This Week

Well, I'm writing this more to myself than anyone else, because I find myself afraid I'll forget something! So, here's to a little organization!

Tomorrow, I have class at 8 am. Afterwards, study for Ethics test, hopefully with enough time afterwards to give some thought to patho. Patho class at 2. Ethics at 6. At least I already did that homework.

Tuesday, Study patho. ALL day. And then some more. Somewhere in there, work in a grocery store visit and cub scouts. Then, the most important thing for this day is: (drum roll please) LOST premiere!! Sometimes you just have to give a little nod to legal addiction. Ergo, the LOST premiere. Don't call me. Don't text me. Don't even think thoughts my direction. I'll be busy.

Wednesday: Won't even go there. Okay, I'll go there. Class at 8. Patho TEST at
2. This is a little nerve-wracking because this is my first test with Nurse Rockstar. I think I'm either thoroughly under-prepared, or completely over-prepared. I've studied really hard already, with much more to come. But I have NO idea how hard she might make this test. And for some reason, I have an inexplicable urge to prove my worth to her. I guess I'm a bit of a disciple. Not an accurate analogy, but do you think Peter WANTED to look foolish in front of Jesus? Neither do I want to look foolish to Nurse Rockstar. (Of course this is a little out of proportiion...like I said, not an accurate analogy.)

Thursday: Lab from 8-2. I've decided to validate on Friday this week. After my not-so-amazing validation, I am not jumping at the chance to "perform" in front of all my classmates this time. So, I think it will be best to wait until Friday. Also, this gives me Thursday evening to hit the skills lab, en force. I've already studied my validation, but to be honest, I have NO idea how it's going to all pan out when I actually do it. Hmm

Friday: Paper due at 8 am. Not too bad, though, because I've already got it written. (I'll just go ahead and put a little nod in towards non-procrastination! An unusual experience for my former non-student self!) Afterwards, gulp, validation.

Saturday: Electric Shock Therapy, perhaps? I'm gonna need a date with Kenny, at least! Bring on the stress relief!!

I finished a book this morning about a butcher. What I took from it was this: the body is sacred. This program is endowing me with sacred knowledge. I have a responsibility to do all I can to learn all I can. Someday, in my hour of need, I want to have a nurse who sees my body as sacred and who worked as hard as she could to learn everything she could so she could help me when I needed her most. Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Later.

The Humbling

So, I was humbled this week. Taken down off my proverbial high-horse. Well, it wasn't as bad as all that, but it WAS frustrating and (if i'm being honest)a little embarassing. We validated this week on making an occupied bed. It's not that big a deal, in theory. Roll patient to one side, push dirty bottom sheet under patient, put clean bottom sheet on empty half of bed and squish other half under previously squished dirty sheets. Go to other side of bed, roll patient over onto clean side, pull dirty sheets out, pull clean sheet over rest of bed, put clean top sheet on, pull dirty top sheet and blanket out, replace blanket, tuck all, have a nice day. (Okay, there's a LITTLE more to it than that), but you get the gist of it. Maybe I was just having a bad day, or maybe I was tired, but I was just a little 'off' during my validation. First, I tried to miter the wrong end of the bed on the bottom sheet. (That's a special way to fold the corner of the sheet under the mattress.) Then, I couldn't get my miter to work properly (even though I had practiced it tons of times), and then I couldn't remember what order to do the top sheet in. It was just rough. To make matters worse, there was a whole roomful of my fellow students watching my debacle. (That's what I get for volunteering to go first!) I mean, it's not that big a deal. I got a high A on the validation. No problemo. I'm just frustrated because, contrary to what my professor probably now thinks, I DID practice for the validation. I DID learn how to miter that corner. I just didn't manage to bring it all together for show-time. Ugh.

What I take from this is: Nursing school is going to be a humbling experience. If I'm not big enough to handle a little loss-of-face, then I'm not big enough to care for the dying, or the frightened, or the lonely, or the sick. And God led me to do those things. So, this was good for me. It was the first of what is probably many not-so-amazing validations. And that's okay. Later!

The Coolest Thing

So, I learned the coolest thing from Nurse Rockstar yesterday! Okay, so you know how when a patient gets a transplant they have to go on anti-rejection medication for the rest of their lives because their cells recognize the new organ as foreign matter and do their best to kill it dead? Well, get this. The reason that happens is that all of our cells are, well, sort of bar-coded. They are specific types of cells that are unique to the individual person. Unless. Well, as it turns out, there is a period of time after a baby is born, a few months, BEFORE their cells are bar-coded. That means that if a baby is born with a malfunctioning heart he can have a heart transplant and his body will NEVER recognize it as foreign. It thinks the heart was there all along. Isn't that AMAZING?! The body is so cool.

Today was P-cubed. It went well...we did our first validation. It was on passive range of motion and restraints. That went fine. We're headed into occupied bedmaking and bedpans. Hooray. So, that's today. Now, it's off to study!

Bring it.

Bring it. That's my mantra to psych myself up when I need a little courage. I have been thinking a lot lately about my attitude. I know nursing school will be both stressful and intimidating. My approach, I've decided, is to focus on how much I enjoy it. And I really do. Enjoy it. Take Nurse Rockstar, for instance. I get to sit in her class and, well, bask in the presence of greatness. I don't have that class again until Wednesday, but I'm already excited about it. Did you know that when 'friend' from my previous post enters your body, you have a fast response to it, but then a slower, stronger one follows up? Oh, and it gets better. When that second response follows up it also creates clones of itself, so that next time the same 'friend' gets into your body you already have little warrior cells primed and ready to attack! I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty stinking cool. And THAT'S the kind of stuff I get to learn about. In my other class, we're headed into sterile fields and bedpans. Ew, right? Wrong. It's a stepping stone. And it's going to lead to fun things. The class ahead of us is getting ready to learn how to do iv's. Well, if they couldn't keep a sterile field, no bueno, right? So, it's fun. All of it. And I'm so excited to be along for the ride.

Today's a holiday, so we didn't have school. I spent the day reading textbooks and picking out new reading glasses so I can hang with said textbooks. And I am so ready to be back in class. Tomorrow (Tuesday) is my day off. I'm meeting with my lab partner to work on a project on dwarfism. I'll update as soon as there's more fun academia to share. Meanwhile, I just want to say that whatever you do, whether it's study for a different major, or be a mom, or go to work in the morning, whatever it may be, that you will be full of joy and wisdom. And that, above all, you will know that it all comes from the Lord, Maker of Heaven and earth. Later!

First Week Down

Well, this is Friday, which means our first week is over. It was a good week. I guess all the projects are a little overwhelming, but I know we'll all manage to get 'er done. For 300, we learned how to use restraints (can I get some to use on my kids? Just KIDDING!), and we worked on passive range of motion. That's not the same as active range of motion, which is what we did in 203. Here, the patient can't really help you at all, so you take their muscles through a set of movements so that they won't get stuck in place while the patient is under your care. Because that would be, um, not good. Unfortunately, this happens a lot in third world countries, where people just don't know how to do patient care.

Let's see. Nurse Rockstar taught us in pathology about scar formation and innate immunity. We also got into acquired immunity. Basically, you have a multi-tiered immune system. When a little "friend" first attacks, your skin does its best to fight him off. You have actual chemicals in your sweat, tears, and even earwax (yum!) that try to kill said friend. If friend manages to get in, you have a fast response by things like these really cool Natural Killer cells that can blow up friend. They just sort of roam the body looking for any enemy. They're sort of the scouts. Once they find the 'friend', they start the fight while calling in the big dogs. These is your specific defense system. Ever heard of Bcells or Tcells? Yeah, that's them. The big dogs. They not only cremate the bad guy (in most cases), but they also make memory cells whose sole purpose in life is to roam your body looking for friend's identical twin. Rock on!

It's gonna be a good semester.

Here we go!

Well, tomorrow's the big day. Class starts for me at 0830. I'm a little anxious, but I'm also excited. First off is N300...Professional Nursing. This class meets 3 times a week, plus a 5-hour skills lab on Thursday. We'll be learning skills like how to maintain a sterile field and how to properly make an occupied bed. The second half of the semester, we'll be doing our FIRST clinical at the hospital. I'm fondly referring to this clinical as the Pee, Poop, and Puke clinical. Or P Cubed. I guess it's supposed to get us used to all those, um, not-so-pleasant bodily things. Hooray. Also, this semester we take our dosage quiz and get to begin dispensing medications. My other class is Pathophysiology. I'll admit, I'm a little intimidated by this class. It's taught by Nurse Rockstar, who knows everything there is to know. Except maybe pro football. And she will be expecting us to know all of that too. Lucky for me, Kenny can fill me in on pro football, so I should have my bases covered. We'll see.

I spent the past week writing a research paper on pediatric asthma. This paper is for Nurse Rockstar's class, and I don't exactly have the topic approved yet, but I'm hoping she'll be all right with what I chose. I just wanted to get ahead if at all possible.

And so, the fun begins tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!