The adventures of Mighty Nurse

Here's a comic strip I drew based on true events in my nursing class. enjoy!


___ ok let me add an addendum to this. This didn't actually happen in my class, because we would be sued if it did. However, a classmate asked it if would be appropriate to use fruit juice in an IV line for a client who was hypoglycemic and not alert enough to just drink the cup of juice. Forget having an already prepared dose of glucose, otherwise known as D50...let's be creative here !!!

the outdoors are truly great

Nathan and I just got back from a weekend camping trip, and I feel more refreshed and relaxed than any weekend of sitting around watching tv could ever offer. Besides, there's nothing quite like hot dogs roasted with just a touch of dirt, smoke and ash mixed in.

Camping really is a cheap vacation, and if you bring along a pretty good airbed, it's comfortable too! Unfortunately our queen size airbed was just a little larger than the tent door, and it took quite a bit of grunting and shoving to cram it through. And before you make a smart comment about blowing it up ONCE it's inside the tent, there was no electricity nearby, and we had to carry it over to the bathhouse, blow it up and then carry it back. Apparently our electrical outlet that plug into the cigarette lighter in the car is not made for blowing up airbeds. haha.
Saturday night was a flash back in time though. As I was making Ramen noodles, I looked around and we were surrounded by fireflies. I haven't caught a firefly since I was probably four years old. It was so fun to chase them around and try to grab hold of one. Next time we go camping, I will bring a glass jar along to keep a few in and watch them glow for a while. I tried catching a picture of them glowing, but they never would light up at the right time.

Camping is such a great family activity -- it really brings everyone closer. State parks don't charge too much to rent a campsite, and it supports the great outdoors. So next time your bored and want a cheap way to relax, go tenting!

Life is wonderful

I'm more and more impressed every day with the importance of enjoying every single moment of life and making the most of every memory and time with loved ones. I had a patient die recently, and though I'm getting used to taking care of dying patients, it never gets easy to see death slowly, painfuly take over life. Thoughts race through your mind as you see the last few breaths fade away --thoughts that this person was once a vibrant, beautiful life who loved and was loved. My patient that died was completely alone, except for the nurses taking care of her. I found her still -- the nurse had checked on her only 5 or 8 minutes before and she was still breathing, shallow though it was. Her son refused to visit her once she came to our floor, so for two days, she laid silently in her hospital bed, fighting for air. They say hearing is the last sense to go before you die, and it breaks my heart to think of that poor old lady laying there hearing no one nearby. No family to cry over her, no son or daughter to hold her hand, or tuck her blankets tighter around her, or brush her hair back from her face.

I don't know what the circumstances were surrounding the family -- what hard feelings there were that hadn't been let go, or what caused the son to refuse to see her one last time. But it really made me think about my own life. Whatever hard feelings I might harbor towards someone, family or friends -- they are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things! What grudge is worth holding onto when life is never guaranteed, and something could happen to any one of us at any time? Every day that we stay angry towards another person, it becomes just that much easier to not make amends.

I just want to encourage everyone to live life for every single day. It's not worth getting angry over small things. Life is so amazing and wonderful, don't waste a minute of it!

NURDS

So I've begun creating my own comic strip, based off of antics from certain classmates in my nursing class. I've titled it "NURDS" which is short of Nurse Nerds. This one was inspired from the lead character to has recently been seen running around class taking extremely upclose pictures of everything possible (the back of people's necks, up his nose, his pupils etc...). I'll upload more as they come. =)

...

I'm sitting in my evening class, listening to the teacher talk about third world countries and death rates. It's interesting, but lately I'm having a hard time focusing on lectures and what not. So I figured I might as well blog.

It's been miserable weather lately -- the snow from the other night had pretty much completely melted by morning, but it was pretty while it lasted. I spent the weekend coughing and hacking, and felt a little better on sunday, so Nathan and I went down by the river and tried out our new camera. Unfortunately, it was only about 26 degrees outside, so our fingers froze long before our patience wore out. But we got some pretty good pictures I think.



Anyway -- I hate being sick, but I have enjoyed getting a little more rest these past two weeks, and it's been good for me. I feel a little less stressed about things, and I'm sleeping better. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who takes such good care of me. He's done so much for me while I've been sick, and he's so caring. I don't know what I'd do without him.

it's a white January 16...

Little late for a white christmas, but we have about two inches of snow outside as of right now...We'll see how much accumulates overnight. I have a fever right now of at least 102*F...I don't know how accurate the thermometer is, because sometimes it reads 96 degrees, and sometimes it reads 102. I can be sure it's closer to 102 because of how bad I feel. This sucks -- I have class every day of the week, and now it looks like I have to miss clinicals tomorrow morning -- no way I'm going out in the snow feeling like this.

Anyway, Nathan is gone to another state, as usual it seems, and I'm lonely. Which is why I'm sitting here watching horrible auditions on American Idol and flipping back and forth to the pilot show of Gossip Girl, which I've seen about five times because they can't seem to keep up with filming and make a new episode every week. O well. ... it beats shivering to death in bed by myself. The one night home alone that I didn't torture myself by watching reruns back - to - back of CSI's and Law & Order, I can't sleep early. lol -- serves, me right, huh?

So I'm sitting here sipping un-sweetened Peppermint Tea and wearing Nathan's old sweater. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? I know -- I'm thrilled =).

But it is nice to have a little bit of snow for this year. Unfortunately we live at the top of a hill, and if the roads ice over, I'll end up in the ditch across from the road. So I hope that there's no ice in the morning...we'll see what happens.

What a year this has been!

I thought that with the end of the year rapidly approaching, it would be appropriate to do the required look back over the past year on my blog, so here goes!

Time really has flown this last year -- I remember last Christmas time, Nathan and I were putting up our new four foot tree in our tiny little apartment.
Literally, you could reach everything from the couch. We ended up driving out to Georgia for Christmas to spend with my family, even though we were only able to stay for a couple days. Classes started again in January, and to be honest, I can't even remember what classes I took that semester. Shows how much I learned! But thus began the best year of my life, and it's continued to be amazing every new day.

I finished out the semester at TJC in Texas, and we spent the first few weeks of the summer on vacation taking a roadtrip up to Minnesota. I got to meet some of Nathan's family for the first time, and we had a (very) early birthday party for his grandma (we celebrated her birthday first of July ... it's actually in December, or sometime in the winter). We got the see the Mall of America, and I rode my first rollercoaster there in the mall!

We got back to Texas just in time to load up our u-Haul in pouring rain, and prepare for out trip out to Tennessee. Loading up that truck wasn't the only time it rained on us during that move. When we moved all the stuff out of the apartment and into storage, it rained. When we loaded up the truck, it rained. When we drove out to Tennessee, it rained. When we moved into our new house, it rained. I'm just thankful that none of our belongings got too wet or damaged.
We were greatly blessed when we moved to Tennessee and found out how large and beautiful our new home would be. We hadn't had the chance to come out and see it for ourselves, so we had to rely on friends taking pictures and promises from our landlord that it would be fixed up and presentable. Apparently, the two guys living in here before us were very uneligible bachelors who only needed a pathway from the door to their bed, because in all the pictures we saw, there was about three feet of crap piled on either side of the bedroom, and a small little path going through it. But we unlocked the door for the first time and set foot into a beautiful little two bedroom house that we will call home for at least the next four years. We absolutely love our home, and there's not much you can do to drag us out of it once we get home from the day.

Nathan continued working with his company in Texas, and I got a job at a rehabilitation hospital in town. The hours aren't the best, and I'm often tired from it, but it is fulfilling work, and in the long run, I love my job. I started my first semester at southern, and the last four months here have sped past. I finished my last final this morning, and I'm so happy to be done. I got accepted into the nursing program, and I'm so proud of myself for getting in.

We had some sad things happen this year as well though. As most of you know, we lost our dear little niece, Eleyna Petersen, at Thanksgiving time. Her passing has cast a shadow on many Thanksgivings to come, because we will always remember the sadness. Nathan and I spent our first wedding anniversary down in Florida at the funeral, so I'm hoping we can make it up next year by going somewhere special.

So now it's Christmas break, and I have a few days of freedom before I embark on what will possibly be the hardest two years of my life. But it'll be worth it, and I'm looking forward to it all (lol .. .ask me again in five months).

I want to wish everyone out there an amazing Christmas season -- don't forget what it's really all about, and spend time doing what matters most.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.