Do I really want to go into nursing?

So I’m traveling with the bank today…well, tonight.  I was pissed as hell yesterday.  All day, I knew that my overly sanguine boss would not think of making plans for this sub-region of our bank until the last minute. 

I have chemistry due every other night since I am taking a freaking summer school class.  I was hoping to fly under the radar and stay home.  Not so much.

At 5:45 last night (yes, unplanned working late because no one was prepared with the presentation we had to start using the NEXT DAY) she, in her passive aggressive way, told me that she wanted me to go to one of our sub-regions.  Tomorrow…which is today.  GOD that pissed me off.  I like to plan things at least a day ahead--at the least.  With chemistry looming and a very sick little Taterdoggie (started heartworm treatment yesterday) I did not want to make this trip.

But last night, I got all of the Chemistry work done that was due today. That changed my attitude MUCH for the better. I got up extra early this AM and showered, got ready, and packed.  Very low key.  My first two training sessions I held today went very well.

So I am traveling on the banks dime, by myself, and feeling pretty satisfied about it all.  And I have had a couple of dissenting thoughts about my future plans.  What if I just stayed in my current job?  What if I did not go to nursing school?  I am really having a good time right now, having a place of influence.  I’ve been in this position for almost 2 years, so people are starting to trust my work and my word.

Even in this crazy line of thinking, I couldn’t convince myself to back out of nursing.  But I couldn’t convince myself completely to NOT back out.

Why would I do this to myself?  All I’ve been working towards, just to up and stop the process?

I drove to the nearest wet county so I could have a couple of drinks with dinner after work.  To Goatee Man, in a very dry voice, “Help, Help, I’m spending the night in a dry county!!!’  I actually had to drive 35 minutes to get into another county so I could eat at a Chili’s with a bar! Craziness.  But, my chemistry is done, so what else did I have to do? 

So I drove, listened to ReachMD.com podcasts, and had some surprisingly yummo salmon and broccoli, with a skinny margarita and one Miller Lite.  Nice and lowcarb…until I got back to the hotel.  Chocolate cake happened.

All of that to say this:  I saw a PBS special on African women and fistulas.  These women are extra tiny, short, and small due to hard work and little food.  They said it was decent food, but not nearly enough.  So they are very small in stature.  And they are married at 8-10 years of age.  And of course, that means babies as soon as they start menstruating.  Which is anywhere from 10-14 in these poor girls. 

All THAT adds up to babies that are next to impossible to birth, due to cephalo-pelvic disproportion.  They will be in birth for 5 or 7 DAYS.  And all of that pressure leads to tissue damage in their urinary bladder and their rectum.  They are plagued with insatiable incontinence.  Once they have a fistula, they are then banished from their community.

These poor, poor girls.

What was wonderful about this documentary was the nurses and doctors who formed a makeshift hospital and started surgically repairing these women.  Once they are restored, the women are allowed back into their communities.  Learn more about fistulas here:  http://www.fistulafoundation.org/aboutfistula/

These are the types of things that called me to study public health and now that call me into nursing.  Thanks God, for the reminder.

hey-hey-are-you-ok?

Took the CPR course with 3 lifeguards today.  FUN!  6 AM wasn’t quite so fun, especially when I found out that the Red Cross told half of us 6, and the other half 7.  We waited until almost 7.  No one else showed!

But after that cluster, it was a pretty cool class!  My teacher was a teeny-tiny girl probably 10 years my junior. Barring a few blips in her oral communication flow, she did a really good job.

We practiced adult, child, and infant choking, rescue breathing, CPR, and AED administration.  All together now, tapping a mannequin on the shoulder, "Hey-Hey-are-you-ok?"  That was our teacher's cheer phrase for starting the initial assessment. Funny.  Funnier still was that even though she was from Iowa, she positively DRAWLED her "hay-e hay-e are you oh-kay-e?" 

Cool stuff.  Hope I never have to use it (I know I will) but glad that I now have that knowledge.

I had to do CPR on a girl in my building about a year ago.  Of all things, they ran from one side of our building to the other to come and get me.  And I had my last official first aid class in 5^th grade girl scouts.

She needed one little puff and she resumed breathing. (She had been actively seizing for about 5 minutes, prior.) Our firemen EMS folks arrived and took over.  She ended up fine.

I did better on my Chem quizzes tonight.  I have quizzes every other day until the end of this month.  Exams every Sunday.  I hate chemistry.  I know it is important.  I think I could be good at it.  My teacher is too smart to teach. Same guy from last semester.

Let's see, what else...I eat low carb mostly. I eat lots of veg, so I don't want anyone to think I'm unhealthy. I am eating low carb strictly for the next couple of weeks.  I’d really like to get a few nagging pounds back off before nursing school starts.  Lord knows I won’t have time to actively deal with them then.
I'm going to go cross CPR off of my marker board.  If you don't have one, you should go get one tomorrow.  Three computer home network and iPhone be damned, physically crossing things off of my deadlines and goals list is GRATIFYING.  

So....

So….the first mass email went out to the 18 of us who made it into Podunk U’s Accelerated BSN program.  So…now we can all get to know each other! :)

So…I’ve added 10 of them to my facebook friends already.  Pretty cool to ‘meet’ everyone!  I was in Chem I with one of the girls.  On the demographic front, out of the 10 I’m facebook friends with, 4 people are older than me; 5 younger; 1 unknown.  Youngest is 23; oldest 44.

So…oooooh.  So I’ve already done both good and bad on my first set of two Chem II quizzes.  Yuck.
So...I'm TB negative.  My Hep-B-shot-arm still hurts like hell.  My nurse Wendy is awesome and looked up that tetanus I got back in 2006.  They said it was a bug bite and I needed the shot; a week after that, the town of Podunk had an outbreak of staph infections of the skin that even closed a couple of the schools for disinfection.  That's what I think I had.

So…Looks like I’ll be traveling for the bank next week to help implement Reg E.  That’s the legislation that just changed that will keep you from being able to use Overdraft Privilege with your debit card, unless you Opt In.  So…I don’t know about you, but when I’ve got a basket full of groceries on the conveyor belt at Walmart, I’d rather incur an Overdraft fee and it clear, than have no fee but get declined with all my groceries sitting there and leaving the store with a red face.

So…I am worried about travelling when I have a chapter of a class that I struggle with due every other night.  But the bank pays me well to travel.  As long as my hotel has Wi-Fi, I guess I’ll get my homework done!

So…I’m taking a CPR class with a bunch of lifeguards at SIX AM tomorrow.  Wowza that’s early.

So…all of the ladies that I’m in class with are all fit.  Makes me a bit self-conscious for not having worked out in the last year.  Kinda makes me want to do a bit of a crash diet before Orientation on the 18^th! (I know, I know, crash anything isn’t good, blahblahblah).

So…tomorrow afternoon, all of my banking cronies and I are showing up at a collegue’s birthday party.  He knows about his party, but doesn’t know about us!

So…now you know.  

I'm out at work

LOL, as in, people now know that I'm leaving for nursing school.  It's not a secret anymore.
My last day at work is 7/27/10.  Craziness.
The two-best-bichon-kids-ever came home from their extended Memorial Day stay at the vet.  Tater, my boydoggie, has tested positive for heartworms.  Of course, a meltdown ensued.  My poor little boy.
It'll be about $500 to treat him, but how the hell could I not?  He's my kiddo.  And when I bought him, I told him I'd be a good momma.  So, we'll treat him and hope like hell he doesn't have any complications.   
He'll start those this coming monday.  Twinkie, my girldoggie, is fine, minus a bit of arthritis.  She IS fourteen, afterall.
Chem II starts today.  Thrilled.
Must....go...to....work....ugh!

Much ado about everything

Lots to do and all due quickly!  This IS an accelerated program ya know!
By June 18th orientation, I need:

• A TB Skin test
• Evidence of a tetanus in the past 10 years (pretty sure I got one in 2005-2006...now just getting documentation...)
• Another MMR (I'm old enough that I didn't need two for school)
• One of series of 3 Hep B immunizations

By July 28th start date, I need:

• Bunches of forms signed
• Evidence of CPR certification
• Transcript of 'C' or better in Chem II

I have also been waiting to pay my parking spot premium to see if I would need a spot across from the nursing building.  Regular paid spot, $250.  Across from Nursing Building (and in our new parking garage that is being paid for off of my premium), $400.  Ugh.  My campus has proven over and over again, though, that you'll be lucky to find a free spot at all.  Not a good free spot...one at all.  The $250 this last year saved my arse more than a couple of times when I was cutting the time close.  And I could cut the time more closely, which helped since I was at work until I went to class.

The good news about Chemistry II is that I don't have as much pressure on me.  As long as I pull a 'C' I'm golden.  Slacker as that sounds, this formerly-straight-'A'-student knows her limitations.  Now I'm in the program, and if I get a B, yes, it will drop my GPA slightly (from a 3.9, yo!) but it won't exclude me from the program--my main point of concern for the past year.  So yea!

The only CPR class I could find through an online search that fit my timeline was one that is a little over an hour away.  I hope to make some calls today and find a local class.  I did see online that it is National CPR week, so ya'd think that I could find a class a little closer.

I'm turning in my resignation letter today.  Wish me luck on that.  My boss has known all along that I would be going sooner or later, depending on what program I finally picked and depending on the program that picked me.

I hope the headaches that have been plaguing me as of late will soon abate (rhyme all the time!).  I enjoyed my Memorial Day weekend infinitely less due to headaches.  Guess I'll have to mention them when I go see my primary care doc for all my immunizations and script refills.

I'm REALLY glad I'm blogging.  Good to vent the ol' pressure cooker.  I've done YouTube vids under another moniker, but they take time to conceptualize and to edit.  Blogging, well, it's as easy as "Dear Diary."