Monday, March 20, 2006

 

Okay, it's been a little longer than I thought

Wow...... a whole week without an update. Oooops!

The last couple of weeks have been a little weird. I went to the doctor on the 10th, and I came to the conclusion that doctors should not start any tests on a weekend. I went in to talk to him about getting new allergy meds and renewing my Nexium. I also wanted to talk to him about the discolorations that started showing up on my feet. Since I know that venous problems in the legs can lead to these types of spots, I knew I needed to get them checked. My doctor examined my feet and decided that it is most likely either a circulatory problems or diabetes. So, he then says "It's been a while since we drew any labs for you, we'll go ahead and draw blood and do a complete set of labs: sugar, liver enzymes, and so on." He also orders a set of vascular studies for me, an ankle-brachial index (ABI) and a doppler scan. Wheeeeeee....... Nothing like this to set the mood for your weekend.

On Monday, I get an email from Buster telling me that the local hospital called and I needed to call them back. Since he did not send me the whole voicemail message, I did not know if this is to schedule the vascular exam or about the fellowship that I applied for. So, I called the number back, and it was the outpatient vascular lab confirming my appointment for Tuesday. Whaaa??? Luckily, I was able to get that day off and made it to the lab without issues. I have to say, being on the other side of the hospital bed/chair was a bit odd. I got to talking with the sonographer/tech while she was doing my scans, and she said that everything looked okay from her perspective. She also said that she doesn't normally give people the results but "since I was in the field and probably would be part of the company" she would go ahead and let me know. Overall, the whole experience was actually pleasant, at least as pleasant as medical testing can be. Of course, since my circulation looks good, that means the discolorations are probably related to diabetes. But, since I have not heard anything about the results of my labs, I don't know what my glucose was at. Hmmmm, guess I will have to call and hound them about it.

On the school front, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week was the review for the HESI test coming up next quarter. Trying to condense the last year and a half into three days. Needless to say, leaving there each day I felt like I had worked a 12 hours shift. So, my HESI is scheduled for the morning of April 1. A little scary, but that is one of the last 2 major hurdles before becoming a nurse.

It also looks like I finally have my preceptorship for next quarter worked out. I will be working on a medical intermediate care floor, on weekend nights (nights! ugh!). It looks like I will be able to get the necessary hours in a month. Three, 12 hour shifts a week for 4 weeks. It looks like I will not be seeing much of anything in April, but I should be done and able to focus on the future for the last month of the quarter. All I need now is final approval from my advisor on my schedule. It looks like this will all work out after all.

Hmmm, once I write it all down, it doesn't seem like all of that should have really taken two weeks after all.............

Monday, March 06, 2006

 

And we're coming into the home stretch

This weekend was the last clinical day for the quarter. I had two patients to care for, and managed to get everthing done close to on time, even with one patient who was in soft restraints (Posey vest, wrist restraints, and a mitten on one hand) and had to be fed. My biggest issue was that I did not have key to my med drawers nor could I get my meds out of the Pyxis myself. I can't wait until I can actually do things like this for myself. I *hate* relying on the instructor to get into drawers/meds/etc. I heard rumors that next quarter we get access during our preceptorship, but I have not heard anything official on that.

Speaking of preceptorships next quarter, I just found out that my preceptor will be a weekend, night shift. I would rather not work 7p to 7a, but someone has to do it, and I did agree that I would take any shift as long as it was on the weekend. I think I can get all of my hours in 6 weeks, by working 2 shifts per week. I'll need to work 3 12 hour shifts in the cube-farm and take 4 hours of vacation for those 6 weeks, but that will still leave me some vacation time to use for graduation/pinning and boards. I may be a cranky bee-otch for those 6 weeks, but I can do anything if I know there is an end in sight.

Only 1 more assignment, and then 2 finals left in this quarter. The assignment is due by midnight tomorrow, and I already have about half of it done. I should be able to get some of it done today during lunch, so I should be in a good spot in terms of that. My trauma nursing final is a week from tomorrow, but that test will be easy since she already told us it is not comprehensive. My Med/Surg 4 final will probably be icky (pediatric psych and neuro mostly), but I have some wiggle room in that class since I did pretty good on the first 2 tests.

It's looking like a pretty easy week (of course that is how they all look at this time on Monday).

Friday, March 03, 2006

 

Nothing like a scholarly article to ruin a hobby

http://www.rpgstudies.net/hughes/therapy_is_fantasy.html

This article is somewhat old, in an academic sense (1988), but it is still a bit funny. Basically, it is this long, dry, academic essay about why people play Role-Playing-Games (RPGs). He talks about self efficacy, character as symbol and all that. However, he misses the main reason that most people like RPGs: They are fun! I seriously doubt that too many gamers get deep into the psychology and/or sociology of the game they play, they do it because it's fun. Duh!

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