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.

Flesh eating disease anyone?

It has been a while since my last post. Not too much has happned by way of clinicals. Last week I had a patient had necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating disease). It was very interesting. He was also a quadraplegic. He was very nice, but after being in the hospital for over 2 months, he was bored. To keep himself entertained he would be inappropriate with the nurses. I was a bit nervous and my instructor thought it would be a good idea for her to be present when I went into his room. I had to do the whole gown and glove procedure when entering his room. He was actually very nice and for the most part wasn't inappropriate.

There was an instance where he wanted to get a good reaction out of me. It didn't work. First, he was on a special water bed that was heated, and constantly moving the water. It was too warm for him, so he opted not to wear a gown, and just covered his twig & berries with a bed sheet. When I approached him and announced he was getting a bed bath, without hesitation he ripped off his sheet revealing himself entirely. I calmy stated that I will get to that part of the body last, so we could cover it back up. I did so, and didn't give him the satisfaction of making me feel uncomfortable.

I only have 4 weeks left, and counting down the days. I had my 4th test today and I am doing well overall. No complaints from me. I just have to study hard these next two weeks as we cover Neuro problems. A lot of problems, a lot of drugs and a whole lot of reading to do.

I almost passed out!

This week at the hospital I did my rotation in Day surgery. It is not exactly what it sounds like. I did not see any surgeries. That will be my OR rotation. Day surgery is pre-op and post-op. I admitted the patients, went through their history, got them squared away with their gowns and warming blankets. The blanks are so cool, it's an inflatable blanket that continually blows warm air on the patient. One of the patients I admitted was getting a colonectomy (a part of his colon removed b/c of colon cancer), and I was able to go with the anesthesiologist and watch him administer an epidural. I was excited b/c I never received an epidural with my 3 kids, and only saw one from a far. I thought I was in for a treat.

I must preface this experience, in that I had to be there at 5:45am, which meant I had to wake up at 4am to get there. I ate a light breakfast, because it's hard to eat that early in the morning. It had been about 5 hours since I ate anything when I went with the patient for his epidural. I was standing and watching for about 15 minutes as the anesthesiologist tried not once, but 5 times to get the epidural in the right spot. I was amazed at how far the needle went into his spine. I swear, it almost touched his belly button! :) Well, after the 5th time, I started getting light headed and sick to my stomach and my pupils started to constrict. I sat down and I began getting cold sweats. The nurse with the patient had to call another nurse to assist me to the break room. When she saw me, she could see how pale I was and walked me ever so gingerly to get some crackers and juice. I was greeted by surgeons, nurses, a nurse anesthetist, and a fellow nursing student. Embarassing!!! They all smiled because they've all been there. They gave me a few good words of advice. EAT!!! I will make sure to eat often when I am in the OR next month.

Quarter 2, Week 3

Today was my first clinical experience at the hospital. I was in the Progressive Care Center taking care of a patient for end of life care. He had a tripple bypass surgery and was not in good shape. He was having such a hard time breathing, and his irregular heart rate didn't help. Aside from his complications, he was very pleasant. Today he said, I want to go". I tried to clarify what he was meaning. He then stated, "I just want to go to the promise land." I felt so sorry for him, and his wife sitting next to him tried to quiet him up because she didn't want to hear any sort of talk like that. It was interesting seeing that side of nursing today. I wonder what next week will be like when I get a new patient.

Quarter Two - Week 1

I am so excited for this quarter. I am focusing on Medical-Surgical and Pediatrics. I will be able to be in the OR for surgery. I am so excited for that! This is one department I have been seriously considering joining after graduation. After this quarter I'll have a better idea if it is still what I want to do. We will doing pre-, intra-, and post-operative care.

I will be going to Head Start and assessing the toddlers there. I will be very comfortable working with toddlers, especially beacuse I have one! I think I will enjoy it and I am looking forward to it!

The catheterization that went so very wrong

While working last quarter in the nursing home I had many experiences that helped me grow as a nursing student. One of which was the catheterization that I had to perform. The woman had severe MS and her legs would not open very wide. Because of which, the CNA's did not perform adequate perineal care. When I did peri-care for her, I had to do a lot of "clean up" so to say. The smells were atrocious and almost unbearable. After I cleaned her, I set up my sterile field. I prepped her with betadine to sterilize her, and I thought I was good to go. I tried to insert the catheter, but what I thought was the appropriate spot, apparently was not. I had to have the two other students who were holding her legs open to also hold flashlights. I spent about 10-15 minutes or so with no luck. My instructor came to the rescue and assisted with finding the urethra, which still took some fishing and hunting around for it.

The catheter finally went into the right hole. Unfortunately, the catheter that I used was not like the one I was used to in the practice lab. The caths in the lab already had the collection bag attached. I forgot to attach the catheter to the bag. Soon I had urine coming out onto her bed. I quickly fixed that problem and was able to collect the urine in the bag. I then had to blow up the balloon in the catheter with 10ml of water. The syringe had 30, so I had to stop at 10ml. I pushed in the 10ml of water and had difficulty getting the syringe off with the same hand that was holding the catheter in place. Another student nurse that assisted me helped take it off. Unfortunately, I was still putting pressure on the syringe as to not lose water out of the balloon. I ended up squirting the patient with water all over her legs. This is exactly what not to do when performing a catheterization!!!!

I got her all cleaned up and went to measure her urine from her old bag. As I drained it, I became nauseous from the putrid odor of her urine. My spirits were down and I felt very unqualified to perform another one. Comforting or not my instructor said that was the hardest cath-job she’s ever seen, because her anatomical orifices were not in the correct location, which made it hard to find the urethra. I was finally done 50 minutes later!!!

As luck would have it, I was able to perform another catheterization. This time it went off without a hitch. I performed it from start to finish in 10 minutes and my instructor was very pleased, and boy, my confidence level came back.

I look forward to more fun and interesting events during school.

End of First Quater Nursing School

Well, I am happy to say that first quater of Nursing School has come to an end...finally! It has been such a hard quarter but it was worth it, because I did well and passed. It may not be a large feat, but I have to take one quarter at a time.

Two weeks ago I received a package from my parents (it is pictured below). When I opened it up I started to cry. You see, when I was about 12 years old, I attended a Tony Robbins convention, yes that's right, Tony Robbins. I learned how to put mind over matter, and that night, I WALKED ON FIRE! , As I walked on fire, I repeated in my head, "Cool Moss". I walked away with no burns. It was an awsome experience, and my dad said if I can walk on fire, then I can do anything. Afer my experience, I used a beading loom and beaded this necklace. A few weeks ago my parents found it and now I can look at it every day for inspiration.

Here are a few things I have learned about myself and other things while in school.1. I have a new appreciation for the beauty of sunrises2. My kids really are hard to wake up and get going in the morning3. I am starting to become a better test taker4. My husband is so awesome, and the best in the world! I couldn't have gotten to this point if it weren't for his loving support5. I missed making dinners and yummy desserts for my family6. I missed talking to my friends and having our girls night out