Pediatric RN... It's Inevitable

I've been on the Med/ Surge floor for 2 weeks now, and I've got 2 weeks to go until LPN year graduation. Last week, I worked with a 54 year old male, pretty much because he was the youngest patient on the floor. I'm not a huge fan of working with the elderly. They can be really sweet... or incredibly needy, and I just don't like signing myself up to deal with needy.

When picking my patients for Med/ Surge clinical rotations, I have a tendency of looking at the age first, then the reason for their hospital stay. You can imagine my excitement as I flipped through the patients to find a cute little 6 sitting in the age box. My name went next to that patient before I even bothered looking at the diagnosis.

I love working with kids! Yeah, they have mood swings, and yeah, they can be difficult to work with. Come on though, working with kids is so rewarding.. Stuff like getting my patient to swallow his medicine, and then spending 10 minutes talking about our siblings together to distract from the awful taste (It smelled horrendous, I can only imagine how it tasted) or walking in at 6:45 AM to take vitals and having the cutest little conversation with a half awake little boy ("My arm hurts" "Is there anything I can get to make it feel better?" "No, my bed will make it better") is just so much fun for me. Watching him start out his day saying his arms hurt too much to move, to raising them a few inches off the bed a few hours later, then full fledged punching my hands during my assessment at 11:15 made me feel like I was doing the right stuff to help him feel better.

Adults rarely show progression in such a small amount of time, but it's typical for kids. I love being able to see the change from hour to hour. I love letting kids listen to their own hearts and stomachs, watching their faces light up with wonder reminds me of the same fascinations I had the first time I heard my own heart. I like figuring out ways to calm them down, to reassure them that i'm not there to hurt them, and getting that smile out of them is the cherry on top.

I'm good with kids, I knew this already. So maybe pediatrics is really where I"m meant to be.
~Courtney

Operating Room Clinicals

Dear readers,

I am almost 100% sure I have found my calling in life. (a very large emphasis on almost) That calling, you may ask? It's the operating room. Oh baby, is it the operating room! Which comes as a slight surprise to me, because I was almost 100% sure I was going to pass out, or get sick to my stomach, or actually vomit during this clinical rotation. None of that happened! 

In fact, I was moving all around the room, both days, to get better looks! On Wednesday I got to see a wide variety of surgeries. I saw 3 ear tube placements, which wasn't new to me, but I got to hang out with the nurse anesthetist (CRNA) while he kept the little kids under, and ask him questions about his schooling, and the medications he used. Then I saw 2 nerve block procedures, which were less thrilling, but involved a machine that looked a lot like an MRI, which was cool to watch. Last I watched a colonoscopy with multiple biopsies. That was the first day, which was cool, but not screaming to me "This is where you're meant to be!"  Though the nice cozy blue scrubs were definitely a big plus.

Day two: a whole different experience. Oh man, I got to see a hysterectomy, and an attempt at laser prostate resection. Both were cool, but the hysterectomy wins for most awesome thing I've ever seen. WARNING: this blog post is gonna get graphic, if you are squeamish, stop reading. 

The hysterectomy was done vaginally, so this poor female's legs were suspended way up in the air. She was covered up, so the only thing showing was the vaginal area. The doctor was so wonderful to let me see what was happening, and he told me what he was doing the entire surgery. It was fun to listen to him chat with his nurses, and it was so impressive to see the camaraderie between them. It made me look forward to the time when I will have work friends to chat with, too. He showed me the Fallopian tubes and ovaries while he was doing the surgery, and after the uterus was removed, he sewed shut the opening. Then he told me to put some gloves on, which was unexpected and weird, so I do, and he proceeds to turn around and HAND ME THE UTERUS. Which was awesome, by the way, freaking awesome. Then he hands me scissors and tells me to cut the uterus open. 

I've done dissections in anatomy lab, and in high school, but to have a fresh human organ in my hands... it was incredible. Seriously ya'll, I'm meant to be in the medical field. So I cut it open, felt the tissues and whatnot, then sent it off to patho for testing.

The next surgery was a laser prostate resection on an elderly guy who's prostate was so enlarged that he had to use an indwelling catheter to urinate. The plan was to thread a laser tipped catheter up into the prostate area, then turn the laser on and pretty much disintegrate the tissue. we all had these green goggles on to protetc our eyes (which I found slightly odd because the entire procedure was completely internal), and there was the laser technician in the room, who had brought the machine from Salt Lake.
It took the surgeon almost 10 minutes to get the laser catheter up to the prostate, because the skin was completely shredded all the way up the urethra, which the surgeon assumed was from months of catheter use. The tissues were spouting blood everywhere you looked; I felt so bad for the poor guy. The catheter finally reached the prostate, and the surgeon tells the tech guy to start up the laser. He does, we all fasten our goggles on securely, and... nothing.
Yeah, after 10 minutes of work threading that laser up there... the thing doesn't work. Turns out the wire to the foot pedal had a cut in it, and during the 10 minutes of catheter threading, urine and blood had been dripping down on to the foot pedal wire... ruining the entire system and bringing the surgery to a halt. You should have seen that tech guy. He didn't bring a replacement foot pedal, and he hadn't thought to check wiring before the surgery started. He was stammering and apologizing to the surgeon, when really, he should have stuck around and apologized to the patient. The surgeon put in a new catheter so it would be easier for him to get to the prostate on the second try in a few weeks. After the laser catheter was removed, the tech guy left pretty much immediately, and left the circulating nurse to explain to the patient what had happened, and that he would have to wait another few weeks for the surgery.
While it was disappointing to not get to watch a laser disintegrate tissue, it was a great lesson for me on the importance of double checking your equipment before surgeries, and for Heaven's sake  have a replacement or two waiting in the wings!

So those were the surgeries I got to watch, and really, all of them were pretty dang cool. So we will see if operating room nursing is what ends up being my calling in life.
~Courtney

Excitement In Lab

Yesterday, in lab I got to play with the coolest mannequin ever. Her name is Nicole and she does almost everything a human could do. She blinks, she breaths (her chest rises and falls!) she has a pulse. Geeze, she even gives birth! 

I just stood there, feeling her pulse, listening to her heartbeat, totally entranced by how amazing technology is. I am so grateful to be in nursing school. I'm so happy to be one step closer to my life long goal.

I'm so excited to start hospital clinicals. Being in the nursing home has been nice, but oh man, once I step foot inside the hospital, with my scrubs on and Student Nurse name tag, I think I'll be the happiest girl on the face of the earth.

~ Courtney

{Those Magical Moments} part 2

This book is so detailed. It's got the cutest pictures and funniest little tid-bits. 

It shares little stories about pixie dust, and all the different talents fairies have.

Here's my favorite talent

After getting all the autographs from all the fairies, and seeing that they all have cute little symbols that represent their talent, I was inspired to design my own signature!  I know, I know, corny Disney fanatic.  On the bus ride home I designed it in my head, and sketched it out once I got my hands on paper and pens.

And now!  I am proud to present..... My autograph!

I love it so!

~Courtney

Catch Up!

It's been a while since my last post!

Work has been good, but nothing special, which is probably why I haven't hopped on here to share any stories. I've been having spare shifts, which means I go to work without an assignment, and step in when a scheduled performer can't make it to their shift.  I've been doing character dining almost every morning at 6 am. So that means I'm going to bed early, so I can wake up at 4:15 am to get on a bus at 4:59. Early mornings for sure.

I got my second rejection from a nursing school. DATC said no on Saturday last.

So now I wait for CEU and Snow's decisions.

It sucks.
~Courtney

And Then, Reality Slaps You In The Face

Hello readers.

Have you ever read my about me info box?
It's located right there --------------->

Anyway.

I got my third nursing school rejection today.

You would think after a few times it stings less. Let me tell you, friends. It just keeps on stinging.

~Courtney

It Went Well

The angio went well. I had some serious nausea that lead to a few vomiting episodes. I actually hurled in front of my super attractive radiologist/ surgeon. So embarrassing. Apparently Zofran doesn't help me when it comes to nausea. My nurse eventually tried Phenergan on me and the nausea magically disappeared.
That was the biggest problem during my stay. If you can't keep food down, they won't let you leave the hospital. I was desperate to leave as soon as humanly possible, so conquering the nausea was the most important obstacle.
I had a sore throat beforehand, so when I woke up from the general anestesia my throat felt like sandpaper. The anesthesiologist promised he'd be gentle with the intubation tube, but he wasn't very successful. My throat is definitely my number one complaint. It hurts. It hurrrts!
Lastly, I seem to have acquired a new lump in the back of my skull. It's likely the glue the dr. Embolized the blood vessel with. It's annoying, not really painful.
I was discharged with Tylenol as my pain med, which means a lot in the scheme of things. Kathy, my favorite nurse practitioner, calls me her star patient.
I'm grateful it went well. The whole thing got embolized, so now it looks like I'll be having an angio every few years now to check on it.

Now... On to having my wisdom teeth removed. Yippee.
~Courtney