Wanted to share my thoughts....

Hello, it's so great to read what everyone has been up to. I still can't believe we are actually finished with school, but I love the feeling of not having to write a reaction paper every time I leave the hospital. :) Anyways, I thought I would write and let you guys know what I have been up to these past 6 months. I have been officially off orientation for a little over a month now, and I still feel like I have no idea what I am doing. I go into work praying that God will let me make it through the night without killing my patient. I am currently working at UCI in the NICU and I love it. I love the fact that I get to take care of the whole family and not just the infant. It's so amazing to watch a mother finally hold her baby for the first time, even though the baby has been alive for a month, or the first time the mother finally gets to feed her baby. It's a great job, sometimes I go to work and all I have to do is feed 3 babies every 3 hours, so pretty much I get to cuddle a baby all night. However, there is also a terrible side to the NICU (like there is on every hospital floor) babies die. Recently, I had a patient die and I think it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I had this patient the previous night and I was super busy the entire 12hrs, pushing numerous blood products over and over just to try to bring up the Hgb, and also pushing D10 into her IV to get her blood sugar up from 32. This baby was overwhelming septic and was not responding to any of our interventions, but she somehow made it through our first night together, but when I came back the second night, her mother decided to DLS her and I had to watch the baby take her last breath in her mother's arm. Tears were streaming down every one's face, including mine. I had to do the post-mortem care and it was really hard to see this infant dead and lifeless. Also, last night, another father decided to DLS his baby. The mother died in a car accident and they managed to save the baby's life, however the baby was in really bad shape because the mother was down for a solid hour before they were able to get the baby out. So the baby's apgars were 0,0,0,0,2. The baby was brought to our NICU to be put on a cooling blanket and recently the baby was not responding to any of the interventions and has major brain damage. The outcome of her life would consist of lying in a hospital bed having to be suctioned every few minutes because the baby had no gag reflex, so the father decided to DLS the baby. I watched this father, whom buried his wife on Friday, cuddle this infant as she drowned on her secretions, terrible. Anyways, I am really sorry that is update is such a downer. For the record, there are lots of positives in my unit and I think that's why I stick around. Like we all know, nursing has the good and the bad, but I think helping a dad change his first diaper, or letting a mother finally hold her baby is so rewarding to be apart of. I hope everyone is doing well in all of the different specialities and that we can continue to be there for each other as our new careers really take off. Good luck with the job search Kari, and good luck to all of you who just started. This is a really exciting time for us and we should be proud of how far we've come. Happy Holidays. P.s. Sorry to those who have to work the holidays this year, I have to work Christmas Eve and I am so sad about that, so we are all in this together, right Heidi? ;)

The Job Hunt

So I just applied for some nursing jobs today out here in Hawaii. I know most of you are way ahead of me and already have months under your belt which is awesome. I realized it is tough starting from scratch where you don't have any contacts and nobody knows BIOLA. But, it is a stretching experience which is always a good thing. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well and know that if you ever need a break, you are welcome to visit Hawaii anytime. Just to tempt you even more, I rode my bike to Waimea Bay today which is right down the road. Look it up online and you'll see how great it is. ;O)

A Word about L&D

I recently started working in L&D at Long Beach Memorial....and I gotta say...It's nothing like our rotation during school! Maybe it's just this particular hospital, but the L&D nurses are known as adrenaline junkies, and it's considered to be one of the most stressful and fast-paced units in the whole place...(I didn't really know what I was getting myself into- no wonder they kept asking me about my ICU rotation during the interview) Anyway, it seems more like an ER than anything else, and I think I'm gonna love it once my head stops exploding from new information every day! Just thought I'd share. :)

Glenn Styffe's class in action...

....so how could any of us forget the day Glenn popped his head into Gewe's class and reminded us that at our next class we'd need to role play male sexual dysfunction?
Well can i just say i almost laughed so hard as that day swirled through my head as i was instructing my 80 year old pt on how to use his new penile prosthesis. kinda reminded me of that day and the day with Cheri and the Sex after 90 movie we watched.

nursing definitely brings you into such random parts of life....

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I realize I am writing this after the day has gone by, but I wanted to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving. I am so thankful to our Lord for His many blessings. Hope you guys had a great day!

First of all may I say CONGRATULATIONS to Haley and Andy! Yay!!! I am so excited for you guys!!!! Good work ;)

Secondly, I LOVE and MISS you all and hope everyone is doing well in their respective jobs! If you're anything like me...it's going okay, but you'd be willing to give it up in a heartbeat if you didn't have to work :0) (Am I right, or am I right?)

And lastly, I am just wondering if anyone else is realizing the importance of using proper ergonomics in this profession we have gotten ourselves into?! It feels pretty ridiculous to be the one posting this, considering that most of my patients are 10-50lbs, but my upper back is killing me! I know it's not due to lifting, but trying to sneak in and do assessments in the middle of the night without waking up the little kiddos is tricky enough without the noise and commotion of moving the bed/crib to the right level---I just want to get in and out without a fight! Anyway, after a few months of bending over and holding that ridiculous axillary thermometer that takes forever and a day to read and listening to infant apical pulses and breathing...my back is killing:( Just wanted to put that out there and see if anyone else was experiencing this? Should've listened to Gewe. :)

how do i put this gently...

i never thought i would be the first one (although someone else might be out there and just not talkin') but SURPRISE!!!....andy and i are pregnant!  i know, totally unplanned and crazy but we're super excited!  we actually just moved to orange about a week ago into this AMAZING townhome so i guess the timing isn't quite as bad as we first thought.  i'm only about two months in and due approximately july 8th.  so yeah, crazy!  i had a sonogram because i was having some complications so i'll go ahead and post it (exciting but also just a black dot, ha ha)  so yeah, and heads up in your e-mails, i want to make sure i have an updated list of everyone's addresses so i can send out christmas cards...love you guys and miss you all, and if you're ever in orange county let me know!