Do you see what I see?

Why yes, that IS snow in South Central Texas!

Time to Breathe

The past couple weeks have been crazy busy with school for me, parties for Makenzie (lucky her!) and life in general. I had a test this week on Tuesday and another today so tonight is my first chance to just chill and breathe again. In fact, I have at least 1 exam per week for the rest of this semester--yuck! I have made A's on all of my exams so far except Pharm which was a high B so I am doing well and it just feels so right to be here in this program.

Sometimes I get a little worked up thinking about all of the loans we're having to take out because we just finished paying off our student loans from our first undergrads within the last few years. Then I remember all the days and nights I spent wishing I had followed my dreams and I remember that there is no other profession that feels so right for me.

I am so thankful for such a supportive husband too. He really encouraged me to follow my dream and reminds me that we'll be okay in the end and that he's not at all worried about all the stuff that comes along with me going back to school. I have a couple married classmates whose husbands are really making it hard on them and I am quick to mention how great mine is! He's been very helpful with Makenzie and is really working hard to take care of some of my duties at home so I have time to study in peace.

Not much to report I guess, but we start clinicals next week so I'm sure I'll have some good stuff for you soon! Until then...

The Week in Review

I don't officially have my grade back from my first exam, but based on my calculations, I should have either a 99 or a 101 on it.

Makenzie has decided that she will be a doctor when she grows up and I will need to give her my stethoscope to use.

Makenzie had a freaky little bump on her inner lip for the past 3 weeks so I took her to the doctor to check it out. He said it's a mucocele likely from her sucking on her lip. The other day she asked me "Mommy, what did the doctor say that bump was on my lip? A camel?"

Last night I had in excess of 200 pages to read for today's 2 classes.....yea, didn't quite get that accomplished.

I spent 7 hours in lecture today and the only thing that I remember unequivocally was my Pathophysiology instructor telling us that women do officially, physiologically have a higher pain tolerance than men due to the difference in the number of pain receptors we possess. I KNEW I was tougher than Tim, I just KNEW it! HA!

If you need me, here's what I can do so far....

~do a basic assessment and general survey
~ambulate you, transfer you to/from a stretcher and put you in a wheelchair
~take your blood pressure and check your other vital signs
~change your sterile dressings on your wounds and irrigate them too
~remove your sutures and staples
~put in a Foley catheter if you need to pee
~drop in an NG tube if your tummy is in need of being drained
~administer your tube feedings
~give you an enema

The Week in Bullets

*What made me most nervous on Monday morning? Figuring out how to signal the bus driver that I needed to get off at the next stop...luckily someone else pulled the cord first and I stopped hyperventilating. What happened to the old school shuttle buses?

*There are people born in 1988 in my class....and they'll be your nurse in 15 months.

*I got to see an open chest in the ICU on day 3.

*I wrote my first paper since the year 2000 and turned it in via email yesterday.

*It seems walking miles across campus is much harder and more tiring when you're 10 years older and 75 pounds heavier than the last time you did it.

*The best way to spoil the joy of a Friday morning is to walk into Starbucks and be asked by the barista how old you are because your face looks young but your hair is gray.

A New Chapter

Tomorrow is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for me. After working in proposals for about 4 years, I am moving on. Tomorrow will be my last day at my current job of 2.5 years and Monday I will begin my 15 month journey to another Bachelor's degree. This time in nursing. I am super duper excited about the nursing program, sad to be leaving the job and coworkers that are family by now, and scared about becoming a poor student on financial aid. Even during my first undergraduate degree program 10 years ago (YIKES), I always worked between 20-38 hours a week so this will be quite an adjustment for me.

At our orientation, the dean told us that there will be some very rough days when we don't want to continue in the program. She said before we start, we should take a piece of paper and write our name out with the initials, RN behind it. We should tape it to our mirror so that on those mornings, we can remember what we're aiming for....maybe I'll just write mine in lipstick on the mirror.

Makenzie funny

Makenzie likes to help w/ chores around the house now awadays. This evening, she got the clothes out of the dryer and put them into the basket to carry into the living room so I could fold them. She was struggling under the weight of the basket, so I asked her if it was too heavy. She shook her head no and kept on trucking until she got just out of my earshot (she thought). I heard her say "Daddy, can we do some teamwork? This is really heavy."