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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Looking forward

I am looking forward to be back to school. It was nice having a week off, but to be honest, I love the people I go to school with and I love staying busy and going to clinicals! I'm hoping that the rest of my OB rotation will be eventful! My first two days, nothing happened; which was great for some people, not so great for others, and very unfortunate for me! I wanted to cry. We only get 6 days in our specialty rotations (so six days in OB and six days in mental health) so you have to make the most of the experience. We only get one day in Labor and Delivery and my day two moms gave birth but I didn't get to see either because with one there were way too many people in the room and in the other the midwife didn't want students in the room (pouting face). So I'm hoping to convince my instructor to send me to labor and delivery again!! We'll see though. If nothing else I'll get lots of practice giving IM injections to mothers and babies!! YAY! 


Today I while I was at work, things were a little slow so I had time to think. I started to think about my mental health rotation. There's a lot of negative feelings, emotions, and thoughts about going into mental health. I think the hardest part is just talking to people. Our society is one that we try to avoid personal contact as much as possible. Not only do we avoid personal contact, we also avoid conversation with one another. Honestly, who likes to talk about "feelings"? No one really does...it's something we avoid, and even run away from at times! 


I also think that mental health in general still has a stigma attached to it. I was talking to my older sister about it and she was telling me about having heard this example be given...'If you have a cavity of course you're going to go to the dentist to get it taken care of. No one thinks twice about that. If you're bleeding from somewhere or something that shouldn't be bleeding you're going to go to the ER to get it checked out. If you're just not feeling great you're going to schedule an appointment to get a check up with your doctor. If you have just been diagnosed with diabetes you're going to schedule a follow-up appointment'. All of the examples I've just given you no one would think twice about asking "why" they are taking care of those needs. So why then, is there still a stigma to mental health? Why then is it looked down on for someone who has to be hospitalized because they have bipolar disorder and right now they're thinking about killing themselves. Why is it looked down on someone going through a manic episode to have to go to the hospital? 


I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about this rotation. But what intimidates me more than the people is the way we're supposed to talk to these people. We're trained to have open-ended conversations with our patients. So instead of saying "Why are you here today?" we are told to say "What brings you here?". It's the talking and listening that I think is so difficult for everyone with this rotation. We have to offer ourselves to these individuals. We have to put ourselves out there and be willing to spend time with our patients and hear what they have to say. We have to care. We have to drop our guards and go out of our comfort zone and we have to listen to what this person who is experiencing physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. 


While I was pondering all of this a quote came to mind. I want to leave you all with it to ponder as well. I don't know who said it or where I've heard it but it's something like, "You know my name, not my story. You've heard what I've done, not what I've been through". 


P.S. this week marks the 10th week of the semester. That means only five weeks left of level three!!! HOLY SMOKES!!!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Okay so it's not all terrible...

I forgot to mention in my previous post that something amazing happened to me yesterday, and all that I can say is that it was a God-thing! I think He knew that I was going to need a blessing to help me get through the day. While I was sitting in the waiting area while my window was getting taken care of I received a phone call. I didn't recognize the number but still decided to answer. Much to my surprise it was a call from CNM saying that I have been awarded the Albuquerque Women's Club scholarship! I have never even heard of the scholarship, much less apply for it! I was told all I have to do is fill out a letter saying why I think it would benefit me, fill out the application...and bam...I've already been awarded it, so it doesn't have to be processed...It's like it all happened backwards! Who would've thought?! All I can say is, "Thank you God for such a blessing!!!" WOOT!!!! *happy dance* So even when it seems like things are falling apart and you don't know what to do...it's not all terrible. Somehow little blessings pop up all around us and keep us moving along!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

I don't do breaks!!!

Let's just start off by saying I don't to breaks. Spring break might be more fun if I was with my big sister who lives in Florida (even though she's on a road trip right now), or if I had big plans, but no I'm here...in Albuquerque...and all that seems to happen when I have a school break is trouble.

I went to the zoo yesterday with my family and got sunburned (in 70 degree weather) even though I had sunscreen on, I ended the day with a massive migraine, and my car window that got rolled down on our way home from the zoo decided it wanted to break and wouldn't roll up.

So my sweet little brother (Sam) tried to help me fix my window. We were able to get the panel off my door and look at it and decide that it was the regulator that needs replaced and there wasn't much that we could do. So with much dismay we pieced my door back together and decided to try and call our local mechanic in the morning to see what can me done.

This morning I woke up at 8, which on break I'd normally sleep in until noon if I'm being honest...I guess having to get up at 4:45-5am on my clinical mornings is starting to change my sleep pattern...any hoot...when I got up and dressed I started making phone calls to the different shops to try and find out where to take my car. I knew that my breaks also needed attention since they hadn't been changed since I got my car and they were now starting to squeal. Around noon I was finally able to make some progress with finding out where to take my car. So I got my window back up while we wait for the regulator to get to the store (now I don't have to feel so naked with my care window rolled down).

Between getting my window taking care of and going to take care of my breaks my mom and I went to a little "hole in the wall" here in town called Sophia's Place. It's a little restaurant here in town that was featured on
Guy Ferrari's: Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and I had been wanting to try! It was fun to try a place that we'd never been to..and the food was really good! :)

With a smile on our faces and our stomachs full of good food we made our way to Break Master's to get a break inspection. I was expecting it to be more expensive to fix up my breaks, but I never imagined they'd tell me it would be nearly $800 and that my transmission is on its last leg!!! ACK! So now I'm faced with trying to decide if I want to fork out the money to keep up my '92 Honda that only has 114,000 miles on it, or if I want to try and make it last until I graduate and have a job and can afford a new(er) car. I suppose the only question that matters is how long my car will last...

And that my dear friends is why I don't to breaks. It means you have time to drive around town and try and get general maintenance done on your car and find out it has vascular stenosis, type 2 diabetes, and needs its front toes to be amputated and a kidney transplant! Blah...so I hope everyone else is kicking back and loving their spring break. Enjoy it extra for me...at least I've gotten my workouts in..that counts for something!! :)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

There's a foul smell in the air!

Oh six weeks how you're just flown by! I start my OB rotation at UNMH (university of new mexico hospital) which means that I successfully completed my med-surg rotation and passed!! :) There's a lot to be said for that...hahaha...actually my med-surg rotation was simply amazing! I wouldn't trade that experience for anything! Also with the switch of clinical rotations comes the mid-term! *DUN, DUN, DUN* For those of you who are wondering what one's house would start to look like when it comes time to study for an exam, please allow me to show you...it looks a little something like this...

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My family was out of town over the weekend and so what did I do, well I cleaned off the kitchen table and claimed it as my own! That's right...this table won't be seeing a family dinner until after my exam has been completed!!!!

Everyone is nervous about this exam because one of our lecture instructors is new to our nursing progra, and the material he covered isn't going to be on our exam. He was supposed to cover our urinary disorders and all that he covered was the urinary system structures (which, if there was anyone that didn't know what the urinary system contains shouldn't even be in level 3) and UTIs (which again, if no one knows how to handle UTIs they should go back to level 1)!!! So we were all responsible for taking our learning into our own hands, so we shall see how that goes tomorrow! My motto for the urinary system is, "If there's a foul smell in the air, you probably have a problem down there!" hahaha...