Just a quickie- 'cause I am supposed to be studying...
One Project Closer is doing a BITCHIN' giveaway... and I want to win!
Check out the nifty faucets they are giving away, but DON'T ENTER UNLESS YOU WANT TO WIN AND GIVE THE FAUCET TO MEEEEEE!
-Love, a crazy tired-of-studying Dani
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
You Give Me Fever...
Sigh. I was sent home early from clinical today - which sucks. I was in a patient's room, watching the would nurse replace a wound-vac dressing on the patient's shoulder (SUPER cool, SUPER painful for the patient and a SUPER amount of blood) when I started to feel a bit woozy. I thought it might be from the fact I was wearing gloves, a gown and a mask (I have a lingering cough that won't go away, and I didn't want to scare the patient with it's swine-flu-soundingness) - so I left the room and got some water. However, I didn't feel much better a few minutes later, so I grabbed a thermometer off the wall and took my temp - 100.0 degrees - crappers.
The night before was full of sinus pressure and sneezing, but I was hoping these symptoms were still residuals from some crappy virus I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. Apparently not. I immediately put on a mask and waited for my instructor to come out of another room, and waited, and waited. Sometimes the instructor can be in one of those rooms for a very long time, so I went to check on my patient - did a full assessment, talked to his wife about why we were putting Bactroban in his nose when he had MRSA on his penis, and helped him get to the bathroom.
When I was out in the hallway looking for new linens, I cam upon my instructor and told her about my slight temperature. "Well that's it then," she said. BOOOOOOOO!
I was upset that I had to leave. Not only did I feel like I was abandoning my patient (don't worry, I had to chart off to my instructor, my supervising nurse AND another nursing student - so the patient was in great hands) but I felt disappointed with my performance from earlier in the shift and I wanted to redeem myself. AND my patient was diabetic, so there was the chance that I would FINALLY give insulin before lunch. Sigh.
The whole disappointment thing - my current instructor is really tough when it comes to meds, which is different than any other one I've had. Sure, they have all made sure I had the correct dose and could administer the drug properly - and HEY they might have even asked me about nursing considerations or teaching - but they never really made me learn what the drug DOES. For example - Prilosec. Everyone has heard about Prilosec, and many people (me included) have taken it. So, when I was pulling it out of the med drawer for my patient and my instructor asked what it was for, I thought I was cool. When I told her it prevented acid reflux, she asked, "How?"
"By preventing excess acid?" I asked.
"How?" She countered.
I had to turn to my crappy-ass med card, which said that the drug was a proton pump inhibitor, and that it inhibited the production of gastric acid. I wasn't clear how that physiologically happened, so my instructor talked me through how the drug inhibits the hydrogen, potassium, ATP pump that churns out hydrochloric acid into your stomach. Since my patient didn't complain of any acid reflux, I asked her why my patient was on the drug. Apparently that pump goes into overdrive when the body is stressed, so doctors prescribe the Prilosec to counteract that possible overproduction from the general stress of being in the hospital. Nifty.
That was just ONE encounter with my instructor - over ONE med. I won't really get into our conversation about the propanolol my patient is on (an anti-hypertensive medication). Let's just say that NOW I know that I beta blocker relaxes the smooth muscle in the heart and vessels, lowering the blood pressure.
THE POINT, my friends, is that this instructor does not want to churn out more pill-pushing nurses who don't know what they are pushing, and don't have the knowledge to challenge a doctor's order if it seems a bit iffy. She really wants us to think everything through - which means a LOT more prep work prior to clinical, but a better nurse in the end.
K. Back to watching Mercy (my new favorite show) on the couch and drinking LOTS o' liquids.
The night before was full of sinus pressure and sneezing, but I was hoping these symptoms were still residuals from some crappy virus I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. Apparently not. I immediately put on a mask and waited for my instructor to come out of another room, and waited, and waited. Sometimes the instructor can be in one of those rooms for a very long time, so I went to check on my patient - did a full assessment, talked to his wife about why we were putting Bactroban in his nose when he had MRSA on his penis, and helped him get to the bathroom.
When I was out in the hallway looking for new linens, I cam upon my instructor and told her about my slight temperature. "Well that's it then," she said. BOOOOOOOO!
I was upset that I had to leave. Not only did I feel like I was abandoning my patient (don't worry, I had to chart off to my instructor, my supervising nurse AND another nursing student - so the patient was in great hands) but I felt disappointed with my performance from earlier in the shift and I wanted to redeem myself. AND my patient was diabetic, so there was the chance that I would FINALLY give insulin before lunch. Sigh.
The whole disappointment thing - my current instructor is really tough when it comes to meds, which is different than any other one I've had. Sure, they have all made sure I had the correct dose and could administer the drug properly - and HEY they might have even asked me about nursing considerations or teaching - but they never really made me learn what the drug DOES. For example - Prilosec. Everyone has heard about Prilosec, and many people (me included) have taken it. So, when I was pulling it out of the med drawer for my patient and my instructor asked what it was for, I thought I was cool. When I told her it prevented acid reflux, she asked, "How?"
"By preventing excess acid?" I asked.
"How?" She countered.
I had to turn to my crappy-ass med card, which said that the drug was a proton pump inhibitor, and that it inhibited the production of gastric acid. I wasn't clear how that physiologically happened, so my instructor talked me through how the drug inhibits the hydrogen, potassium, ATP pump that churns out hydrochloric acid into your stomach. Since my patient didn't complain of any acid reflux, I asked her why my patient was on the drug. Apparently that pump goes into overdrive when the body is stressed, so doctors prescribe the Prilosec to counteract that possible overproduction from the general stress of being in the hospital. Nifty.
That was just ONE encounter with my instructor - over ONE med. I won't really get into our conversation about the propanolol my patient is on (an anti-hypertensive medication). Let's just say that NOW I know that I beta blocker relaxes the smooth muscle in the heart and vessels, lowering the blood pressure.
THE POINT, my friends, is that this instructor does not want to churn out more pill-pushing nurses who don't know what they are pushing, and don't have the knowledge to challenge a doctor's order if it seems a bit iffy. She really wants us to think everything through - which means a LOT more prep work prior to clinical, but a better nurse in the end.
K. Back to watching Mercy (my new favorite show) on the couch and drinking LOTS o' liquids.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucy, You Got Some SPLAININ' TO DO!
So. Every once in a a while I stop blogging for a bit. This is usually because I get to cracked-out-busy, but sometimes it's because I'm WAY down in the dumps, and I don't want the family members and dear friends who read this blog to think that I'm clinically depressed. Cause I'm NOT, I'm just sad or overwhelmed or emotional or frantic or just feeling nutty.
So with THAT in mind, oh-relatives/friends-of-mine, here we go.
Last weekend M and I went to ALABAMA (in that GREENBOW, ALABAMA voice, thanks to M) for a wedding. It was M's freshman roommate who was getting married - his freshman roommate who could not be MORE unlike M, the freshman roommate who ran track with M, is a surgeon at the May clinic, has dressed up as a vagina AND Borat (in the mankini) for Halloween - and who seemed to find his perfect match. How do I KNOW that she is his missing twin?? M failed to return his tux measurements OR the rehearsal dinner reply card on time (no surprise there, I swear that boy would forget to bring his head along with him if it wasn't attached), and the lovely bride-to-be told him that the consequences would be thus: he would be eating a shit sandwich for dinner, complements of the bride, groom and the strip bar down the street's 24-hour buffet, AND would be wearing a saran-wrap tux of the bride's design.
I knew I was going to like this woman.
BUT the point still stood that we had to drive EIGHT hours on Friday to get there (starting fairly early due to the fact that we had to be there early to pick up the saran-wrap tuxedo) and then it would be another EIGHT hours to get home on Sunday. Probably a hung-over EIGHT hours too. Sigh.
Sooooooooo we weren't that excited to go. But we promised (AND we had a hotel room reserved - Embassy Suites bitches!), and so we went. And you know what? The drive there wasn't bad. We met up with M's friend for lunch on Friday in HOT-lanta, and then kept on truckin' it to ALABAMA. However, a curious thing happened close to our destination - our cell phones and car clock didn't share the same time. Naturally, we thought our phones had gone wack-o cause they suck n general, but it wasn't the case. We were SO CONFUSED that I called my dad at WORK to ask him if he could oh so kindly look up the US time zones. ... Yeah. We actually crossed a time zone. This wasn't such a big deal for M (he's driven across the country like 7 times), but for ME it was huge. HUGE. AND CONFUSING.
for-We figured THAT out and then saw a rocket. Yes, a rocket! We did not know this, but Huntsville, ALABAMA is home to friggin' Space Camp. Like SPACE CAMP - the camp I have wanted to visit since I watched Lea Thompson and Tate Donovan and Kelly Preston and Joaquin Phoenix get launched into space by that crazy robot Jinx ("Jinx and Max ... Friiiiieeeeeeennnnndsssseeeeeeevvvveeerrrrr" - if you do not know what I am talking about, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THINGS HOLY rent Space Camp.).
The weekend was looking up. WAY UP.
To make a long story much much shorter - here was our weekend:
- ALABAMA (at least the north) is pretty! Who knew?!
- The rehearsal dinner was SUPER yummy and toasts were wonderful
- Our hotel room rocked
- Space Camp (OK, the US Space and Rocket Center) was bitchin'
- Wedding was FREEZING (outside reception) but really sweet
- The drive home felt like it took 10 more hours that it did to get there
Whew.
After all that activity and driving and funness, my hard drive crashed when we got home. Sigh. It's currently residing with the Geek Squad at Best Buy and I HOPE they can retrieve all my data and music and pictures and happiness because I'm an IDIOT and didn't back up my computer in the last month.
MEH.
K. Winding up. SO back to all that sadness crap. I think it was a combo of my computer dying, being faced with another week of studying (test next Wednesday) and not being able to SEE my bank account (we had to get 4 new tires on M's car so we wouldn't DIE on our way to ALABAMA) caused me to be really upset. That and M bought a pack of doughnuts. M, if you're reading this - I'M JOKING!
So yes. But I went to the library today. And I'm roasting a chicken. So I feel better. AND I might get to see my mom and a few aunts this weekend. Life is good. Sometimes it takes me writing a WHOLE bunch of shit down to get to that point, but I'm there now.
So with THAT in mind, oh-relatives/friends-of-mine, here we go.
Last weekend M and I went to ALABAMA (in that GREENBOW, ALABAMA voice, thanks to M) for a wedding. It was M's freshman roommate who was getting married - his freshman roommate who could not be MORE unlike M, the freshman roommate who ran track with M, is a surgeon at the May clinic, has dressed up as a vagina AND Borat (in the mankini) for Halloween - and who seemed to find his perfect match. How do I KNOW that she is his missing twin?? M failed to return his tux measurements OR the rehearsal dinner reply card on time (no surprise there, I swear that boy would forget to bring his head along with him if it wasn't attached), and the lovely bride-to-be told him that the consequences would be thus: he would be eating a shit sandwich for dinner, complements of the bride, groom and the strip bar down the street's 24-hour buffet, AND would be wearing a saran-wrap tux of the bride's design.
I knew I was going to like this woman.
BUT the point still stood that we had to drive EIGHT hours on Friday to get there (starting fairly early due to the fact that we had to be there early to pick up the saran-wrap tuxedo) and then it would be another EIGHT hours to get home on Sunday. Probably a hung-over EIGHT hours too. Sigh.
Sooooooooo we weren't that excited to go. But we promised (AND we had a hotel room reserved - Embassy Suites bitches!), and so we went. And you know what? The drive there wasn't bad. We met up with M's friend for lunch on Friday in HOT-lanta, and then kept on truckin' it to ALABAMA. However, a curious thing happened close to our destination - our cell phones and car clock didn't share the same time. Naturally, we thought our phones had gone wack-o cause they suck n general, but it wasn't the case. We were SO CONFUSED that I called my dad at WORK to ask him if he could oh so kindly look up the US time zones. ... Yeah. We actually crossed a time zone. This wasn't such a big deal for M (he's driven across the country like 7 times), but for ME it was huge. HUGE. AND CONFUSING.
for-We figured THAT out and then saw a rocket. Yes, a rocket! We did not know this, but Huntsville, ALABAMA is home to friggin' Space Camp. Like SPACE CAMP - the camp I have wanted to visit since I watched Lea Thompson and Tate Donovan and Kelly Preston and Joaquin Phoenix get launched into space by that crazy robot Jinx ("Jinx and Max ... Friiiiieeeeeeennnnndsssseeeeeeevvvveeerrrrr" - if you do not know what I am talking about, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THINGS HOLY rent Space Camp.).
The weekend was looking up. WAY UP.
To make a long story much much shorter - here was our weekend:
- ALABAMA (at least the north) is pretty! Who knew?!
- The rehearsal dinner was SUPER yummy and toasts were wonderful
- Our hotel room rocked
- Space Camp (OK, the US Space and Rocket Center) was bitchin'
- Wedding was FREEZING (outside reception) but really sweet
- The drive home felt like it took 10 more hours that it did to get there
Whew.
After all that activity and driving and funness, my hard drive crashed when we got home. Sigh. It's currently residing with the Geek Squad at Best Buy and I HOPE they can retrieve all my data and music and pictures and happiness because I'm an IDIOT and didn't back up my computer in the last month.
MEH.
K. Winding up. SO back to all that sadness crap. I think it was a combo of my computer dying, being faced with another week of studying (test next Wednesday) and not being able to SEE my bank account (we had to get 4 new tires on M's car so we wouldn't DIE on our way to ALABAMA) caused me to be really upset. That and M bought a pack of doughnuts. M, if you're reading this - I'M JOKING!
So yes. But I went to the library today. And I'm roasting a chicken. So I feel better. AND I might get to see my mom and a few aunts this weekend. Life is good. Sometimes it takes me writing a WHOLE bunch of shit down to get to that point, but I'm there now.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
On A Side Note...
M thinks that our newest bathroom soap (courtesy of the people who formerly inhabited my house) smells like "dead babies." Yeah. It's "Sensual Amber" by Bath and Body Works and it's a bit weird (I prefer a citrus-y smell), but I'm not sure it smells like dead babies. Although, I'm not exactly sure what dead babies smell like. K. I'm going to STOP using that phrase...
The FLU - Muwhahahahaha
Ummmk. Let's just say that I got my flu shot (free because I'm a nursing student!) yesterday, and my arm STILL F-ING HURTS. Like, to the point where I raise my arm and I wince. SHEESH.
On the whole "illness" note, I have to go to the doctor today. =( I woke up AGAIN with post-nasal drip and a sore throat. It's been about two weeks since this whole gross sinus thing started, and I'm finally giving in. You would think as a nursing student I might be little more inclined to go to the doctor when my sinuses are stuffed with green goop - but my doctor is downtown ... and it's a pain in the ass to get to. BUT, I'm giving in and going. Meh.
Hmm. On another note, I'm cleaning the house today - because it's GROSS and was neglected while I was studying for my test last week and while we were at Homecoming last weekend. So far I've vacuumed, done laundry, organized clean laundry, run the dishwasher, pulled out the Halloween decorations and hung a picture. Whew. More to come later - for now I'm going to fold MORE laundry and watch Monday's Gossip Girl!
On the whole "illness" note, I have to go to the doctor today. =( I woke up AGAIN with post-nasal drip and a sore throat. It's been about two weeks since this whole gross sinus thing started, and I'm finally giving in. You would think as a nursing student I might be little more inclined to go to the doctor when my sinuses are stuffed with green goop - but my doctor is downtown ... and it's a pain in the ass to get to. BUT, I'm giving in and going. Meh.
Hmm. On another note, I'm cleaning the house today - because it's GROSS and was neglected while I was studying for my test last week and while we were at Homecoming last weekend. So far I've vacuumed, done laundry, organized clean laundry, run the dishwasher, pulled out the Halloween decorations and hung a picture. Whew. More to come later - for now I'm going to fold MORE laundry and watch Monday's Gossip Girl!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Sheesh
I'm taking a page out of Steph's book and making a loverly list. Because they are awesome (like her).
- I need to START reading the news again. I had to find out about Ken Lewis from FACEBOOK. Lame-O, Dani, Lame-O.
- Tea-time with the mommers must happen - SOON. I'm thinking Ooh-La-La's in the Queen City, since THE FREAKING NEW RITZ DOESN'T SEEM TO HAVE HIGH TEA (pant pant pant). Anybody been?
- My patient for tomorrow came in with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea... and entered rehab after going through a MYRIAD of health-related nightmares. I can't imagine. I ALSO can't imagine getting Strep Throat so badly that you're admitted to the ICU (a girl at my work w/o any health insurance). SIGH.
- I just stubbed 3 out of 5 toes on my right foot. I am NOT happy.
- I'm also PMSing SO hard that M might move out. I seriously cried at a "high tea" menu. OMG.
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