Tis the season

 hello blogworld. So this week was awesome. To start off the week I went to instacare. haha. I swear this week was still super awesome. Anyways last weekend I had a sore pop up in the back of my throat and it started to get worse. I was having symptoms like headache, nausea and fatigue (probably due to the lack of sleep from my night shifts) but I decided to get tested for strep and covid just in case. Everything came back negative and I guess the ulcer is just my bodies way of telling me Im stressed. So thats fun. Ive been using a mouthwash all week and it is finally almost healed. happy to eat without pain again. 

And temple tuesday! This week I have decided to take it easy to try and get my body back feeling good. Haven't worked out all week - trying to get a lot of sleep and just getting school work done. Wednesday was a normal school day and then I got to have a sleepover with Kelsi!!

Very very grateful for friends and family letting me sleep at their homes. The next morning I had my first day of lab! It was such a good morning - and such a good confidence booster. We were given a couple case studies to look over before class and then during class we went through those case studies and a few others. Sounds boring I know - but it was so fun. Honestly. It feels good to have things click and for everything to just make sense. There would be certain things where it mentioned giving a medication that is usually indicated in the situation, BUT in this certain patient situation it was contraindicated and it just felt good to recognize that. Also coming from our med surg class on wednesday and just feeling beat up and straight up stupid to then hearing from our lab instructor how well we are doing with critical thinking was super nice. This is nerdy, but honestly left on a high. As I was leaving class I was thinking how much I enjoy school. How grateful I am that I enjoy school. And how there is really no place I would have rather been than sitting there in class - and thats a lot coming from me because y'all know Id dip down to stg in a heart beat. Anyways - it got me thinking about a certain paragraph in my patriarchal blessing that talks about enjoying every season of life. Its so easy for us to wish away the present. "I cant wait till I graduate" "I cant wait till I have a real job" "I cant wait till Im married and have kids" Ya those things will be awesome, but right now Im grateful for this stage of life. The season I have to gain an education, better myself, have fun with my friends and to try and figure out life. After lab, I took a nap at Kelsi's house which was so dang nice and a must to stay awake all night. We love night shifts haha. Nah, but really I enjoy them - did they give me a stress ulcer? and mess my body up? and in the moment maybe make me hate myself? yes. but its also just a good ole time. so thursday night we had two patients. One that was a step down patient who was post op EVAR (endovascular aneurysm repair) and the other who was post op hip revision. Both patients were pretty chill. I was able to hop over with another nurse and visit with his patient who had just gotten an LVAD (left ventricular assist device). This patient was telling me about his story and all about is new device. He mentioned that his doctor had told him that he would be lucky to live another 6 months without getting this surgery. He then told me "now that'll motivate ya like hell" haha. Having an LVAD is a commitment and you have to make some definite lifestyle changes, but it was so cool to see how happy and excited this guy was to keep living. Friday I slept as much as I could - 5 freaking hours. So I gave in to the caffeine and picked up a coke that night before I went back on shift. 

Wendys spicy nuggs to fuel my friday night. Lets gooo! We were welcomed onto shift by a fun little patient and by fun little patient I mean a new admit brought by the ambulance due to seizures. When we walked in the room his o2 sats were fine, BP a little low but nothing crazy, but this guy was not responding to us at all. He had no IV access and sternal rubs weren't getting this guy to wake up. So I started an IV on this guy. We checked his blood sugar to find out it was too low for the glucometer to read. We checked again just to make sure and yep... too low. So we pushed 20ml of D50. Which is kind of funny because we had just learned about D50 in lab - its super thick sugar gel that you just jam in the IV. We continued trying to wake him up and finally he opens his eyes. One nurse had said something like "oh good you're waking up" and his response was "Ya because y'all keep pounding on my chest" haha we then ask him if he knows where he is at... he yells "Probably some effing torture hospital!" Gotta love it. His blood sugars struggled staying up the first half the shift so we were constantly poking his finger and giving more D50 as well as putting him on a D5 drip and trying to get him to stay awake and talk to us. Super interesting and it kept me good and awake for awhile. By the end of the shift he was able to take his PO meds, move spontaneously and talk to us. It was fun for me to be in a more fast acting situation and knowing that obtaining IV access was one of the top priorities and acting on it. Makes me feel cool haha. I also enjoyed gaining more independence. Kellie, my nurse, would let me check his status by myself and give meds to our other patients alone as well. Fun night, but dang I was ready to peace out once 0730 came around. Slept again at mandy and masons and I actually slept 7 hours this time around! I was originally planning on having a third shift this week, but sadly that night my nurse got called off, therefore, I got called off. So I slept seven hours for nothing! I was so ready to do another shift and pretty bummed to just go home. Thats ok though because I had a movie night with the gals and treated myself to a nice long shower and spa night ahah...

I call this my grinch mask. Bad news though - I couldnt fall asleep till 3am because I had practically slept all day! sheesh, my poor body doesn't know what schedule Im supposed to be on. Well folks life is good. Like I said - just enjoying every season of life the best I can.