a grind of a week

 This week seems like it was never ending. Possibly because I'm back on night shifts. I feel like working nights just messes with ya... anyways lets take it back to what feels like weeks ago, but it was just 6 days ago... Monday night! Fika! with Karee and the girls to celebrate her birthday! Fika is a new place Jesse introduced me too and it's a self care haven so obviously I'm obsessed. We thought it would make for a fun, relaxing girls night so we booked it and it was just what everyone needed. Jesse and I went early (no one else could make it till a little later) to try out the hydro bar. So it's an hour of cold plunge, hot tub, sauna and my personal fav - the steam room. It's super relaxing - they have your choice of smell being infused and they give you water and electrolyte drinks. Like I said - relaxing - but I also just feel like Im doing something really good for my body as well as my mind. I honestly haven't done cold plunge/sauna since visiting Finland and Budapest back when I lived in Europe in 2019. I know remember how addicting it is. Me and jess loved it and plan on making it a monthly or even weekly habit. 

Then after our hour of cold/heat therapy we did an hour of massage therapy with the others. It was amazing. My favorite is the scalp massage. The best part is it's expected to be silent in the massage room so it truly is relaxing. 

A very fun night and the only bad thing was I had to go to work right after this :'( A very happy birthday to Karee and glad we are friends. It's weird to look back and not even remember how you became friends with people. I remember her introducing herself to Jesse and I at church but other than that I just remember her coming to Japan with me ahah. Crazy. This week of work was alright. I had to float Tuesday night down to the medicine floor. I had three OK patients but it's just never fun being on a different floor with people you don't know. Glad to get a float over with though. It seems like the majority of my patients recently have been heart patients. Last week and the beginning of this week was my heart transplant guy and later this week I had a step down mitral valve repair / ascending aorta repair guy. It's funny to remember how intimidated I was by vascular / cardio thoracic patients and now they are some of my favorites to take care of. They can still be intimidating depending on the person, but I enjoy learning more about such critical patients. 

Ive enjoyed the pretty sunsets that welcome me into work in the evenings. The weather has been a little chilly this week but today it seemed to warm up a little bit. Im not ready for the cold :'(

Good ole commode popcorn keeping us alive in the wee hours of the morning. Ive done or at least have tried to do lots of studying this week while at work. It's difficult retaining information when the clock says 4am, but I do my best. I really do felt like I studied all week though - another reason I think this week has been a long one. It paid off with a decent passing score of 80% on my final. It's not the grades Im used to, but it's better than the 74% on my midterm. And hey, that 80% gets me to pass the class. Hallelujah. Next class to conquer is advanced pharmacology. Im excited about this one. I struggled back in the day with pathophysiology, but I thrived in pharmacology so Im pumped. plus I just like learning more about medications. I also enjoyed learning more in patho this time around too though. It's fun learning something in school and immediately recognizing it in my nursing practice or vice versa. This last week a patient was confused because one of the nurses said he needed to take his heart medication before bed. He threw a fit because he doesn't take any heart medications. Well that specific heart medication, propranolol, is also used for symptoms of hyperthyroidism such as his tremors. I saw that at work and literally learned about it the next day. Cool stuff. alright enough geeking out. work and school are good. 

I got home from work Friday morning and slept from 10am till 5:15 pm. then slept that night from 1am till 9am. It feels nice to just sleep for a day straight after a week of nights haha. Some honorable mentions of the week: this hat I got myself. Pretty dope. It's been fun being more involved with this upcoming election and doing my best to educate myself. When I say educate myself I really just watch certain people on instagram, but it's better than nothing. Im intrigued to see how the election will go. I think either way hell will break loose, but I guess we'll wait and see. All I know is I don't want all this hard work and years of education to make myself a better life go to waste. Moving on - Erin got another thoracentesis yesterday. Another 500 ish out of her pleural space. They are testing the fluid this time to see what they find. So still just a waiting game. As of right now tumors are stable though. Today I was able to attend my co-workers baby blessing. She is samoan and her husband is the pastor - so between those two things I guess their first babies first birthday is a big deal in their church and culture. It was pretty awesome. Lots of music, dancing, big ole straw skirts and lots of hugging and kissing. The blessing itself was super similar to the way we bless our babies in the church. A group of men surround the baby, place their hands on her and the father says the prayer. The baby girl was smiling and clapping during the prayer and it made me kinda tear up thinking about the words being said and how happy the baby girl was. We all are truly children of god and it was super cool to experience someone else's way of worshipping and showing their love to him. Well, I think that is is for my super long week. Exciting week to come!