peds nurse? maybe...

For those who do not know, I work on a progressive care unit. That's basically like an intensive care step down unit. These patients are not stable enough to go to a regular medical-surgical floor, but not critical enough to go to the ICU. Not everyone progresses through these "levels." Some go straight to ICU and are discharged (though most of the time they are transferred to my unit); some come straight to my unit and are discharged...sometimes a med-surg patient will go straight to the ICU. My floor deals with a lot of chest pain/heart attack patients in addition to congestive heart failure and patients with arrhythmias. We also get a lot of patients with respiratory distress, pneumonia, COPD, asthma exacerbation, renal failure, DKA, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances...you name it. The experience is invaluable.

Our crazy director (who no longer works with us) decided to start admitting pediatric patients to our unit. The unit isn't even meant for pediatric patients - it is not a locked unit and there is no play room for the kids to go to. The "designated" pediatric rooms have Wii's in them and we have things like coloring books and some toys, but that's about it. At first I thought a mixed pediatric/adult floor would be VERY unsafe, but it turns out those units are more common than I thought.

Nurses had the option to become a pedi nurse. We still have the option, but our manager made a point that they are making sure all new nurses that they hire now have at least some pediatric experience. As I think about my career, I think about how valuable this must be. What if I end up on another mixed unit in the future? What if I end up in an ER that takes kiddos in the future? I hated peds in nursing school - not because I hate kids. I like kids, I just feel so awkward around them. Peds was just boring in nursing school because we couldn't really do much. And after that I didn't really have an interest. I sort of through all of my peds knowledge out the window after I passed my NCLEX. Now I'm regretting it.

Anyway, I think I want to start taking peds patients. It would be a good resume builder and it would make me a better nurse, I think. I bought this book to review:



And so far I really like it! Schaum's has other guides for those interested. It isn't super in-depth; more like an outline, but still has a lot of valuable information. And I'm surprised at how much all of this stuff is coming back to me after a simple review!

One of the nurses I work with told me I won't ever have to worry about taking an unstable pediatric patient. There is a children's hospital about 25 minutes away where all of the unstable pediatric patients go. Most of the kids that come to my unit are admitted for dehydration, breathing problems (such as asthma exacerbation, bronchiolitis and RSV, especially now being RSV season), appys/tonsilectomies, cellulitis and for teenagers, UTIs and pyelonephritis. One thing I find really fascinating about peds are all of the congenital heart defects, but unfortunately we do not take those kinds of patients on my floor. Maybe some day.

Military Monday!

Be sure to link up at Semper Wifey's blog! :)

I hate coworkers who will say to you, "that's not patient" and therefore they won't help you. Nursing is a team effort. I try to pitch in and help those who are "not my patients" when I have the time. Not only will your fellow coworkers be thankful, it also earns you brownie points with your team and management. Not that I'm in for it for just brownie points. I truly enjoy helping others. Obviously, because I'm a nurse.

Work has been hell lately. We have one side where ALL of our totals as well as patients with sitters/in restraints are. I typically do my shifts in threes and of course I got stuck on that side for all 3 nights. I didn't really say anything except on my last night, telling the charge that side really needs to be split up. I mean, 3 out of my 4 patients were totals. It was awful. One night one kept climbing out of bed and became very agitated (and even a happy dose of Haldol only worked for about 30 minutes) and that went on until around 0500 when my "special bed" finally arrived (the other nights were fine thanks to my special bed :D)...my other patient down the hall was confused and kept pulling all of their wires off (thank goodness they didn't pull out my IV!)...and then of course my other patient was a 150kg bed-bound patient who can transfer from bed to chair (including a bedside commode) but decided they just wanted to lay in bed, oh, and they were going through a bowel prep...with a bleed. -_-

Speaking of bowel preps, I can't help but laugh at the names of those prep solutions. Especially "GoLytely." Seriously? haha.

Yesterday I took my ACLS course. For 10 hours. Normally they split the course up over 2 days - videos/teaching/practice and then the second day you do your skills test and written test. In this class we did the whole thing in one day. It was a very long day, but I passed my megacode and everything else and now I am ACLS-certified! Just don't go and expect me to run a code haha. Docs typically run them, anyway. By the time we find a patient and initiate CPR and get them hooked up to the crash cart, the ER doc is already in the room leading everything.

And I wish I didn't have to get recertified in BLS every 2 years now. They test you on BLS in ACLS, so having a BLS certification in addition to ACLS is kind of redundant, IMO. Oh well...

Next up is NRP (neonatal resucitation program) and PALS (pediatric advanced live support), even though I refuse to take kiddos on my unit.

instant nurse: just add coffee.

I'm starting my 3 night stretch tonight.
I hope work doesn't suck.
Some nurses left and now the ICU is expanding, so that takes away some nurses from my unit who want to work permanently in the ICU.
Which means we're becoming short-staffed.
I thought about picking up some OT shifts to help combat the short-staffedness, but I'm trying to think of a way to do it without burning myself out. After 3 nights in a row I'm dead...we'll see!

Not-so-fun adventures in the ER.

I got sent to the ER today. Myself and two other nurses from my unit...one who went MIA after a few hours. I think she got sent home. I also got sent home, but not until 0500. I'm hoping I don't get called off tonight, otherwise I'm going to volunteer to go to the ER again.

I was very disoriented. I have never been to the ER before and things are a lot different. For awhile I was just sitting around and I didn't know what to do, even after I kept telling the other nurses to tell me to do stuff because I'll do it. Then I got slammed with discharges. I have never discharged patients before (except in nursing school, like once or twice) but I handled them like a pro :)

And I had to deal with pedi patients!!! It wasn't as scary as I remember. One was so cute, and poor thing kept asking if I was going to stick her with a needle and got scared when I put gloves on...needless to say, no ouchies for her :)

Something upset me, though. We had a 27 year old, DOA (dead on arrival), CPR in progress. Already intubated. Once they got the the ER we continued CPR and pushed some drugs. The doc did an ultrasound which showed cardiac standstill. Patient's color looked awful - definitely cyanotic. We couldn't save them. Drug OD was suspected. It's just so sad, because this patient was very young, and a soldier too. I just don't see how anyone can just throw their life away like that. It bothered me, and it still does.

And things will bother you. That's a part of nursing. But you just have to learn to let it go.

song link-up!

It has been quite awhile since I have participated in Goodnight Moon's weekly What's Your Song? link-up!

This week is "Sleep On The Dance Floor" by The Postelles. This song makes me feel so light-hearted, I love it! Enjoy :)



I have to work tonight. I'm a little apprehensive after what happened Monday night, which was totally 100% *NOT* my fault. And I'm still pissed at that family. Long story short, one family member yelled at me and said, "I don't care if the patient next door is dying, our loved one could die too!" and um, the patient I was attending to was unstable. Their loved one was fine. It was pretty ridiculous, but I still maintained my composure and basically kissed their asses and did everything I possibly could to make them happy. Ugh.

Tomorrow night, however, is military ball! I am excited :) I'm just going to recycle the dress I wore to the military ball in April at Fort Leonard Wood.

And of course I work Saturday night, too :(

You know you've worked too many shifts in a row when...

1. It is now 5pm and your spouse is checking on you to make sure you are still alive.
2. You decide to sleep in the waiting room or the parking lot because you're unsafe to drive.
3. When you start thinking that the hospital food is actually pretty good, all things considered.
4. When you dream about work all day...WTH, I thought I left!
5. When you hardly remember the drive home.
6. When you start answering your phone as "[your unit], this is [your name], how may I help you?"
7. You fall asleep at a red light.
8. When you clock out and then get half way down the hall and you ask yourself, "did I clock out?" Then you turn around to go clock out, get half way back down the hall and you realize...you did clock out!
9. You get out to your car and realize you left your keys in your locker on the unit...
10. Absolutely NOTHING around you can beep/alarm in any way. It's like a nursing form of PTSD or something.
11. You end conversations with people by asking, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

I have literally been a zombie this past week.
Went to work, had a decent shift...came home and couldn't sleep for the life of me. I finally did sleep, but only for about 3 hours...woke up by 1130 and just lazed around until 1900.
Had another decent shift. Came home, showered...the moment I rested my head on my pillow I passed out! Woke up at 1630 and then got a call from the nursing supervisor telling me she was going to put me on call that night!
I don't like being on call. You miss out on hours unless you actually get called into work. I thought I would get called in, but I never heard anything. Either that one particular physician was working that night (and he never admits anyone unless they're literally dying lol) or my floor just wasn't getting enough admissions for them to need me. Oh well.
Back to work tomorrow night.

I feel like this is all I do. Sleep, eat, work, rinse & repeat. The morning of (when I have already worked my 3 in a row) I sleep and then when I wake up I don't want to do a damn thing for the rest of the day because I am so tired.
And it really sucks being on opposite schedules with my husband. He's up doing PT and doing Army stuff while I'm sleeping. When I wake up he comes home and shortly after he'll take a nap -_- then it's off to work for me...And it's always the same. It really sucks.

oh hey, blogger.

It has been awhile since I have posted!

I forgot to mention that I finally got my car! And I love it :) And Blogger is being a tard and won't let me post any pictures.

Hubs & I went to San Antonio last weekend. We went to the Alamo and to the Riverwalk! We went to this seafood restaurant called Landry's and had a pretty expensive "snack" - shrimp en brochette (shrimp with a sliver of jalapeno inside, hushpuppy on the outside, bacon-wrapped and fried and then finished off on the grill placed on top of a bed of fried onion straws and topped with a cheese-like sauce and crab meat) and a cup of lobster bisque...all for $26, not including tip! Everything tasted EPIC, though! I've been wanting more :)

We originally planned on staying at Lackland AFB through military lodging (why pay $100+ for a hotel room when you can get a VOQ room for like $40?) but then we decided to head home that day and go to Freedom Fest at Fort Hood.

But we never really went to Freedom Fest.
We went kayaking at BLORA, a lake that puts Lake Erie to shame!! It was fun, but a lot of work haha. We went to Razoo's Cajun Cafe and had some fried gator tail (which was very tasty, btw!). Hub's had fish fry for his entree and I had shrimp creole. Everything was amazing!
We went back home and slept.
We went to Fort Hood for the fireworks display, which was really nice. Instead of fighting the crowd, we went to one of the school parking lots on post. Several others had the same idea.

Once again, I am LOVING work :) Still have a lot to learn and there are a lot of times where I feel pretty stupid, but I'm getting it. Slowly but surely :)

Tonight hubs & I are going out to dinner with his platoon sergeant and his wife and tomorrow we're going back to San Antonio to go to Seaworld haha. You have no idea how excited I am.

friday fill-in & quick update

1. Have you (spouse) ever considered joining the military and what do you think of dual military couples?

I thought about it before I met my husband. I would join the Army or Navy to become a nurse. I also thought about it again once I married my husband. I think it's a really hard life for dual military couples. All of the training and deployments, I would feel like you would literally never see your significant other. Or do they do same deployments? Regardless, I think it's hard and not something I could do, I don't think. And my husband said he wouldn't let me join even if I wanted to haha.

2. What is your idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon?

Depends on my mood. Sometimes it's just lazing around, cuddling and playing video games with hubby or lazing around by the pool lol. Either way, I prefer my Sunday afternoons to be relaxing.

3. What do you usually do for the 4th of July holiday?

That also depends...when I was younger, we would always set off fireworks in a drive way. Since then I usually go to whatever 4th of July event that is going on in the area. This year we're planning on going to San Antonio :)

4. If they could make an Olympic even JUST for you that you know you'd medal in, what would it be?

Lol oh I don't know...Facebook/Twitter-stalking? hahaha

5. What have you been doing to get yourself bathing-suit ready for summer?

Honestly, nothing...I know it's really bad, but I never really work out. I consider my "work out" at work because usually I'm always running around like a maniac. I also literally eat like a bird...but that's just me.

And speaking of work, I LOVE MY JOB!

There are a lot of things that I do not know. Even the simplest things...like how to work the dynamap, the IV pumps, and even the IV insertion catheters because everything is DIFFERENT from what I have been used to working with for the past 3 1/2 years! And I did not know that you could put Nitrobid on the leg. I thought that stuff (and patches) always went on the upper body while rotating sites.

The charting is such a bear but I'm getting the hang of it...doctors still scare the crap out of me and a lot of times I'm unsure of when I should be bothering them. They don't really teach you this stuff in nursing school - we were never allowed to put orders in, talk to docs on the phone and take orders, call lab, pharmacy, do this and that and blah blah blah.

The first night I had to send one of our patients off to ICU. My preceptor was on the phone giving report to the ICU nurse when the doc calls, so I had to take the call. I explained what happened and what I did, and first he said I did a good job and did everything right, which made me have "warm fuzzies" (as my NCLEX class instructor would say)...but then it is just trying to figure out what else he wanted lol. My preceptor was helping me out, but it still made me nervous.

Last night was SLOOOOOOOOW. Painfully slow. The census has been low lately, and I'm assuming it is because of the upcoming Independence Day (census is always low on holidays!) I was floated to TCU and including myself, there were 4 nurses with 6 patients, but there were 2 orientee RN's. I took care of one patient in her entirety (the previous night was just assessments and documentation) but this patient was such a breeze. Completely ambulatory and only had like 3 meds.

I'm back again tonight, this time either on my home unit or ICU. Hopefully it goes smoothly like the last two nights :)

Then it's off to San Antonio after I get some sleep, yay!

blog hop!

So even though I bought a car, it still isn't here yet. It was supposed to be here last Monday, but I guess it didn't get on the truck until the middle of the week. The car is coming from a port in Houston, but then VW told me there is no way to determine the route the truck will make. Even though Houston is only about 3 hours away, the truck could go to Dallas, then SA, to El Paso (which is like freaking' 7 hours away) and all of these other places until it comes to Killeen. Hubby called on Friday and was told the car would either be in on Saturday (which it wasn't) or today. I'm hoping today.

I had my nursing orientation last week, too! Some of the nurses have been in the profession for 15+ years, others have been in for a year or so, and then there was me, the new grad lol. Everyone was very nice and five of us (including myself) will be working together. Sort of. There are three of us on PGCU - one is on nights with me and the other girl (whom I love and is a fellow Army wife!) is working days. Another girl is on days in the ICU and a guy is on nights in the TCU. The TCU and PGCU are virtually the same thing and we are also cross-trained to work in the ICU, as well. My first night will be on the 29th - I'm excited but I'm also scared shitless lol. This will be my first time on the floor as an RN. I'm not quite sure what to expect that night. I just hope my preceptor is patient with me, because apparently real-world nursing is totally different from nursing school.

And it makes me feel good that my fellow night-shifters said they will help me out whenever I need it. They said I will be fine and I will get it eventually, it will just take time. No one will leave me to fend for myself lol!

Last night hubby and I were making chili. We wanted to throw a whole habanero in - seeds, vein and all! So I started to mince it, gently. And then of course, the knife some how flicks a seed that hits me straight in the eye! I screamed some profanities and stumbled around, and hubby rushed over to see what happened. I was about to rub my eyes when he stopped me, then he guided me over to the tub and instructed me to flush my eye out in the cool running water. I was there for about 20 minutes. It was agonizing. I have even more respect for soldiers/civilian police who have to get OC sprayed for training. Hubby's BOLC class all got OC'ed the second time I went to FLW. I felt really bad for them there. Mind you, habanero peppers range from 150,000 - 350,000 SHU, or Scoville Heat Units. OC spray is much more potent, starting out at 1,000,000+ SHUs. Although the burn from the habanero was agonizing, I can only imagine what the OC spray is like. I don't wish that feeling on anyone.

But now I have to just look back and laugh, because this would only happen to me haha.

1 month!

I cannot believe it has been a month since the wedding! We might go celebrate our "1 month" (though technically our almost 6 month lol) at a sushi restaurant or something. Unfortunately, we don't know of any good places, so I hope we pick a good one the first time.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding (I have a lot of favorites, but here are some!) They are in reverse, descending order (from the end of the reception to the beginning of the wedding day haha) because Blogger never puts them in the order I want. And every time I post pictures, they are either way too big or too small. Anyway, without further adieu...

during the "dollar dance" (we made $150!)

The DJ had all of these cool little props, including flashy light-up tiaras lol

our first dance :)

I LOVE this picture of my brother and my mom entering the reception hall :)

cake topper :) those calla lilies were made out of marzipan!

we did a dove release. Eddie & I had 2 in this little heart-shaped basket and the handler had the remaining 10 that he released once we released our 2 :)

you really can't see it here, but during the ceremony I was so nervous that I broke out in red splotches all over my back and shoulders :( They disappeared after the ceremony, though!

mama bear :)

close-up detail of my dress :)

OF COURSE I had to have an Army garter! it might be hard to see but attached to it are my grandparents' (maternal) wedding rings from Poland, which are like >60 years old.

We have had a bug problem lately, though not as bad as those bugs in Oklahoma ;) Just tiny little ants in our bathroom. It's not a few here and there...there are a ton of them. One day I killed 20 (yes, I counted haha) ants just roaming around in our sink, and throughout the day I killed I don't know how many more, but a lot. This has been going on for awhile, actually. I noticed they have been coming from behind our mirror, so I went out and bought some bug spray an sprayed the bottom edge of it. I didn't see any ants for the rest of the day :) I only saw 1 this morning...but if it gets to be bad again, then I'll just have to spray again and hope for the best.

Then there are these damn fruit flies. I set up some fly tape, and this morning there were 7 trapped on there...but there are at least another 5 flying around. And I killed 5 the other day. There are probably more. UGH! On occasional bug doesn't bother me, but when there are a whole bunch of them it's ridiculous!

Eddie has an extended weekend coming up - he'll be off Friday through Sunday :) I'm trying to talk him into either going away for the weekend (either to Corpus Christi (there is a beach there!) or SA, Dallas or Houston) or going to BLORA for a whole day or two (it's like this really big lake and they have super cheap boat/kayak rentals...they also have parks and water slides and things...Eddie told me it's really nice). We'll see. It will beat hanging around this apartment for the whole weekend and it will be my second to last weekend of freedom before I start work. I'll have some of my weekends off, but I don't know how my schedule will be at this moment. We will just have to wait and see :)

I also wanted to buy a ring that I could wear to work instead of having to wear my actual wedding ring, so I found *THIS* and bought it. It is actually a pinky ring, but I found it in a size 4 which will fit my ring finger :) I probably could have gone to some cheap jewelry store but they either have something I don't like or (99.9% of the time) the rings are too big for me. And for $50, it's not a bad price in my opinion.

And speaking of work, I start orientation next week!! Then the following week I will start orienting on the floor. I am excited but also pretty nervous...real-world nursing is nothing like nursing school, and it's really scary to think that I will be doing this all on my own relatively soon. No more "safety" net with the instructors/school, even though I was a damn good nursing student! It's just a big change, especially since I still feel like I know NOTHING even after passing my NCLEX. I've been hitting the books these past few weeks reviewing (because I haven't touched anything "nursing" since I passed my NCLEX back in March) but I realize everything will come with time. I just want to be successful. Especially since I am not doing an internship, and I hope this will be a good enough orientation for me. It's what makes or breaks you as a nurse, including your whole career.

job update

Human Resources called me today and I accepted the job offer :) I found out that I will be on the 3rd floor TCU (called the PGCU) - which is the very nice unit. Brand new (only 2 months old) and it's biiiiiig. I'm very excited :) I will start June 21st with some in-process/general orientation beginning next week :D

I GOT THE JOB!

I had my interview today and unfortunately a lot of the questions I got asked weren't ones I prepared for lol but they obviously liked me, because after I got a tour of the PCU (progressive care), TCU (transitional care) and ICU, I got offered the job right then and there!

I AM A CRITICAL CARE NURSE! :)

Unfortunately I don't know what unit I will be on lol...I originally interviewed for the TCU but that position was filled. They are hiring on ICU and PCU, but they just need to figure out where they will place me. I will find out this afternoon.

I will not start until closer to the end of June...but I am happy that I at least have a job :) I know I will have to take an EKG class as well as a class on vasoactive drugs. I will also have to eventually get my ACLS. I am very excited, though. It has been my dream to work in the ICU/ICU Stepdown and I am finally there!

FINALLY, an interview!

We finally received the rest of our stuff today from the Army. Everything made it okay, except for the dishes :/ We ended up with 7 broken dinner plates, 1 broken bowl and 1 broken cup. They told us to keep whatever is intact and they will replace the broken ones at some point. Other than that, everything seems to be A-okay :)

I also FINALLY got a call from a local hospital for an interview on their TCU (telemetry care unit), which is part of the ICU. Full-time nights. This is seriously like my dream, because 1) it's the ICU, and this will help set my foot in the door if I plan on doing the full-fledge ICU later on 2) I definitely prefer nights over days and 3) it's cardiac! which I love.

Now the important thing is, DON'T EFF IT UP! I'm so scared they will ask me something and I won't be prepared to answer. This is my very first nursing interview and I have no idea what to expect! Ahhh!

Please pray! pray, pray, pray!

appreciation day for milspouses and nurses!

Today is military spouse appreciation day.

This is for the husbands and wives who wake up early when their soldier leaves for PT.

This is for the fathers and mothers who hold their children tight when they cling and cry for a parent overseas at night.

This is for the men and women who avoid the news, watch the news, or are glued to the news every day for months on end, hoping for good and not bad.

This is for the cooks who learn the gobbledygook acronyms and threaten to serve MREs if they are faced with a caselot sale on a payday at the commissary again.

This is for the lovers who touch photographs and hold back tears.

This is for the actors who put on a happy face when their soldier takes one more look over a shoulder while the transport is moving out.

This is for the comedians who crack jokes on the phone over webcams, just to see their soldier smile thousands of miles away.

This is for the tired whose hearts break at the thought of just one more day alone, much less several more months.

This is for the strong who keep moving when they all want to do is stay under the covers and curl up in a ball.

This is for the "dependents" who know that a greater oxymoron was never coined, who rise to the call of independence in order to keep the house running smoothly, or to move it across the country alone.

This is for the proud, whose hearts are full to bursting as their loved ones step off that plane, that bus, that boat to stand in formation and affirm that they have served and will continue to serve their country.

This is for those who also serve, by making their own sacrifices and supporting their military loved one on the homefront, giving them assurance that all is well and that they can focus on the job at hand until it's time to come home.

This is for us, military spouses! Appreciate yourself today!

Today is also national nurses day, and May 6th-May12th is national nurses week!

We would all be worse without a nurse.

Nurses are more than just people in white;

They are mediators between human suffering and human wellness;

Where what they do goes far beyond what is seen.

Happy national nurses week!

milball dresses and more wedding stuff

As much as I didn't want to spend money on a floor-length dress for the upcoming military ball because this wedding continues to be expensive *and* I have to do some mandatory repairs on my car which will probably total to $1200...I understand that I have to maintain the car but why the hell does everything have to happen all at once? But anyway, I thought a floor-length gown would be more appropriate for a "ball" anyway so I decided to buy one. And the dress was under $100 which was a huge plus for me. I ended up buying this one:

the halter clasp on this particular one was broken so that's why I'm holding it up so I don't flash all of you haha.

I think the dress is very flattering on me and like I said, it was under $100 on sale :) These pictures make it appear more blue but it is slightly more purple. The other dress I was considering was this one:

$10 more, I loved the color (slightly brighter blue than this picture depicts) and I love the single strap but I wasn't too crazy about all of that frilliness on that strap. So I went with the purple one instead :)

I also met with the church organist and chose music for the wedding ceremony. We have to use the organist, so that limits me in my music choice. But here is what I chose:

seating of the mothers: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Bach

bridesmaids processional: Grazioso by Telemann. I listened to some recordings on youtube of this and I actually didn't like it. It sounds so much better on an organ.

wedding march: Trumpet Voluntary by Clarke. This is the same wedding march Princess Diana used :)

recessional: Rondeau by Mouret

That's another thing I can cross off my list :)

The bakery quoted me on the price for marzipan calla lilies on my cake...freakin' $185. ON TOP OF an already $500-$600 wedding cake. I feel bad for declining because I know they worked with it in the shop for awhile to make sure it was doable, so I feel like their efforts would be wasted...but that's a lot of freakin money just for some flowers. I thought about doing a mix of buttercream callas and marzipan but I don't know how well that's going to look. I don't know what to do, ahhhh!

The necklaces for my bridesmaids came in today, too :)

Not the best picture but I didn't want to take it out of the bag and (wo)man handle it before the wedding lol.

So finally that's another thing I can cross off! Their jewelry is on me...but I don't know if I should get them another gift as well? I would love to at least buy mani/pedis for them but that's going to be expensive as well and I only have a few more weeks left to work...so I won't have my own income any more :(

I also got offered an interview for an ICU internship at a level 1 trauma center! But I had to regretfully decline it, and the hiring manager totally understood. He believes in honesty, and he told me that if I were to get hired in another position in the hospital, all I would have to do is wait 6 months and then I can transfer into an internship. They have another one that starts in January and he said my chances are a lot better to get into that one than the one that starts in June. I would have to fly down for the interview, too. I looked up flights to Texas and they average around $500...so really, he was telling me to not waste my money and just wait lol. I'm hoping I'll get more calls in the future. I sent in a lottttt of apps! keeping my fingers crossed :)

This came in the mail yesterday :D

along with my NCLEX-RN candidate report and some other things. I look TERRIFIED in my candidate report picture lol.

Wedding planning is really coming along :) The invitations have been sent out and the RSVPs are slowly starting to trickle in. I finally found jewelry for my bridesmaids and jewelry for myself. I think I'm going to opt out of a necklace and just wear these diamond/pearl drop earrings and this diamond/pearl bracelet instead. They're not REAL diamonds...but they look expensive! The only reason being because my dress has so much detail in the bodice a necklace might take away from it...unless I can find a very dainty single pearl necklace that won't be too long.

I met with the florist! I'm very excited to see how she is going to do everything. She gave me a price quote before but when I met with her we added more stuff...I was thinking it was going to be very expensive but when she gave me the new price I was surprised. It's still a lot of money, but cheaper than the average cost of flowers. And these will be fresh flowers :) Now the question is, do I tip her? How much should I tip? This is her own private business so I don't know...I feel stupid for asking her haha.

We're going to have bows on alternating pews. They will be a dark sheer purple with white and then some random flowers on them. My bouquet will have white calla lilies with a purple center along with purple alstromerias; my bridesmaids will just have the calla lilies. Both will be wrapped with a pretty dark purple ribbon :) We're also going to do some arrangements in the front. I can't wait to see everything! She is also going to do my centerpieces. Awhile ago I posted pictures of those kusudama flowers, which I still love, but that will be too time consuming. Instead, I'm going to do these:

It's called Ting Ting, it's sparkly and can be twisted...and it comes in any color! I requested a dark sparkly purple instead of the silver...and then it will be placed in a vase on a piece of mirrored glass with 2 votive candles like in the picture. We're also going to sprinkle some (fake) purple/ivory flower petals on the tables.

I'm going to alternate with THESE to give the reception hall some depth and dimension. But instead of rocks (which I don't really like anyway lol) we're going to put purple marbles in there and put the same calla lilies that will be used in the bouquets. These will also be on top of mirrored glass. :)

I'm happy that things are finally coming together :) I'm meeting with the organist this Friday to discuss music for the ceremony.

I have to work the next 3 evenings. I feel like crap :( My sinuses are all jacked up and my throat really hurts...and I have really bad cramps on top of it :( Part of me wants to call off (I have 15minutes to decide if I only want 1 point instead of 2!) but I think I'll just suck it up and deal with it, especially since I will not be working at this hospital much longer...I want to continue to make a good impression because that will be so important when I'm being considered for my grown-up nurse job. I do not want my current employer to tell them, "yeah she called off sick" (which I have done maybe TWICE in over a year I have worked there) or telling them I had a no-call, no-show (which I almost had...thank goodness I checked my schedule!) I just wish this crappiness would have happened on my 5 days off, not when I have to go back to work!

Military Monday Bloghop! and Miscellaneous Monday

1. I finally caved in and took the Texas Nursing Jurisprudence Exam. It's a requirement for licensure in Texas. I could have taken it any time but I will not receive my license until I do. It seemed very intimidating because there was a "study guide" page with lotsssss of information. You have 2 hours to take it, there are 50 questions, and you're allowed to have other windows open and use the BON to look up answers. If you fail, you can take it again but have to wait 7 days.

It was all about nursing law, the NPA, board rules, etc.

Some of it was blatantly obvious. Like for example:

As a nurse, which of the following should you NOT do?

A. feed your patient lunch

B. dispense medications

C. kill your patient.

...okay not QUITE but you get the idea. Others were tricky. It took me nearly 2 hours, but I passed! One more thing I can cross off the list. Now I just need to take and pass that damn NCLEX! :)

2. We had some crazy thunderstorms last night. I love storms, but not when they rob me of my sleep. I'm working 12 hours today, which I haven't done in awhile (11a-11p)...either it won't be too bad or it's going to suck. Either way, I'm really tired.

The past 2 times I worked wasn't bad at all. I got floated to the overflow med-surg unit (which is located on the ICU stepdown but of course the overflow and stepdown don't "mix" with each other...unless you walk by and see a patient climbing out of bed or something lol). The overflow has 8 beds and usually 2 licenses (at least one RN, obviously) and usually a support. A majority of the patients were ambulatory. By the end of the evening, we had 5 patients. There was only one patient who was kind of a problem (he was climbing out of bed *AND* at the very end of the hall...I suggested moving him closer to the makeshift "nurses station" that way they could keep a closer watch on him instead of making him a sitter. It was such a long walk down to that room lol). Overall, I did some vitals...helped someone to the bathroom...pulled out some heplocks...ran some 24hr pee to the lab...and that's it. Most of it was sitting and BS'ing with the nurses lol.

Saturday I only worked 4 hours and got floated to sit with a patient, who fell, broke her hip, had it repaired, and is confused. She was a handful. Her family was very nice. The last hour was the worst, though. Very confused. Kept saying she had to go home and tend to her kids and dogs and if I called her neighbors, they can bring her keys so that she could go home and drive, etc etc. Kept trying to get out of that chair to leave. I kept advising her not to bend over because of her hip (and she was very well approaching that over 90-degree mark!) but like that did anything. She is also borderline. I kept reorienting her and trying to empathize with her her frustration for wanting to go home but can't and at one point she said to me, "you can either do one of two things. you can either SHUT UP or help me get out of here." She then apologized, but still asked me to help her get home.

Finally she decided she wanted to go on the "couch" (her bed) so I had the RN and the aide who was replacing me help her back. It took us about 20 minutes (all she had to do was take a few steps) but we finally did it, and then she started to settle down...except for screaming at the other aide telling her to "stop making so much damn noise and turn those damn lights off because I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" and then telling her she had a pretty outfit. lol. Never worked with a borderline patient before. They can be quite a challenge.

3. I'm almost hoping I can sit again with a patient (I don't care if I'm sitting for 12 hours!) so I can get some studying done. It's crunch time! I need to pass my NCLEX on the 1st try! Everyone else I talked to passed. And I keep reading about people on allnurses.com failing 2, 3, 4, 5 and even *6* times. That makes me nervous.

4. My enhancer for my engagement ring still hasn't come in yet. Jared's told me early February. I'm getting nervous that it won't be here on time for the formal wedding!

5. I finally decided to change my earrings yesterday. I bought some cute black/silver/grey dangly ones for $4.99 at Target lol...so I went home and wanted to try them on. The earrings I had on were very comfortable, but the back isn't like your standard earring back (with that funny looking stopper to go on the post). I was able to get the right one off pretty easily but the left one was jammed in there - I thought I was going to tear my ear lobe! I definitely hurt my ear a bit trying to get that one off. I decided to not put those back in for fear of having a hard time getting them back off so I just stick in some princess cut cubic zirconia posts instead :)

ATT...and cake!

I got my ATT today! Finally!! Apparently the finger prints went through this time! I checked on the TX BON the other day and saw that they received my background check so I was thinking I was going to get my ATT soon...and lo and behold, I was sitting in my class this morning and got the lovely e-mail!

I also scheduled my test. I'm not telling anyone when I'm taking it, because I don't need any false reassurance and if I end up failing, I really don't want anyone to know about it. All of my other friends have passed so far so we'll see! I scheduled my day and even though it's not for awhile, I'm already stressing out and feeling very sick to my stomach. This test will determine if I'm competent enough to be an RN. Although it won't be the end of the world if I fail, I'd rather not pay another $200 to Pearson Vue just to take the damn test again!

But now that I have a date, I feel like I can focus more. It's crunch time now!

I also sampled cake today! We went to The West Side Bakery, which apparently is the place to go in my area! They allowed us up to 4 flavors to sample. I loved them all except for the hazelnut torte with chocolate ganache (too dry, but I realize that style of cake is different than the other three)...but the almond cake with raspberry preserve filling blew me away. The two went so well together and the cake itself had a lovely almond flavor. I decided on the design:

it'll be up to a 4 tier cake (depending on how many people come) with buttercream frosting...basically what is shown above but with dark/light purple calla lily flower accents. I gave them a fabric swatch of my bridesmaid dress colors to try and match up with the flowers on the cake. The flowers in that picture are buttercream but I'm trying to see if they can do marzipan flowers instead. They said they can, I just don't know how much extra it will be. Calla lilies are less intricate than other flowers (like roses or mums) so to make them out of marizpan (which is similar to fondant) shouldn't be that much more expensive, and I'm keeping the flower accents similar to the those in the picture - so it's not like there will be a ton of flowers. I haven't decided if I want to keep the top with just flowers or some flower accents and a cake topper. we'll see. but needless to say, I am very excited about this cake!

Another thing to cross off my list :)

kusudama and work...

I was browsing on random websites yesterday and came across kusudama, a type of Japanese modular origami that usually takes folded pieces of paper with the same geometric shape and they're taped/glued/sewn together into a sphere, kind of like this:

I thought it was interesting, so I learned how to make the flower. It was actually very easy, but somewhat time consuming. I used computer paper and had to tear them into square pieces. I used 5 pieces of paper and then taped them all together with medical tape lol. It is nowhere near perfect, but here is what mine looked like:

Then I was looking to see if you can make them into flower arrangements, instead of the traditional spherical arrangement, and sure enough you can!

Red/white arrangement

Pink/blue flowers

White flowers

I think these are so cool! and different and unique. I'm thinking about making these into centerpieces for the reception. It would be a lot cheaper than using fresh or even flake flowers to decorate...all I would have to do is buy some nice paper, buy some green wire or something else for the stem, maybe a spool of ribbon to wrap around the stems and maybe some pearl/rhinestones to either jazz up the petals or put in the center of each flower. And borrow a glue gun. and buy some pretty vases, which I can get for cheap at Michael's/Pat Catan's/Dollar Tree. And maybe some purple pebbles to go at the bottom of each vase. Probably be about $30 for all of them vs. $100's for fake/fresh flowers. The Galaxy already has squared or round mirrored glass that I could use. Maybe I'll put a couple of votives around the glass. And my MIL already bought ivory petals with our names and date embossed on them in purple writing. That + purple fake petals sprinkled around the table and cake table would look really nice, too.

The Galaxy has these brass lamps that they would use to decorate the tables, but honestly I wasn't too crazy about them. I'd rather use this idea. Or I could go with the very easy bowl of water, floating tea lights, colored marbles/pebbles at the bottom and put the bowl on mirrored glass with some flower petals sprinkled around. I like the first idea better. I'm not crafty, but I'd like to do something different. And these flowers aren't hard to make, they just take some time.

and a vent about work last night:

1) I hate how the dayshift NA's literally "pick and choose" who they want to bathe. we occasionally get bariatric patients on our floor and who do they always leave for evening/night shift to bathe? them. Now I don't mind giving bed baths/doing AM care. That's part of the job of an NA/tech and yes even RN's/LPN's too but 99% of the time the nurses on my floor has help from supports so of course they will be delegated. What I DO mind is when they pick and choose. They can't do that. YOUR JOB in the morning is to get vitals Q4H and to get patients up and ready for the day. Yes, I know sometimes the shift can get crazy and you can't get the whole floor done and I know some patients are off for tests all day or refuse to do anything. Well this patient yesterday told me she has been asking all day to get cleaned up, but of course the dayshift NA's didn't want to do it. They usually have more supports for day shift (a lot of times 3!) and for evenings 1-2 and for nights, lately it's been none. One of the RN's who now took a full-time position on our floor (and yay, because I love her!) asked me how long this has been going on and I told her for awhile...and she said that myself or the CN or someone should write them up for that, because they are NA's, and they can't be delegating stuff to me. which is true.

2) ...and of course while Shannon and I were in the middle of bathing this patient, I had to leave the room to grab some stuff and immediately one of the RN's asked me to get a blood sugar on this patient because she had to go call the doctor. I wouldn't have minded if I wasn't already in the middle of the something, but I was kind of annoyed because she was basically asking me to drop everything that I was doing just to get her blood sugar. Yes, she had to call the doctor. But yes, there were other RN's who are also capable of getting blood sugars that weren't busy, so why couldn't she ask them?

Other than that, work was fine yesterday. I successfully started another IV! I'll take all of the practice I can get :)

work work work. I feel like that is all I ever do! Lately I've been annoyed, though. I always seem like I'm annoyed and it seems like I complain about my job way too much, but in reality, I love my job! It's just the people I work with sometimes.

I was on my unit on Tuesday, and it wasn't too bad, but we had some incontinent patients who were a "two person job." We'd clean them up and then they would be dirty again...so we'd clean them up again. I was in a room with an NA and the door was closed. This old, seasoned RN took the TIME to FIND ME, tell me "can you get a blood sugar on the two new patients that came in? oh, and weights and vitals." I told her it would be awhile and then said to me, "well, we need you over there, not over here - tell those other nurses to get off their asses instead of sitting at the nurses station." (my floor is a long hallway and when there are two of us we just split it in half). If it was so important, why don't you just do it yourself? You took the time to find me, so you obviously had enough time to get your own damn blood sugars. and weights. and vital signs. We aren't even supposed to get any of the admission stuff because it is an ADMISSION and that is the RN's responsibility, but they take advantage of us all of the time. Even if the RN is going into the room right away, they'll still delegate the vitals. It just makes me mad because it seems like getting vitals is so "taboo" for a lot of nurses.

This RN didn't do any of her admission paperwork. Nothing. This was at 6:40pm, so yes, close to shift change, but she had time. And those patients came while she was still on the clock, so they were her responsibility. The oncoming night shifters were pretty pissed off about that. I would have been, too.

Last night the tech who I have talked about in my previous posts came on at 11pm, right when I was leaving. She was being all snobby as usual. She was trying to get hired on my roommate's floor but the nurses have the final say because they conduct a staff interview. No one wants to hire her. In fact, they kept asking my roommate if I needed a job instead haha. I wish I could take them up on that offer.

Last night a family member told me "I would like to hold all breathing treatments for the rest of the night. I think his stomach is more of a priority than his breathing." Are you fucking kidding me? Thank goodness this didn't come from an RN/LPN/MD...I would be scared. I just went along with it, because I knew if I tried explaining she wouldn't listen to me.

Oh, and a call light kept going off in a room that was unoccupied. creepy...