Sunday, October 29, 2006
immersion
All I can think about right now is nursey stuff. If it's not the papers I have to write, the procedures I have to do in clinical, or the drugs I have to memorize, it's the nursing care of Elderly Kitty. Who is hanging in there, but still needs lots of attention.
This week in clinical I pulled a drain from a surgical incision, removed a Foley catheter, and passed meds. My clinical group also went to a flu shot clinic at the hospital and gave injections. I was super nervous but it went just fine. Although the first person I injected was this very skinny old man and I felt the needle bump into his bone. He didn't flinch, though, and I just eased the needle back a little bit and aspirated (no blood) and injected the vaccine. Aaaugh. The other shots I did went picture-perfect, and in fact the last patient told me "I didn't feel a thing!".
Tomorrow morning I've got an exam for which I need to know a metric assload of drugs. I'm hoping I don't just blank out - I've done my best to learn them in a short amount of time. If only there was a way to pipe stuff directly inside my head!
Friday was a super-long day - got up at 5:30, went to clinical, went to flu clinic, dropped off M* at the park & ride, took J* back to his car by my house, changed out of my scrubs, shot up Elderly Diabetic Kitty, went to R*'s gig on Capitol Hill, had a beer (hallelujah!), hung out with some friends of friends who all turned out to be nurses, talked shop, balanced my caffeine level with Diet Cokes, ate dinner, drove home because R* had a lovely cocktail with dinner, passed PM meds for Elderly Kitty, and collapsed into bed.
Since then I've basically just studied. And ran a couple errands. And had a nice breakfast out with R* today. Time to do it all again tomorrow.
The little boy I babysit for is nearly two, and is talking but mostly in one-word declaratives. When he's finished with something (eating, playing with a particular toy, swinging on the swings, etc), he announces "all done!" and moves on to the next thing. Last week he'd had a rough night and on the way home from playtime he sniffled and said, "....aaaaallll dooonnnne...." in this very sad voice. He was just worn out. I told my carpoolmates about it, and on Friday while we were driving M* back to the park & ride, J* shut his eyes and announced, "All. done." M* and I just cracked up because we so knew what he meant.
This week in clinical I pulled a drain from a surgical incision, removed a Foley catheter, and passed meds. My clinical group also went to a flu shot clinic at the hospital and gave injections. I was super nervous but it went just fine. Although the first person I injected was this very skinny old man and I felt the needle bump into his bone. He didn't flinch, though, and I just eased the needle back a little bit and aspirated (no blood) and injected the vaccine. Aaaugh. The other shots I did went picture-perfect, and in fact the last patient told me "I didn't feel a thing!".
Tomorrow morning I've got an exam for which I need to know a metric assload of drugs. I'm hoping I don't just blank out - I've done my best to learn them in a short amount of time. If only there was a way to pipe stuff directly inside my head!
Friday was a super-long day - got up at 5:30, went to clinical, went to flu clinic, dropped off M* at the park & ride, took J* back to his car by my house, changed out of my scrubs, shot up Elderly Diabetic Kitty, went to R*'s gig on Capitol Hill, had a beer (hallelujah!), hung out with some friends of friends who all turned out to be nurses, talked shop, balanced my caffeine level with Diet Cokes, ate dinner, drove home because R* had a lovely cocktail with dinner, passed PM meds for Elderly Kitty, and collapsed into bed.
Since then I've basically just studied. And ran a couple errands. And had a nice breakfast out with R* today. Time to do it all again tomorrow.
The little boy I babysit for is nearly two, and is talking but mostly in one-word declaratives. When he's finished with something (eating, playing with a particular toy, swinging on the swings, etc), he announces "all done!" and moves on to the next thing. Last week he'd had a rough night and on the way home from playtime he sniffled and said, "....aaaaallll dooonnnne...." in this very sad voice. He was just worn out. I told my carpoolmates about it, and on Friday while we were driving M* back to the park & ride, J* shut his eyes and announced, "All. done." M* and I just cracked up because we so knew what he meant.
Labels: babysitting, Booshka, nursing school
