Another semester, another major storm for New England!!! This time snow. Lots of snow. We got 18 inches, but parts of Massachusetts got 27-30 inches! Let me go to the beginning of the story. . .
Last week my hubby was away on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic, so I was a single mom. That always makes things really interesting. Thankfully he was able to fly in before the Blizzard of 2013 went into full swing. In fact, he was the last flight to get in before the airport closed. Phew!
Last Thursday was my first clinical rotation at the hospital! It was amazing! And BUSY! I wound up being assigned to the Assistant Clinical Manager because my original assigned nurse was out sick! I figured it could go either way, it could be really good or really bad. Thankfully it wound up being really good! She was fantastic! The nurses there really want us to be there, they like us! It's crazy! We spent the day taking care of 5 patients, and then had to admit a 6th right at the end of the shift. It was nonstop insanity! I gave more meds in that one shift than I have in my entire nursing career. I attended an interdisciplinary meeting (case managers, social workers, nurses) and they actually respected my opinion. That's never happened before. As student nurses we are usually cast aside and no one cares what we have to say. This time was different and it was fabulous! The downside was that I was supposed to leave at 3:00 pm, but didn't leave until 4:30 because of a last minute admit at 2pm that was labelled as a transfer but really wasn't. Good news is I got to see how to do an admission from start to finish. On top of leaving late I had a HORRIBLE migraine! The last two patients we had were in a room that was 85 degrees. It was awful! I am pretty sure that is what triggered the migraine. So I barely made it home. I really don't know how I drove my car. It was that bad. I had the window rolled down to let the cold air blow in my face to stop me from vomiting. I just kept thinking, "Lord, get me home so I can close my eyes and get rid of this stabbing pain in my head." Once again He took care of me -- after some migraine meds and about 45 minutes I was capable of functioning again. My kids were so good and took great care of me.
Friday the snow came. My kids' school was cancelled so I was able to sleep in and recover from the migraine and the 10 hour day at the hospital. Then it snowed, and snowed and snowed some more. All day Friday, Friday night and into Saturday it snowed. Trees fell down (three in our yard), people lost power (thankfully we did not) and it was a great big mess. I tried my best to study and get school stuff done over the weekend but my hubby was off shovelling our driveway and everyone else's that couldn't shovel themselves. It was challenging. Finally I gave up and went sledding in the yard with my kids which was so fun! Sometimes you have to shut the books and enjoy some family time!
Monday classes were cancelled because roads were still messy and the campus was having trouble getting rid of all the snow. This was a good thing, this means my Leadership exam has been postponed from 2/18 to 2/25. I was thrilled about this, because between you and me I really haven't read any of that book -- I've skimmed it, attended class, participated in discussions and that's about it. I have to read and catch up before the exam because I hear this professor likes to pull random crap from the book that she never speaks about in class. Oh goody.
Today I had my first med/surg II exam. I think it went well. I must admit that with my kids home for four straight days I didn't get as much studying in as I would've liked to, but I think I still did OK. I will be happy with something in the 85/87 range. Grades should be posted by Friday so I'll report as soon as I know.
Last week I found out that there is a pool on campus that is available for student use (we pay $90/semester for it) so I swam today for the first time in a very long time! It was fantastic and made me feel so good. I did 20 laps (40 lengths) which is a little over a 1/2 mile. I am so happy that I learned about this. I am going to swim every Wednesday after class and hopefully one or two other days as well. Maybe I can finally get back into the swing of some sort of exercise.
So that's that. Before I sign off, I would like to start something new. Words of wisdom. I will share something that I learned, maybe learned the hard way, so that, perhaps, some fellow nursing students may benefit from it somehow. This week's words of wisdom are:
"Foley catheters are floppy, unruly creatures that don't listen or behave as you expect them to."
When someone hands you a foley that has been removed from a patient -- BE CAUTIOUS! It will flop and fling urine in every direction six ways from Sunday. Two experiences have taught me this valuable lesson and hopefully it will save someone some grief someday.
Until next time. . .
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