And the World Spins Madly On

Well I guess I should finally post again, since some members of my family are whining at me. No names mentioned. =)

Disclaimer: Again, this can be pretty graphic…so if you get offended by things like blood and genitals…please don’t read this. =)

Well first off, last semester was by far the most difficult 13 weeks of my life. There is no room for a personal crisis in this program. I seriously contemplated quitting about 5 times and the only reason I'm still standing is because of the outpouring love and support from my family and friends. So really, I have you to thank, because there is NO way I would have made it this far without you guys.

Last month I got to go home for the first time in 8 months and it was absolutely the best 10 days of the year! My best friend, Kia got married, and I had the privilege of being her maid of honor. Kia was absolutely stunning, as you can see from the picture. The wedding was perfect and I'm still smiling from that weekend. It was pure bliss. =)

So here are some highlights of last semester and a couple from this semester:

Mental Health Rotation: Worst 4 weeks of the year. Hands down. I wrote a little bit about it in my last post. In group therapy my patient informed the group that if I were an article of clothing I would be a thong. So embarassing... When I was on the adult unit one patient was convinced that I was Kristen Dunst and refused to call me anything but Kristen. I witnessed a huge kid chuck at chair and a phone at a nurse that took a huge gash out of his arm. Not to mention I had nightmares every single night of the rotation. I've decided that mental health nursing is not my calling.

Medical Surgical Nursing: I loved this rotation! My favorite so far. I have a couple stories from this one. I had the honor of doing my first enema in this rotation. It was on a 50 year old woman who was wonderful! I loved both her and her husband. After I finished the dirty duty her husband came up to me and gave me a sixpence. He said, "Here's payment for your very first enema. That way you'll never forget me or my wife's butt." He told me to put it in my wedding shoe and it will bring me luck. =)

I also took care of a 54 year old man who was dying of chronic liver failure. He was completely jaundiced and had the most yellow skin I have ever seen in my life. It was an honor to take care of him as he prepared for the end of his life. Before I left he told me that if he was 30 years younger he would ask me to marry him.

And one of my most favorite stories…I took care of a beautiful black boy (I suppose he wasn't a boy at all...he was 23) from Africa who was recovering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. His mother was in the room with him almost constantly. While his mom was there he didn't say anything to me except for direct answers to my questions. One evening his mom left, and was replaced by five equally attractive friends of his from Africa. I went in to give him some morphine, and I had to push it over 5 minutes, so I was stuck hovering above him pushing drugs into his veins with all six sets of eyes plastered on me. As I was standing there he finally spoke to me; "So...how old are you?" I laughed and asked him how old he thought I was. He guessed 18 (go figure) and all of his friends started guessing. They finally guessed my age and they were shocked. One of them said, "wow...you don't look 23". Yeah, I've never heard that before. Finally the morphine was all in his body and I told him I would come back in ten minutes to check on his pain. Ten minutes later I came back in and asked him to rate his pain. He said that it was much better. I asked if there was anything else I could do for him and he said no. I turned to walk out of the room. "Miss?" I turned back around. One of his beautiful friends smiled at me and proclaimed, "I'm in pain too." And then another, "I'm in pain too, miss." One by one, all five of them said they were pain. I could feel my face flushing, and I was so embarrassed that I literally just ran out of the room. As soon as I got out the door they all erupted into laughter.

Pediatrics: This rotation was pretty uneventful. We did not get to do much nursing-related care, so it was more of a babysitting position. I did get to see a distal hypospadias repair though! Hypospadias is a birth defect where the urethra (pee hole) opens up on the underside of the penis instead of at the tip. It was fascinating.

ICU: I started in the ICU last week and I have 2 weeks left. I was extremely nervous for this rotation because of how sick these people are. My patient was 26 years old and was recovering from his third ATV accidents. He had a metal plate supporting the femur of his right leg. I was able to observe his surgery, called an irrigation and debridement where they wash the wound out and get rid of all the dead tissue. When they pulled the transparent dressing off his wound they pulled four rags out of it and it was a HUGE gaping hole with a little muscle flap hanging off the top of it. It was 40cm by 11cm and 8cm deep…which was practically his whole thigh. There was all this dead tissue and it was just oozing blood. They let me stand pretty close when they were cleaning it, and I got squirted with blood! It was awesome! I followed him back to the ICU and over the rest of the day realized that there was a large amount of blood building up under the transparent dressing. We called the doctor and she came up to help us. We just cut open the dressing and suctioned all the blood out. She let me do the suctioning and pulled out these giant clots. She found the bleeders and stopped them up. This guy had all sorts of other medical problems and was pretty depressed at his whole situation. When people experience trauma, sometimes they can get fluid shifting to different parts of their body. My patient was lucky enough to have a scrotum the size of a cantaloupe. I felt so bad for him…I’m not sure if is thigh or scrotum hurt more. My day started off with an order from the doctor to “elevate scrotum.” What?? How on earth do you even do that?? This is pretty much how my day went: “Ohhh….nurse….can you look at my balls?? Do they look okay?” or “Ohhhh….nurse….can you adjust my balls for me??” or “Ohhh…nurse….can you wipe off my balls? They feel sweaty.” I don’t have a problem with moving his balls around…it was just doing it with a straight face that was a challenge.

If you are ever feeling overwhelmed with your job, just think of me and be thankful that you don't have to adjust a stranger's balls every 30 minutes.

So needless to say, clinicals have been a joy. In my spare time I go salsa dancing with my friend Michelle, play racquetball, participate in Zumba, play marbles and nertz, drink wine and eat steak. One last silly story to finish up. So I went to buy a $3 bottle of wine this last weekend at Walmart. The woman before me in line bought Vodka and the cashier was having troubles getting the alarm thing off the top. (Apparently they sell hard liquor at Walmart here). There was a line building up behind me. She was already pretty flustered by the time she got to me. She asked to see my ID, and put my birth date into the computer. Then she stopped and gave me a horrified look and literally shouted at me, “You can’t buy this!” I said, “Well why not?” She replies, “Because you’re not 21 yet!!” At this point everyone behind me in line started snickering. I calmly said, “I’ll be 24 next month.” And she frantically looks at my ID again and proclaims, “Oh!! I thought your birthday was October 2011! Sorry!” The expiration date. Yes. I actually haven’t been born yet. You never know what to expect at Walmart.

Countdown: t-39 days until the drive home begins! I can do this!

Summertime and the living is easy...except when you're in nursing school

Life has just been way to busy and intense. I had an amazing experience in my labor and delivery rotation. Before the rotation even started I prayed every day to not be the nursing student that passed out during a birth. I just wasn't sure how I would handle it. Watching babies come out on the television is one thing...but standing right there watching is completely different. It was a very busy day, and I finally had time to grab a bite of dinner. I had only had two bites of my dinner when my professor burst in the room and asked if I was busy. Of course, I put my food down immediately and she asked if I wanted to see a C-section in the operating room. I changed into different scrubs, washed up and put on a hair cover, shoe covers, and eye protection. When I got into the OR the nurse told me not to touch anything blue or she would have to kill me. The spinal block was first...and it looked extremely painful. Mom was a trooper though and didn't even flinch. The C-section was amazing! I was about 6 feet away and it was full of spurting blood and amniotic fluid. After they cut all the way through the layers of the abdomen and the uterus was exposed both doctors got up on their step stools, looked at each other, and pulled her apart on the count of three! That would be why women are so sore afterwards! The mom had twins and they were both perfect! After they got the placenta out and plopped it into a bucket I double gloved myself and explored it! I didn't want to miss a thing, and as they were stitching her up my professor came in and said "I know you're having a great time, but there's another lady whose about to have a vaginal birth, do you want to watch?" And I was off! The vaginal birth was incredible! Mom and dad were Hispanic and did not speak any English. The poor lady wasn't pushing very well because of the communication barrier and we tried all sorts of positions with her, and we even did tug-of-war with a sheet to try to help her push better...nothing worked. Two hours of active pushing later, the interpreter finally came in. The doctor told him exactly how she should be pushing and two pushes later baby was out! I was holding mom's leg and had a front row seat. It was so amazing and beautiful and I cried a little bit. I have NO idea why some women choose to have a C-section over a vaginal birth. Needless to say, my prayers were answered and I didn't even get a little bit light headed.

Finals week came and went and I ended up doing pretty well in my classes! I got all A's and one lousy B+. The next day I flew to Hawaii to see the love of my life and his family! Hawaii was fantastic and it was probably the most relaxing, wonderful break I could ever ask for! We went to the beach a ton, we played games, we drank wine, we went to Waikiki, we ate shave ice, we surfed, we hiked...we pretty much did it all! One of my favorite Hawaii moments was when we got kicked out of the private beach. The gate was locked, and one of Liz's friend was with us and swore that it was usually open...so we decided to just jump the fence. It was a wonderful beach, and not surprisingly, we were the only people there. We managed to get a good three hours or so of beach time in and we were all taking a nap when the unfamiliar voice of a police office awakend us.
"How did you guys get in here?"
We all looked awkwardly at each other, and finally Nick's mom, Sheli, responded:"We jumped the fence. It's usually unlocked."
"No it isn't."
"...oh."
Fortunately he was nice and just made us leave. He even unlocked the gate so we didn't have to jump back over the fence. we managed to hold our laughter back until we made it to the car.

It was extremely painful to come back to Omaha.

While I was in Hawaii I received some very very exciting news! For the last 7 weeks of nursing school we work directly with one nurse, working all the hours they work. It's called our preceptorship. We can work at any hospital we want to, as long as they have a contract with Creighton. Nick convinced me to try and set up my preceptorship in Oregon. I didn't think it would work out, but I agreed to try. While in Hawaii I got the wonderful news that they have a spot saved for me at the OHSU medical center in Portland! I'm in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and I will be working day shifts! Nick's other mom, Paula, volunteered to let me live with her! When I read the happy email we had just got back from dropping Nick off at the airport. I was sad on the car ride home...but all my sadness went away after reading my good news! Knowing that I was going to home to Oregon 2 months earlier than I thought made it much more bearable to return to Omaha.

Unfortunately my first week back in class started off horribly. I had jet lag, I was missing my Hawaiian family, and school was just way too much too soon. One morning I was completely doubting myself and questioning why on earth I was even putting myself through this. My Grandma made me a wonderful calendar for Christmas with pictures of everyone in my family. I keep it in my bathroom so I can see the happy pictures when I'm getting ready for my day. On the bottom of the calendar was exactly what I needed to see. "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation...I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13" I made it through that day...and a couple more since then! Thanks, Grandma!

Right now I'm in my mental health rotation. It's only been one week and the rotation is more challenging than I ever dreamed. I was told by a therapist in a very unprofessional, condescending manner that I am "way too cute and adolescent looking" to be working with my patient, and she forbade me to talk to him. Fortunately my professor overrode her. Later that day a frantic 9-year old was experienceing some separation anxiety after her mom left and was running around screaming bloody murder for about 45 minutes straight. I was sitting in a chair watching the commotion (we are mostly there to observe because we aren't trained to deal with those types of situations quite yet) and she ran up to me and grabbed me around the neck and would not let go. It took three nurses to pry her off of my neck. Then a 14 year old girl freaked out because all the yelling from the other girl triggered past memories and she started yelling and cursing and crying. Then a 10-year old boy got upset and started screaming and chucking every object possible out of his room at the nurses who were trying to calm him down. Basically it was a traumatic experience and I will most likely never be working on a mental health unit. Maybe being cute and adolescent looking won't matter so much when working with little babies. =)

Well Omaha is finally pretty, and it's been in the 80's almost every day I have been back. I spend my weekends studying at the pool and drinking iced coffee. I might as well soak up a little sun and knowledge at the same time!

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."

This week I managed to survive my first tornado warning! It was very dark and stormy outside, and I was diligently studying in my bedroom for my big test the next day. All of the sudden I heard this noise outside like nothing I've ever heard before. I searched "tornado siren" on youtube...and sure enough, it was the same sound! I was probably a little more excited than I should be for a swirling whirlwind of death. Unfortunately the most exciting thing that happened was when the wind ripped the gutter off our apartment.

This week I had the worst thing happen to me that has ever happened in my entire life. Background information: A G-tube is a tube that goes directly into the stomach. At the end of it, outside of the body, the tube forks and there is a big opening and a small opening, both sealed with rubber stoppers. The tube is very useful for giving liquid medication as well as water, if the person is at risk for aspiration. In order to put something in the tube you have to kink it, attach a syringe to the big hole, and simply pour liquids into it. There is definitely a technique to it, and you have to be careful to make sure you are holding on tight to where the syringe and tube connect. In clinicals we always have our professor with us when we are giving medication or doing new procedures. It was time for my resident's G-tube flush. I told my professor that I was ready when she was, and she told me that I could do it by myself since she had watched me do it three times already. I was so excited to be able to do something by myself! I prepared everything I needed and got ready to start. Before you actually put anything in the tube you have to make sure the tube is actually in the stomach. You do this by holding the stethoscope on the stomach, and injecting 10cc of air into it. If you hear the air in the stomach, you are good to go! Well I was all set up. One hand was holding my stethoscope to her stomach, and the other was holding the syringe and tube together. I pushed the air into the syringe with one fluid motion...and the rubber stopper to the second smaller hole in the tube flew open and stomach juice shot into my face with an incredible amount of force. Now I don't know if you've ever seen juices straight from the stomach...but let me just tell you, it is not a pretty picture. Not only does it have the consistency of snot, but it smells awful too! To make things worse, my resident had a big old glass of cranberry juice for breakfast...so I was covered in pink, viscous, foul-smelling slime. It all happened so fast it took me a second to realize what was happening. I was trying to manipulate my hands so I could stop the spurting tube without dropping the whole contraption. I figured I might as well just finish the job before cleaning up...so I managed to pour everything down her tube while I was still a mess. My poor resident was just sitting there looking at me with an amused face the whole time. She didn't say a word, bless her soul. I was so unbelievably close to vomiting all over. Sheli just reminded me yesterday that the Lord never gives us more then we can handle...

After this whole unfortunate incident I wheeled my resident down to mass and proceeded to walk to the break room to grab some lunch. My stomach was still churning. One of my classmates called me to her resident's room and said she had to run and do something quickly. "Can you watch her? She's been on the toilet forever and she'll probably still be there when I get back." So I go into the room, and not two seconds later her sweet little resident, who is deaf and blind in one eye starts hollering that she's finished. I walked into the tiny bathroom and low and behold there was poop all over her hands, all over the toilet, and all over the wall. It wasn't just normal poop either...it was black, tarry, sticky poop. I'm not exactly sure what the poor little lady was doing in there. So I started to clean her up and I was just finishing as my classmate came back into the room. She took one look at me and said "I am so sorry....I owe you big time!" Little did she know what horrors I had previously encountered moments before. By the time I finally got to the break room I was thorougly traumatized and had lost my appetite completely.

So one of the things I'm most nervous about is learning how to do an IV. Yesterday, my friend Kristi and I went to bar/resturaunt and we were sitting at the table drinking beer and talking about nursing. She used to be an EMT so she has already done tons of IVs. She was explaining the whole process to me. I asked her if she could show me what vein she would go for on my hand. So I wrapped my hair tie around my wrist so my veins would pop out and she was holding my hand poking at my veins and explaining what to look for. At that moment, our waitress comes up to us and says in a shocked voice, "Are you proposing??" The funniest part was that she was totally serious! I'm pretty sure same-sex marriage isn't even legal in Nebraska! We burst out laughing and told her that we were in nursing school and we were just looking at veins. She thought that was hilarious.

Nick was supposed to come visit me in May...but last week we deiceded to go to Hawaii instead!! I am SO excited! I get to see my lover and the rest of the Serrones, I get to go to Hawaii, and I get a break from nursing school all wrapped into one! Life couldn't be better. =)

Just Breathe

Well this week is my spring break, and it was very much needed! The last two weeks of school have been complete insanity and I am proud that I made it out alive. I'm recharging for the madness to begin again on Monday.

Last week I started my second clinical rotation...long term care. LTC is basically the same thing as a nursing home; we take care of older people that are unable to take care of themselves. We are assigned one resident for the two days we are at the facility. The first day of clinical I wasn't sure what to expect...but I assumed we would have a nurse with us monitoring everything we did. Wrong. We showed up bright and early at 6:20am and our professor informed us that all nine of us were assigned to the same nurse and we were pretty much on our own. "It's your responsibility to get your resident down to breakfast before 8:30. Good luck." And we were off.

I was lucky to have the most lucid patient in the facility for the first week. She was very helpful and knew exactly what needed to be done at what time. I learned a whole bunch of new skills in those first two days of rotation. I gave my first insulin shot, I learned how to give medications through a G tube, I learned how to give bath, I learned how to wipe an adult's butt, and my personal favorite....I learned how to clean poop out of a wheelchair. Unfortunately just because a person is lucid doesn't mean they are continent. After this week I realized just how lucky I am to be able to get up and use the toilet when I need to.

Speaking of toilets...I had an unfortunate accident involving my cell phone and the toilet. I was on my lunch break at school and my phone was in the back pocket of my jeans. As I slid my jeans off, my phone shot out of my pocket like a newborn baby right into the toilet. I did all I could to save it, but sadly my attempts were futile. I went to get another phone, and the wonderful people at sprint sold me a broken phone. I didn't have time to go back in for another week...but I finally have a functional phone again.

The weather has been fickle again lately. Within the last week and a half I have experienced a snow storm, 1 degree below zero, a thunder and lightning storm, rain, hail, ice, and a balmy 70 degrees. One morning I slipped on a patch of ice and fell straight on my butt and the next day I was frolicking outside in a tee-shirt. And I thought the pacific northwest was bipolar!

Once again, I have another new love of my life....racquetball! I played it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I cannot get enough of it! I have never before been quite so sore and covered in bruises! The guy I play with, Alex, is a very pateint person. So far I have hit him in the face 3 times and made him bleed once. He has done neither of those things to me. I'm definitely getting better! Yesterday I scored ten points against him!

Thursday night my mommy came to visit me for spring break! We pretty much had non-stop fun the whole time she was here. On Friday we went to the zoo...which is apparently one of the best ones in the country. My friend from school used to work there, so she got us in for free! My friend Clete came with us...which was really great because I'm pretty sure I couldn't have pushed the wheelchair up some of those hills without him! With the amount of walking that zoo requires, they really should give wheelchairs to everyone. Those wheelchairs are hard to maneuver. Good thing she's got a good sense of humor! I ran her into walls, small children, snow piles, Clete's feet, etc. It was like off-roading compared to the facility I'm used to using a wheelchair in! Overall it was a fantastic zoo and we had a blast! It was 70 degrees that day too, so it was just perfect. I decided that I want a wallaby and a penguin.

My mom and I did all sorts of fun things! We went to thai, we went to happy hour sushi, we went to the $2.00 theater twice, we made multiple delicious meals, we went downtown, we went to Iowa, we drank lots and lots of tea, we stayed up way too late every night, and we watched about a million episodes of I Love Lucy! I had never seen the show before...and I'm definitely a fan! I thought it was hilarious.

Countdown till graduation: 9 months, 1 week

All you need is love

These last couple of weeks have been full of new adventures! Here are a few highlights:

I started clinicals two weeks ago and it has been a blast so far. We go to a bunch of Catholic schools and do health screenings on the kids. They're so cute in their little uniforms! The second school we went to...the kids were so nice and polite...I just had to give them a hard time. My favorite was this cute little 5th grader:

Mal: So, how's today? Tell me the truth?
Boy: Today is fine.
Mal: You gotta give me more then that, good fine, or bad fine?
Boy: Well...good fine I guess.
Mal: Are you telling me the truth?
Boy: Okay okay, it's not going good!
Mal: I knew you were lying!! Why not?
Boy: Because I have to present and I lost my presentation!
Mal: Don't worry, it's all up here (pointing to his head)
Boy: You're probably right...

Then I was testing a 3rd grader's vision. I had her cover her left eye and read the letters. Then I had her cover he right eye and read the letters. Then I said "Okay, now let's try it with both eyes", and she covered both of her eyes and turned towards me and said "what do you mean?" I just burst out laughing, and she uncovered her eyes and then said "whoops!" That was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Last Tuesday in class we learned about antepartum and intrapartum pregnancy. The professor that was teaching, Holly, is absolutely hilarious (not the penis grabber)! She was talking about how at the first appointment the new mom wants to know her due date first thing. She showed us the EDC Wheel that will give you the due day if you line it up with the first day of her last menstruation. She passed out a couple of the wheels for us to play with and said, "If you put in your birthday you can see what day you were conceived on!" That is an example of something I do not want to know...sick...but curiosity got the best me. I know, mom and dad...I know. =)

A couple hours and a different professor later, we were talking about preparing certain muscles for the whole process of labor. Our professor asked us, "Do you know what Kegel exercises are?" And Mark, a 37 year-old ex-chiropractor with 2 children blurts out, "Yep...I'm doing them right now." I don't think he expected his voice to carry throughout the whole room, but everyone burst out laughing. Our professor looks at him and says, "Well, most people prefer to do them in a more private place, like at stop lights in their car. Another added bonus is that they enhance sexual pleasure. Please continue Kegeling!" That poor guy was so red.

Last weekend I got together with my friends and we were all discussing the highlights of our clinicals. We were all giddy because we hadn't seen each other in 4 days, which seems like a really long time when you are used to seeing each other every day, all day. To their horror, my friends Clete and Chris were schedule for OB for their first rotation. Neither of them want to work with vaginas or babies. Their clinical leader is Holly, the hilarious one. She was telling them about how sometimes the woman's uterus will prolapse and that fortunately we now have the knowledge of how to fix the problem. Back in the day, however, they used to stick potatoes up there to keep everything in place. Can you even imagine??? What kind of potato, I wonder. Yukon Gold? Sweet Potato? Did they peel it first? Nursing is not for the weak.

This weekend we had another giant snowstorm. I think we got about 8 inches on Friday. We had planned to go to Chris' house that night and relax in the hottub. He turned the temperature up a little bit for the occasion. We had to walk through the snow in bare feet to actually get to the hot tub. Chris apparently turned it up a little too hot...because it was definitely 110 degrees! We weren't about to turn away though! My poor body was so confused. It was too hot to be in the hottub and to cold to be out of it. We threw a bunch of snow in to try to cool it off. When we got out everyone had a clear line as to how far in they submerged their body. I'm pretty sure I have permanent damage for that one...but it was totally worth it!

I have discovered a new love (sorry, Nick). Pharmacology!! I cannot get enough of it. It has gotten to the point that I read about drugs before I go to sleep a night. You know, some light reading. =) It just blows my mind that they have figured out how exactly each drug affects different cells and pathways. I absolutely LOVE it!

I am actually starting to like Nebraska more every day. My favorite part of the day is driving to school in the morning, because the sun is just coming up behind the city and it looks so pretty and peaceful. Maybe God really did create this place... =)

My darling Nick sent me flowers for V Day. =) Highlight of my week, for sure.

One Month Down!

Warning: If your are offended by silly mishaps with human anatomy, then I probably wouldn't read the 4th paragraph. =)

So it has been absolutely crazy since I last blogged! I have been studying like a crazy person for the last two weeks. On Monday I had my head-to-toe lab final, and Tuesday was my lecture final for my first class. The head-to-toe went really well. I got a 97%, which I was really pleased with! I missed three points because apparently I didn't have the stethoscope over the exact chest location for the heart sounds. I could still hear her heart loud and clear though, so I didn't see how 1/2 an inch really made that much of a difference. I also got an A on my lecture final...so therefore I got an A in my first accelerated nursing class! I strive for perfection...can you tell?

So when I was in college the first time, Kia introduced me to the idea that if you dress up real nice on test day you will do better because you feel better about yourself. We had to wear scrubs for the test on Monday, so I decided to dress up a bit nicer than usual for my test on Tuesday. I curled my hair and wore some nice clothes with these cute backless clog shoes. I've worn my Uggs practically every day since I've been here, so I was a little nervous about not having them. To get to my car I have to walk down this little grass hill. Well, it snowed a couple inches that night and I decided to kind of walk on my toes through the snow so I wouldn't get the backs up my socks wet. I took about two steps on the grass and slipped and fell flat on my back before I really even knew what happened. Of course the weight of my backpack gave me this amazing momentum and just flung me down before I had time to even stumble. I jumped up real quick and looked around to make sure no one saw me. I was so embarrassed...I just wanted to get to my car as fast as possible. I took a couple more steps and then fell backwards again, much harder this time. I landed on my butt SO hard that it knocked the wind out of me. Needless to say the backs of my feet did not stay dry. At all. I sadly sloshed the rest of the way to my car and wiped off my body with the snow brush inside. The fall kind of jiggled my brain around and I was all discombobulated before my test, instead of feeling good and confident...which was the whole point of wearing those stupid shoes anyways! On Wednesday I wore my Uggs again. I cannot even begin to tell you how sore I am. =)

Tuesday after my final was absolutely horrible. Number one, I was completely exhausted from studying so much and physically taking the tests. I thought that we should have had at least a little bit of a break that evening. Definitely not. I had to study for this silly math test, where I had to relearn all this skills I possessed in the 5th grade...like multiplying fractions and long division. How many nurses do you know that do long division? After that lovely review I was supposed to watch like 12 videos on my computer through this nursing website that we had to pay $75 to even be a part of. I thought it would be a simple procedure of singing up and watching the stinking movies. Again, I thought wrong. I had to download like 5 programs onto my computer to even get to the stupid videos. It was getting late at this point and I was so unbelievably mad at the whole situation and the elementary school math and being exhausted. I just couldn't get the stupid thing to work and I momentarily forgot that I was a mature, problem-solving adult and I just started bawling. Then I called my youth pastor, John. He saved my life, once again. John is just so amazing because he will drop everything to help you. He calmly talked me through my computer issues for 45 minutes. Everything eventually worked out and I watched my ridiculous movies and went to bed waaay too late. I have been here a month now, and this was the first time I had an emotional breakdown...which really isn't bad, all things considered.

Wednesday was catheter day! I walked into the room and there were all of these torsos laying on the beds with drapes over their genitals. Before we got to practice on the dummies my professors gave us a tutorial. Now the dummies are a bit like Mr. Potato Head; they come with attachable parts...but instead of noses and eyeballs and arms they come with vaginas and penises. Very educational. It was a lot like the Price Is Right...you don't know what you're going to get until you lift the curtain! We were instructed on how to do the procedure on a female first, and then they moved on to the male. Our professor reminded us that we need to tell the male, "I'm going to be gripping your penis firmly, sir" and as she was saying this she grabbed his penis firmly and ripped it clean off of the dummy, testicles and all. Now we try to treat the dummies with the same respect we use with real patients, so she turned around and apologized to the genital-less torso, "I'm so sorry for ripping your penis off, sir!" Of course the whole class erupted into uncontrollable laughter. Then she said, "You probably don't want to grip the penis quite that firmly." It still makes me giggle just thinking about it.

Today we learned how to give shots. Fortunately for me, I've been giving my mom an intramuscular shot for 11 years. I still can't figure out why my mom let a 12 year old stick a 1.5 inch needle in her every week. I was expecting to learn that I've been doing the procedure wrong all these years, but I was actually doing it just right! This was exciting for me, because I got to help some of my classmates out.

I also found out what my clinical rotation is today! I'm in a group with MJ, my lab partner from Health Assessment, which makes me really happy. She's a good one. Each clinical is four weeks long. I am starting with pediatrics (working with kids in schools), then long term care, and then obstetrics. This is the exact order I would have chose, so I am awfully excited! I have orientation tomorrow and I start on Wednesday! I also have Fridays off for the next 8 weeks. =)

Please continue to pray that I get enough sleep and that I am confident and prepared going into clinicals next week. Thanks! =D

Nurse Mal =)