I’ll find a solution eventually.

I was suppose to spend the day studying yesterday, but I ended up making some more items for Quarantine’s new shop.  It’s a new addiction – as if I needed anything else to distract me!  But seriously, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to see the A-aDO2 formula again until the NBRC exam.  Guess I was wrong.  And then there’s that curve thing…

I aced the dreaded Airways exam though.  57/60.  We were all shaking in our boots, but turns out it wasn’t nearly as bad as Modalities last semester.   Now to sit down and use these final hours as study time.

But my first day at UCH was exciting. I drew my first live blood gas and got it on the first try. Everyone is jealous of my extraordinary ABG abilities. We went to this nightmare of a code – the guy’s BiPap machine decided to not work so they ended up having to intubate them. Later we got to observe someone getting extubated. One of the more eventful clinical days I’ve had. It sure beat giving nebulizer treatments all day, that’s for sure.

I have another two weeks before the boy comes home and trashed the room. I can hardly wait.

We have a huge (as in, +50% of our grade) on airways coming up. Scared? Oh yes. It’s supposed to be harder than the modalities test from last semester which, by the way, 16 out of 20 people failed. Oh yes. I suppose I need to finish that chapter I was reading…

Well, let’s see. David is gone for another four weeks (out of a total of five) for work training in ARKANSAS. Apparently it’s Dullsville, not that I’m surprised. How sad is it that I’m just glad that I get a break from CoD4? Seriously that game is like crack for that boy. But yeah I hear from him at least twice a day so really I’m doing quite fine.

The night before he left we went to the casino with the in-laws. David I both took out $10 each and figured we’d be done in 10 minutes. I got mine up to $30 and I was all excited about that and then he walks around the corner and shows me he won $460. Craziness. We ended up saving that and splitting my $30 between the two of us to keep playing. He ran out and I got $60, so we ended up pocketing $500 that night.

I went shopping for the first time in ages with some of our winnings. I got two new pairs of jeans, two tops, a new dress, a pair heeled sandals, and some undies. I’m at that awkward inbetween sizes time with jeans though. threes are two small and fives are a little big. I went with the fives and see how that goes.

Clinicals at TGH were AMAZING. I love what I’m doing so much (apart from having to wake up before 5am to get ready and get there on time). This next week I’m starting at UCH though. let’s just hope I don’t get thrown off the deep end like the last bunch.

We also started practicing arterial punctures this past Thursday. I got it on the first try. Here’s to getting it right every time! >_< (more info on arterial punctures).

Lecture has been going surprisingly decent so far this semester. It’s still full of Professor Espresso* being a complete nutcase half of the time but I’ve been fairing well with an ‘A’ in Basic Respiratory and a ‘B’ in Cardiopulmonary Pathology. And an ‘A’ in Clinic I’m sure. Now if I can just keep that up.

I believe that’s all for right now.

* pseudonym.

This past week ahs just been brutal on me. three “fill-in-the-blank” tests. David leaving for five weeks this weekend (to arkansas for work training). My aunt Nina has brain tumors. the list goes on. I finally broke down today. twice. Stress management is not my forte lately.

In other news, I saw old man peen tuesday. I’m sure Ivy will appreciate that >_<

We wondered down to the ER and we got watch the chaos of bringing in a transfer. I swear it’s just like Trauma: Life in the ER >_<

The kids over at a different hospital however got thrown into the fire their first day though. They were told to give treatments without supervision. Not cool AT ALL. I go there in a couple weeks. They’ll probably be having me do arterial punctures the first day there or something. Guh. They did get to see someone’s chest cracked open though (and, er, ultimately die).

Did I ever mention I’m the only girl in group? It’s good times >_< On Tuesdays our preceptor’s a female, but Thursday we’ve got a guy…oh boy. Sore thumb much?

You can find related photos in my photo blog here.

I can’t believe I’ve had my stethoscope for over a week now and haven’t taken photos of it. I must be ill.

Speaking of photos, I’ve moved my photoblog to calcifying @ wordpress  (link is in the blogroll).  We’ll see how it works here – most of the default themes don’t accommodate large photo sizes unfortunately.

I just need to get my patches sewn onto my scrub tops and print out my evaluation forms and such and I’m set for clinicals. I’m pretty excited. I’m not as nervous as I was before I met the TGH instructors. They’ve both been in my shoes AND remember what it’s like and I think they’re both going to help me a lot. Thank God >_<

I think this semester is going to be a bit…smoother for me. It seems that most of the tests are going to be on a smaller amount of material, versus the HUGE tests we had last semester. I know I got an ‘A’ on one of the tests I took this week and I ‘m still awaiting the results of the other, but I should have done well on that one as well. I still have that huge Airway test to worry about though – you know, the one just randomly thrown in it seems worth half the cumulative grade? Airways are important in our profession, obviously, but seriously? Might as well make it our final.

We had our orientation there. It’s a lovely hospital. One MILLION square feet after all the floors are open in the new wing (which will include A SPA FYI) though. I’m going to be so lost, ha. It’s a really good hospital – there’s pretty much nothing they DON’T do there, they have a great reputation, they’re the sole disaster relief hospital (think more chemical warfare than hurricanes) for the entire west coast of Florida. And the respiratory crew so far seem to be pretty OK people so far.

I’m there for six rotations before I move on to UCH and then Brooksville.

I still don’t feel ready for ANY of it. I have a lab Tuesday which will help refresh my memory somewhat (oh hey use a humidifier when the flow is 3LPM or higher on WHAT device again?) but I still feel quite intimidated. I suppose that won’t go away until I’m actually out there and get to see everything in action.

On a different note, today’s our third year wedding anniversary. The boy got up this morning and took off. Fantastic. Probably went to get the oil changed in the car, but Christ…

And Piggy is doing great now. He’s having a slight issue jumping, but he’s eating and I’ let him out (supervised) for awhile yesterday.

Also David and I did a test run to Davis Island so I would know how to actually get to the hospital and stayed out there for awhile and then went to bayshore for sunset. Here are the photos:

I’ve never seen these birds out in the wild before!

Of course I couldn’t concentrate for my next class >_< But we got out early at least.

They were back by the time I got home. One of the neighbor’s cats have been hanging around lately and last night Piggy and Gray Cat decided to pick on him. Apparently Neighbor Cat Got a few licks in on Piggy. He has two bites/scratches on him but otherwise checked out fine. They gave him a shot of some antibiotic and sent him home with some pills. He’s sleeping in Sara’s room right now.

I thoguht for sure the cat treats were poisoned – all five of them were snubbing this particular bag and I thoguht maybe Piggy ate some after all and something was wrong.

If he hasn’t started eating by Wednesday she said to bring him back in, but if not then we just bring him back next week.

The vet that took care of him when he had his leg issue saw Piggy was there on the chart and came in to see him though she had another patient to see him >_< Everyone loves the Piggy!