I'm still alive

Even though you might not know it based on the recent activity around here.  My schedule and workload this semester are absolutely insane and I've had to really prioritize things.  Quite sad that the priority is school, and the non-priorities are things like this blog, friends (who aren't classmates), TV shows, reading (books that aren't textbooks), sleep, eating...  I swear, I will get through nursing school and then have to be admitted to the hospital to fix the dehydration, malnutrition, electrolyte imbalances, increased cortisol levels, and whatever else I'm doing to myself.  Yay nursing school!

Other than stress and such, things are going well.  Only 5 more weeks to this semester from hell and then I can take a month off.  Those next 5 weeks are going to do their best to kill me, though.  I think I have an exam and/or a project due every week, sometimes more than one.  Some genius scheduled our Med-Surg and Mental Health ATI exams on consecutive days the week after Thanksgiving, plus I have 3 Med-Surg exams in the 2 weeks after Thanksgiving...2 regular exams, then the comprehensive final.  How uncool is that?  I will be living in the library those 2 weeks.

Still enjoying Med-Surg clinicals, although we've switched from ortho to cardiac stepdown for the rest of the semester.  Not as big a fan of cardiac, especially since most of the patients are on so many medications, which translates into more drugs to look up for our clinical worksheets.  But one thing I do like is that on cardiac, unless the patients are really sick, they'll talk to you a lot more.  On ortho, many patients were either pre-surgery and in pain, or post-op and in pain, so they were wanting pain meds and sleep and not wanting to chat.  On cardiac, they're awake and bored and wanting to chat.  My patient this past week even gave me an assignment...lol...he told me I need to stop apologizing when I have to move a patient, like if I have to lift his arm and he winces, or move his tray table to get to him.  I will now make a more conscious effort to stop apologizing.

Found out some good news about next semester -- they're trying to get us into actual clinical sites for our OB class!  The previous 2 classes have had maybe 1 or 2 days with patients, the rest has been videos and simulation.  I guess that's just part of being a new program.  But still, I am PSYCHED that we might get to do more in clinicals...since I have been waiting for OB class ever since I first started my nursing pre-reqs 2 years ago.  I'm also looking forward to our Peds class.  And I'm kinda hoping that since I've been pregnant and have kiddos, that I'll have a bit of an edge when it comes to course content.  After this semester, I will take any edge I might get!

In closing, here's a picture of 2 of my classmates and me taken last week at our Halloween party.  As if we don't see each other enough during the week, we wanted to have a Halloween party and see each other on the weekend  :-)  It was a blast...it was nice to be able to relax and have fun with them and not have to be stressing over classwork or clinicals or anything.  One of our classmates is from South Amercia (Uruguay) and he taught us gals how to do the Latin dances they do in the clubs at home...I swear I got a great workout with him...lol!

Back to schoolwork...Mental Health exam on Monday morning.  Spending the rest of the weekend on dementia, sleep disorders, eating disorders, and a couple other topics I can't think of right now...lol

Later gators  :-)