My clinical assignment

I just found out my clinical assignment. Luckily, I will remain in Mount Vernon and not have to drive 3 hours going to Bellingham. Hooray! I am applying to a closer school in Everett as an advance placement transfer for my second year. I am hoping they will accept me. It will be closer and I think better all around. Application deadline is mid-April. We'll see very soon.

I PASSED!

This quarter has finally come to an end after another long 11 weeks. I took my final today and I was so nervous to get my grade to determine whether I can move forward in nursing school.
I was ecstatic when I saw my final grade... I PASSED!!!! I am so happy to move on to next quarter. It is amazing how much I have learned so far. I hope to retain at least 1/2 of what I have learned...but I think that might be wishful thinking.
I am looking forward to taking 1 1/2 weeks off to spend time with my family and catching up on all the things I have set aside and neglected (ie: cleaning house, organizing my kitchen and the kids craft cabinet, and sorting/organizing the kids clothes.
I start next quarter on April 1. I am unsure where my clinicals will be at this quarter. They will be in Mount Vernon (1hour away) or in Bellingham (1 1/2 hours away). I am not looking forward to driving 3 hours round trip for my clinicals. Two hours is bad enough. Think good thoughts for me because I would prefer to stay closer to home (although Mount Vernon is not very close at all).
I hope to not wait as long to post my next posting. My schedule has been so busy and hectic these past few weeks. Now I can relax for a little over a week until my schedule gets crazy again. I apologize to all my family for putting up with me. I am sorry to my friends for being so anti-social. This is really hard for me. But come summer, it's party time! I can't wait to kick back and relax in June.

In the OR

On Friday I did my rotation in the Operating Room (OR). I observed 5 surgeries. One was a rotator cuff arthroplasty. Aother was a pacemaker insertion. I watched 2 hysteroscopies. The surgeon was looking to find out why the post-menopausal women were having bleeding. She found polyps in both of the women. On those surgeries I was able to watch both on the screen.
I was able to scrub in on the final surgery. It was a pancrectomy and splenectomy. I was right next to the surgeon when she made the first incision. She cautorized the skin and the adipost tissue (fat). Then I watched her cut the abdomen. I saw her internal organs, the liver, small & large intestines, stomach, pancreas & liver. It was awesome! The best part of all was when the surgeon took my had and put it inside the woman's abdominal cavity. I felt her spleen & pancreas!!!!! WOW!
She removed her spleen & pancreas and her splenic vein. I've never seen a vein cut and sutured, nor have I seen , any internal organs, other than on TV. It was the most interesting thing I've seen!
It was an uncommon surgery at that hospital, and I feel very privliged to have been present at that surgery. Being an OR nurse is definitely an option now. It was a wonderful day!

My RT rotation

This last week I did my Respiratory Therapy rotation. My day was a bit interesting. I tagged along with the therapist while he did his many nebulizing treatments to patients with various respiratory problems. Some had COPD and pneumonia. I helped comfort a 14mo. boy who had pneumonia while getting his treatments. The best part of the day was when I attended a bronchoscopy. There was a tube with a camera going through the nose, down the trachea and into the bronchus of the lungs. All of this was viewed on a screen. It was so interesting to see the inside of the lungs. The doctor was extracting polups that were in the bronchioles for testing. I was looking on the screen , and the pieces looked large, but when they came out, they were less than 3mm in size. It was so cool to watch the procedure on a big screen.