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.

5QF!

Be sure to link up at My Little Life!

Questions:

1. Do you swim in the winter? Absolutely not haha. I don't even really swim all that much in the summer, either.

2. Do you love or hate winter? Hate it...I love that "first snowfall" for a few days and afterwards I want to be done with it. I hate snow, I hate how bad the salt is for your car, I hate having salt stains on my jeans/boots, I hate scraping ice off of my car, you have to drive extra caution (and slower) when the roads are crappy which is most of the time...the list goes on and on haha.

3. Do you put makeup/actual clothes on when you know you're going to be home all day with just family? If I'm not going anywhere (literally staying in the house day), I will not put on makeup and I'll just stay in sweat pants/t-shirt. If I'm going somewhere then yes I will put on makeup, but I usually stick with eyeliner, mascara and spot conceal. If I'm going somewhere with hubby (or it hubby is coming along) then I will put forth more effort lol.

4. How old were you when you had your first alcoholic beverage? 16 or 17...and I think it was a Mike's Hard Lemonade or something like that lol.

5. How many ill calls in a 12-month period do you think are acceptable? Unless it is something that will cause you to be out for awhile (emergency/major surgery, job injury that requires rehab/etc [we had a nurse who was out for 3 months because she fell and injured her knee!], FMLA...) I would say maybe 7 days at most.

D-day

Deployment has been up in the air since November. We basically knew that my husband was going to go, and he had orders to prove it, but we just didn't know when. We were supposed to find out last week but didn't, then hubs told me if they didn't ship him out by this week he wouldn't get to go at all because there really wouldn't be a point since this deployment is already much shorter than your average one.

Yesterday we found out he will be leaving very soon, and of course per OPSEC I'm not going to give out any exact dates or anything. He still doesn't have an exact date, but it's narrowed down and the shitty thing is, I have to work on all of those dates so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping someone can pick up for me or switch with me so I can work for them later in the week or something. If not, I'm hoping either my manager can pull some strings OR I can take a couple of days of FMLA since the date is so close. Only time will tell, but I need to know ASAP, dammit!

The Milspouse Quiz

The MilSpouse Quiz

1. How did you and your spouse meet? Through a mutual friend. This girl was in ROTC with hubby and one year we got a townhouse along with some other girls. My hubby (and his other ROTC buddies) just so happened to be our neighbors :)

2. How old were you when you two met? I was 19, going on 20. He was 19.

3. How long have you been together? 4 years.

4. Where are you and your spouse originally from? Ohio.

5. How did you feel about your spouse joining the military? I was so proud of him. I knew our relationship in college was serious, though, and all of the talks of deployment and things really scared the crap out of me.

6. Where did your spouse go to Basic Training? He didn't go to basic training...instead he went to BOLC, which stands for "basic officer's leadership course." Kind of like basic for officers, but very different from basic training.

7. Has your spouse ever been deployed? No, but he will be deploying very, very soon!

8. Ever been to his promotion ceremony? He hasn't been promoted yet. He should be making 1LT later this year. I went to his commissioning ceremony and his MPBOLC graduation ceremony, though :)

9. How long have you been a military wife? 8 months.

10. Did you marry him before or after he joined? After. The military has been a part of our entire relationship, even though in the beginning it was just ROTC stuff.

11. How did your husband propose? We first went for sushi at our favorite sushi joint in Fairlawn, OH, then we went for a walk along the towpath in his hometown because it was really nice outside that day. As we were walking for awhile and talking, he stopped, kissed me, and got on his knee :)

12. Where did you get married? Wadsworth, OH.

13. How old were you two when you got married? 23.

14. Did he wear his uniform on his wedding day? No he didn't. He wore a snazzy all-white tux, tho :)

15. Where are you and your spouse currently stationed? Fort Hood, Texas. So far I really like it.

16. Do you live on base? Nope. About 5 minutes from the main gate :)

17. How long were you married when you had to go through your first separation? For months lol

18. What is your favorite base so far? I have only been to Fort Leonard Wood (which I hated) and Fort Hood, so I'm going to go with Fort Hood.

19. Do you think your spouse looks good in his uniform? Oh absolutely ;)

20. Do you think military life is more advanced than civilian life? This question is dumb. So I'm ignoring it.

21. Do you like the benefits you receive as a military dependent? Indeed.

22. Do you have a lot of military wife friends? Not really. I wish I knew more spouses around here, but at the same time sometimes the spouses can be really nerve-wrecking, always all up in your business...oh, and those "rank-wearing wives." UGH!

23. What is the hardest part of the military life? Obviously the separation. Your SO going into dangerous territory. Military life definitely isn't for everyone.

24. Do you own military wife stuff? Of course :)

25. Do you support your spouse as a member of the military? 110%.

I can't believe it is 2012 already! It seems like 2011 flew by...

I'm anxious to see what 2012 will bring, even though my hubby will be gone for half of it. And speaking of that, D-day is quickly approaching but sadly, I don't know when! Hubby doesn't even know the exact date, but every time we talk about it the date becomes closer and closer.

I'm trying to maintain a sense of normalcy. Hubby said the hardest thing about this deployment will be me, because he knows I will miss him terribly and will be constantly worrying about him. How can I not, though? Especially with something he told me that happened recently. I guess that is something he cannot understand.

I made a vow to not complain to him about anything while he is deployed. Sure, I will miss him like crazy and wish he was here with me, but that's the extent of it. The last thing he needs to hear is how is how depressed his wife is, locking herself up in the apartment, lying around feeling sorry for herself. I'll probably do a lot of sitting and waiting because aside from work, it's not like I really have friends here and family is over a thousand miles away. If there is one thing I learned about military wife living, it's to never complain to your deployed spouse about anything. That will cloud his judgement, his thinking. He needs to focus on the mission at hand. So I guess I'll vent through blogging. And conversing with the other spouses at work. I swear like 90% of the nurses where I work are all military, whether prior service themselves or military dependents.

Hubs got his smallpox vaccination along with typhoid and anthrax and his TB test this past week. I have been freaking out over the smallpox lol...it's beginning to "look like" smallpox and the other night we saw a huge bubble underneath the dressing, which means it's probably starting to pus over. Can't wait to see it later today because I'm the one who redresses it...I don't trust him putting that bandage over it himself. This is a man who will touch raw meat without washing his hands and then touch other stuff, if you know what I mean (and then I freak out! I'm a germaphobe! But I work in a hospital, so that's okay!) At least I got disposable gloves I can wear hahaha.

The other night hubs and I saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's a mystery/thriller, basically about how this guy tries to solve a a mystery of a girl who disappeared 40 years ago and was thought to be murdered as well. The beginning was kind of slow but the movie had my attention the entire time. There was a pretty disturbing rape scene, too. If that stuff bothers you, I would reconsider seeing this movie. I could hear one girl sobbing behind me after that scene was over :(

When we walked out, we saw this little gem:

Last time I checked, I wasn't in Cleveland or Akron anymore haha.

Diamond/black diamond necklace from hubby :) for either our 1 year or my birthday we are going to put a diamond in the center of the black part on the bottom :)

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resolutions and a year in review: 2011

Last year I did a new year's meme reviewing 2010 with 3 top goals for 2011. Here were my top 3 goals:

1. pass my NCLEX on the first try! - check! I was so scared I wouldn't pass the first time around. I kept my test date a secret from everyone I know - even from my immediate family and my husband. Everyone kept trying to get my test date out of me, but I wouldn't budge. I remember my roommate asking me, "are you at least taking your NCLEX sometime in April?" and I replied with "yes" but in reality, I was taking it that very next morning! Must have been playing a good poker face there.

2. land an awesome RN job in either the ICU or ER. - I didn't get a job in the ICU, but I got a job in an ICU stepdown/telemetry unit, and honestly, I couldn't be happier. Maybe I will try the full-fledged ICU once I gain more experience. And I'm really glad I didn't start out in the ER. Again, maybe some other time. I may stay in progressive care for my entire nursing career, or maybe I will switch around. Only time will tell.

3. continue to perfect my cooking skills. - check! I'm no Martha Stewart but I think I can cook pretty well. I still have a lot to learn, though. The next test will be Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner!

So, I would say, 100% :D Which never happens. Kudos to me!

And now, 2011 in review:

2011 Accomplishment - passing my NCLEX and becoming an RN! That was a huge accomplishment, I think.

2011 Discovery - hmm, I honestly do not know about this one. Last year I mentioned taro bubble tea hahaha. This year? I'm drawing a blank.

Favorite 2011 vacation/holiday - The only "vacations" I took were the 3 trips I made to Fort Leonard Wood, MO to visit hubby during BOLC. We were going to make a last-minute trip to Vegas but decided not to go because it was too expensive. We decided on Vegas once our good friend (who was also the best man at our wedding) comes back from deployment. I was going to make a trip to Ohio with hubby but couldn't because of work commitments. And I think my favorite holiday this year was Thanksgiving. Even though we were away from our families, it was nice to spend our first Thanksgiving together. I made an awesome Thanksgiving spread. We were invited to hubs' 1SGT's house, which was fun - a lot of delicious food and us wives just sat around talking about random things, including our Pinterest addictions haha. There was no Bunco at this gathering, however. Apparently Bunco is very popular among military wives and I have yet to attend a Bunco gathering.

Best dining in 2011 - probably Landry's in San Antonio. They have other locations, too, but this place is right along The Riverwalk (which is gorgeous, btw!) and the seafood is so fresh. I took my in-laws there on Veteran's Day weekend and they really enjoyed it. Landry's has the best appetizers. If you ever have a chance to go, try their shrimp en brochette and their jalapeno poppers. You won't be disappointed.

2011 regret - honestly, I cannot think of a single regret I have regarding this year. That is amazing.

Magic moment in 2011 - our wedding :) I wish Pinterest existed at that time because I see SO MANY cute ideas regarding weddings, but I consider our love and marriage more beautiful than the wedding itself.

What states did you visit in 2011? - Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas.

2012 Goals:

1. Read more. - I feel like I didn't read much because I was too busy studying for my NCLEX, and then when I got a job I still found myself studying. I am currently studying for some certifications related to my field, but lately I have also found more time to actually read things I enjoy. I am currently reading Confessions of a Military Wife by Mollie Gross which is HILARIOUS, btw. If you haven't read that book yet, you really need to. I also started reading The Hunger Games, the first of three books. Although aimed at younger adults, this book is so captivating. I cannot wait to read the other two books in the series. I also have a long list of books that I am just dying to read!

2. Learn something new. - as a nurse, I learn something new every day. This "learn something new" goal applies to something not related to my job - it could even be picking up a new hobby or "craft." Things that would be interesting: scrapbooking, knitting/crocheting, or amateur photography (I really need to invest in a GOOD camera, though, and not just a point-and-shoot one).

3. Volunteer. - I would love to volunteer on post. And by doing so, maybe I can finally meet other Army wives that I can connect with, but of course that wouldn't be the sole purpose. I love helping others and doing good for others (after all, "Do Good" was my sorority's motto!)

4. Work out more. - This has been a constant resolution of mine and a constant battle of success and failure. I was on a yoga kick for awhile, then I stopped. Then I started again, attending the free classes on post, but then I stopped because of work...I end up working the days they have yoga classes. I really like yoga, but I really enjoy bike riding, too. BLORA (stands for Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area) has a fierce mountain biking trail that I would probably never attempt, but maybe I can find some more "relaxed" trails around here to bike on. When the weather gets warmer, of course.

5. Go on a missions trip. - Every year, my hospital plans a missions trip to some area of the world. In the past, they have gone to Haiti, Costa Rica and Honduras, among other places. This year they went to Guyana, South America. I really wanted to go on this year's trip, but couldn't because of finances. I would love to go this upcoming year if finances allow and also depending on hubby's military duties.

6. Become more spiritually connected through God. - Growing up, I didn't go to church or anything. The only time I go to church is on Christmas Eve or Easter or something. To be honest, religion just seems awkward to me. Maybe that is because I don't really know about it. I'm not very familiar with The Bible or anything. I believe in God, but that is pretty much it. I really want to see myself grow spiritually.

7. Learn a new language. - I know random words and phrases in different languages, mainly Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean & Polish. I took Spanish in high school but all of that went down the drain and now that I live in Texas, I regret not knowing it. I would love to learn any language, really. My husband keeps asking me about going to Germany or South Korea, which I wouldn't mind either and that would give me a good "excuse" to learn either German or more Korean :)

What are your resolutions for 2012?