SO MUCH HAPPENING ALL THE TIME

I can't believe it's been a couple weeks again. I have been working for two weeks at the hospital and go back in tomorrow and Sunday from 3-11:30. I truly am enjoying what I'm doing at the hospital. As for school, the past few weeks have been in maternity. We had one evening in Labor & Delivery where I was able to 'assist' with a newborn assessment. We will be back in Labor & Delivery Monday afternoon/evening and I truly hope I get to see a birth. On Tuesday I'll be in the NICU unit.

While on the maternity floor, I had the privilege of taking care of several new moms the past few weeks along with their newborns (even a set of twins!). I've demonstrated bathing newborns for the new parents and have administered the babies HepB shot. I have had brand new young moms (18 years old) to older (experienced) moms. I really have enjoyed this rotation and wish we could spend more time here. The instructor this rotation has made learning very enjoyable.

I didn't do well on my last exam. It was on Altered Immunity and Infection; Alterations in the GI system and Alterations in Nutritional Metabolism; Alteration of the Endocrine System, Fractures and Osteoporosis. I am studying very hard for the next exam in this area, many on Diabetes, Stroke; Peripheral Vascular Disease and Cardiac Deficits.  LOTS of information.

In between all this, Dale & I participated in the Philadelphia 3-Day for the Cure with 1500 other friends!  We truly are committed to the fight against breast cancer. Seeing young women in their 20's being diagnosed with this breaks my  heart! These women should be planning their futures, not making chemo and radiation appointments.

This photo is of my 'cousin' Shannon and I at the mile 59 marker (one mile to closing)!!! I walked with Shannon in Boston in July! After walking Philly the first weekend of October, she turned around and went to DC and walked that 3-Day in the pouring rain!!! She is awesome!

  

  

A QUICK UPDATE!!

I have been so busy that I've not had time to stay on top of this. I finished working at the real estate office last Friday. To celebrate, my boss took his wife, Dale and I, along with our agent and his wife to a very nice dinner. We had a wonderful evening and some very fine food.  We finished up our rotation at the med-surg unit last week. We were in the brand new unit those two days. I had a patient who was suffering from multiple pulmonary embolism. My patient was very young to be experiencing this. I was able to administer IV meds via a pump.

This week we started our maternity rotation. Monday was spent working on our community collaborative project. My team will be presenting 'Safe Sleep' to expecting and new parents later this month. Safe Sleep is to enforce that parents put their babies to sleep on their backs, not their sides or tummys. Tuesday we started our day with a tour at a local birthing center and then went onto the maternity unit at the hospital.

Today I started my new job as a patient care tech (PCT). It is a casual position so I only get four shifts every two weeks (and it pays a great deal less than I was making) but hoping it gets my foot in the door. I had a great day and am looking forward to all that I can learn in this position.

I will be back at the hospital tomorrow and then it's on to the Philadelphia 3-Day for the Cure! I'm going to be running on steam but so looking forward to this weekend. I will truly listen to my body as I need my feet for clinical on Monday afternoon and evening!