Busy Week = Busy Weekend

First of all, I wanted to post the list of things I saw in my first day in clinic, it's not going to make sense to anyone but the nurses that read this!

1. ?staph infx, CP

2. abd. pain, s/p RF, nausea

3. CP, rash, active TB

4. sinus pain, tympanic effusion

5. general f/u, decaying tooth

6. diarrhea, muscle aches, fevers, enlarged cervical LN > 3cm

7. prostatitis

8. ? PE

So I have made it through week 1 of 15 of working 50+ hours. I couldn't get anything done after work each night so I now also have a full weekend to do all of the things that I normally would have taken are of after work. This morning, I went to the gym, went to Target to buy a box so I could ship back all of the unneccessary textbooks I was told to buy and then told that the syllabus had been updated and none of those books were on it, went to the post office and waited in line for 20 minutes only to find out that since my package had postage due on it once it arrives at Amazon I needlessly waited in line with a box heavy enough that my arms still ache, went to the library, came home and ate lunch, took a shower, washed the rugs, cleaned our bedroom (dusted and swept), and am now about to make lasagna. Why you ask? We are continuing our dinner rotation with S and A and this time invited another couple to join. They're arriving at 5 and both have kids that must adhere to a schedule so it's time to get cracking.

Two Sets of Rules

Another example of a double standard aimed squarely at the nursing profession. As you know, I work in a teaching hospital where students of every kind are just about in every setting. My own clinic is home to NP students and MDs in training, not to mention fellows. It was suggested by the powers that be that NP students be limited to one per semester but there are more than a handful of MDs at various points in their training process in the clinic on any given day, let alone semester. Why the contrast? Why is there one rule for NP students and another for MDs?

Class

This week is the first week of my modified work schedule:
Monday: 8-630
Tuesday: 8-630 unless I have class then it's 8-3p using 3.5 hours of vacation time
Wednesday: 8-630
Thursday: off to do 10 hours of clinical
Friday: 8-630

It is now Tuesday which means I have survived the first two days. Yesterday was tolerable, but started getting long at the 530 mark...the bonus is that I am now back to taking lunches because I was told that I would need to work 10.5 hours a day in order to get my time in and that skipping lunches was not feasible so now I'm making sure to take them!

I've also just gotten home from my first class which is the type of class I was waiting for since I decided to make nursing my major in undergrad. The focus is on Adult Health Promotion so we will be bringing in case studies, presenting them, discussing the pertinent negatives on the physical exam etc. The clinical portion we are expected to see patients, do the physicals, write the notes, write the prescriptions, order the labs etc. My first day is Thursday....


And I can't write about school without having a complaint about the constant lack of organization....About two months ago, we were sent a syllabus by someone other than the person who was listed as the instructor but is an advisor to many of us. The syllabus included the textbooks required for class so at that point I started to evaluate what I thought was worth it, what I already had, and what was fluff which I could just take out from the library. I ordered a lab interpretation book and an adult and family practice guideline books (that's two seperate books in case you're counting). After those books arrived, I received an email from the same person who originally sent the emails telling us the 2 books that were the ones we *really* needed, neither of which were on the original list. I then proceed to package up the books that I previously bought that were no longer on the short list of important books. Fast forward to tonight's class where a completely different syllabus was handed out by the actual instructor of the class with, wait for it.....a completely different set of mandatory texts! So there will be a total of 3 books that I was originally told to buy at 2 different time points that are actually not required at all. How is this level of disorganization acceptable?

Diabetic Kitty Update

Well, we have our first weekend of insulin injections under our belt and so far so good. We've already noticed that his water consumption is down and we are cleaning out the litter box less. Lucky for us, he's a very chill cat and doesn't really react at all to the injections. We usually do it right after he started eating, while he's still eating, because he's a one track kitty and when food is around the rest of the world doesn't exist. He pauses as the injection is going in and then goes right back to digging in.

It was a trying weekend in terms of having to switch his food times around so that he is being fed while one of us is home to do the injection....usually this does not bode well for me because I am the one he comes to annoy when he's hungry. This was the exact scenario that played out on Friday/early Saturday. He woke me up at 4a for his 7a feeding using a variety of his techniques. Initally, there's the forlorn meowing...then he will move onto putting his cold nose on my face. Then, if there is still no response, he will start moving things around on my night stand until I get so annoyed that I start waking up Morgan so he can deal with it! It's times like those that I tend to refer to Boigie as 'your cat' and muttering things like 'you deal with this' :)

A Big Kitty with Big Problems

Our dear young Boiglesworth has had a health setback. After a week of excessive peeing, and in turn, drinking my human clinical expertise had me worrying that our fair kitty was suffering from diabetes. M took him to the vet yesterday where they drew some blood and sent off a urine sample. The vet called today and he is indeed diabetic. This means that M and I will be functioning as Boigie's replacment pancreas by giving him insulin injections twice daily. M goes in for the patient teaching tomorrow, I was not able to get off work but I really just need to know the dose of insulin and where to stick it to Boigie.

The fun and games begin tomorrow.

Nursing Misrepresentation

I was just watching 30 Rock and was dismayed to see that Salma Hayek's character who is a nurse, remark that if she couldn't keep her private duty job she would have to go back to working the night shift at Dunkin' Donuts.

Does anyone else see this as insulting? This implies that there is no skill or training behind nursing...so much so that the only other option for employment is a doughnut shop. In the reverse, this also implies that those working the night shift at Dunkin' Donuts are capable and qualified to work as nurses.

I was disappointed to hear this careless comment because I had been given hope thus far with her portrayal as a nurse. There was no typical portrayal of the nurse as a bimbo-esque white hat short skirt wearing nymphet. She was actually wearing scrubs and a stethoscope and was doing exams on the patients. Then this remark.

Cobblestone and Cookies

Here is the finished Cobblestone. It was actually a really easy pattern to knit...there were times when I thought a maneuver seemed irrational but I forced myself to do it exactly like the pattern and then everything made sense later. If you are new to knitting sweaters, this would be a great one to try. The pattern is very simple to follow with nothing too tricky involved. I had to use my flash to get it to photograph at all, it's much more of a chocolate brown than it seems here.

Also, in celebration of the inauguration, I decided to make Obama's favorite cookie: chocolate chunk. I tried a new recipe this time instead of my old stand by and I wouldn't use it again without attempting to tweak it in some way. This time I tried the Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from my Baking Illustrated book but there's just something missing....it's like the cookie has the essence of chocolate chip in it but the batter is very bland. The extra chewiness comes from the addition of one extra egg yolk...I'll take this tip and apply it to another recipe. This is one of the first Cook's Illustrated recipes that I was not impressed with.

Cobblestone x 2

Hers ........................................and His..................

A Sign of Things to Come

Blah Blah Blah

Maybe I'm old, but I'm not excited about any of the 'New Spring Arrivals' I'm seeing anywhere. I don't feel like they are new, they are the same as last springs 'New Arrivals' and I'm really done with a lot of the trends right now.

I'm over patent, not a huge fan to begin with.
Do not like the high waisted pant look.
Sick of seeing flats everywhere for the 5th season in a row.

I think I'm just getting old, I've seen it all now. I didn't feel like there was anything new for winter either, espeically at Jcrew where every year, they haul out cabled sweaters in high class cashmere down to commoner cotton. But it's the same old same old, even the colors are boring. I'm getting to the point where I can't stomach another cabled sweater, three is probably over the quota for one person anyway.

Grow Up People.

Last night on my bus ride home, I witnessed this act of childishness between two grown men:

Man #1: Move in!
Man #2: I can't! Why don't you?

Series of shoves...yes they were actually shoving each other into other people on the bus yelling at each other how neither of them could move. Result: Man #1 trying to distance himself from Man #2 by standing as close as humanly possible to yours truly who was scowling at him in the reflection in the window.

Cobblestone and Baby Sheep

Last night I joined the arms to the body of the Cobblestone Sweater for M. I have decided I need to improve on hiding the wrap stitch on short rows....I have holes now where I had to wrap a stitch so I'll try to sew it up on the inside I guess. Other than that, this has been a really easy pattern so far....I'm almost up to the neck decreases which are usally pretty easy.

I'm thinking of tackling this for a random baby, I have none in mind I just like the sweater. I was thinking of E but he's too big for the largest size in this pattern. Next on the list would be S but I'm not sure she'd get much use out of it by the time I'm done. I am thinking of just making it in neutral colors and then I will give it to the next baby who is 9-12 months in cold winter months!

Post Weekend Reflection

Friday, I met up with a variety of past and current coworkers for a night out. It's always nice to catch up with people now that we're all going in different directions. Here's the run down on those I don't see too often:

M: in grad school hoping to apply to med school.
K: finishing med school, applying for residency, getting married in May
S: starting nursing school, leaving for another state in April
C: finished nursing school, awaiting the NCLEX, has job lined up

What a group of highly motivated friends!

The Non Resolution

I don't make New Year's resolutions. Nothing against them really, I just don't like to set myself up for failure. If I had a resolution, it would probably be the same as everyone elses...something along the lines of losing weight via working out and eating better. But like I said, not that into failure.

I did do something in the way of that non existent resolution though. I went to my first class at my gym that I've belonged to for about three years. One of my friends happened to mention she joined a gym this past Monday and has already been to four classes! Then I started thinking about an article that I read saying that people weren't backing down on buying gym memberships in these hard economic times, rather, they were hell bent on getting every pennies worth of the sometimes criminal fees charged. Maybe I too, should take this approach. Soak up the gymness....

The class was good, I'm still sore and it's nearly four days later. I didn't loooove the instructor though, he seemed very interested in trying to impress people with his complicated yoga poses than actually doing the exercises with us. I was also annoyed with his non rhetorical questions....'Are you feeling it? Huh? I didn't hear you guys' He would actually make us answer when we're struggling to breathe.

Anyway, I'm tempted to try this class again but am crossing my fingers for a different instructor. One who favors the rhetorical.

Next Knitting Projects

Well I certainly feel like pumping my fists in the air a bit after finishing the Burridge Lake Aran Blanket! I won't lie to you, do not take this on if you have even an ounce of committment-phobia in your blood. It was a great project, but the key here is allowing enough time to finish. I started this blanket in July and worked on it with about 80% gusto until October where I amped it up to 105% gusto and I still did not have time to complete the edging. My advice to you if you are thinking about giving this to someone from next Christmas is to start yesterday.



So you're next question is probably "Will you ever knit again after knitting so many cables that your hands have developed permanent contractures?" The answer, my pet, is yes. I've already begun. I'm doing a Cobblestone Pullover for M in Classic Elite 150 Chestnut Brown. Believe me, if I had planned this after the blanket I would never be doing it in brown but I actually started this project prior to the blanket, hence I'm stuck with the brown. In addition to M's Cobblestone pullover, I'm making a more feminized version for myself using some scrap yarn that I have intermixed with some hand dyed yarn that I bought at the Fiber Studio early this Fall.



After I complete those, my mother has now requested a blanket using the Cascade Ecological Wool. I also panicked and ordered way too much of the yarn for the Burridge blanket so now I have to do more projects utilizing brown. As a result, M will be the proud owner of a brown ribbed hat.

Lamenting...

I'm really lamenting the fact that I can't take a vacation because of the need to save all of my earned time for clinicals....a vacation sounds really good. Yes I know, I just had several days off because of the holidays but it's not the same as actually going somewhere. If I'm able to stay at this job all through clinicals, that means no vacation until May of 2010.

I think I've just got the grad school blues...I've been feeling sorry for myself lately for these reasons:
1. I have had a class every semester since January 2007
2. The future of my job is uncertain given the amount of time I can't be there because I have to be in clinicals
3. I can't really take any time off because I need to save it to cover for the times that I'm out on clinical

Bah!!!!