Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Zombie

On Wednesdays I have a 7:30 AM class, The Role of the Professional Nurse. That class goes until 9:20 and my next class is at 10 AM, Community Health Nursing. This class ends at 12:50.

Well, I don't know if Bradley was just in a lot of pain, or what, but he was up from about 2 AM to almost 6 AM this morning running around the house, crying and scratching. I had a quiz at 7:30 AM so I was up worrying about him, and attempting to study until almost 1:30. Considering I only got 30 minutes of sleep before Bradley woke, and then about another 30 minutes after he finally calmed down... I was completely exhausted today. The quiz wasn't too bad. It was actually harder than I expected it to be, I thought it was going to be more generic. But I only missed one question! ... out of 5... which is an 80% and in nursing school, that is a C (because they still use the old grading scale... boooo) So my happiness got shot down pretty fast. I almost fell asleep multiple times in class. My computer was messing up, so I had to start taking hand notes, which kind of helped me stay awake. You know when you fall asleep holding your head up? Then you start dozing off and your head becomes so heavy that it falls and your arm collapses and it wakes you up? Yeah, I was THAT person today....

After class I went home thinking I had an hour before work and I was going to fill that hour with a bunch of sleep. Well... as I was walking to my apartment, all I could hear was this beeping noise, and a dog with a pathetic howl. Turned out, the beeping noise was my smoke detector and the pathetic howl was coming from Bradley. I wonder how long that was actually going off. Well, I had to call maintenance and have them come and fix it because I needed a whole new smoke detector, it wasn't just the battery. Needless to say, no sleep again.

Walking like a zombie, I went into work (I work at a frozen yogurt store, mmm). Then I came home and have currently done nothing that has to do with nursing. I've been laying around trying to sleep/nap, but it is not working. Which has led me to be sitting at my dining room table, blogging again.

Tomorrow morning, I have to be at clinicals at 8 AM to 4 PM. It's the first week that I actually go to a hospital/clinic. I'm really excited but kind of nervous because I am one of the first students to go this semester and I'm going to be the only student there today and tomorrow. I'm not sure if I should bring a lunch? What about a bag with stuff in it? Or do I leave it in the car? But I think I am getting dropped off? I don't know... but I will let you know tomorrow! Either way, I'm really excited. I actually am in a medical setting tomorrow! And then I am back there again on Friday until 1PM. Then we have this clinical conference thing... I don't know.... We are kind of kept in the dark a lot I feel like. We are told things, but very vaguely, and then we still don't know much when these situations happen. Well, I am off to pack a lunch for tomorrow and get ready for bed! And I just realized, that I was using regular time through this whole blog... so starting after this post.. military time (becaese everything is in military time in nursing : / )
No cool pictures today.

Goodnight world,
Zombie Katie

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

If every night ends with you smiling like this, then it was a good night.

This morning I got up and met a good friend, Crystal, for some Starbucks (vanilla chai tea.. mmmm...). When I got home, my whole world fell apart. It was noon, and I had lab at 2:15. You can only miss one lab, and that lab has to be made up. Well I walked in the door, and my beloved child (lab/pit mix) was swollen like I've never seen before. His whole face was swollen, his neck was HUGE, he had swollen welts all over his body, his skin was red, his paws were even swollen. I had no idea what to do. I bawled my eyes out. I called Alex, no answer, I called my mom, no answer, I called Amanda, she answered, and all I said is SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH BRADLEY GET OVER HERE FAST! click.
This is me and my one and only <3
She came over and I called the vet. They said it must be an allergic reaction from his ear infection medication, and to get him to the hospital fast. Well, with me being a procrastinator, I hadn't done any of my homework for lab, and at this time, its almost 12:30 (the vet is 20 min away). So Amanda and I decided to just dose him up with Benedryl and have her watch him while I was at lab. He seemed to start getting better. But I have never been more scared in my life.

Next step of the day: hurry up and do homework. I had to do a Regional Write Up, this is just where you do a summary of the patient and talk about their height, weight, blood pressure (which is actually really hard to take) and things like that. So I finished my homework and rushed out the door. When I got to lab, I realized it was FIT testing day. On Tuesday, I only go to lab. One lab from 2:15 to 4, and the other from 4:15 to 6. The first class is Essentials of Nursing Lab. So last week we learned proper hand hygiene and infection control. FIT Testing is when you put a huge "cap" over your head. They take sacchrine, a really old sugar substitute, and spray it in. Once you taste it, then you put a N95 mask on. Then they spray sacchrine that is 100X more concentrated than what you just tasted! The goal is to make sure that you can't taste the sacchrine with the mask on. This is to ensure that when you are around airborne illnesses, that if you are wearing this mask, then you can't get the airborne illness. Apparently, sacchrine has the same size molecules as TB and things like that, interesting. So this was pretty cool.

My first taste of sacchrine

Quack


 
Couldn't taste anything :)

So after my long day and freaking out about Bradley, I get out of class to a text message from Alex saying he has dinner waiting :) I ran over to Amanda's, picked up the puppy dog, and went over to Alex's house. We go to this store that has exotic fruits and really good produce. Well one time we went, they had this fruit that looked so crazy, and it was called a rambutan. We looked them up and they have a lot of different health benefits and they are from Thailand. So we went back to get some, but they were out. Well he had a surprise for me, and it was a big stash of them! We finally got to try them, and they were really good! Look at how crazy they look... how would you not want to try something that looks like it grew on Mars?



 And for dinner: a bottle of wine, muscles, london broil, and pasta.



Now I am sitting at home, after a candle lit shower (because there are no more times for baths anymore), studying for a quiz tomorrow. My conclusion of the day: Alex and Amanda are my saviors.

P.s. Bradley looks like he is actually getting worse ever since we got back to my apartment. So Alex is on his way over to look at  him, and he has more Benadryl. :(

Monday, August 29, 2011

One thing after another

My day has been hectic.

First, I woke up late to take my dog to the vet. So I drove over there really fast, and dropped him off. I actually had a little time until class started, so I stopped and got an iced coffee which I ended up spilling all over myself after only one sip. And I mean DRENCHED myself in it...So I took my jacket (which was soaked) and laid it out on the car while I was in class to soak up some hot Florida sun. When I walked into class, everybody was wondering what smelled like syrup.... yes, it was me.

While I am in class, I get a call from the vet saying that there is something wrong with my dog, Bradley, and to call them back ASAP. So I freaked out on hold for about 20 minutes, to find out that it is just an ear infection. Alex was picking him up after his classes, so I told him what was going on. I have to give him 10 drops of a disinfectant in his ear every day for the next two weeks. It is the funniest thing watching him afterwards though. He walks around with his head tilted and his equilibrium is completely off. This stuff smells horrid though. It smells like rotten peaches have invaded his face. So cross your fingers that this works or I will have to throw down some big bucks for some more medication.

During class, there were about what seemed like a lot (but probably only about 5) slides that I didn't get to copy notes on because the teachers were on warp speed during lecture today (this was after our conversation about Family Guy, Vaseline, and condoms...). I also was stressed trying to figure out about a loan situation I am dealing with, which concluded in a HUGE migraine.

I hurried home after classes to eat a quick lunch and clean up my apartment. I drove to the airport to pick up my parents, had a quick appetizer and caught up with them at TGI Fridays. Then when I got home, some people from church came over for dinner.

After a long day of running around, I am finishing my night with a Bud Light, a kiss from the man of my dreams, and no worries. I am pushing aside school to get a good nights sleep and starting back on it in the AM (I don't have labs until 2:15, but I am meeting a friend for coffee which I am going to do my best to not spill).

- Syrup smelling Katie

Sunday, August 28, 2011

First Week

The conclusion of my first week of nursing school. Homework that was due this weekend:

HIV Test
HIPAA Test
Infection Quiz
Client Safety Quiz
Syllabus Quiz
Service Learning Survey
Windshield Survey
Bus Survey
Reflective Journal
Objective Log
Lab RWU
Chapters 1, 2, 9, 10 for Health Assessment
Chapters 34, 38 for Fundamentals of Nursing
Chapters 24, 25 for Role of Professional Nurse
Chapter 1 p. 1-6, 10, 31-47, 64-81, 472 - 475, Chapters 15 - 17 Community Nursing

ALL COMPLETED!!!! and still with some quizzes and modules left over... almost caught up...

I worked on Saturday, spent the day with the bf sunday, went to a UCF rockclimbing meeting tonight (which I am joining this week!) and still managed.

Bring it on nursing school.

Goodnight world.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Bus Survey


Wow. Today.

A teacher one day decided that it would be a good idea for the clinical group of girls to take public transportation (i.e. lynx bus) through the "unincorporated community" to assess the citizens during every day life.

OK...

Eleven of us girls in white nursing uniforms walked around in the "unincorporated community" and attempted to find a lynx bus stop that would take us to our destination: the mall. At the random stop on the side of the road, were two used condoms, random trash, and eleven girls (when we saw the condoms, I yelled, "This is going in my blog!" You can tell I'm already addicted). While we were standing there, we realized that the bus we needed to take, 125, also had a stop on the other side of the road. Also on the other side of the road, was a cop raiding a car. Noticing that we were on the wrong side, we decided instead of j-walking across the street, that we were going to cross at the light. Well the cop decided to come across four lanes of traffic, with his lights on, to pull up on to the median, and ask us what were we doing. From the tone of his question, it was more of a, "What are you thinking?". We told him our mission. Both cops paused, in what I assume was amazement, they said "Good Luck" with huge enthusiasm, rolled up the window, and sped off.
Thank you public safety for your formal appreciation of our safety.




Needless to say, we made it there and back without any help. We even managed to find ice cream, a few nice people, and no more condoms to report.

Beginning

Hello world,

My boyfriend Alex stopped by tonight, and he got me thinking about wanting to start a blog to talk about my experiences for the next two years as a nursing student. Both of us are very active, we go rock climbing and backpacking as well (this past summer we went on a 30 day, 3,000 mile vacation, we backpacked through the smokey mountains, we wake boarded and stayed on a house boat for a week in Tennessee, visited family in Ohio, partied like crazies in Indiana, then ended the trip with our church in St. Petersburg FL). So I thought it was a pretty good idea to share my life experiences, so friends and family can read about it and I can look back on the crazy things that have happened in my life. And this is why I am up at 12:15 AM starting a blog (considering I have to be up at 6 to leave for clinicals tomorrow, this is already becoming a bad idea...).

I'm already extremely overwhelmed in school with assignments and life. I'm debating on quitting my job and living off of a loan. I haven't been without a job since I was 14. The break would be nice...

I'm in clinicals all day on Thursday and Friday. Today was my first day and we had to do a windshield survey. We drove around the neighborhood and "scoped out" the community. A group of nursing school girls, in a car, driving around below the speed limit looking at surroundings... not a good idea. Needless to say, the people, were not very "appropriate". We saw a guy, who in mid-step, his pants fell down. He continued to not walk, but waddle the rest of the way without worrying about his pants. The community was run down but almost every single house had extremely nice cars... interesting...

6 hours to go until I am back at clinicals, and hopefully a nice long dream in between.