HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Well, I have just about everything ready to go - I did all the preperation work, and now it all just needs to be thrown in the oven for various amounts of time :) I think I'm doing well for my first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner!
(hopefully thats not me!!) (this is more like it... haha....)


Jeremy and his younger brother Matt are in charge of the turkey... they plan on frying it up soon, but it only takes about 30 minutes I guess. No turkey smell throughout the apartment all day, but thats okay, we'll smell everything that I'm cooking eventually....
I hope everyone is well, and enjoying their Thanksgiving. This is my first time away from family, so I am thinking of all of them and wishing I could be there. Only a few more months here in Nebraska though....!

Love to all.

School Screening...

Well today was the first day of screening school kids for various problems... It was not too bad, and I thought it went by pretty quick. I started the day out by taking blood pressure readings, which was a lot harder to do then normally. There were four of us doing it, on the same table so there was a ton of background noise as well as the kids being a little shaky/jumpy. Overall they were VERY polite and cooperative though. I then go to do some hearing tests, which was cool. We use a laptop computer to send tones at various frequencies to the headphones worn by the kids and they press a little joystick when they hear the noise. You could tell which kids played video games because they were very comfortable with pressing the button and had quick reflexes! I did a quick stint at oral care screening but didn't enjoy it, nor did I know really what to look for and what to request referrals for so I got out of there as quick as I could - hey, I didn't sign up for dental school! All we were suppost to look for was obvious cavities and open sores and stuff, but no thanks :) The last thing I did the screening for was color vision - it was pretty easy, just used a little book that had "hidden" objects in different colors - I only had one child that couldn't tell what the objects were and it was actually interesting to realize he was red-green color blind (well, not officially!)

Hmm well, I know that was a pretty bland blog, but that was pretty much my bland day :) It went quick and we got free salad bar school lunch so it was okay - we go back tomorrow for the same thing but different age groups...

Hope everyone is having a great week and getting ready for Thanksgiving....
Its getting a lot colder here, possible snow this Friday - not too excited. I keep hoping the snow stays away until I am back on the west coast for break! Only a month away!

Start of November!

I finally have a few minutes to sit and relax, it has been a crazy last few days... As I mentioned before, we had visitors from Oregon this past weekend which was awesome. Although Omaha is nothing special (we think) it was fun to show Jason and Nicole around, take them to our favorite happy hour and bars and of course drove through downtown a little. They made it to the zoo while I stayed home and studied.. This Monday and Tuesday I had big exams - the first one went great, and I haven't heard about the second but I think/hope it went at least okay :)

Today I had 10 hours of clinical at the hospital. My last day of OB rotation, sadly, nothing too exciting. I did get to see a C/S from pretty close up. Not the same room, but right nearby in the "scrub room"... you know, where the doctors scrub in before surgery? Yeah, pretty much just like on Grey's Anatomy, they sit and chat while cleaning their hands to the elbow! We had to put on the sterile scrubs and hat and masks (see picture!), but not do the actual scrubbing in since we never entered the OR... Anyways, I had seen one from farther away while working at Overlake, but this was amazing. Myself and the few other students in the room could see just about everything! It makes sense now how much longer it takes to recover from that versus a regular birth! Lots of pulling and stretching and cutting...

I also got to give a couple flu shots to new moms, and a couple baby vaccines to a newborn. Such tiny little legs, and of course she cried (normal, but sad!). Other then that, we did a lot of standing and sitting around talking to our instructor... tomorrow is the official last day of OB rotation, we end with a simulation of pre. eclampsia (google it if you don't know!) and next week I move into "School Health" rotation... From what I have heard from other students, sounds not exciting at all. Lots of filling out paperwork and checking kids ears. We'll see.

Someone is Another Year Older....

HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY JEREMY



Although this time last year we were in Hawaii in the warm sun, this year finds us in Omaha in the freezing cold! The weather has definitely turned... We had 80 degrees and sun earlier in the week, and now, its 33 and feels like 20 because of the wind! Ick! Anyways, friends of ours, Nicole and Jason, flew into Omaha yesterday afternoon so we have been all around town eating and drinking! Everyone is slow to wake up today, I am up early knowing I need to be studying.... But just wanted to make sure everyone knows they should wish Jeremy a happy birthday today! More about our celebrations and fun filled friend visiting weekend later :)

Loved My Day in OB!

I'm taking a quick break from studying for my Postpartum Hemmorhage simulation tomorrow to talk about my day at the CUMC Family Birth Center.... Because of my not so exciting experience a couple weeks ago, I did not come into today expecting much. I even brought notes to study for my next exam, thinking I would have time to stand around... That was a very wrong assumption! Today was filled with so many new activities for me, I can barely remember them all to tell everyone about!

(I have to be careful because of HIPPA but here is a quick run down of my day)
My two assigned patients today were special cases in Post Partum... both were very young girls, who luckily for me spoke english. One was in the hospital because she had a missed abortion, meaning there was still fetal material in her uterus which obviously needed to come out - she did not do this while I was there, and was scheduled for surgery for this afternoon after I left. I'll spare people the details of what that procedure would have been like - but what I DID get to do for her was give lots of IV meds, as well as take out her IV (because it was not working properly). I also took lots of vital signs, which is easy, but still hands on experience.

My next patient was what kept me quite busy all day. She had a crash c/s early the night before, due to severe abruption... basically the placenta which holds the baby was tearing away from the uterus. Not good, at all, especially since she was only at 26 weeks gestation. Her baby survived and was in the NICU, weighing about 1 pound and of course needing a lot of care. The patient complained of pain all day and at one point when I walked into the room my nurse just looked at me with wide eyes and said calmly "Meaghan I need you to go get a nurse for me. ANY NURSE. Please go get another nurse for me". Of course I went running to the nearest nurse I could find and brought her back ... long story short it was thought they were worried she would have a stroke or stop breathing or her heart would beat incorrectly. The patient panicked from teh extreme pain in her neck and chest area and then began hyperventilating.. Emergency oxygen was given as well as an immediate ECG done and then a chest xray and blood work were done. At the time I left, it was not known what had caused this episode of extreme pain. I forgot to mention one factor in all of this... cocaine. Both mom and baby were found to be positive for it...

On a happier note, I got to see my first vaginal delivery today! It was very quick but very interesting to watch. Teaching hospitals are crazy - there must have been about 15 people in the room with all the nursing students, nurses, med students, residents, and doctors! But everything was done quickly and efficiently, and wow did that baby pop out fast! I was told that is not common :) After the baby did come out, I got to assist with its first newborn assessment which means taking vital signs and blood sugar levels and an initial weight. Very healthy pink baby girl!


If that wasn't enough for ya, just want to mention that I did take care of 2 OTHER patients that my nurse had, just gave meds and took vitals and helped keep them comfortable....

Overall, an INCREDIBLE day. I am still smiling as I type this because I can't believe I got to do and see all that - It really makes me think this is an area I could definitely see myself working in! We'll see in a few months after I have other cool experiences at other clinical rotations though :)