Blessings

I've had a lot to think about lately, in a good way. Wednesday this week I was orientating with a secretary on 6 West Surgical (the floor I am working on) and I was quite discouraged after the day was over. As I was thinking later I wondered why I was so discouraged. I figured out it was because I had no patient contact that day as I was just sitting at the desk putting in orders and answering phones, etc. It was not my idea of a good job. Thursday and today (Friday) were much better days for me. Thursday was a 12 hour day at the hospital and was also my first official day as an RN. My nurse that is my mentor/preceptor is AMAZING. I feel so blessed that I get to learn from her. She is always looking for new things for me to do and learn from. Today I took out an NG tube, a foley and a JP drain! Also, Thursday I started an IV on a difficult patient on the first time. My nurse was quite impressed with me, and it felt good to accomplish that. On Thursday my nurse was just going to kind of have me follow her around and see how things worked, etc. Early in the morning though I think she realized I was fairly competent and she let me do a patient assessment and do everything for that specific patient. Otherwise, I just kind of did random things that day and was not very organized. However, at 3:00 when the other shift left, we picked up 2 more patients. I took over one of those and was able to use my "relationship development" step of the nursing process to form a great relationship with one of those patients. :) It made me remember exactly why I became a nurse. I also learned more of the paperwork and charting that day which was good.

Friday, (today) was an 8 hour shift, and definitely felt much shorter! I took one patient all on my own and it was a good feeling to see my name next to Nurse: on the marker board in the patient's room all on its own! I even ventured to call 2 doctors to get orders for my patients. That was the first time I had done that, and it was nerve racking! I had everything written down that I wanted to say and the chart open by me. When I hung up I realized it was not as bad as I was expecting. Good thing I had 2 good doctors to practice on first. And neither one of them had accents that were difficult to understand!! I again feel blessed and feel as if God is watching out for me and protecting me as I serve Him in taking care of patients.

Another kind of funny story. As I was asking a patient for his full name and birthdate before I gave him medications, he gave me a strange number. I asked him, "that was not your birthdate, what was that?" He replied, "my phone number in case you want to call me later". I literally laughed out loud. He was an 86 year old man. I feel blessed to be able to share laughter with my patients.

Today was also another first. At the hospital, we tape our end of shift reports for the next shift to listen too. I taped my own report on my own for my 1 patient. It felt good to accomplish that! I realized my voice sounds funny on tape though. I know this is a really long post, but I just have one more story. As I was reflecting back on the difference between Wednesday and today I remembered the relationship between the tech's (CNA's) and the nurses. I heard several of the techs complaining or venting about being really busy and the nurses not helping them out. So today, I saw the opportunity to make up a bed for a patient and gave my own patient her shower (which the tech's usually do) and made up her bed with clean sheets. It was amazing the appreciation that I received from the techs. Even just those little things helped them out just a little bit and made their day just a little easier. I feel blessed to share what God has given me.

The last few days have been ones of blessings. I feel blessed that God has placed us where He has and that we have a wonderful place to call home and that God is providing for our every need. Life is good.

Little of this, little of that

Ho hum, it sure has been a while since I last wrote anything. A few things have happened. I finished my last week of classroom orientation at the hospital, got my first paycheck as a nurse, worked on the bathroom, and found a very dead mouse in the basement. Like so dead it looked crispy. Yuck. News on the bathroom: we got a new tub and walls, and they are in and sealed. Everything is clean and white. The only thing that needs to happen is some trimming/edging put up around the tub/shower.

Our new furniture arrived on Saturday as well as Brett's mom and dad. I LOVE our new high top table. I'll have to take some pictures and post those here. Our couch, loveseat, oversized chair and ottoman came as well. I believe the color is beach bronze, or something like that. basically a cream color. It looks good with the dark floor and dark molding in the living room. And, a cute accent rug to match :) It is starting to feel more like home now.

While Brett's parents were here this past weekend we rode bikes, went out to eat, the guys played golf, went for walks, explored uptown Normal and did some fixing of things around the house. It was fun to have some company.

Today Brett and I went to uptown Normal for the Farmer's Market. It was quite smaller than I was expecting, but I did find some peaches to try! They aren't quite ripe so i think I'll wait until tomorrow. However, I learned my lesson from last time I bought peaches - I will not put them in the fridge. Some lady was handing out coupons for free iced tea drinks at a store called The Garlic Press. I hadn't ever been in there, so Brett and I both went and got an Iced Tea. I added a good amount of sugar to mine, and it was delicious. I officially love that store too. There is a restaurant part of it, where you can get like sandwiches and soup and drinks, etc, and then a store part. The store part has kitchen stuff and cards and gifts, and much more. Lots of expensive things too! We walked out of there without buying anything, although I wanted to.

Then we went down the street and went to this bakery. They had the CUTEST little fruit pastry/pie things. They were in these little 1 inch pie tins. It was a crust with some filling and fruit. Kind of like fruit pizza, but fruit pie. We each got one, and I think I'll be back there for more sometime. YUM! Wish I would have had my camera with, because they were so cute!

Tomorrow I work orientating with a secretary so I can learn all the computer stuff, and then Thursday and Friday I am on the floor as a nurse! I am excited but yet quite nervous all at the same time. I am actually responsible for the lives of people now. Craziness. This is now the longest blog I have written, and it doesn't even have pictures - how boring. So I'll add one of Sarah's dog we have been watching. His name is Max and we have fun with him. Oh! That reminds me! We were looking at animals on the Humane Society's website. They have this cat that you can adopt who is 22 pounds. His name was Marshmellow. hah. We laughed at his picture. I want a dog, Brett wants a cat. We will see! Until next time!

It must be Monday

You know it might be Monday if I had to wake up at 5:00 this morning so I could be punched in at work by 6:45. I ended up being 15 minutes early. That is 15 more minutes I could have been sleeping. Next time, I'm sleeping till 5:15. Today I spent 8 hours watching patient's heart rhythms and interpreting them. I am glad I am a nurse and not a monitor technician.....

It also must be a Monday if both Brett and I got injured with the bathroom renovations. Brett was working on something while I was at the hospital and he jammed a screwdriver into his hand. Later, when I got home from work, I was in the bathroom talking to him about stuff and I bumped the hammer sitting on the sink and it fell and gashed the back of my heel. I cried, it bleed. Speaking of bathroom renovations, I am going to try to add a picture of what we have been working on. And when I say we, I mean Brett. Because you know, I'm a working woman now!

This picture is from the beginning of the renovations. I'll post more later! Time to go file papers in the office!

Lazy Saturday

Last night I had this big list of things to do today - and so far, I have not accomplished much! Taking care of a big house is time consuming. I have 4 plants and am struggling to keep them alive. Before we moved, my mom rescued one of my plants from its death bed. Apparently I wasn't watering it enough. It had gotten so dry that when I did water it, the water just ran right out the bottom. Good thing we don't have kids yet, since I can barely manage to take care of my plants!

I think I pride myself on being organized - Brett might even call me obsessed with organization. However, if you would currently look at my house, it is far from organized. But yet I do nothing about it - except just stare at the piles of things that need to be put away and will them to grow legs and put themselves away. Things I have accomplished today: taking a bike ride with Brett, taking a nap, watching tv, and finally putting away the rest of our clothes from the move. In the process of doing that, I filled a laundry basket of clothes that need to be taken to the laundry room and washed. Instead of just bringing the basket downstairs and putting them in the washer (which would take probably 2 minutes) I just sit and think about it and rationalize to myself why it would be better if I washed the clothes tomorrow. Oy.

Now, on to being productive! Or, maybe just making lists of being productive....

I am new to this whole blogging thing and am not sure that I am entirely going to follow through on documenting our lives and the new adventures we are going through. Since I spend a significant amount of time reading other people's blogs I have decided to create one of my own - you know, if people don't already follow me on facebook! :) Who knows, this may be just something that I write for myself and others will not even read.

This blog will hopefully document our lives in Normal, Illinois as homeowners, a nurse, and a graduate student!