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  • What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

    Whenever I get to talking about school with anyone, one of the first questions they ask me is, “What kind of nurse do you want to be?” So I just want to go on record here and say that as of right now, the answer is “I don’t know.” But I can tell you that I have had some experiences lately that have me leaning in a way I never thought I would.

    Last week I had a patient who was 84 years old, hospitalized for a severe urinary tract infection that got into her blood. She was very confused and helpless. She could hardly do anything for herself. She was wearing diapers because she could no longer control her urination or bowel movements. She also had two pressure ulcers (bedsores) on her middle and lower back. That day, during her bed bath, the nurse’s assistant called me and my preceptor in to evaluate her sores because while they were cleaning her she had begun to have a soft bowel movement and it had soiled the dressing. When we entered the room there she was, lying on the bed, naked, scared, confused, and embarrassed. She wasn’t much of a talker, but she kept looking at her daughter (who was there with her) and at us with a pleading look in her eyes, saying things like, “What am I gonna do? Are they going to kill me?” My heart broke for her, and I can tell you that it was one of the most satisfying experiences I have had yet just to clean her up and get her settled comfortably in her bed.

    That day my preceptor, Kay, told me a similar story. She had an elderly patient who had had an aneurysm in her brain which had been operated on. Unfortunately, she had progressed to the point where she was no longer responding to anyone around her – not quite in a coma, but almost. During the operation they had shaved half of her head and a portion on the other side, so that she had a tuft of long hair coming out that was matted and crusted. Evidently no one had washed it for awhile, because the short hair had already grown out some. Kay decided that she was going to wash it and brush it. Then while she was doing this, she got the idea to cut it. She cut it into that kind of cute and spiky look that you see some grandmas wearing. During the whole process she sang Christian songs to her, and she noticed that when she sang, her patient’s eyes focused directly on her, a sign of awareness that hadn’t been shown since the operation.

    Experiences and stories like this are what is making me think that I may want to be a geriatrics or hospice nurse. We all grow old, and we all die, and it usually isn’t pretty. It happens all the time, but it’s a new experience for every person when they go through it. This is a time of great need for those people, and they are frequently overlooked.

    Nursing school is hard, and it has really been stressing me out lately. This is my spring break, but I have more schoolwork to do than I can handle, almost. But I am not doubting my chosen profession for a minute. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you’ve found what you want to do with your life, and you are doing it.

  • Music Anyone?

    I got my Nickel Creek ticket in the mail today (which is not the point of this entry, although I am very excited about that) and along with it there was an advertisement for emusic.com saying that if I only sign up for a subscription I will get a 14-day free trial and 50 free downloads! Well, turns out that there’s only 25 free downloads, but I did it anyway. Reason being, I have realized that I am so out of it regarding new music lately, and I don’t want to be. So far I’ve only used up one of my free songs. Please give me suggestions! I have no idea what to pick! Leave me a comment with a specific song or two that you suggest, and perhaps a little description of what it is like. I will be ever so grateful!

  • The Consequences of Being a Nursing Student

    I just wanted to keep you all up-to-date on my ongoing toenail saga that began way back in November. For those that are just tuning in, the week of Thanksgiving I was playing in an outdoor soccer game and my right toe encountered some kind of trauma that caused blood to pool up and dry underneath half of the toenail. This was painful for a day, but then it was just unsightly. It promised to be unsightly for another 6-8 months as well, until the toenail grew out.

    Then I was so proud of myself when I got a nice pedicure that successfully covered up nearly all traces of the blot. You can’t even tell! Well, anyway, things were going great like this until last night when I began, alas, another outdoor soccer season. It’s not the soccer itself that does a number on my toes, because I’ve been playing indoor these past few months with no problems. It’s those dang cleats that seem to get me.

    I noticed last night during the game that my toe was beginning to hurt again, and by the end of the game it was nearly throbbing. Sure enough, when I took off my shoe there was blood on my sock. When I took off my sock I found that the nail had cracked near the bottom of the nailbed and blood was oozing out from underneath.

    It’s tough to see here, but the crack is along the bottom. I am confident that someday soon the entire nail will fall off, and when that day comes I will be sure to share with you all of the lovely details. Until then, I am constantly popping ibuprofen to keep away the throbbing pain that such a tiny imperfection gives me. I am also trying to keep myself from developing a phobia of all the ways I could die from this, including infection, septic shock, and gangrene, not to mention amputation. It’s unfortunate that along with learning about how my body works I learn how it can go wrong in a million different ways, because of course every sign and symptom that I discover in myself is now a death sentence.

  • Not Your Typical Academy Awards Post

    My fellow Americans,

    I would like to take this opportunity to announce some of my thoughts on the Academy Awards. These thoughts are not necessarily related specifically to the awards except for the fact that they are thoughts that I had while watching said awards. Please indulge me.

    1. Although I was vehemently opposed to Dreamgirls or any of its participating members winning anything simply because I thought that the movie was painfully overrated (and by that I mean that the movie was PAINFUL and OVERRATED), I must say that Jennifer Hudson was pretty adorable last night, and now I can’t help but like her.

    2. I noticed something quite disconcerting.

    Exhibit A: Greg Kinnear, actor in Little Miss Sunshine:

     

    Exhibit B: Ted Bundy, serial killer from the 1970’s:

     

    The resemblance is a little too close for comfort.

    3. My roommate Carmen really entertains me. She has been out of town for a couple of days, but last night we reunited and sat down to watch the last couple of hours of the Oscars together. The following are some of the things that she said that made me laugh, shake my head in disbelief, and/or wish to prolong the day that she moves to Austin for as long as possible.

    –We were watching Jerry Seinfeld do his presentation of best documentary, and he made a joke about how in movie theaters they run advertisements asking you to pick up after yourself. What he said was something like, “Why don’t I just put on an orange jumpsuit and get out my wooden stick with a needle on the end?” Carmen laughs out loud, but with her next breath she abruptly states, “I don’t like that joke, though.”

    –At some random point during the evening, as I am staring intently at the TV screen, Carmen offhandedly says, “I’ve never stuck gum up my nose before.” I disinterestedly glance over at her and there she is with a big wad of it sticking out of her right nostril. As she later stated, if there was a montage made of our relationship, that moment would be in it.

    –During the segment near the end of the Oscars where they run the tribute to those who have died in the past year, Carmen gives me this speech: “So as I was driving home today I was thinking about my funeral. I was thinking about how David D. [a man from our church who recently died] wanted everyone to eat a BBQ meal after his funeral, and I thought it would be cool to do something like that. So I thought that everyone should go play laser tag, and then I realized that it would make sense because everyone would already be wearing black.”

    4. I am glad that The Departed won Best Picture simply for the fact that it is the only one of the nominees that I have seen. This makes my quest to view all of the movies that have won Best Picture easier.

    To recap: Dreamgirls was bad, but Jennifer Hudson is OK; Greg Kinnear scares me; my roommate is weird but I love her; and I am lazy.

  • Here We Go

    So, I’ve been blogging on Xanga for about three and a half years now, and I admit that I like doing it. A couple of months ago I started considering leaving Xanga to start a “real” blog. Then a week or two ago I was bored in class so I bought a domain name. It was so cheap! Only $1.24! Then I realized that I have to find someone to actually host the website for me. So I looked into it and discovered that it would cost me $6.95 a month if I signed up for two years. OK, I can handle that. Done! Then later I checked my bank statement and found that they had charged me the entire two years’ worth at once. SOOO now that I’ve got this website all paid up, I figure I’d better start using it. Although it’s tough to let Xanga go, I’m moving on to bigger and better things. Woohoo!