Sunday, June 27, 2010

Nursing School

When they tell you that going to nursing school is hard they werent kidding. I am half way thru what they call nursing bootcamp. I have managed to make it this far and it has been quite a ride. I have had to do at least 2 hours a night if not more of homework or research or a project. I have managed to keep my grades up with an A average so far. I am very proud of that considering I have four kids and my husband isn't home at night because he works two jobs so that I dint have to work while I am in school. We had started our practicals in the lab learning the art of bedside care. This includes bed baths and changing the linens while the patient is in the bed and SRD's and transferring a patient for their bed to wheelchair and some others. I could go on forever about all this. I am learning that in Nursing school that you definitely have to learn to manage your time effectively. If you don't you will fail. Our class had a start of 41. We are now down to 28 or 29. We have lost quite a bit. We have also learned that if you don't show up you will fail too. There are several in our class that don't come to every class and or sleep in class and I am thinking why would you want to sleep when your education is right here in front of you and not to mention that it is very expensive and all you have to do is pay attention. You will learn a lot from the instructors. We have a wide variety of experience from the instructors. We have one that was in charge of the St. Francis Children's Hospital and one that did Labor and Delivery and one that did ICU. I am very excited about this career and life path that I was led to. God works in mysterious ways that is for sure. I am so glad that He intervened in our life when he did. Did I mention that my favorite subject so far is Anatomy and Physiology. Weird, HUH??? I did not do so well in high school in this subject but that is because I was more concerned about my social life than I was my education. Its not like that this time around. Its funny when you go to college and their will always be those people that act like they are still in high school. I made it clear from the very beginning...I am not here to make friends I am here to get an education, If I make some along the way great but I am not letting that be the focus of my life. I am doing this to help people and to provide a better choice of opportunities to my kids. I will try to keep you updated on my journey to becoming a nurse....

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

One year ago.....



One year ago at this time I was laying in my hospital bed with IVs everywhere and my kids with my mom and my husband sitting in the corner scared to death. It was about this time that we found out I had severe Pre Eclampsia and was experiencing all the symptoms (vision changes head aches...you get the point) As I lay there in my bed knowing what was going to transpire in 24 hours I was becoming nervous. I was in the hospital to deliver my last baby. Normally this would be a joyous occasion and it still was but the overwhelming fear in the pit of my stomach was growing. I was delivering him 5 weeks early. That is a scary thing. I have never had to deliver that early and I knew of the complications that were to come if things didn't go well. Just a couple days before I had an ultrasound and he looked normal and no cord around his neck. As the labor progressed I was becoming a little more calm probably because of the drugs and the wonderful nurse and husband that I had in the room. I wasn't worried until he came out. Landon was born at 4:05pm on June 3, 2009. He wasn't crying at first there was complete silence. The cord was around his neck. He was on the side of the fence that required him to be in the NICU and have his own support team. I got to see my son for 5 minutes at the most after all that pain and labor. His lungs were not developed like they should have been and he needed a lot of help. Almost two weeks later our little boy got to go home after proving he was a fighter and didn't want to be away from us. This is where I decided on what kind of nurse I want to be. I want to work on the Maternity floor or in the NICU. I am now enrolled in college to become an RN and to help people like they helped us. I am so grateful for everything and everyone at the NICU @ St. Johns. Its amazing how much can change in a year. You go from a really bad situation to now. I am so blessed to be here with a pretty healthy little one year old red headed boy. Things could have been so much worse.