Noteworthy part 2

Sooo, I got my grades for pharmacology. I did pass and I didn't have the worst grade in the class. I got a 83% which is a B-. Not a stellar performance but if I study more and more effectively I should be able to pull myself up to at least a B+ if not an A-. It will take work, but I've dealt with that before.

So yesterday I wrote that it was noteworthy, and that was before I realized out of the blue that I have to drop out of choir. So when I went to choir yesterday night I talked with Frank and explained what was going on, how I was so busy and stressed that I couldn't put the time into it that the choir deserves. He was very understanding and said that he would miss me and maybe next semester would be better and I would be back. I hope it is.

I also got a new savings account at Workers'. This is the bank that just about all the students at AUC bank at because it's so close to the college. I'm going to try to get my check direct deposited to Workers' as I am lazy. In 2 weeks I will be getting my ATM card so that will be fun. I'm also picking up 2 extra hours of work today as Alnie can't work at all today. More money for studying it good with me!

Don't want to talk or think about school. As in what I am doing or what I need to be doing. There's a lot.

A day of note

One noteworthy thing that happened today was that there was a fire alarm in the girls dorm at 2 in the morning and I had to get up for clinical at 4:30 in the morning. That resulted in a very tired me working in the hospital on the floor taking care of a patient today. Mrs. Pusey grouched/yelled/chastised me for not being up to my best performance today and for not writing clearly enough on the chart. I was almost in tears at the end of the day. I had a really nice patient though, to make up for the horribleness of the rest of the day.

Another noteworthy occurrence is that when I got back to my room after dinner I had a message from one of the other students that I past the patient off to at the shift change. She was requesting that I give her a call and answer a question about my pt's output over my shift. She gave me the unit ext. but not the hospital number. I looked up the number, called them, got transferred and spoke with her all without any panic attacks. This might not sound like a very big accomplishment to most of you but I am phobic of two things: needles and phones. I've been working on the needles with some success, but phones don't like me and I don't like them. It is s red-letter day when I can call someone without having to calm and psyc myself up to dial. Sooo, yaah me!

Testing, testing

I just, just got done with my first ever pharmacology exam. I don't feel too hopeful right now. I didn't study the right things at all. I guessed on more questions than I am comfortable with. (Never mind that one is more than I'm comfortable with.... *grin*) I really felt like I didn't know what I was doing. I'm not talking with other nursing students. I don't want to know how people thought they did. I don't particularly want to know how I did. There might be a miracle and I passed well. I think I did pass; I'm just not sure by how much.

I don't think that I ever said how I did on the Med/Surg exam I had on Thursday. I told most people on the phone, but I'll say it again in cause I missed someone. I got the 2nd highest grade in the class at 96%. The whole class did really well and the head of the department congratulated us all.

It's almost time for class to start back now so... bye
I'll let you know how I really did when I find out.

"And the walls came tumbling..."

I was doing so well today. I got up at 8 this morning and studied. This is after I was up way to late last night. I was alert. I was focused (mostly). I was on the ball! And the I came to work.

Mrs. Diller wasn't there. I sat in the hall waiting for her for 10 minutes. That's fine, I know that things can come up. It is dead here so far. One person called with a question and one person stopped by with the same question (the answer was no) and that was all. Jeremy stopped by to say hi on the way to the cafe and I got to talk with Mom and Melissa. I then decided to try to get work done.

I need, need, to work on the major case study. I have a patient and a group to work on it with. I have all the books and resources. I even have the time to work on it today. What I don't have is the patient's past medical history. The other students have that and neither of them are answering their phone. See, we have to understand the disease process for everything this guy has. It took me 10 hours to do the research for the mini care plan. I have six hours today and I can't do it!

And on top of everything else something happened that has me completely wigged out. I am so confused and bemused and I don't understand what is going on. It's probably nothing. I'm imagining it. My period hormones must be affecting my mental status. No, maybe it's chronic O2 deprivation and high CO2 levels from my cold, although *that's* getting better. Thank God!

I suppose it's just that, except for a few bright spots (like seeing Melissa) last week was the hardest and worst I've ever had for school. And that's not just college. In 15 years I've never had it's equal. I need a really, really big rock to hide under for 8 months.

Ramblin'

Remember the whole feel-like-a-slab-of-meat-a-butcher's-about-to hack-into thing form a few days ago? Well, it turns out that the reason that I felt that way was because I was coming down with a cold. My first for the year. It couldn't have had worse timing.

What I've been doing for the past few days is

1. Finishing the "mini" care plan for Med surg. This took upwards of 20 hours and that was with 12 people working together. That was turned in on Tuesday.
2. Clinical. Originally I was supposed to observe in the cardiac catheterization lab for a second time but, as one of our clinical instructors choose to go on vacation and cutting out 2 days of us being in the hospital, I had ask if I could stay on the floor this Wednesday and it was granted. Then I came down with the cold. I could just picture myself coughing and sneezing over all the patients and giving my germs which, instead of being just a cold, turned into pneumonia. I went to the cardiac cath lab.
3. Studying and more studying! I just had my second Med/Surg exam and I am killing time 'til 2:30 when the results will be posted. I was so, so worried about this test. I don't have any idea of how it went, but I never do. I have been studying in (almost) every spare minute and I still feel like I should have studying more. However there truly is only so many hours a day my brain can handle thinking about respiratory diseases, especially if you have a cold and an inclination to hypochondriacism.
4. NOT going to choir. The way I see it is that even with a half hour break I took around 9 pm I still had a clear 2 hours extra study time. There would have been no point in me going either because I can't talk, at least when I do talk I sound as if I smoke 5 packs a day. I could have gone and sat in a corner listening, bored, feeling guilty for not reading, and contaminating the whole choir. No, I did the noble thing and stayed home.

That's really everything except...

Melissa came to visit me! Yes, my niece! The child of my sister traveled all the way from BC to see me! Ok, fine. To see Auntie Gail and be in her wedding, but it's All About Me! She and the GMP were only here for about 2 hours before they kept on their way to Pennsylvania, but I should see them again on Sunday.

Dizzy from hypoxemia in my brain. Can't breath. Stupid fly keeps dive-bombing me. Must go. Write later. I'm sick!

On this day of September 26, 2005...

A guest blogger was born... This is just Emilie on Debb's computer. Howdydoody! Today was a long day for each of us... and other random music and nursing majors as well. Debb spent 10 hours in front of a computer screen on a project that should have only taken 5, according to the professor. I was exhausted as well from a long day... and night of studying. Frustrated mostly with the fact that I spent hour upon hour reviewing for a test that didn't find it's place in the history of Monday. But we made it! Hurrah! And now we must go to beddi-bye. Yes. Dream land awaits... may that be sweet ones for everybody! And I promise tomorrow I wont seem as crazy as I might seem at this moment.

Goodnight! With love in Jesus,

Ellie

*whimper*

I hurt. I let Myrna and Jeremy and Emilie and Madison convince me to go, nay participate, in Almost Anything Goes. AAG's was someone's idea of a fun time. You divide the students by class and then make them compete against each other in a disgusting show of "school spirit" and "class spirit". The prize for the winners was going free to Six Flags today. Everyone else has to pay the discount price of $10.

It involved things like rolling around on the floor blowing at ping pong balls and slithering through inner tubes in groups and popping balloons with your butt while other people hold it. My knee and both hip bones are bruised from incidents while blowing ping pong around, my pelvic bones feel like they have brand-new flat spots on them form popping balloons that were blown up to the size of my fist, my elbow has the skin worn off from being hauled about on a mattress born, not in the arms, but the legs for my classmates (think very, very bumpy), my head still is pounding, and my voice sounds a step less weird than Dark Vader's. In a word, I'm a wreck. And all that for nothing. The sophomores won. Senior's were behind by one point, but we didn't win. Not that I could have gone to Six Flags anyway. (See paragraph after next)

And it stopped being Sabbath. That makes me very sad. I wish it could always be Sabbath. In other words I have been studying since 7 in the morning. That means I had six hours of sleep and those of you who have lived with me know that I like to get about 10 hours of sleep when I can. I'll do with 8, but I want 10.

My Med/Surg class has a huge, huge case study that is due on Tuesday and a very important test on Thursday, and Klavdia and I have our observation papers due on Wednesday and my group still needs to work on the major case study that is due (I think) next Wednesday. This morning and afternoon I have been working on the case study until the other students that I was working with told me that I had stopped making any sense at all and I when to read people's blogs but hardly anyone had written at all, so write people! I need entertainment! Anyway, I thought that I would write myself so you all would have something to read.

I looked really good yesterday and I got lots and lots of complements, some from people I don't really know. Well, I know them by sight because you know everyone by sight on AUC, but that doesn't count. And now I feel like a piece of meat hanging in the butcher's freezer. *Whimper*

I love Sabbath

I have been so stressed out, crazy-insane-busy all week and it will start all over again on Sunday. But right now I have 24 hours where I can put all those worries and fears aside and just be happy. I have decided that there is an art to being happy.

One of my classmates (in nursing of course, I hardly ever see anyone else it feels like) is always so happy and cheerful. It's not a front or a show either. She's the kind of person that *dances* into her patient's room in the morning, humming all the way. She seems so care-free, so glad to be there that no matter how lonely or sad or depressed they are, they always smile back. That's the kind of person I want to be.

Today we are having student church out on the campus mall and it's supposed to only get into the high 60's today. I really love Fall! This weather is just perfect. It took me a while but I no longer hold the fact that winter is the next season against autumn. That's not its fault, so just enjoy it for itself.

There is also at least one person on campus who believes us when Jeremy and I tell them we aren't dating. So that's nice, especially after a certain nursing student who is engaged and in OB right now tried to convince us both, separately that we should be dating after we explained that we weren't. She is very persistent. I think she's high on baby hormones.

Lot's going on with school and projects and tests, but I'm not going to think about that (sing-song) because it's Sabbath!