things learned

Things I have learned in nursing school this month:

How to write a nursing diagnosis, care plan and how to chart.

How to do dosage calculations.

How to do a sterile dressing change. Is it a bad sign that I felt a little nauseous while watching the videos on wound care? Those wounds can be pretty disgusting (and that's without knowing how they smell).

How to put in a Foley catheter. I've heard some pretty gross stories about actually doing this in real life. Again, gross. Also, if your instructor, who is supposed to be watching you and correcting you while you practice, is talking with another instructor about their cats (no joke), how the heck are you supposed to know if you're doing things the right way? I blame her if I stick a tube where it's not supposed to go.

How to give intramuscular injections. Hold the syringe like a dart at a 90-degree angle and go for it (making sure you're aiming for the right landmark, of course). If you hit bone just pull back and act normal/don't freak out. Yikes.

Practicing on dummies is NOT going to be the same as doing these things on real people.

When you ask the same question to different instructors, expect to get a different answer from each one of them. Helpful, very helpful.

I believe enemas and ostomies are coming up in the near future. Sounds like fun. Hope I don't barf while watching the videos!

You might be questioning my choice of nursing by my usage of the words gross, nauseous and barf in this post. I'm hoping these things will get better with experience. I can handle it, but it doesn't mean I'm not a little grossed out at times. We'll see what happens when it comes to putting things in peoples' open wounds, needles in their veins and tubes in their who-has (that's a medical term, didn't you know?).

summer happenings

How is it almost September??? How did that happen? I guess time flies when you're sitting on your butt stressing out about school starting again.

After almost four weeks off, I'm headed back to school on Monday. Honestly, I've been enjoying doing whatever during the day and I'm dreading the stress and anxiety that comes with school. This is the semester we learn all the nitty gritty stuff and we start clinicals in the hospital in October, which by the way I'm freaked out about, probably because I don't feel prepared at all, but hopefully once that time comes I'll at least feel a little more prepared...but I'll probably still be freaked out.

This is what I have to look forward to:



I have a feeling I'm going to be like this:



Anyway, Jeff started a new job at the end of July. He is now a Charge Master Analyst. Don't ask me what all it entails, but it sounds cool right? He's working in the business office for Mountain States Health Alliance which is one of the big hospital systems in this area. So far he is enjoying it and learning a lot.

The day after I took my last final I drove out to Bethany Beach, Delaware to spend some time with my family at a beach house they had for the week. I wish we all lived closer together so we could see each other more than once or twice a year! Some of the pictures below are from Assateague Island where they have wild ponies roaming around.



A few weeks ago we decided to take advantage of Atlanta being only four hours away and we drove out for the weekend. We went to the Georgia Aquarium which has a ginormous tank holding 6.3 million gallons of water, four whale sharks and thousands of other fish (it's the world's largest aquarium exhibit).



And I betcha you can't guess what else we did in in Atlanta. Okay, okay, you guessed it. How could we go somewhere with a major league baseball team and not go to a game? We can't. You might be wondering why we have a picture of two strange men. Well, apparently they aren't strange at all (to baseball fans). The guy in the blue is Leo Mazzone who was a pitching coach for the Braves and apparently a well known pitching coach at that, and the guy holding the umbrella is Mark Lemke who used to play for the Braves. I wonder if these guys ever get tired of random people sneaking up on them and taking (or making) their picture. You might also be wondering what I'm holding in my hand in the picture below. They were giving out Moon Pies at the game. Yum.

good things to come

"Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come."
-Jeffrey R. Holland

I really should be studying, but I've seen this message mentioned in a couple different places today and thought I would post it as well. It is, as all of the Mormon Messages are, uplifting and powerful.

You can see the full talk here.

monthly update

Oh, hello there blog world. I'm sure you've been dying to know what we've been up to since it seems I've neglected to post my once-a-month post. Well, let me assure you that you haven't missed much.

Yes, that's a flip flop tan. They're trendy now, didn't you know?

About a month ago we took a short trip to Myrtle Beach and Charleston. While in Charleston we visited Boone Hall Plantation which was really neat (they filmed snippets of The Notebook there and, you know, lots of historical stuff happened there too).




We also attended the strawberry festival in Unicoi, TN to enjoy a little southern culture. We seriously need to take the camera with us everywhere we go because there are some great pictures to be made out here. Yes, you read that right. Out here in Tennessee we get our pictures made, not taken.

If I posted on this thing regularly, I would do a "you know you live in the south when" post once a week but let's be realistic folks, that's not going to happen any time soon.

Oh yeah, Jeff graduated and now is a master of athletic administration! Yay Jeff! And I started school which is another reason why this blog is neglected. I'd like to introduce you to my new best friends:



Actually, I really should've been studying instead of blogging, but procrastination was calling my name. I will leave you with this gem:

oh dear

Dear Spring,

Thank you for gracing us with your presence. We've missed you. Thank you for bringing back the warmth and the beauty into life. I wish you could stay forever.




Dear D.C.,

Thank you for always having things for us to do and see. Riley especially liked being a tourist and checking out the FDR memorial. However, she was not very fond of the gigantor replica of FDR's scotty dog and probably has nightmares about him. Don't worry though, we bribed her with treats in order to snap a picture. She'll thank us later. Also, thank you for the beautiful cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, we missed their peak but we got to see some nonetheless.

Dear girl walking up the stairs, thanks for ruining our picture.
(I took another one but Riley is cuter in this one.)

(The pictures below are Arlington Cemetery which we were able to go see with Jeff's aunt, Cheryl, when she came to visit D.C. in March)

Dear mom and dad,

Thank you for putting up with our nut of a dog when we come to visit. I'm not really sure why she loses control (of her bladder) when she sees new people. She just wants to be loved by everyone. She can be sane at times, I promise (see picture on right below).



p.s. Can you tell we love our dog? She's basically our child (bladder control problems, nuttiness and all).

future plans

Who would've thought?

Jeff got into the MPH, Hospital Administration program for round 2 of grad school. He'll graduate with his master's in athletic administration this spring.

He was also chosen to be a member of the President's Pride which is a "student service/honorary organization unique to East Tennessee State University" (quoted from ETSU's website). Over 100 people are nominated, 50 go on to interview and 25 are chosen.

This weekend he'll be headed to Cincinnati, Ohio for the first round of the NCAA tournament with the women's basketball team cause he's been such a hard working grad assistant. Go Bucs!

I'm so proud of him and all he has accomplished!

(p.s. How cute is this picture?)

I got into ETSU's accelerating nursing program for round 2 of my bachelor's.
(no comments on the picture please. yes, this is me, not a boy in pink overalls)

We'll both (hopefully) be graduating in December 2011. There is light at the end of the tunnel!
Hallelujah.

Riley has been accepted into a treatment program for hound dogs with ADHD and anxiety disorders. Do they make Xanax for dogs? Cause I think they should. Don't be fooled by this picture.

as usual

Well, here we are in the cold dreary months of winter. I’ve decided that I don’t particularly care for cold weather, and what I really mean by that is that I could really just do without the whole dadgum season all together. You know how some people like to have all four seasons and can't wait for colder weather when summer is blazing hot and vice versa? Yeah, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not one of those people. The thing I do like about Tennessee is that we have days that are in the 50s interspersed among the freezing cold days. Where can we live that has three out of the four seasons? Cause I like the other three just fine.

Anyway, we haven’t done anything blog worthy for awhile, just the same ol’, same ol’.

Jeff has applied to the MPH program; he is finishing up his master’s in sports admin and is working hard as usual.

Lynn has applied to nursing school; she is working and trying not to tear her hair out as usual.

Riley is crazy as usual.

And it’s flippin cold outside.

But these two can always brighten a dreary day. A dog really is a man's best friend...right after his wife of course.