Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had an awesome one. Mine was chill. My mom had Christmas Eve off, so we did our family dinner last night. It was the first Christmas we've had as an entire family in over 8 years, so it was pretty special. This morning Joc and I made breakfast for our parents and then opened gifts. I got Victoria Secret Pink pants and a hoodie and a 2009 Nurses Calendar. Too cute!

Then...my parents and Joc got me a grad/Christmas gift...

My brown Coach bag that I had been wanting!!

Here's an inside view! :) I love the pattern.

After spending the day with my family, I headed over to Kee's to open more gifts and dinner. His parents bought us our first joint present. It was an Asian Dinner set for 2. So cute! Only thing now is that I have to make sushi, according to Kee. haha.

His parents got me really cute candle holders...inspired by my Myspace:

And he got me some good stuff, too:

The last 2 books of the Twilight series!! :)

A couple of fun t-shirts. I love the one on the left 'cause it reminds me of Kanye. haha And the one on the right...well, it's just true.

And then he got me this gorgeous necklace with Pave diamonds to match my engagement ring! The chain is cool because you can adjust it to make it longer or shorter. Loves it!

Here's Kee trying on the hoodie my parents got him. He thought it was cool that it zipped up all the way...perfect for boarding! ANND I told him he should be in Twilight b/c he is pale and has dark circles under his eyes.

And here we are just 'cause we are cute! :)

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Love you and miss you!

This weekend was definitely movie weekend! Friday I saw Four Christmases. My friend David is in it...if you watch it and you see Reese and Vince at the airport, look for a guy in the background hanging out with a little kid. lol.

Then last night I went and saw Twilight. So good. I read the book, so I was apprehensive to see the movie. I'm glad I did. "Edward" is my new love and the movie/books is my new obsession. I need to get on the rest of the series now before the sequel comes out.

And Robert Pattinson....*drooool* :)

Seriously, I was soo into this movie. NO other movie has sucked me into it. My heart was beating so fast and I was nervous...just way into it. I'm a dork and I love it.

Kbye.

Happy Holidays?

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I'm sitting here bored. I just got done cleaning. And I'm convinced I broke my pinky after slamming it into a sharp corner. Kee thinks I'm being dramatic. Me...dramatic?! Noooooo...

Back to my boredom. When I'm bored I surf the space. And I've noticed that everyone and their momma are engaged. Like recently. STOP IT! STOP STEALING MY THUNDER.

And that's my vent.

And please pray for Janine's nephew, Nathan. I keep up on him daily. He's such a precious little boy...keep him in your thoughts.

Someone needs to hurry up and have a baby so I can throw them a baby shower and make these:

taken from this blog i follow up on: taste and tell

So...someone get on it. Thanks.

Nursing School

yay! We're all done!! Just gotta do a final conference/potluck today at that's it.

It's a bittersweet feeling. I'm not going to get into now. But just wait for the emotional/cheesy blog.

I'm home early from work. I started feeling sick yesterday after I called my assistant manager to put me on the schedule. Go figure. I woke up a couple times in the middle of the night still feeling a little icky...but decided to sleep it off, convinced I was going to feel better once it was time to wake up for work. So I wake up, get ready, still feelin a little icky but do head into work. I was okay for a little bit, but then started feeling really bad. I only lasted 4 and 1/2 hours...better than nothing.

So anyways, my manager came to me and said "It's no secret...I want you on this unit." And telling me the position is mine if I want it. And also gave me the option of doing Versant. I've decided that I am going to work at the VA. I'm not going to get an ICU position anywhere else. Now the decision that needs to be made is whether or not I'm going to do the Versant program.

Versant:
pros:
20 week orientation
more classroom time and bonding with other new grads
longer time to 1. be on days and 2. get more comfortable

cons:
doesn't start 'til March (but this could be a pro, too).

No Versant:
pros:
get to dive right into the job
less time working with preceptor "hovering" over me (that's what my preceptor, Julie, said haha)
another Valor didn't do it and she's doing amazingly. Julie compared me to her.
I would start in February

cons:
have to go to nights sooner (only 3 month orientation)

so I've been asking around at those who did and didn't do it. some have really liked it, but Julie said those nurses that didn't weren't very comfortable in their abilities and benefitted from the program. she doesn't think i really need it and said the only benefit that I would get out of it is the extra orientation time which would enable me to stay on day shift longer.

hrm...what to do...

So I looked all over the place trying to find cheaper red shoes that made me happy. Didn't happen. I fell in love with the above shoe when I saw it. Sooo...today I went to Steve Madden and got these babies!! Loooves 'em. Yeah, they're a little more pricy, but I plan on getting some use out of them.

So yeah, I'm happy. But now I don't know if I want to still wear my dress. I'll be keeping my eyes open for other black dresses, but if not, I'll just stick to the one I have already.

Off to dinner now with my parents and Kee...mmmm SUSHI! Num nums! :)

Last presentation of nursing school
Part 2 Theory Paper
Theory Final
ATI Exam
Last Clinical Conference/Potluck

...almost there!! :)

I'm watching this show on MTV about these bands who are competing while playing Rockband. But like playing live while playing the game.

I NEEEED to be on this show.

So yay, my clinical was done as of last Thursday. It was a good experience learning all that time management and prioritization crap, but it just made me realize that I never ever want to work med-surg, let alone orthopedics or anything like that.

Went back to to work yesterday after over a month. It was sooo good being back in the ICU. I jumped right back into the swing of things and took care of a level II patient that I thought was stable but the night nurse failed to tell me that he frequently as chest pain. So we did the whole workup, but the EKG showed no significant changes from his previous EKG. I just monitored him closely. I also had a level III patient. He had a nephrectomy done the day before yesterday. I guess they fluid overloaded him in the OR because when he came out to our unit, they extubated him then RE-intubated him 2 mins later. So my job yesterday was to wean his Fentanyl and Versed and work with respiratory therapy to plan for possible extubation. ABGS looked good after weaning his FiO2. However, before I left they decided to let him rest and they would extubate this morning. He was a hard intubation and his airway was very edematous, so they wanted to make sure they had a full team ready with recemic epi and all that good stuff at at he bedside just in case. Man I wish I was there this morning to see if they did extubate.

Then my preceptor tells me yesterday..."So what's your plan after graduation?" and I told her what I've been telling everyone.

"You know, we all love you here and everyone says nothing but good things about you. We all want you to work with us. Bobette [the nurse manager] is saving you a position if you want it."

So yes, I did apply to some other hospitals and will apply to more, but VA is sounding better and better, especially with an ICU position with co-workers who I love. But I've still got a couple months to decide. We shall see.

The wedding coordinator from Casa Real emailed me yesterday with a quote. It's almost $40,000 for the facility, the ceremony, the food, drinks, and the coordinator. That doesn't include lighting, flowers, and all that other crap that weddings need to have.

Even though I love this place, I definitely need to look at others.

Le sigh.

I loved it.

I'm still not giving up on it though.

But it's a good idea I'll be saving til 2010. I hope you guys can wait that long. haha.

So we may be pushing back the wedding to May 2010. Kee and I visited Casa Real in Pleasanton yesterday. Gorgeous!! The look of the event center, the ballroom, the Sun Garden...it's all what I want. I need to look at other places, too, but this one is def my #1. So then we talked to the coordinator and pretty much everything this time next year is book...except for Sept 11th and Halloween. And some Fridays and Sundays which I don't want. And it's pretty pricey. So we figured, let's wait some more, save, and get a Saturday date that we want.

...then Kee jokes, "We should do it on your birthday."
Well I don't think my birthday falls on a Saturday in 2010. Let me check.
(So I whip out the calendar and sure enough, MAY 01, 2010 IS A SATURDAY.
Then I get all excited about getting married my bday. And try to get all deep and meaningful about it.
Well it'd be really a nice tribute to my parents since it IS the day I came into this world and this will be the day they're giving me away.
"And I'll be able to get an anniversary present on your birthday." he says
AAAANNNND I'LL be getting TWO presents! Yay!

So we need to look at a couple more places but if we do decide to do it at Casa Real, May 01, 2010 will be the officially set date. :)

I know I've been MIA. I come on here to check if anyone has written something, but then I can't get myself to sit here and actually type anything. So here I am. It's early. I did my 4 12-hour shifts since Thursday. I was exhausted yesterday. But of course, I couldn't sleep in today. It was habit for me to wake up at 5am. Then I just laid there and waited for Kee to wake up. He left for work about a half hour ago. And here I am, drinking coffee and eating oatmeal. Well, forcing myself to eat oatmeal. I hate the stuff.

Well, it is Tuesday October 28 and as of yesterday I have 2 more shifts to go. I did WORK this weekend with my 36 hours of clinical. Wake up, get ready, spend almost 13 hours at O'Connor working my ass off, come home, wash up, sleep. And then wake up to do it all over again. Saturday was fine. I was stoked to work with my other preceptor, Mary. Then Sunday was good. Surprisingly I had a lot of energy. And we even snuck off to get Japanese food for all of us working that day.

Yesterday though...I was exhausted. I worked with my other preceptor, Nilo. The day started off crazy because we had an admission that came in around 630 with a L Femoral Neck fracture. The admission hadn't been done yet, the chart wasn't done yet, and we had no idea when she was going in for surgery.

...i hate oatmeal...

Anyways, so of course that was our patient. So we were trying to get everything ready on her and go see our other 3 patients. We finally got settled around 10. Then I had to discharge 1 of them. And then after lunch I got a post-op Total Hip and a transfer from PCU s/p acute intracranial bleed.

So I'm assessing my new patients and trying to get them settled and all of a sudden the unit goes dark. All the power is off. Within a few seconds the emergency generator is supposed to go off.

It didn't.

And JACHO is right down the hallway.

So I'm watching the surveyors and they walk away. They were supposed to come to our unit next. We had spent all morning preparing for them. They were gone. And the power was still off. water was off, too. We had no idea what was going on.

So now I've got a post-op patient whose pain is starting to climb up. Can't get her Morphine because the Pyxis is down. Can't get her ice packs 'cause the power is out. It was a mess. We finally got power in the nurses' station 45 minutes later or so. And then full power in all the rooms at around 5.

At first we thought it was a drill because of JACHO. Maybe they were testing our disaster preparedness. Obviously they failed that one. Come to find out later...they think there was a car accident and that a car hit a transformer and wiped out power in the neighborhood. And they're still investigating why the generator didn't come on.

Like I told Mary yesterday...it was like Grey's, but with no sex and no hot young patients. :)

I'm at the halfway point for clinicals...5 more to go. I'll be knocking out 3 of them Sat-Mon.

...I can't wait til this is all over. Booooyah!

I'm ENGAGED!

I posted this on my myspace blog, so i'll just copy and paste it here. You will all hear the details on Wednesday anyways. =)

This past Saturday (October 4) Keenan and I headed out to San Francisco to celebrate our 8 year anniversary on the Hornblower dinner cruise...

As we were driving there, Kee asked if I wanted to stop by and say hi to my mom at her work. Thought it was a little weird because when we head out to the Bay, we never really stop by to see her. But I thought it would be fun so she could see him and his new suit. So we went and my mom was all talking about how good he looked. It was a short visit since we had to head into the city by a certain time.

So we get to SF and we're waiting to board the ship. It was super cold and the wind was starting to pick up. I had originally bought a pretty dress to wear but changed my mind and ended up wearing something warmer. Wish I had worn a dress now. As we sat in the car he began talking about when he was going to propose. "I have the time planned out. It has to be the perfect moment." And I smiled and said "I can't wait. I'm soo excited!"

We get on the Hornblower around 700. We sit, order a cocktail and start eating our appetizer which was awaiting us. Polynesian Chicken Fresh Maui Pineapple, Spiced Huli Huli Dipping Sauce, Toasted Macadamia Nuts Served atop a butter lettuce Leaf. Yum.

We sat down and enjoyed each other's company. I tried to take a lot of pictures but it was too dark. He asked if I wanted to get some champagne but I didn't really want to. I had this Green Sun drink that was delish. Green Tea Liquer, Midori, club soda, and lime juice. Then he kept asking if I wanted to dance. I was going to say yes, but then our salads came. Garden Fresh Heirloom Tomatoes Balsamic Vinaigrette, Fresh Basil, Mozzarella di Bufala and Spiced almonds served atop a bed of baby greens. That too was good.

So we sat and watched the crazy old drunk people dance. We met this other younger couple celebrating a birthday so we talked to them a lot. Then dinner came. Kee got the Filet Mignon and I got the Dungeness Crab Stuffed Tilapia.

After dinner Kee wanted to go outside to look at the views off the deck. I wanted to let my food digest first, so we sat some more. I went to the bathroom and came back and told him I was ready to go. So we started walking. I see him look back at the young couple smiling. I thought it was weird, but turned around and kept walking.

So we went to the front of the ship. We were coming up to the Golden Gate Bridge. I was holding on for dear life because the ship started rocking a little because the water near the bridge is pretty rough. The wind was whipping, too! My hair was flying all over the place. So the ship started to turn around. Kee and I walked to the portside of the ship. The wind completely stopped...

So we were looking at the Golden Gate and Kee told me that he loved me so much. I told him I loved him too. He got quiet and I kept looking at the sites. I saw him taking a couple of deep breaths.

"Will you do me a favor?"

Sure! (I'm so retarded now that I think about this)He drops down to one knee and has the ring on his pinky and starts crying...

"Will you marry me?"
All of a sudden the tears start pouring. I crouched down and gave him the biggest hug and said "YES! OF COURSE!!" and he put that gorgeous ring on my finger.

I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cry, laugh, puke. haha Seriously. I've been waiting for this for so long. It was perfect. Then he starts to say..."I had 3 moments planned. I wanted to drop the ring in a glass of champagne, but you don't like champagne! I wanted to do it when we were dancing, but you didn't want to dance. And you ALWAYS want to dance! So my third moment was in front of the Golden Gate Bridge."

I'm always ruining things. haha. But he did it. And we had our perfect moment. And now we're engaged and couldn't be happier. Stay tuned for wedding details. =)

So Dr B finally emailed me...told me I've been placed on a Med-Surg unit. And I'm working 7p-7a. SUCKS. I'm so frustrated because our clinical group basically got the crappy leftovers of what was left at O'Connor (this is because Dr Lewis was the laison and was taking care of placements for her group and ours). I'm trying to look at it in a positive way. I got to do a whole summer (and am currently still) in the ICU. I'm looking at this preceptorship as a chance to go "back to basics" as the Chief said in last week's season premiere of Grey's. haha. Time management and skills are my goals. I'm not going to be negative and dwell on the fact that I didn't get my first choice...or any top choices for that matter. Nursing is all about flexibility, right. So here's me being positive...=)

Saturday night Kee, Joc, and a couple of our friends went to the Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey concert. It was awesome. I didn't know I knew so many Cheap Trick and Heart songs. Out of those two bands, Heart was my fave. They were so good. Then Journey came on. They were good, but the Filipino lead singer kind of threw me off. If I just kept my eyes closed and listened, I felt like Steve Perry was there because he sounds dead like him. But then I opened my eyes and watched Arnel's facial expression and dancing and it just was weird. haha But the show overall was really good.

K I'm about to get ready and grocery shop. Then meet Miranda to pick up pin forms and then I'm going to mail those bitches out! I'm so glad to get them out of my hands! haha.

I was sitting here trying to write my thank-you blurb for the grad program. Just writing basic thank-you's put me over 30 words. How am I supposed to limit it to 25?! It'll probably just say "THANK YOU: (and names) haha.

I give up for now.

I just want to let everyone know that I love you all dearly...seriously. I didn't directly experience a loss, but Kee did. A friend of his and her son died in a car accident last Friday. I don't know why it's affecting me. She and I were acquaintances. She always teased Kee that we were going to be BFFs and she was going to be in our wedding. She was nice but we never really got the chance to get to know each other. She started nursing school at the beginning of this year, so that was our common bond. The situation is just tragic. Then her son passed away from his injuries the other day. At least he's with his mommy and doesn't have to live this life without her.

So when things like this happen, they always remind me of how blessed I am to have such awesome people in my life. I love the memories we share and the times we get to spend together. I just wanted to let you all know that. <3

Yesterday was my last day as a full-time VALOR. And boy did I get a lesson in patience and saying "no."

So my patient assignment was a 63 y/o gentleman...a C4-5 Incomplete Tetraplegic. He was admitted to our Spinal Cord unit from Fresno VA for would care. Apparently we have a great SC unit and it's known for its wound care program. Well on the 13th he came to our unit with hypotension (SBPs in the 50s), altered mental status changes, and possible sepsis. Over the course of the the last couple days he's been intubated, extubated, RE-intubated, extubated, r/o for TB and aspergillus, so of course put in respiratory iso and then taken off.

So I picked him up yesterday. My preceptor gave me some lovely insight before I started. There are two types of spinal cord patients.

1. Completely independent and only need help for activities depending on their level of injury. Can be demanding at times and feel they know better than you. Can be assholes.

2. Completely dependent and need help for pretty much everything. Won't try to do anything on their own and love the fact they now have a nurse to do it for them. Can be demanding at times and feel they know better than you. Can be assholes.

I had the second type of patient. Literally, I wanted to slit my throat. It was 12 hours of constant "Scratch my nose, give me ice chips, I want water, stretch my arm, I'm in pain, shave me, when are you going to shave me, can you shave me now?" There's more, but my headache is coming back just thinking about it.

I was supposed to get the second OR...the L CEA, but my preceptor told me I should just stick with my guy b/c it's a good learning experience and I've had a couple CEAs from the OR already. SHE just didn't want to deal with him either. HAHA.

So he kept asking and at first i kept doing. But then it came to the point where I had to be like "NO." He was lucky he was my only patient, but if I had that other one that came in, it would HAVE to be a different story. So I straight up told him. "I have other things to do. If it's something urgent that needs to be done right now, I can do it. Other than that you're going to have a wait a little bit." It helped for a couple mins then he would just go back to the way he was.

It was tough but I learned a lot from that one day.

When Kee and I were windowing shopping in Tahoe, I saw this yellow bag that I really wanted. The store was closed, so we went and ate breakfast and came back to the store when it had opened. This bag was a mustard yellow with 2 outer side pockets (which I love!). And it was BIG! So I go in and check out the price...$678. Screw that. I loved the back, but not THAT much. (I'm trying to be good and save money...I've got bills and bigger purchases lined up).

So this past weekend, my sister and I did our bi-monthly pedicure day...and we mixed in lunch and shopping as well. We went to Stoneridge and walked around. Then we walked into Bakers and there it was...the bag! Well, it looked similar to the bag in Tahoe. So I go up to it and check out the price...it's basically like $615 cheaper! So it was meant to be. And I bought it. And I love it. Here it is:

Cute, right? I KNOW!

And just for fun, here's a pic of me and my paintball gun and my mask...'cause I think it's funny.

Hot, I KNOW.

I got back from Tahoe on Sunday evening. The wedding was sooo fun! It's a trip that people I grew up with are getting married and whatnot. But anyways, they had a photobooth which was super fun! (I'm going to scan the pics and post them up on the 'space, soon) and instead of a wedding cake, they had a Ben & Jerry's Make-Your-Own-Sundae bar. So fun! And the weather was gorgeous! Sorry I couldn't see you, Mary! I ended up going to brunch with the bride and her fam on Sunday and it lasted longer than i expected.

So today at work I got to take the Heart surgery that came in! It was a redo AAA repair and AVR (composite graft). I wasn't the primary nurse b/c obviously that is just way to overwhelming for me, but I did get to be the second nurse. And I got to do all labs and drips and all that fun stuff. I guess the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery has a problem with any students touching his surgical cases, so everytime I saw him, I ran out of the room. LOL Good thing the Chief Resident was cool and let me do things. So yeah, good day today!

Just wanted to say congrats to Caroline on your last day tomorrow. My baby girl is all grown up! *sniff*

Sorry for the lack of writing! I've been working 5 of the 6 past days! 12 hours, too! I'm exhausted. I'm sooo looking forward to a nice 4 day weekend.

Work is great...I am now taking care of level 3 ICU patients: Vented and hemodynamically unstable. I had two patients that pretty much seemed like mirrors of each other. Vented, ARDS, hypotensive and on pressors. One had an anastomotic leak and multiple drains draining stool and pus. Yum, I know. The other guy was admitted for management of a grand mal seizure with possible aspiration pneumonia. So now I'm getting really good at titrating drips, especially Dopamine, Levophed (Norepi), Fentanyl & Versed. My days consisted of lots of suctioning *BLEH* and learning what exactly those vent settings mean. Still couldn't tell you much. haha. But I do feel like I have grown so much in the past couple of days because I've been doing so much.

...I got the ultimate compliment from one of my preceptors today. She said she was amazed I was still a student. She says I have the confidence of a nurse with at least 2 years experience. I told her thank you but I don't feel like that! But I'll gladly take the compliment! It was definitely an honor to hear that.

Oh and I hate 1st year medicine interns. They're annoying. Okay I'm done. =)

I'm annoying...

...according to Kee. So because of my persistent annoying and bugging, I did find out that he's planning on proposing sometime this fall. =D You know there will be a big, huge announcement...and a myspace bulletin. LOL.

We started looking at houses again. I have about 25 listings written down here that I am going to attempt to look up. I really want to try and get a house by early next year. Wish me luck!

I Want To Be...

1. An inspiration to someone
2. A Critical Care nurse
3. Engaged already!
4. ...then married already! =P
5. Less judgemental
6. More positive in life
7. A leader
8. Happy
9. Able to stand up for myself more.
10. Fabulous. Oh wait. I am. =)

You know me...I HAVE to throw in some humor here. =)

I had a super busy day yesterday! I had a 34 year old Filipino guy. That was weird in itself because every patient is usually 55+. So it was weird that he was young and independent and had really good veins!! So yes, I took him down to CT scan and he had fluid in his left lung. Had to come back...given tons of meds and insulin. D/C'd one IV and FINALLY inserted a new one. I've done blood draws in the past, but I've never had the chance to do an IV. So yes, yay me. Anyways, after all that we went and took him down to Interventional Radiology (IR) and he had a pigtail drain placed in his posterior chest. From that moment til the end of my shift, he drained over 2 liters in about 3.5 hours. I was like "no wonder you had trouble breathing!" It was great that he was so young because had he not been, with that diagnose, he would have been intubated probably since Monday. So yes, it was another good, but very busy, day!

It's so hot right now. The only thing I'm looking forward to this week is going to the A's game on Saturday night. Why? Because I'll be out in the bay...and I'll be in bay weather. Nice & cool I hope!

Caroline saw my wacky away message the other night "PLANNING MY WEDDING." Kee wants to start looking at venues and working out details. We want to get married around next fall! Crazy, huh? So he was all "we need to find a place so we can book it a year in advance!" I'm like Okay, but you need to propose first! DUH! I'll keep you posted on how THAT all goes.

He's cute, sometimes...

So I was writing Tiffany about something that happened yesterday. I thought it was kind of cute, so I'll write about it here.

Yesterday I went to my good friend, Kayla's bridal shower. She's the one who's getting married in August in Lake Tahoe. So yeah, it made me all jealous because I want to be engaged and plan a wedding and do all that good stuff. I told Kee about it after the shower and he told me to get over it...that he had the time and the plan in his head so I shouldn't worry about it right now.

After the shower and spending time with my neices and nephew and brothers and sister-in-law, I went over to Kee's house. I walk in and sit on the bed like usual. We were in there for a couple of minutes...he showed me all this stuff he bought like new shoes and clothes. And he even picked out his outfit for Kayla's wedding! LOL. Wow, he's better than me!

"Lay down" he said as he did the Vanna White arm thing across the bed.
I don't wanna lay down.
"No, LAY DOWN."
But I'm fine sitting there."
"Here, take this pillow." as he shoves it in my face."
I don't want the pillow babe.
"What's on your nose?" as he shoves the pillow AGAIN in my face" (He does this like 5 times.)
"Fuck. Just smell the pillow." and it was his cologne that he first wore when we met 8 years ago.

At the mall he found it and bought it. Then he continued to tell me that when he proposes to me he wants to wear it so that it will remind me of when we first met. But then he says he has to soak himself in it because apparently I can't smell anything. LOL.

He's a cutie!

First FULL WEEK Recap

After being with my mom for 2 weeks and doing nursing orientation for 3, I finally completed my first full week of work. I worked about 44 hours this week...so I'm exhausted! Basically I transferred some patients to the floor, gave lots of injections, primed tons of IV tubings, and gave tons of IV antibiotics. Exciting, yes I know. Oh yeah, on Wednesday I wasn't the primary, but the secondary nurse on a case coming in from the OR. I received a neuro case...a craniotomy. So my role as the secondary was to hook up the foley to the criticore machine, set up the SCDS, and get his labs done.

Oh and then yesterday I was all set to take care of my one patient, then his heart rate starting going up. He had been in Sinus Tachy all morning...the highest his HR went up was 131. But the new resident was adament about pushing Adenosine. She wanted to stop his heart and let it re-start so she could see his underlying rhythm. All the nurses were like "WTF? Why?" Apparently she thought he was in SVT, but my charge nurse/manager was like "His HR is only in the 130s...that's not SVT. She's gonna stop his heart" and then she was all annoyed. But then the Attending came in and wanted the Adenosine, too. So we let the MDs push Adenosine twice. His HR was still up, so we gave some Metoprolol and that seemed to bring his HR back to the 110s. So all day with him I kept reminding him to use his PCA Dilaudid for his pain (he was s/p R Hip ORIF) and titrating his insulin drip. Kept me pretty...

...THEN next door my preceptor received an emergent case from the IICU. This guy was in respiratory distress. He was brought up and sedated and intubated immediately. Julie (my preceptor) and Karen (another nurse I work with when Julie's off) told me to jump in. So they gave me the Emergency Medication (NON-CODE) sheet to fill out. My job was to write down what the MDs and nurses were giving, what time, and how much. We had like two pages of meds once we got him stable. I also did his ABGs and was the one calling out all the abnormal data like low BP, low MAPS, and low sats. It wasn't a CODE situation and I didn't have anything super crazy to do, but it was exciting to get in there and be considered part of the team.

So yes, I am here exhausted now. haha.

Mary needs to start a blog so she can tell us how here preceptorship is going *hint hint* =)

OH P.S.

...despite our Pedicure Awareness Program [PAP!], my sister and I went and got pedicures on Saturday morning. And it was amazing. I wanted to make out with the lady massaging my legs. Kloveyoubye.

Back to work...day one.

Yesterday was my first day on the floor after 3 weeks of not being there. I was nervous because I didn't know what was going to be expected of me. I kind of just eased into the day. I had one patient like the other 2 days I had been working. This guy was a little more acute than other patients I had been working with. Basically I was giving Metoprolol and lots of IV antibiotics all day long trying to control his pressures and heart rate and to treat whatever infection he may have. It was a good day...thank goodness it was a Sunday. I had plenty of time to work on my time management and figure out what was going on. I hopefully will be more prepared tomorrow when it should be a little bit busier for me.

Kee said we got the condo for Tahoe in August! Thank goodness. Now I don't have to fork out $500+ for a hotel for the weekend. Any money I can spend is awesome.

He told me that one of our good friend couples are buying a house in the development that we really want to get a house in. I'm sad. I want that to be MY house. So now I am determined to save more and search harder for a good deal...in that community. Wish me luck!

Update

So I've been busy...real busy. Update on my mom: the tumor was benign. *Phew* So happy she's okay. She's just really bored around the house and makes it known to everyone!

So I had nursing orientation again this week for work. Thank goodness I had Crystal, Helen, & Thao to keep me sane this time around. I finally go back to working on the floor on Sunday. It's going to be weird going back after almost 3 weeks. We'll see how much I remember! Hopefully my preceptor doesn't give me too hard of a time.

I'm so excited...my friend that I grew up with is getting married in South Lake Tahoe in August. I've been looking like crazy for decently-priced hotels in the area. It's too late to book our timeshare, so I had to go the hotel route. Well all of the hotels I found are ghetto, too expensive, or all booked for that weekend. Kee just called and told me that his friend Mike is letting us use one of his condos that we all stayed at over New Years. Again *Phew!* So that's convenient and it saves me a shitload of money, too. Thank goodness!

It's crazy with all my friends getting engaged or getting married. I'm happy but it makes me frustrated because I want that to be me!! And EVERYONE knows that!! =P I know it'll be happening sometime this year. I just have to be patient. But I just want to be able to walk around with a fatty ring on my hand saying "fiance" instead of "boyfriend." =) Kidding about the fatty ring part. Seriously. I just want to plan a wedding!

Keep her in your thoughts & prayers

Yesterday I took my mom for a colonoscopy. They brought me back to the recovery room. At this point I'm thinking that we're gonna head out of there and get some lunch since mom hadn't really eaten for a while. Well, the doc comes out and tells me they found a polyp. It was a pretty big one, too. So needless to say, she's going into surgery today at 130 for a hemicolectomy. It's tough trying to be the stron g one for the fam. And it's tough seeing how it is to be on this side of the nurse-patient relationship as the patient's family member. I'm sure the surgery will go well, and we'll see where we as a family need to go from there once we figure out what exactly is going on. So please just keep her in your thoughts. Thanks.

Craziness

I figured I'd start writing over here in addition to my Xanga since Caroline's a jerk and is leaving us for the summer program. Boo on you! So I can keep you all updated over here on what's going on. That's how I keep in touch with my Tracy girls with the Xanga.

So yesterday was my first day as a VALOR nurse resident at work. Let's just say it was crazy busy! My preceptor started off by saying "Well you know the unit already, so we can just jump right in!" No explanation on what I'll be doing or what's expected. I started by receiving report on 2 cardiothoracic surgery patients...granted, they were stable and about to be discharged, but still. So yes...I gave tons of meds, some insulin injections, discharged one, had a lethal potassium level come back on my other guy, had to act fast to get his K+ down...oh yeah and we had to go down to the helipad to receive a patient from Fresno via helicopter. THAT NEVER HAPPENS ON OUR UNIT...let alone does it happen for a student nurse on her first day. Everyone was like "well we knew it was your first day, so we wanted to welcome you." lol. So yes, usually helicopter transfers are critically ill, ventilated, blah blah...this guy was completely stable, a "walkie-talkie," but we had to admit him to our ICU because he need STAT bowel surgery and he wanted our general surgeon to do it...apparently. Hence the helicopter! It was insane. I did more in 12 hours than I have done in all of nursing school. I'm so excited for what this summer is going to bring me...and I know I am going to learn sooo sooo much and it's just going to prepare me more of Semester 8.

So yes, this summer is going to consist of lots of work and lots of learning. Hopefully I'll be able to have some fun in there...Kay, gotta go run errands and do some brushing up on nursing stuff! =P