This Weekend!

I honestly can not even believe that it is time to move again. When we moved here over a year ago, I never thought this day would come!  I am very excited, but also very very nervous!  And busy... we are SO NOT packed!  We've done a few boxes here and there... but thats about it!  Oops! 

I also am busy with finishing up school stuff... I had 2 presentations this week, and have a big test this Friday morning. The presentations both went well, one was on a group research project, the other was a community outreach group project. 

 The latter was much more fun because it was a summary of the last 6 weeks we spent going out into various parts of Omaha and teaching youth about different health topics. 

 

(<-- community project)

My last 5 hours of ICU clinical were last night... it went so quick - my nurse was SO nice and helpful - and she let me try an IV start on my patient twice!  The first attempt was very unsuccessful... his skin was extremely thick and leathery and it felt so weird sticking the needle in him... Even with her help, we could not get any blood return.  I tried again higher up in his arm, and it went so smooth and perfect on the first try! Yay! 

Back to the moving info.....

Everything is kind of up in the air, and only time will tell how life works out. As of right now, I am leaving Saturday and will fly into PDX.... Thankfully Jeremy's parents are nice enough to let me stay with them a few days in Forest Grove -- I start my hours at Providence the very next day, following my nurse for 8 hours and I am for sure at the hospital again Monday, Thursday, and Friday so it doesn't seem like I will be around their house or FG too much! 

--> Yay for having 4th of July off though!     

Jeremy's plan so far is to leave Monday morning with his mom, and a fully loaded u-haul with him. He is planning his drive to Oregon around a couple different breweries in Colorado, so who knows when they will get in... hopefully Weds??  At least by the weekend though!  I will try to track his trip back across the country on here, but I have no idea how much free time I will have.

"You can change your hair and you can change your clothes

you can change your mind, thats just the way it goes

you can say goodbye and you can say hello

but you'll always find your way back home"

~Taylor Swift~

oh yeah and...

We move to Portland in less than 2 weeks!

Well, I do. 

Jeremy is going to start his drive back most likely on the Monday after I leave (perhaps with his mom?! I hope so)

20 hours closer

Well I survived my first 2 days in the ICU at Creighton University Med Center.... what an interesting place !  Although I did not have one, many of the patients being taken care of there are people you hear about on the news... gunshot wounds, car accidents, motorcycle accidents, farm accidents, etc. etc.  Because CUMC is one of the two trauma centers for the region, it gets a lot of people in very critical condition.  In the first couple of hours there on Thursday, I was asked to do an ABG draw on my patient -- arterial blood gas draw -- which I had 'learned' how to do in class (by reading how to do it! ha); I was quite nervous.  My patient instructor said "oh you'll be fine, lets go do it" and off we went!  It did turn out to be very easy, and I got it perfect on my first try, so that was fun :)  The rest of the day was filled with LOTS of vital sign taking (every hour) and suctioning (because my patient had a tracheotomy, a lot of secretions build up in the trachea and in the mouth - so you use a little machine like dentists use and get rid of it all).   Friday was a very long 12 hour shift, but also full of new experiences.  I got to accompany my patient to the Operating Room to get her wounds sutured closed, and get a new trach tube placed (the one she had in was too big now that most of the swelling from her injury had decreased and was in danger of falling out).  

I had been in the OR once before and enjoyed it, so I was interested to see if I would again like it - turns out I do. I think I wouldn't mind being a nurse there - I thought it was cool that the nurses had the responsibility to get the patient fully prepped for the surgeons and also to monitor the patient throughout the surgery.... Anyone know of any job openings in OR's in Oregon??  :) 

Also on Friday morning I got to attempt to start an IV. Sadly, I was unsuccessful - I think I just put the needle a little too deep into the skin.  My instructor and I felt bad for the nice old man who was letting me poke around in him, so I only did one attempt and she did the second (and got it started of course, ugh).  But now I know what it feels like and I think the next time I do it, I'll get it.... maybe if Jeremy let me practice on him I would have gotten it!  Haha, still trying to convince him to let me try...! 

Earlier in the week, on Weds, a couple classmates and I had to do a couple of presentations to youth in Omaha. Our first one was on first aid (my portion was sprains/strains and how to care for them....) and the second one was dental health.  It was fun, I love kids - but I definitely liked teaching the middle schoolers more then the 2nd graders. If I had to be a teacher, I think I'd choose middle or high school!   Check out this slide show of hilarous pictures of the kids -- for the first aid group we let them tape themselves up with ACE bandages and various gauze, band aids, etc. We also had "fake" epipens for them to practice using in case of an emergency allergic reaction.  For dental health we had them put frosting all over a glove on their hand, to represent all the sugar we eat, and then brush it off with giant toothbrushes, and floss with yarn to get the plaque (brown frosting) off!  Messy, but fun!  

why we are excited to move to Oregon

Jeremy says "there are too many reasons to list"  but I want to make a list anyways. So here goes... feel free to comment with any reasons we may have forgotten! :)     

-the beach

-camping

-crabbing/clamming

-Dutch Brothers Coffee

-living closer to family and friends, and getting my pups Roxy back

-better shopping (Nordstroms!!) with no sales tax 

-mountain biking and hiking 

-mountains

-big lakes you can actually swim in

-fresh seafood

-Mariners games

-no tornadoes

TIME FLIES...

...And I'm perfectly okay with that!  

I am so excited that I am almost finished with nursing school, even more excited to start my preceptorship in Portland!  I think that I am going to learn more in that 6 weeks then I have pretty much the whole year :)  Just have to get thru the next 4 weeks here in Omaha.  The first test of the semester was today, and it was MUCH harder then any other test this year. I guess they figure since we're so close to graduating they better challenge us, ugh! Anyways, it went fine and now I know what the next three tests are going to be like. 

So clinical has been okay the last 2 weeks -

 the first was a little boring since I only had one patient the first day (boring, slow, day dragged on) and then the second day I had two, but both were a few days post-operative and did not need a lot of care.  Last week was different! I had two patients the first day and three the second = busy!  One was a severely disabled man who required a lot of care, he had a G-Tube and J-Tube, which I have worked with before but it was good practice to do again. I had to give all his meds through the tube (A LOT OF MEDS), as well as monitor his constant tube feedings - overall, he kept me the busiest.  I also got to work with a T-Tube on another patient, which was my first experience, but very similar to the other tubes.  My other new experiences for the year were taking out a couple foley catheters and taking a rectal temperature.   Oh yes, rectal temperature.  Fun right?  Haha, not really, but another skill to check off the list!   

Non-school related, Saturday Jeremy and I woke up early and went to a small farmers market -- we only had 5$ cash, so had to spend wisely :)  we picked out a bundle of fresh basil and a package of NE grown tomatoes. We then spent the rest of the day at our apartments pool... it was a gorgeous day, about 85-90 degrees, with some wind to keep us cool.  We went out to dinner at our favorite Thai place that night, and just relaxed with a movie. Sunday, after sleeping in, I woke up to the wonderful smell of bacon cooking and coffee brewing!  Jeremy made us an amazing breakfast:  bacon, mozzarella, basil & tomatoes all on a ciabatta bun! I wish I had taken a picture of his masterpiece, but I have to admit I was too excited to taste it I couldn't bother with my camera!  Maybe next time! 

Happy JUNE!

"If a June night could talk, 

it would probably boast that it invented romance"

~Bern Williams~