Slacking

Yeah yeah, I know. I'm slacking on my posts. Just seems like I'm hardly home these days. I'm working in the ER full time now, and it's going really well. I work every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night until the middle of October, so I've been missing church on the weekends. Thankfully I've found a really great Wednesday night program called "The Bridge" for young adults at Sagebrush. Daniel and I have been going and we've really been enjoying it so far. The people are great, I've already met some interesting and fun people. Whenever I get myself a camera, I'll take pictures of the group and post them. I've got a full day ahead of me, so I'll wrap up this short post.

First post from my new home

I bought a house almost two weeks ago, and I got the internet set up on Monday. I just finished working a twelve hour shift in the ER (which I'm enjoying a lot), and now I'm sitting at my computer. Most of the time I forget to post until my sister reminds me that I haven't written anything in a good month. I'm not sure if I'll get pictures of my new place anytime soon, but I'll post them if I do. Today was a crazy day, I did my second shift in the ER, and it's actually a really fun place to work. The only problem I have is actually getting used to the controlled chaos, which can feel a little uncontrolled at times. There's a lot to learn, and that's exciting, but very intimidating at the same time.

I weighed the pros and cons about working in the PACU (post-op) and the ER. Both units have their ups and downs, and I like the staff in each place. I spoke to the ER manager today and found out that she would probably start me off on nights because it's easier for me to learn with a preceptor, as days can be a little more crazy. I could either do nights or day swing shift (12 to 12). So it's a bit of a draw back, because even PACU would start me out at 10am to 10pm. Either way I can kiss part of my social life goodbye. Also, ER requires you to work three weekend shifts a month. I could do a full weekend and a half weekend and get it overwith. PACU doesn't require as many weekends, infact you might not have to work them at all if they have enough staff to cover it. ER also requires you to be on call once every two weeks, and PACU isn't as much (I think once a month?). So the upside to ER is the experience, the learning, and the fact that you'll seldom get bored. PACU can be a rather monotonous job, and you're forced to watch the clock all day because of how much you chart on your patient. The shifts in ER seem to go by faster, and I get to practice a LOT of nursing skills. I think I started about 12 IVs on Tuesday. It's a tough decision, but I went ahead and made an appointment for a peer interview in the ER. We'll see how it goes, and I hope the Lord's answers to my prayers for the right direction get a little less confusing and a bit more clear.

In the end, I'm a nurse to treat my patients and to care for them with the best of my ability. No matter where I work, I pray that God will always keep those thoughts in my head. That's what matters most.

Settling

No pictures this time, just a little update. I've started my job at Presbyterian as of June 9th. I made an offer on a house with 3 bedrooms 2.5 baths, and they accepted (it's over on I-40 and Coors). I've made a lot of friends since coming back, most of them through work. I miss my brother, his wife, and their three beautiful children since they moved to Brooklyn. I've learned that asking for insurance quotes online will get you twenty phone calls and a hundred e-mails the next day. It's really nice to be home where I can see the majority of my family whenever I want to. Anyhow, that's about it.

Kitty cat

Well, Kuno and I are enjoying our time off now that school is coming to an end. She spends the day getting in trouble, then relaxing on any flat surface she can find. Here are some pictures of her lazing the day away, and getting into the cubby hole above my filing cabinet (she barely fits).

Spring Break

I'm finally getting a little time to myself to relax and kick back, but wait! What am I going to do now that I'm not studying for a test or doing clinical all day? I guess I'll be watching a lot of Law and Order. I'm gonna get together with some friends while I'm on spring break, but I'm doing my best not to spend a whole lot of money.

Graduation is getting so close, it feels like just yesterday I was getting together with Monica and Lori to study for Anatomy and Physiology over the summer before nursing school started. It's hard to believe it's been almost two years since then. One more rotation of clinicals, two more tests, and finals, then it's all over and I graduate in May.

Busiest week ever

I think this week by far was the craziest week in nursing school yet. It was the first week of clinical, my birthday, and a cardiac test. I hardly got any sleep most of the week, but thankfully it is over. Tuesday was my birthday, and I spent it all in clinical. My friend Robin invited me over that night and made a very tasty dinner, and we had a few drinks in celebration. It was fun having a quiet night with friends. My mom and dad sent me flowers, chocolate (very good!), and a cute teddy bear that my cat adopted right off the bat. My friend Anna (a girl from nursing school), made me cupcakes and brought them to the hospital so we could all have them during post conference. Rosa (another nursing friend), brought me a gun that shoots miniature chickens. It's hilarious. Jennifer got me a gift card to Starbucks (whooo!). By the time Thursday came around to take the test, everyone was practically dead from lack of sleep and lots of stress. We had to sit through a whole day of lecture after that, and our instructor kept talking about how we all looked like zombies. Let's just say that I got a lot of sleep this weekend, and it was nice to sit down all day long and do absolutely nothing in recovery. I start again tomorrow with studying and clinical and all that good stuff.

A very busy week

I'm so glad that this week is halfway through. I had a test on Tuesday over the hepatic system, and a test this morning in Nursing Management. The weekend was full of studying and I'm happy to say that I'll have a couple of days before I need to start studying again. Tomorrow I will find out my test scores. There are a lot of people in the class that think they failed the exam, but I honestly think I did pretty well.

The weather has been rainy the past few days, so I've done a lot of sitting on the couch with my books and little Kuno curled up in my lap. Infact, Kuno is curled up in my lap as I'm typing this (yes Mom, I've made plenty of use out of that lint roller you put in my stocking for Christmas).

My first blog

I've never had a blog before, but it's a growing trend among the members of my family, so I thought I'd give it a try. Since I'm out here in Mississippi, I figured it'd be a good way for my family and friends to keep up with what's going on in my life and all that good stuff.

So here's to start out. On Thursday I took my drug calculation test for this semester. These tests are very important because they are a pass or fail sort of thing. If you don't make a 90% on the test, you fail out of the program. A few people didn't meet the requirements this semester, so they will have one more chance to pass. Thankfully I passed, so I don't have to go through the stress of taking it a second time to stay in the program. I'll be graduating in May, hopefully. This semester is full of complicated med/surg content and is a continuation of the stuff we learned last semester. I think I'm intimidated simply because it is the last semester and it's so close to being over. I know I can do this, it just takes time and dedication to make it through.

From what the calendar says, my birthday will be during the first week of clinicals. We'll also have two tests that week, so I'll probably wait until after that week is over to do any celebrating. My friend Lori and I were talking about having a bbq cookout or something.