lot of times I can head off bronchitis, but I don't know if it is going to happen this time. I'm starting to feel icky and am already tired of coughing. I have been using my albuterol every 4 hours and also have another inhaler that I use twice a day. Hopefully this will help me get better. Please, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I go through the next couple of days. I closed my window and will not sleep with it open any more (I promise). It was kinda ironic that today was our day in lecture to discuss respiratory issues! Oh well, I will beat this, I always do. I'm just tired of always having to fight something off. I guess that goes along with the stress of nursing school and having to work as much as I do. I am off to bed EARLY tonight. I have set three alarms to make sure that I don't get up late in the morning. I will get up and I will have time to get myself together before jumping in the car and driving to Terrell. Have a great night. I'm off to rest. ~cj

Dear Patient . . .

***Please note, the following has been in the works for quite some time ~ nothing here is directly related to any circumstance in particular, but rather a compilation of lots of experience at a nurse's aide going through nursing school***

Dear Patient,
I am here to help you, however, you are not at the Hilton. If you have more than one thing you need, please let me know the first time I ask you, so I don't have to leave your room five times to get five different things. It is much more worthwhile for both of us if I get everything you need at one time. If, however, I have forgotten something, please let me know. I want you to be comfortable during your hospital stay, after all, being sick and not being at home is bad enough.

Dear Patient,
While you are lying in bed thinking about what is wrong with you, I am busy taking care of not only you, but many other patients. Your needs are very important to me, as are the needs of my other patients. Please understand that I don't always have the answers you want, when you want them. It may take me a few minutes to get to your need, but I will get to it. If you are able to get out of bed, I am probably busy changing a diaper, or giving a complete bed bath to a patient who is on bed rest. If you tell me you want me to wait to change your sheets, please tell me when you want me to change your sheets. It is better for all involved if you don't wait until shift change, as the task may get put off onto the next shift. I like to make sure ALL my patients have had the opportunity to get cleaned up and have at least been offered clean sheets. If you have told me to come back, and its late in the afternoon, please do not complain. After all, you are the one who told me to wait ~ so I pressed on with my duties.

Dear Patient (and Family Members),
Please understand that I am a competent and hard-working individual. If you want me to take your blood pressure on a certain arm, please let me know. And please make sure there is not a load of family members on the side of the bed I need to be on. It's makes everything much harder. If, by any chance, you are a member of the medical profession, please be understanding that everything may not happen the way you want it to and when you want it to, just because your loved one is sick. If you want to take total responsibility for your loved one's care, please let me know, and don't smirk at me like I'm supposed to read your mind. Again, I am here to make your stay more comfortable. I know this is not a happy time in your life, but you don't have to be rude to me.

Dear Patient,
Thank you for laughing at my stupid jokes while I was giving you your bed bath. I know that this can be an uncomfortable time, but I want you to feel better. If you happen to be 92 and still feisty as ever, thank you for putting a smile on my face every time I walk through your door. Being sick is hard enough, but making the best of it makes us all better people. You make my day worth working. You negate all the bad looks and comments I have gotten from other patients. Your smile has made my day and makes me want to come back tomorrow!! Thank you!!

No news

Today has been relatively uneventful. It's my one day to get things done around the house and for school. I cleaned the kitchen and straightened the living room. Then the rest of the day has been spent in my psychiatric textbook trying to prepare for the next exam. I must pass this next exam with flying colors. It's going to be ok. I'm going to get back to my books. I still have a little bit of time to study before bed and going to work tomorrow. Have a great weekend. ~ cj

Seriously

Ok, so despite the drama with Grey's Anatomy I still seriously cannot pull myself away from it. I am so entrigued by the whole concept of the show. It is my time away from my life. I am so enthralled with all the different story lines. Oh well, I just finished watching tonight's episode and absolutely loved it. I guess it's time to get back to my life.

Another scenario bites the dust

Today's graded scenario on IVP/IVPB proved to be a success in the long run. While a few kinks were thrown in, I managed to use my "critical thinking" that has been ever pounded into my head to solve some of my problems. The first curve ball started when I entered the scenario to find out that I actually had to write out my MAR. (For those of you non-medical people, this is the medication administration record.) While I had 45 minutes from start to finish, I hadn't practiced writing a MAR ~ the thought never occurred to any of us to do that. So, knock about 10 minutes off my time between noting my doctor's orders and writing my MAR. I was starting to get flustered. Then came curve ball number two. I gathered my supplies without a hitch, but when I started to get my medications, my exact medication wasn't in the drawer. The order was for Ampicillin 500 mg/50 mL in .45% NaCl. All of the Ampicillin's in the drawer were in .9% NaCl. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH. I mentioned this to my instructor ~ who complimented me on a job well done on checking and double checking the order ~ and then proceeded to tell me to pretend that it was the correct medication (if I'm not a great actress by the time nursing school is over, I don't know what I'll be!!). Then, I headed to my med room where I prepared my medication. I drew my flushes up for the Dilaudid 2 mg/mL in a 2 mL ampule. The flushes were not an issue. My third curve ball came when I realized that I didn't have an extra syringe for the saline to dilute my Dilaudid. I had to draw my Dilaudid up first because I only needed only mL of of 2 mL ~ then I had to dilute it with 5 mL of NS. I stood there just looking at what I had for what seemed like forever. And then it finally dawned on me to take my medication and go back and get another syringe. I did that and the rest of it went off without too many other issues. I had between 2 and 3 minutes to write my nurses notes and I was rushing to get those done. I managed to hand them in just in time. My instructor was very complimentary of my process and how I diluted the Dilaudid. I felt, the whole time, that I was going to have to remediate because I was sure I had made a HUGE mistake!! Glad that one is under the rug. I only have one more scenario!! Then I don't have to do scenarios any more during nursing school.

I decided that I needed to cook tonight. This is a big deal for me. I went and bought noodles and marina sauce and garlic bread! It was wonderful ~ after all, I LOVE carbohydrates!!! I have to clean the house some tonight and get some studying done tomorrow. I work Saturday and Sunday. Should be a pretty decent weekend. I'm just so excited because I only have 399 days until graduation!! I finally got under the 400 mark!! That's a big accomplishment!!

As Promised

Ok, so my day at Terrell didn't go quite as I had pictured it. To start off with, I didn't wake up until 5:45. I was supposed to be out of the house by 5:30!! YIKES!! I called my classmates I was supposed to be carpooling with and told them to go on without me. I think I got ready faster than I have ever gotten ready in my life!! I made it to Terrell just in time. It was kinda stressful getting there, but the traffic wasn't bad. We did a mini tour of the administration building and then were off to our unit. We were on the women's unit today. It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but things started settling down. The client's on the unit seemed more than willing to talk and share.

Then it happened. . . We headed over to another building to attend a group session and I FREAKED OUT!! I don't know what happened. I felt like I was going to pass out and throw up at the same time. I spoke to my instructor and she graciously let me sit outside and try to regain myself before going back into the unit. I really didn't think that I would freak like that. I don't know what my trigger was, or what happened, but something just didn't feel right to me.

I have two more days at Terrell. Hopefully they will be a bit better. I must go do my paperwork and get it ready to turn in tomorrow.

Another day, another story

Well, today started out like any other clinical day. I got up, showered, and dressed in my beautiful white uniform for my last day in the OR. I got to the hospital at 6:30 and met my classmate, Ashley, for our day. About 7:30 or 7:45, management starts coming around in a tizzy because the mock JACHO people were going to be in the hospital. We continued on as normal, just made sure we weren't in the way or doing anything wrong. There wasn't much going on, so we decided to head up to the floor around 11:30 to drop off paperwork to our instructor and found out that the entire group had been out of the hospital all day. They showed up, but left after finding out that the survey team was coming in. Ashley and I were forgotten, as we are to start our psych rotations this week ~ I guess they thought we had already started. Oh well, I guess it's just that much more experience, right?

Tomorrow is my first day of psych, and I have to drive about 60-65 miles out to Terrell State Hospital for three clinical days. I'm carpooling with the others that are going out there, so it shouldn't be too bad, but we have to be there at 7:00. I need to leave here by 5:00 to make it to our meeting point on time. In case you didn't know, early mornings and me don't get along. I have managed to get all my paperwork ready for tomorrow, as well as several CDs. I have to have music when I'm driving, and if I can choose the songs I listen to, it's even better. I'll try to get myself awake by the time we are to meet up by blaring my music and drinking some coffee (I may even splurge on a caramel machiatto from Starbucks).

I'm going to finish watching Dancing with the Stars and then start winding down for the night. I'll post tomorrow sometime. I have plans with Jen after clinicals, since I haven't seen her since her birthday. Then I'll come home and nap, I'm sure. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories since we are going to the state hospital. Time will tell. Have a great night ~ cj

Long, tiring Monday

The amount of Monday lectures I have left for this semester is quickly dwindling, but that doesn't make them any easier. Today's lectures weren't too bad, and we got so good direction as far as our next exam goes, so that was great.

Then after class, I had to go to the hospital for an hour long code of conduct class that is a yearly requirement. Ugh. At least I got paid to sit through the class, and it wasn't too bad. Just a gentle reminder on how we are supposed to treat everybody.

This week is my major transition in clinicals. I have one more day in the OR, then I start psych. I'm kinda excited for the change, but in the same way, just ready for the semester to be over. My countdown clock tells me I only have 402 days left until I graduate. I can't believe that this time last year, I hadn't even started nursing school yet. I was getting everything ready and was very anxious for everything to start ~ now I'm almost half-way through. This is where everyone can chide in with "I told you so." I can't tell you how many times I've been told that school will fly by. I know in hindsight it will, but when you are in the heat of the moment, somedays it really stands still.

I know I have some stuff to do around here. Paperwork to print, drug cards to write, notes to review, so I'll close for now. Thanks for reading ~ cj

A lovely Friday afternoon

Well, yesterday's nap turned into much more than that. I was extremely tired and starting to get sick. I planned on sleeping for a couple of hours and getting up and doing some school work, but you know how that goes. I ended up turning off my alarm and sleeping until about 8:15. Yikes, I missed the first 15 minutes of Grey's Anatomy. I'm so upset. I'm going to have to watch it on abc.com. It was worth waking up for. I then watched ER and some of the news and went back to bed. I felt much better this morning.
I spent the morning in the lab working on the skills for the next scenario. It was another cool, crisp day in north Texas. Just a slight wind. Nothing too chilly. I was able to spend the afternoon with a wonderful friend. We went to lunch and had a great time. I came home and was able to relax and get some minor things done on the computer and such. It was a nice break.
Tomorrow holds another day. I must go back up to the lab to get two more peer reviews on my skills. I'm feeling pretty confident about this one. No major issues. Just little things I have to remember.
Sunday, I will work again ~ then we start the school week all over again. I have tons of typing to do for tomorrow, so I must go. I hope you all have a great weekend. cj

Fall is here!!

It's a beautiful day in north Texas and I feel like crap. My allergies won't go away and I think my asthma is starting to turn to bronchitis. It inevitably does this every season. I'm holding off as long as I can because I've had enough of being sick for awhile. I worked quite a bit this week. Of course, I worked Sunday, but I also went in to work on Tuesday and Wednesday (to make up for the work I will miss on Saturday). I've got to get some practice in for our next scenario and I need to get a jump start on my next theory exam. Today, however, is free game. I give myself one afternoon to rest, watch tv, relax, basically to do what I need to do around the house to maintain my sanity. Today, I think I'm going to take a nap. I'm starting to have problems concentrating again ~ but I'm fairly sure it's due to being tired. I'm going to go lay down, I'll post more later.