Welcome Back, Friends!

I could (and probaby should) spend the first few paragraphs of this post making apologies for my absence over the past 6 months...BUT since I have no good or worthwhile excuses (other than working full time outside the home [and all of the added expenses and scheduling issues that go along with that!] while trying to manage life with two teenagers in the home [and all of the added expenses and scheduling issues that go along with that!], I have none! Just like the trainers at the gym I joined when I started working January 2011 say when I put in my once-in-a-blue-moon appearances, "You're here now. That's what counts!"
I figure I need to make up one of those "1000 things to do in the next 100 months" type lists to get me motivated and focused on stuff I need to get done in spite of working full time. It seems that when I'm not at work, I am recovering from having been at work or preparing myself (mentally and physically...[read sleeping]) for my return to work. Everything takes precedence over housework.  Hubs says, "Let's watch a movie." My mind runs over the piles of mail stacked on taking over the kitchen table, the clothes in the washer and dryer, the dishes stacked in the sink and on the counter, the dust covering EVERYTHING, the toilets in need of a good scrubbing, etc. And out of my weary mouth comes, "Okay, what are our choices?" I just can't seem to tackle anything because, after all, it is my day off, right?
Alas, I abandoned my FlyLady approach to cleaning which in theory works wonderfully well IF you don't fall off of the band wagon as often as I did. Her daily e-mails used to say, "you're not behind..." but she hasn't seen my house, people. I am behind, and I mean years and years behind when it comes to housekeeping!
I didn't stay away for six months only to return to blog about my housekeeping woes. Or maybe that's why I have been away for 6 months. After all, my mama taught me "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." In all seriousness, I do love my job. I mostly look forward to going to work because every day is a different experience. I never know if I'll have the same patients, new patients, former patients who are returning, etc. I still feel slow and awkward (as evidenced by my staying an hour past my official "clock out" time to finish charting on my patients on a regular basis) but I'm getting better at making the "tough"decisions about patient care...like whether or not to give a blood pressure medication when their blood pressure is just above the parameter that says you hold it or when to call the doctor. Of course, that is a tricky situation because it totally depends on the doctor. One night I had a patient who was uncomfortable and nauseous most of the night. I tried everything in my power to keep him comfortable but did not call the doctor in the middle of the night. When the day nurse called (before I was gone for the day) I could tell the doctor was asking why no one had called sooner. So, the next night I had a different patient complain of nausea and just not feeling like himself (I had had this patient before and he was markedly "worse for the wear" so to speak), so I called the doctor and had my hindquarters handed to me on a silver platter for calling at such an ungodly hour when the doc was sleeping and I didn't have a list of requests that the doc could just say, "yes"to for the patient and roll over and go back to sleep. *sigh*
I am willing to take a couple of teeth marks in my backside for my patients. As a nurse, I am my patients' advocate. I don't blame the doctors for being cranky when awakened, but they're getting paid much bigger bucks than me to do their jobs, too.
Jumping subjects once again (because I have to work tonight and my bed is calling my name), I have been really bad about cooking lately. I'm spending record amounts on groceries, but that's because it's summer time, and to teenagers that means lazing and grazing all day long; and we're eating out more and more as well (talk about a bad and expensive combination!). I hope to have a quick and easy recipe to share in my next post. If anyone has any quick and easy recipe sharing memes, let me know. My family's birthday season has kicked off. I made the Hubs a caramel cake for Father's Day and a blackberry cobbler for his birthday last month. This month (this week in fact) is my daughter's birthday;  next month is my son's birthday. At the very least, I should have a few desserts to post soon...Until next time!

Long, hot summer

Welcome friends, family! I realized it had been a while since I've been online, but didn't realize it had been almost two months. I've tried to switch my background to reflect the transition from summer to fall. It's a little plain, but I didn't want to spend too much time hunting around for backgrounds this morning. Let's see, where do I begin...?
Work is going well.  I'm on my 5th of 9 rotations through medical-surgical units at the hospital.  So far, I much prefer the medical patients over the surgical ones.  I survived 5 weeks on the palliative care unit and actually enjoyed the serenity of caring for those near death. Sounds kind of morbid, and it really is difficult to explain.  I'm currently on an orthopedic-trauma unit, and it is tough. We get 'em, fix 'em, get 'em up and moving and out the door. Patients are constantly coming and going, and it's pretty tough to keep up. I'm doing my best. While I have loved the opportunity to rotate from floor to floor and experience different areas of med-surg care, I am looking forward to being assigned to one unit where I can really learn the ropes, the doctors, the medications, etc. and "settle in." That will come later this year or January 2012.  Meanwhile, I start working nights next month. I'm already trying to prepare myself mentally for staying awake all night.  I'm generally a night owl anyway, but it'll be different having the responsibility of five or six post-surgical patients in my care the entire time. Wish me luck!
The kids started back to school this week, and it has been quite the transition for them.  We started back on vitamins and allergy tablets a couple of weeks ago, but they've continued their summertime practice of staying up late and sleeping in up until Sunday night. Tsk, tsk (that's intended for me and them).
If you've been keeping up with the Texas heat you know that it really was a long, HOT summer around these parts.  I lost count of how many consecutive days of temps greater than 100 degrees after 35 or so. You walk outside to the car and feel as if the heat will blister you before you can get the a/c going.  Aaron still attended a couple weeks of band camp and participated in the 4th of July parade with the high school marching band.  Alisa attended a week of dance camp and a week of band camp.  My parents took them to Holly Lake, Texas for a little R & R at their time share.  All in all, we didn't do much.
We did manage a couple day's get away to Corpus Christi, TX back in July. The hubs has always wanted the kids to see a "Texas beach" and everything worked out so we took off. I'll post a separate blog about that a little later with a couple of pics.
I'm trying to distract myself from the kitchen for the time being.  I have my annual exam this afternoon and have to fast for blood work. I called the doctor's office to see if I can just run to the lab around the corner and have them draw blood so I can eat. My stomach is rumbling and I haven't quite gotten to the "over the hump where I'm no longer that hunger" point.  It doesn't help that the house still smells of pancakes and bacon because I got up and fixed breakfast for the family! Talk about sacrifice. My tall glass of ice water just isn't hitting the spot.
I'm off to hop around the blogosphere for a bit before I head out to run errands. I have missed blogging and catching up with what's going on with my fellow bloggers. I plan to poke around at least once a week to see what everyone is up to. Until next time....

Best day yet!

Well, folks, I knew the day would come when I could actually blog about a GOOD day at work.  Actually, any day is a good day at work since I truly love taking care of my patients.  Sometimes it's just frustrating because I'm not great at time management and prioritizing tasks and such so it feels like I'm running all day long without food, drink or potty relief only to still be behind at day's end. Yesterday, was no such day, let me tell you!
I wasn't working with my preceptor because she took on the role of charge nurse, so I was with another nurse.  We had four patients between the two of us.  I took 3 and she took one. (That's the brakes folks when you're a newbie resident!)  I was actually able to get all of my assessments done and charted and morning meds passed before my lunch break, which was around 1:30 (vs the 3 and 4 o'clock lunches I've been taking). I returned from lunch and discharged one of my patients and was actually caught up enough to admit another, but that patient ended up going somewhere else, so I just had the two patients at the end of the day.  I clocked out around 6:55 p.m. versus 7:10 or even 8:00 I clocked out one day last week! Aahh, did that feel good.  I'm so looking forward to many more days like that and even better.  I needed that little boost of confidence because it's time for me to move up to four patients, and before yesterday, I could barely manage with three.  Keep those prayers coming, friends. I've come a long way, but still have so far to go.

Day One is done!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have officially completed my first day on the new job, and all went well. It was a lot of sitting around and listening to people from different departments welcome us aboard and talk about patient safety, expectations, benefits, protected health information, employee health, etc.  There was a minor mixup with lunch so we had a choice of pizza or a box lunch with a sandwich, chips, fruit and a cookie (the pizza was supposed to be delivered for lunch tomorrow, but accidentally came a day early.
Although it was literally in the 70's on Saturday, now, some big storm is supposedly heading this way (remember I don't watch much news so I'm just going by reports of those around me) and bringing us snow and/or sleet. Our instructor says they follow the local school district as far as closings or late openings, but she hopes we can all make it on in.  The temperature has currently dropped from the high 50's to 48 degrees. That doesn't sound like much, but the low is supposed to be 11 degrees for tomorrow with a high of 27! That's what we here in Texas call a drastic change even though I admit it's nothing like 27 degrees below zero (but it feels like that to us Texans, especially when we were wearing shorts and flip-flops only 48 hours ago! The temperature is not so much the problem as the precipitation.  It was just pouring down rain a few minutes ago, so when the temps continue to drop the roads will be nothing but ice. *gulp!*
It's getting late, and I may just have to get up and go to work all over again tomorrow.  Naturally, the kids are hoping for a snow day...
Thanks for all of your prayers and words of encouragement as I embark on this new chapter in my life career. Until next time...