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 :)

Happy Halloween!

Well... its FRIDAY and HALLOWEEN! YAY!

Jeremy and I have been sooo busy the last week, he is working tons of hours at his new job and of course the teaching job, and I have been spending time at school and school related activities! This week I got to observe in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Creighton hospital for about 4 hours.

Because it is a specialty field and because my instructor was not there to observe, I didn't get to do much. I mostly walked around and asked questions while watching the nurses do assessments and give report... There was a creighton accelerated grad, who just graduated in August working for the first hour I was there, so it was fun to talk to her about her experience (and it made me feel a little better about feeling like I would never be able to remember everything I had learned!) she was very helpful and let me watch everything she was doing and explained it all as well... Another nurse was very nice and also explained everything and even let me listen to the babys heart and help give one little one a bath - I even got to hold one for a few minutes... A very fussy one that is! She kept turning her head looking for food and got all her tubes wrapped up (she was on oxygen nasal cannulas that kept falling out) but it was fun to hold her :)

Last night, I had to miss Greys Anatomy to go observe a Childbirth Education Class... It was the class's 6th and last session, so they were pretty knowledgeable, the information was very basic to me and I was happy to realize I knew almost all the answers to the instructors questions - NO that does not mean I want to have a baby anytime soon! It was so funny watching the [almost] new dads play with the dolls, learning how to "swaddle" and the proper positions for burping, etc.



Well, thats all for now - hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!

If We Were Dogs....

killing time on a cloudy friday with some dorky online "quizzes"...
this is meaghan:

You Are a Labrador Retriever

You are very optimistic. You approach life with enthusiasm and vigor. You aim to please, and you are a very quick learner. You can be a bit rowdy and unruly, especially when you don't get enough exercise. While you are a bit wild, you're never dangerous. You are a truly gentle creature.

What Breed of Dog Are You?

and this is jeremy...

You Are an American Bulldog

You are a very imposing, powerful creature... but deep down, you're generally good natured. You are incredibly energetic, and you like to blow off steam with sports and horsing around. You are naturally courageous. You would run into a burning building to save someone you loved. You intimidate people without trying to. Some people assume the worst of you when they first meet you.

What Breed of Dog Are You?

Disappointing

Well day one was okay, but nothing special.... I pretty much did not get to do any assessments, or anything, because there were 2 other nurses working with my patient (who actually wanted to sleep most of the day).   Disappointing;  Mostly because my friend Angela got to see and do SO MUCH today!  I am so jealous of her :)   I did get to watch her patient get an epidural - which was cool, and not as horrible as I had imagined it would look like... But she got to place a catheter, give IV meds, AND the baby be delivered!  Granted, she spent an extra 2 hours at the hospital, but still - how cool!    I just hope I get to experience those things sometime in the next 3 weeks!

Tommorrow... Thursday

Tomorrow is my first day of OB clinical at Creighton University Medical Center....   If you have been watching national news then you may recognize that hospital as the one where kids keep getting dropped off at because of Nebraska's "Safe Haven" law. If you haven't heard of this, look it up, its crazy.     Anyways, pretty excited for the experience since I did my nursing assistant work in postpartum care back home in Bellevue but also nervous/not excited because the students at this rotation before me did not have the best time.  Oh well, we will see starting tomorrow I guess :)

Thursday = my mom coming to visit!  Yay!  Can't wait to see you mom.