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 =)

Can I take your blood pressure?

I worked hard studying last week to prepare for my classes, so the evening before orientation I decided to take it easy and have a nice, relaxing evening. I took a bathroom break to start off my quiet evening...and I managed to overflow the toilet. Water was gushing out in every direction and I screamed for Anna to come save me. She bounded barefoot into the bathroom through my toilet water and managed to turn the water off. By this point the entire floor was soaked. Of course, the one household item that Anna doesn't own is a plunger. We started scooping water into the bathtub with a pie pan and a dust pan. Once we got the floor dry, the toilet water was back down to a normal level. I thought maybe we lucked out and didn't need a plunger after all, so I tried flushing it again. Bad idea. Anna was standing by to stop the water, but she accidentally unhooked the hose apparatus in the tank and water shot out with an amazing amount of pressure right into my face. So of course I screamed and ran out of the bathroom to let her finish the dirty work. We were laughing so hard at our misfortune that we could barely even fix the problem. Now water was all over the walls and counter top and the toilet still wasn't fixed. So we took a trip to Walmart to buy a plunger. I wondered what the girl at the register thought. Obviously if someone goes to Walmart and only purchases a plunger, they had some kind of accident. You don't buy a plunger just in case. How embarrassing. Needless to say, my quiet, relaxing evening was neither quiet or relaxing.

That night there was a bit of a snow storm and the roads were horrible. Unfortunately they don't cancel school here for snow. I gave myself 45 minutes to get to school because of the weather. Exactly 45 minutes later, I accidentally pulled into a parking lot. I noticed there was a card swiper thing to get in, and I thought that was odd. It was too late to turn around and try a different lot because there was already two cars behind me. I tried swiping my card. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing. Excellent. I yelled at a girl across the way, "How do you get in here?" and she yells back "That's the faculty parking lot!" So the poor professor behind me had to get out of his car and swipe his card so I could get in to the parking lot to turn around and drive back out. I have the worst luck, I swear.

Tuesday I just had to go to the school and pee in a cup. It was getting colder at this point, about 0 degrees. That evening, some bozo shattered our glass door to get into the apartments. This just made it colder in our apartment. The heat just wasn't even getting the job done. I studied the rest of the day with three shirts, two pairs of pants, leg warmers, slippers, a hat, a heating pad on my lap and a blanket on top of me. Brr.

Thursday morning I woke up to fifteen below. This is by far the coldest weather I have ever been in. I went out to my car and tried to start it but it wouldn't even turn over. Fortunately Anna's school had a two hour delay because of the cold. I called her from the street and asked her if she would take me to school. How many times is that girl going to bail me out? I made it to school half frozen. That day we practiced doing vitals on each other. It was torture to have to take our sweatshirts off and have ice cold hands palpating all over our arms and freezing metal stethoscopes down our shirts. A nice girl I met offered to take me home, which I was very thankful for. We decided to jump my car when we got there, and it took 45 minutes of our cars attached for mine to start. I drove it around for awhile and it drove like a piece of garbage. When I got back inside to study I realized I didn't turn any of my homework in. I emailed my professor and begged her for mercy, trying to convince her that I'm usually not this irresponsible. She granted my wish. =) When Anna got home I took her blood pressure multiple times. Then her friend came over and I took her blood pressure too. Then I went in my room and took my own blood pressure.

Friday we were tested on our vitals. My partner's name is MJ, and we were nervous. We only had five minutes to take the temperature,radial pulse, apical pulse, blood pressure, and respirations per minute. I got 94%. =) They also forgot to mention that it was awkward lab day. We were studying the abdomen and respiration. For the first hour we had to get into groups of four and one of us had to lie down and lift our shirt up to the 5th rib while the rest of us poked and prodded and listened to bowel sounds. Fortunately one of the boys volunteered. There was no way I was volunteering for that. The next hour we went into little rooms and had to take our shirts off and practice listening to the lungs. That was fun. Fortunately my lab partner is a female.

It finally warmed up this weekend. It's in the upper 30s and my car drive like normal again! This weekend was full of studying. I'm loving it! It's so much fun to only have to study things I'm passionate about. I started reading for pharmacology today and I absolutely love it! It's so fascinating to find out exactly how drugs work.

I think I found the church I'm going to attend! One of Kia's church friends from home moved here so she gave me the name of the church he attends. It's called Omaha First Covenant. I decided to try it out this morning, and there were so many friendly people that actually cared why I was there. The greeter hooked me up with a family to sit with, which was really nice. The people made me feel like I was at home.

One of the highlights of the week: Kia sent me my favorite tea from my favorite tea shop in Portland, Tea Chai Te! I've been drinking it all week! She's the best. My mom also sent me a picture of my Uncle Steve and it is now one of the two framed pictures in my room.

My first big test is on Tuesday! We'll see if I really am back in to the swing of things...

One more day of peace...

Bright and early Monday morning the duct cleaners payed us a visit and successfully eliminated the dead mouse stench from our apartment. We are very happy to be breathing clean air again. I took a trip to the campus to get my parking permit and ID card. I explored a bit...and there are 4 libraries on campus...one of them is a health sciences library! I almost peed with excitement. Practically every book was something that peaked my interest.

I had a lot of extra time on my hands this week, so I decided to start studying for my class next week. My first class is two weeks long, and we have a quiz every day and one exam each week. All of our lectures are online and we have to listen to them before class. We have about 2-3 hours worth of lectures to listen to before each class. I got most of my books this week too. My books have amazing pictures in them...I wish I still lived with Kia so she could share my joy over graphic pictures of diseases. I showed her some of them over video chat today!

Fortunately Anna decided to purchase Knight Rider...so David Hasslehoff never ceases to entertain us.

Yesterday we had a nice little snow storm. It was a good change to have some precipitation! I met some students from my class at a get together at a bar last night. It was a very different group from the Fox students I'm used to. I was caught in a huge circle of gossip within the first 5 minutes. Hopefully I'll find some good, wholesome friends in the program...if not, I always have Anna! =)

Today Anna showed me the Old Marketplace of Omaha! I had a blast exploring the town with her! She's like my own personal tour guide. Anna treated me to lunch, because she's the breadwinner in this relationship. We went to the river and walked across the suspension bridge into Iowa! There were huge chunks of ice floating in the water. It was a beautiful day for exploring. For once, I didn't mind the blue sky.

I have one more day of peace tomorrow, and then the madness begins on Monday with orientation! I am SO excited to be a nurse. I wish I could just skip all the school and go straight to work. My patient's probably wouldn't appreciate that much, however.

Ridiculous things that happened to me this week:
I got miserably lost multiple times. Once I printed out directions that led me into the middle of a park with practically no way out. Once I had to call my dad, who is amazing and knew right where I was after remembering the city from when he was here last week. Once I got so angry that I just drove back home.

I looked at the map on the Creighton website to find out directions to the right parking lot to. Unfortunately the font was size -10 and I thought it said right on 27th. It didn't. I confidently turned right on 27th without surveying my surroundings. Unfortunately it was the off-ramp to the freeway. I wondered who the three idiots were driving the wrong way. Then I realized I was the idiot. I gracefully flipped a U-turn and then got stuck at the light next to the people I wrongly judged. Of course. Thankfully God was protecting me.

I went to Jiffy Lube to get my oil changed. I already feel like an idiot at those places, because it's obvious I don't know what I'm doing. The helpful little man ran out to greet me and I slipped on the ice and got lodged between my car and the car next to me. I was so embarrassed. After the oil change I was excited because they cleaned my windows and vacuumed the floors. I had a bullet in the floor of my car leftover from our shooting practice in Montana. It was carefully placed on the console. I drove to the store and bought some groceries...and when I got back to my car there was a huge bird poop on my nice clean window. I haven't even seen a bird in this town!

We got a washer from Anna's parents last weekend. We borrowed a dolly from Ted, the maintenance guy to move it. I was running low on warm socks, so I stuck a load in. Because of our lack of a dryer, I filled two clothes drying racks with my wet clothes. The one towards the back of the room had jeans and shirts on it. The one in front had all my cute little socks and colorful underwear hanging in straight little lines. That was the day that Ted decided to come back and get the dolly. He walked in and stopped and looked at my display. I hate it when my underwear is on display for the maintenance guy to see. He said, "I thought you got a dryer?" I said "Nope....just a washer...um...here's your dolly!" Embarrassing moment number 47 of the week.

I bought 7 of my books from a Creighton student that graduated last month. I went to pick them up at her house. She kindly put them in a big box for me. It was heavier then I expected. I was walking back out to my car with my awkward load and I tripped on the sidewalk. I desperately tried not to fall down and took three huge, unsteady steps, lunging forward and slammed into the side of my car with my big box, ripping the handle off. I felt pretty victorious for not falling flat on my face.

Home, Sweet Home!

Before I left for Nebraska, practically all my family and friends told me to keep them updated throughout the next year. I am here solely for the purpose of completing my bachelors of nursing in 11 months. All things considered, I will not have enough time to personally update everyone I love in a timely manner. So...despite my aversion to journaling, I decided to start a blog, which I will try to update as much as possible.

One week ago today, after a tearful departure, my dad and I began our 1,236 journey from Missoula, Montana to Omaha, Nebraska. For the most part, our journey was fairly uneventful, which was a blessing, considering the frightful weather forecast. In Montana we passed about 15 cars in the ditch. Fortunately my dad is the best driver in the world, so we stayed on the road.

On the second day of driving, one hour from Omaha, my new roommate, Anna, called me and said she had a confession to make. This scared me a bit. What on earth could she be confessing to me one hour before I was supposed to move in with her for a year!? She informed me that a mouse or some other critter must have died in the duct work above my bathroom and that as a result, the room smelled like death. Welcome home. =) Unfortunately the smell is just as bad today as it was one week ago. It's especially delightful when I'm in the shower and the room is all hot and steamy...

Over the next couple of days, my dad and I explored the town, and he bought me a bunch of things to get me started. He fixed up everything he possible could in my apartment, and then he ran out of things to fix, so he decided to fly home a couple days early. I dropped him off at the airport at 5am on new years day. Suddenly Omaha was a much lonelier place.

Anna invited me to her parent's house to watch the Huskers game that day. Her parents are farmers, and I decided it was time for me to learn a thing or two about farming. Anna taught me all the basics of farming corn and soy beans on the two hour car ride to her folk's place. After stepping into her family's home, I became an instant Huskers fan and pretended like I knew what a first down was. (Don't worry, they won!) Anna decided to give me a tour of the farm. She even let me sit in a tractor! After the tour we went to the town of Lushton (population: ~30) to meet my sort-of relatives Ella and Elton Berg. Ella was my grandpa/great uncle Wilmer's youngest sister. Elton is the pastor of the church that Anna grew up in (church attendance: ~50 hmmm....). They were extremely pleasant people and I felt ten times more at home after visiting with them. Besides saying goodbye to my dad, the day was really enjoyable.

The next day, Anna's older sister, Leah came to stay with us for the night. She introduced to me to the series Knight Rider. David Hasslehoff at his finest! If you haven't seen this show...you are seriously missing out. I was addicted after the first episode! Knight Rider is definitely the highlight of my new life so far.

I have one more week of peace before I start classes on the 14th. I am so excited to be a student again! I think my brain has atrophied over the last 8 months. I begin with a two-week class, then I start the rest of my classes and clinicals on January 29th! Please keep me in your prayers! Believe it or not, I'm not very good at transitioning, and I need all the prayer I can get. =)

So after a week of living here...

My Favorite Things about Nebraska
* The night sky! You can actually see a lot of stars!
* Sunsets...they don't make them like this at home.
* It always smells a little bit like a stockyard here. MmmMmm cows!
* It only takes me 15 minutes to get anywhere!

My Least Favorite Things about Nebraska
* Drivers- I don't think they actually had to pass a test to get a license here
* The sky is ALWAYS blue!! It's so depressing.
* 4 degrees?? Come on!
* Everything is brown. I'm not sure green even exists here.