Clinicals

So last night I had my first ever hospital clinical, not really what I expected. I guess I was expecting more hand holding from my instructor and nurse, but I was much more alone and on my own. My initial patient was not in his room and my nurse (finally) figured out where he was, surgery. She had no idea when he would be back. So my instructor told me to have her give me another patient, but she didn't claim to have another good patient, so I got a man she didn't really want to give me. I started working that one up and then the nurse got a call from the doctor saying he was getting discharged in an hour. Back to no patient. Then my nurse ditched me and I was alone, again. The first patient I had came back from surgery and I had him again, for about 5 minutes, then his family decided that they didn't want a student. My instructor found me reading and assigned me a third patient. This one was actually super. Great person and great family members.

Throughout the evening  I had a couple of chances to do other things with random patients. I put a straight catheter in a female patient!! Woo hoo...on the first try, nice and smooth. This patient was also anatomically a challenge, with a prolapsed bladder. Very awesome.

I was pretty nervous last night, because I was not exactly sure of what I can and can not do. It was also tough because my nurse(s) didn't really want to take the time to show me what I could do. They would rush and do it themselves, a little frustrating. I am glad I do not go back for 2 weeks, but I am kind of excited to see what else I can get to do. I want to be doing IV's SOOOOO bad!! We shall see.

This weekend I am running a 5k that Carrie had planned on doing and talked me into ;). It will hopefully not be storming, light rain is ok, just no lightning please. It is right up the street. I sorta have a goal in mind on my time, even though I kinda feel like I should just run it the best I can and be happy with that. I mean I haven't exactly been training to improve my 5K time, this was a spur of the moment sign up. Anyways, I am hoping for 38:00, but realistically I think I will be happy with 40:00 and under. I think my best time is 43:52 and that was the Get Your Rear in Gear race that sucked for me....so fingers crossed. Carrie said she is going to group run and doing her 4.5 miles first and then the race (saturday is our long run day), I told her she was crazy!! But probably smarter than me...I have a feeling she will get all her miles in on Saturday where as I will probably put my long run off til Sunday, when I will be in GB.

Off to AA and Al-anon meetings for school.....getting ahead of this game!

It's monday again...

So I had a LONG day of classes again and I will every Monday for the rest of my semester....So glad to be home. I am supposed to be doing homework, but I am really ahead and I am feeling tired, but afraid to go to bed so early, so here I am. Kevin is playing around with his camera, whatever makes him happy! I kinda thought about running, but shucks I already showered! LOL. I know its an excuse, but I have had such a hard time getting back into the whole running thing with my classes starting up again, I am so lame!!
Tomorrow - I will get up early and do some miles!
Until then...Oh!! I almost forgot to write about this!!
I put an IV in a HUMAN!! I swear the next person to say "oh you work on animals, you have SOME knowledge about human meds..." I am gonna show them!! Bitch please!! Honestly though, IV's in humans was easy, seriously, they aren't biting, wiggling, peeing, pooping, anal glanding, growling, hissing, drooling, no hair to shave, and I can see the vessel!! Like DUH! Try doing this on a dog that is mad at you!! Ha!

Sorry had to get that off my chest....bring on the hard stuff ;)

Second Semester

Yup, life as I know it is over until next summer. School started on Monday. It was a long day, class from 8-5, but I got up super early for parking. I had it in my mind that I would leave my apartment no later than 6:30 am to get a spot, well it was just a little later than that but I was worried. There was traffic on 96 and I was cursing myself for taking that way (but just found out today there is construction on 13th so it would of been just as bad). I thought I would be fighting for a spot, but there was like 10 cars in the lot total. Sweet!
I watched a girl try to park her car on the other side of the lot, right next to a truck and she pulledin and backed out to correct her parking about 3 times, then she gave up and decided to come all the way to my side of the lot and park between me and the other car I was near ( seriously?!) She proceeded to pull in and correct a few times and then she got out and swung her door right into my truck! Honestly there was nearly NO ONE in the lot, what was wrong with her?! So that is how first day of second semester of nursing school started!
The day itself was ok, long and kinda dull. I tried hard to steer clear of Janet, as I can not stand the other girls that she hangs out with, but that failed. I went to my truck at lunch to get rid of several books and she followed me. Then she tried to include me in a group project later, that I wanted no part of because of the other girls. Just as I thought ok I am done with today, my last class put us in assigned groups....with Janet! Ugh. I am so in for a long semester.
So the last two days I have been trying really hard to get as much of the "fluff" work out of the way as possible, like the Medscape stuff and ATI testing, which I have been really productive on!, but I went (for extra credit to meet my 370 instructor today) and she said I did the wrong ATI modules! There are 6 of them and they are super time consuming!!! Okay, enough bitching about that, it is only day 3 ... I have time to fix it.
In my other world, running, I am feeling so UN-motivated this week to run. In all honesty I haven't yet at all!. I need to change this and do some exercise!!!
Laters!

I ran 10 miles??

Yes I did!! I felt pretty decent considering how much I had dreaded this run. I started off thinking that I would try to run 5 miles non-stop, then I would do 3/1 run/walk minute intervals. More or less I did. There were a few spots that I was super tired, but I got through it.
I do have to say that this morning and last night I was SO sore. My muscles were fine but my knees were a different story. It felt like the tops of my patellas were hitting (hard) on my femurs. It hurt. Stairs hurt and moving hurt. They seem much better this afternoon and evening though.
Tomorrow I start my first day of second semester of nursing school....dreading it. I want to be done with school so badly.
Short post tonight.

End of Summer

I am not sure where to begin...
I went to RI for 2 weeks and am SOOOO glad to be home. :) I had a good time, but it is really nice to know officially where I call home....Kansas. I feel at home here and I feel like I belong. Anyways, I got to finally meet Bruce!! He is so CUTE and ADORABLE! Love that little boy!! I really did have the best time out there with Bruce and Candice.

Me and Bruce

That was the highlight of my trip. I also did a bunch of house work for my grandparents, like cleaning the rugs and the entire house. They are old and they really can not do it anymore. And most of my family that is close to them (distance-wise) are lazy. So I went on vacation to clean. Oh well...such is life.

I also did a 5K on Block Island while I was out there. I think I wrote about it in an earlier post, but I had signed BRidget and her boyfriend Andre up for it as well. Well that was a waste of money. We got to Block Island and my mom and John went to get a bit of food, so the three of us started walking to the beach the race was on (according to the information 10 minutes from the dock turned into 1.5 miles of walking) and they complained the entire way about why we didn't get a taxi and we should of. How were these two going to make it another 3.1 miles and back to the ferry!?
Well we got there and checked in and waited. My mom and John were nowhere to be seen, so I called her and she said (begrudgingly) they were on their way. The race started to line up and I saw that my mom and John had just gotten there as we took off. Bridget started to run with me and then 50 feet or so started yelling to Andre (who was way ahead of us) to come back and walk with her, poor guy, he looked like he really wanted to run it. I kept going. The race director had apologized for high tide, but it hurt! (If you don't know, running on the beach is great ... at low tide because there is hard packed sand from where the water was at high tide, but at high tide your only options are to run in the water or to run in deep beach sand) I ran the entire 1.5 out to the turn around and started walking, my shins hurt from the angle on the beach. I figured I would pass Andre and Bridget, but no. So I got back and found them, they were done and they had gone through the finish chute. I was peeved. Then I looked around for my mom and John, again couldn't find them so I called - on the beach in the opposite direction. All in all this 5K was a fail. :(

I did manage to get a picture in my GoRun shirt at the beach though!

Of course coming home was not exactly easy, sparing all the details, Bridget and I got into quite the fight and then the same day my flight got 2 delays and I had to actually be rerouted to leave on Sunday instead of Friday.Oh did I want to cry! I was so ready to be home.

Aside from all the drama, I did get quite a few great runs in while I was out there and now that I am back in Kansas, the weather has cooled off significantly. I am pretty excited for my training to be in the second half, but really kinda nervous about 13.1 miles!! I just got my second half of training plans and they are about the same during the week, but the long runs are scary! I have 10 miles to do this weekend! I am hoping that I will be in Great Bend this weekend so I can take advantage of dirt roads!! Cross your fingers!!
Oh and classes start next week, eek...not ready. I have an orientation every Friday for the next 3 weeks, but it all gets started in a few short days!! I want to be graduated already!!!!!