seriously.

has it been that much over a year since i have posted one single thing to this blog? guess i have just been that busy. sigh.

short update

Just wanted to add in real quick that my nights preceptor is completely and totally different. Makes for a much better learning experience. Now I know I haven't posted much lately, just haven't been terribly inspired. Am working on it though.

looooooong week

This week has been mentally and physically tough, thus is why I really haven't had the energy to post much at all.

Tomorrow is my last day to arise before the crack of dawn. Wednesday I start nights full time. Really I am excited. I am so not a morning person by any sort, and I think this is what has been my major problem the past few weeks, eh months. I suck at getting up early. I sleep through the alarm, 2 alarms! I can't sleep at night, at least not often, and hardly ever before midnight to 1 am, even if I am up with the roosters. I guess some people are just meant to work nights, even though it does make you crazy lol. Well, am already crazy, so no biggie there. :) Not to mention, I have no problem whatsoever sleeping in the daytime.


On a different note... what is it that makes the teenager's smile? hehe





Happy Birthday to my now 15 y/o child who says money makes him happy. Boy, doesn't he have a lot to learn? Am sure his bday $$ is already burning a hole in his pocket.


I am quite certain that he has already mentally spent that money.... and probably on something like this:




He is obsessed with shoes. Obsessed. I guess better with shoes, than with something worse!

annoying

i just wanted to say how annoying it is to have the neighbor hammering in his garage at 11 pm.
That is all.

WHY?

obviously, a lot of questions begin with this simple statement. but what I really want to know is this: why must commenters leave a full account of their experiences on a blog in lieu of commenting on the post or to other comments that have been posted? the most common of these seems to happen when someone posts something about pain/pain medications, so instead of reading comments pertaining to the post itself, I am reading comments detailing full experiences in the er/surgery/hospital stay/personal experiences with certain medications. Not that I mind, I just want to know why people do this?

rumor has it...

a head honcho's relative was hospitalized and said head honcho asks assigned nurse about this patient to which the nurse replied, "i cannot tell you anything, it would be a hipaa violation." rumor has it, head honcho was not so pleased.

personally, i am happy that i was not the assigned nurse or even work on this unit. phew. not that the nurse did not give out the correct answer, of course this person said exactly what should have been said, but on the other hand, to piss off upper management is not the best thing to do, is it? surely, some mild, nonspecific information can be given to appease the query by the concerned family member? i dunno. hipaa is so grey, and yet, so black and white.
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there was a code the other night in which the ethics committee was called in. young male, 40s, with advanced liver failure from years of etoh abuse was dead upon arrival, but just not technically. rumor has it that he wanted to be a dnr, but the spouse was not having it. spouse loses her mind, starts hitting walls and acting out when things start looking bad, refusing to grant patient wishes for dnr status, demanding everything be done for him and then accuse the hospital of killing him? ethics committee arrives as coding commences. i suppose that a sat was unobtainable via the standard probe, so a nurse went out to get the portable pulse oximeter, and stated "could you hand me the pulse ox out of the drawer." note, this is in the middle of a full code, the whole nine yards. ethics committee member states " she didn't have to be so rude; she could have said please." (now seriously, can you imagine running a code in this manner: start cpr, please. thank you! could you please push the epi? thanks so much! ok, now let's please check for a pulse, if you find one, raise your hand! great guys! thank you thank you!) *rolls eyes* obviously, this member of the ethics committee has zero clinical experience. oh and by the way, for the spouse whom i have never met, i believe it was probably the years of etoh that killed your man. it's a tough reality to accept, and i for one, understand that even though people have stated you lost your mind, i am sure you were just in the denial/anger phase of grief. hopefully you have the intelligence to see the dangers of drinking in excess and yes, it really does kill you, eventually.
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not really a rumor, but in the news. i have read a lot of differing public opinions on a certain female celebrity, young mother of 2, we all know who she is. so many people believe she is being a spoiled brat, and have said some truly vile things about her and her actions. obviously, this young celeb is suffering terribly, the difference is that there are cameras on her every minute of every day, and we the public are seeing first hand an evolving mental illness, in my opinion. the reactions that i have read are the reason why mental illness has such a stigma around it. people truly cannot seem to understand that rational people do not act this way. rational people are in control of their lives. whether her problems are chemical or physiological in nature, it does not matter. we will be reading her obituary and grief stricken fans will be holding candlelight vigils if something is not done soon. the real losers in this situation are the children. they will forever have to hear about "how their mommy lost her mind." real people suffer this truth every single day. not just celebrities. i think the public needs more exposure to mental illness, to see how it really is. and not the movie made up stuff. real psychotic breaks. maybe then all of this wouldn't be so funny. because it is not funny anymore. they have a tv show intervention for drug users, how about a tv show that is an intervention for our psych patients? they can call it committed or whatever.

CPR

This is why everyone needs to have a basic knowledge of CPR. I realize this is old news to many, but it does not matter that this story is old. What matters is that the people who were with this woman did not perform or did not know how to perform basic life saving skills. Ultimately, would it have saved her life? That is unknown, but it may have remarkably increased her chances of survival.

Happy Holidays!

Hope that the holidays find everyone safe, enjoying the time spent with your families. I also hope that you don't have to go to the stores tomorrow to return any gifts, surely the lines will be horribly long with loads of impatient post-Christmas shoppers, not to mention those returning gifts as well.

Lucky for me, I got CasH $$ so no need to return here :)
Have a wonderful holiday!

10 things I can't live without

No particular order here...
1. DVR/Tivo
2. My car/My job/My paycheck (ok that is 3 things but they are all related)
3. Diet Mountain Dew
4. Coffee with Hazelnut or French Vanilla creamer
5. Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie
6. XM
7. Netflix
8. Laptop/Internet
9. Cell phone
10. My kids... of course.

TV

What am I going to do this January when I have no new shows to watch? Other than American Idol. I loooove American Idol, but no 24???? No Lost????? and so on??? Do they not know that the only tv show my step-father watches religiously is 24? Do they not know how miserable that is making my mother, having to listen to him gripe about nothing to watch this winter since 24 is suspended indefinitely? All of this over royalties for web content, if I understand what I am reading.

I urge the studios to give these people what they want. Without them, you have nothing, as you will soon see. People love to watch tv. Love it. Especially in the winter. There is nothing else to do! But on a high point, I am taking 2 classes for the spring semester, and this will allow me to concentrate on my classes instead of being disrupted by tv. Shoot, maybe even families will start spending more time together. Maybe even people will get up off of the couch and start exercising???? (I doubt it.. luckily, cable provides mucho entertainment, even if they are reruns).

Anyhow.. I will probably have a boring winter with nothing to look forward to on the tv. Boring. I guess I can up my netflix and watch a load of movies. What other option will I have? Other than American Idol and all of its cheesiness.

Sick :(

Left work early last night (our census was down) but have yet to hit the sack. Believe me, I tried to sleep in the bed, tried to sleep in the chair in front of the tv, but alas, no sleep. You see, I got the sniffles. Hell of a cold coming on and I am miserable. Thankfully, I am not on the schedule for tomorrow... well today, now. Go to wally world at 3 am to get some medicine. Waiting for it to work. Had to wait to take it because I took some medicine that I had here at home, that didn't work, and had to wait for the time to be up to take something else. So here I sit, bored, tired, miserable, mouth breathing, lips chapped, just in a plain sorry state. All I want to do is lay down but as soon as I do, congestion city. I hate a snotty nose more than anything in the world almost. But might as well stay up now and get the kiddos up for school. Then sleep it off hopefully during the day. If I feel this horrible tomorrow night, guess I will have to use some of my sick time for Tues. No way would I want a nurse coming into my room as bad as I am sure that I look at this moment. No way. Sigh.

Much Ado about Nothing at all.

Well my 2 whole days off have flown by and again, I didn't get too much done around the house. I had to go out to my mother's house and fix their computer. I tried to charge them $50 for technical support, but all I got was a breakfast that you can't even get at the Waldorf (inside joke in the family lol).

My oldest son is very.. lucky.. to be alive. Got the cell phone bill and voila... he sent 775 text messages last month. I hadn't put him on the unlimited plan yet but you bet your ass that next month he will be on it. So he is grounded from his cell phone until then. I would so much rather pay the extra $10 a month than $100. Geez.

My last few days of work have been fairly uneventful. Nothing much to even write about at all really lately. I guess I need to get a real life. 'nuff said.

Just rambling....

yesterday was a hellacious day at work. good things that come from it? i finished my iv therapy class - required by my employer before i can even look at someone's veins; finished my first admission mostly by myself with a few cues from my preceptor... which i thought was a pretty good accomplishment really, considering this little elderly person TALKED my ear off LOL :) she sure didn't want to be in the hospital at all.. but she was the one who called the rescue squad? go figure on that one.

now something ironic... i just said that i finished my iv class.. now my preceptor does not start IV's, so i am wondering who will sign me off? ha. ask how a nurse on a unit doesn't start an iv.. because i do not know that answer. i guess there are just more people willing to start them for her so that she doesn't have to.

when i first accepted this position... it was because it was all that was open at the hospital at the time. i am on days for orientation right now, but will move to nights soon. it will be a bittersweet move because i enjoy the pace of day shift, but man, i really, really hate getting up early in the mornings. i set my alarm for this morning so i didn't not want to go to bed tonight... of course the puppy woke me up much earlier to let me know it was time for him to potty whether or not i was ready to crawl out of the bed. anyhow... i find myself not hating the job like i thought i would. but then again, i think it is the pace of days that has kept my interest. i am not sure what will happen when i go to nights and it is much slower. guess i will see when the time comes.

today i have to go get a thank you card for my coworkers who got me some flowers, gave me some chocolates and a little bit of spending cash for passing boards. it was so nice of them! i didn't expect anything at all from them.

sorry for all of the misc ramblings.. i think i just need more coffee!

Finally!

The waiting has been.... painful, to say the least. Never did I imagine that I would have to wait 3 weeks for my eligibility letter from the board of nursing and my ATT. But they have arrived, and I have scheduled my test. phew.. makes me nervous just thinking about it! I am taking a review class offered by my place of employment.. well really they are paying for me to attend and it happens to be located at the facility. This will happen the week before I take the test. I really must crack down and study some more now! Playtime is oooovvveerr for me until then.

In the meantime... I decided to adopt this beautiful little baby :) Isn't he adorable? His name is TJ and he is a puppy through and through. He is a Papillon and I love him already, although my patience has been tried a time or two lol. He is full of energy and loves to chew! of course :)

Anyhow, not much else has been happening around here. Have to try on the uniforms that I ordered to make sure that they fit, do some laundry, cut the grass and finally.. go sign my papers at work. But first, I plan to spend the rest of the evening relaxing after being gone all weekend.

Does it change you forever?

I heard a line from a tv show preview... stating that once you see someone die, it changes you forever. The first person that I ever saw really die was my grandmother. I am not sure to this day that I ever really got over that, to tell the truth. I still miss her terribly. Now, I have seen people die in the hospital many times, but it has never really affected me as much as my grandmother's death. Of course, I knew and loved my grandmother, so I am sure that would be the difference there.

But, I think that being with someone when they pass, especially if they do not have any family there with them, is important. I wouldn't want to die alone, and I don't think that anyone should have to. I'd like to think that there is an unmeasurable amount of comfort for that person, knowing that they aren't alone; that is okay to let go.

Just had to ponder that for a moment... now I have to go study.

finally a format...

i can't believe that i have not formatted this computer since early 2005. what a shame, really. i never usually wait that long. ever. but boy oh boy is my computer running smmmmooooooth!! it just feels good to have it feel like new again. too much stuff accumulates after so much time, you just have to format to get it good and clean again. now, the microsoft updates must be for dummies because it took me forever and a million years to update everything. and had to validate windows 100 times over to make sure it was genuine.... isn't once enough???

well not much else to report other than xmas coming soon, we all know this! that's all!