The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of a Postpartum Nurse

The last two weeks of work have been interesting. Last week was pretty horrible and stress filled. This week was just plain amazing.

First the bad...

Last week I admitted three babies to the NICU in two days. Usually I admit no babies. I spent so much time in the nursery that it was very hard to get all of my work done on time. It was very stressful, and Friday I felt like crying when I left because I was so stressed out. I was basically ready for early retirement.

However, I had a really amazing experience during the midst of this craziness. It involved one of my sick babies. I had left him until last because he was in the well-baby nursery, and I had figured that they would take care of him. However, when I went to listen to his lungs they were full of gunk. Lung gunk is bad. He had also kicked off all of his blankets and was cold. Concerned I took him to the nursery, so they could observe him to make sure he was okay. He ended up being really sick, and I was just very grateful that I had taken him to the nursery because they know how to handle such situations. Every night before I work I pray that the Spirit will guide me through my work, so that I can care for my patients in the most compassionate and competent manner possible. I feel that I was prompted to take him to the nursery.

Somehow, I was also volunteered to break the news to the mom. She was understandably devastated, but her mother-in-law suggested that they call someone to give the baby a blessing. Immediately the tension in the room dissolved. While the baby still isn't doing great, the blessing helped the family members calm down and soothed my worry too. I know that priesthood blessings are powerful and real. They can really help us. I was grateful for this light in my otherwise dismal day. I didn't really realize it until I was in church last Sunday, but I am grateful for experiences like this that strengthen my testimony and lesson the stress of my stressful job.

Then the Good...

This week was just amazing. I left before 630 everyday (which is unusual for me), and I had amazing patients. I love weeks like this. It just makes the horrible weeks like last week seem not so bad, plus it reminds me why I love my job. I left today with a smile on my face, which isn't always the case when I am leaving work after my third shift.

Also this week, I had the opportunity to mentor two students this week. Both of them were really nice, but the one today made me feel like I was really teaching her. It's kind of nice to know that I have wisdom I can share with others.

And the Ugly...

There really wasn't too much ugly this week except maybe my feelings of strong dislike towards my alarm clock when it would go off at 445 am. I honestly start feeling excited about sleeping in again on the first day of my three in a row. It's really kind of pitiful, but such is life...

Haircut

After nearly a year and a half, I finally got my hair cut. The ponytail they originally cut off was about ten inches, plus she cut off more as she styled it. It is now an A-line, and it is definitely the shortest I have ever had. I like it a lot, and perhaps I will save money on the reduced amount of hair product I have to use. I also got a weave, so I am blonde now. I have noticed a decrease in my IQ at times. According to one of the nurses at work, I now look old enough to be a nurse. So yeah, it is a nice change.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the ponytail and the final product. Just beware that these are some self-portraits taken when I was super sleepy.

Body Worlds 3

For my birthday my mom and I went to Body Worlds 3. I highly recommend it. While most people would be freaked out by an exhibit composed entirely of human bodies, I found it utterly fascinating. The part that I found the coolest were all of the casts of the blood vessels. I took anatomy in college, yet I hadn't truly appreciated how complex the blood vessels were. It also reinforced my resolve not to smoke or drink or any other number of bad habits. When Body Worlds came to Denver, I was upset that I didn't get to go, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss it now it is here. It really is worth the cost.

Life as a Cheese Bagger

Today I went to the Deseret Dairy at Welfare Square and helped package cheese. It was a service assignment that our ward does quite often and since my schedule got messed up (I was supposed to work today, not Tuesday, but oh well.), I decided that I should go help my fellow man and participate. I came to some realizations while there.

1) I am so glad that that I went to college and got a degree. I really don't think I could handle doing the same thing over and over again. Three hours once in a blue moon is pretty close to my max. Although I did get pretty good at putting five pound blocks of cheese in bags by the time we finished.

2) Long hair and hair nets are not compatible. Yet another reason to cut my hair.

3) If you lactose intolerant, don't eat the cheese and chocolate milk without taking Lactaid. Even if it is free and really, really tastes good. Your tummy will dislike you strongly afterwards.

4) The milk and cheese that they sell at the BYU Creamery doesn't come from a Creamery owned by BYU, it comes from the DeseretDairy. I feel like I was lied to all those years that I thought that my milk and cheese came from BYU cows. But the ice cream is made by the Creamery. Random fact that I thought you would like to know.

5) I wish my mom would have done my cleaning checks when I lived in Provo. One of the ladies I worked with actually drove down to Provo and did her daughters cleaning and laundry. My mom did do my laundry, but only if I was in Kamas. She didn't even clean for me then. But oh well, I guess I learned responsibility. :)

Adventures of a Postpartum Nurse

Today was kind of a crazy day at work. For some reason, the night shift charge nurse decided I would make a good charge nurse for the day shift. So in addition to my own patients, I had to make the schedule for night shift, coordinate with Labor and Delivery, and other such tasks. It was a busy day, but despite all of this craziness I did have some goodness. All of my patients were very awesome. They were all fun and easy to talk to (even my mostly Spanish patient who mysteriously become more fluent in English when her husband wasn't present). The highlight of my day came when I went to say goodbye to one of my patients. I had been her nurse yesterday, but I was not her nurse today until one of the other nurses left. Anyways, as I was saying goodbye, she thanked me, and told me that I had been her favorite nurse throughout her hospital stay. It definitely gave me warm fuzzy feelings and helped me remember the real reason I become a nurse. I swear I have the best job!!!!

Catching Up

So once again, life has been crazy, so I haven't posted anything for awhile, but I have a bit right now so I will try to play catchup.

Work

Last week I made the switch from night shift to day shift. The first couple of days were super rough, but I survived them (only because I had a week off). I had worked Thursday night, and then I had to be there Sunday morning. Saturday night I really don't think I slept at all, so I was tired, but it was even worse Monday. I was a walking zombie. Also, I discovered that when I am that utterly sleep deprived, I have ADD. I really could not focus on anything. I felt so bad for my patients. I don't think I had really charted anything until four. Totally not cool.

However, I worked yesterday, and things went significantly smoother. I even got up at 9:05 this morning. I think that may be the earliest I have gotten up in months. I think this whole getting up before noon might actually be a good thing after all. :)

Art Exhibit

There was a traveling art exhibit at the art museum at the U entitled "From Monet to Picasso." I thought it sounded like fun, so my best friend Karen and I went to see it last week. While there were no "waterlily" paintings or "Starry Night," it was still enjoyable.

Attending art exhibits was one of my requirements for graduating with honors from BYU, and I have gained a great appreciation for great art. Some day I want to go to Europe and see all of the amazing art that is over there, but until then, I will make an effort to visit the many museums that are around me. Utah really does have quite a bit of culture for being out in the middle of nowhere, so you should take advantage of it.

Labor Day

I made my annual pilgrimage to Francis Frontier Days this weekend. It was quite enjoyable, and I was able to see my friend Laura at Church. The only downfall is that my dad was the Rodeo Chairman once again (I think he has been the chairman almost every year for the last fourteen years or so) and my mother is the Town Clerk, so I was assigned various tasks from program folding to ticket taking. The ticket taking was actually kind of fun because I say quite a few people I haven't seen in awhile, but I did miss a bit of the horse pulls and the bull wars, which kind of stunk. Plus there was a monsoon Monday, so I looked horrible, but it's all good. I will try to post pictures from the Ring of Fear, but I have to wait until my mom emails them to me.

That's all for now. I will try to post more often, although I think that Shannon is the only one who reads this, and she is back in school, so.... yeah, I don't know if anyone will actually look at this.

Lots of Fun

So once again, the past week or two has been busy. It's been a pretty good week though, so I'll share it with you. I think this could be a long post, so sorry.

Roommate Dinner

Last Wednesday, I went down to American Fork and ate at Applebees with my old roommates Shannon, Stormie, Bethany, and Kellie. That has been the hardest part of moving to West Jordan, I really miss my friends, and especially those girls I lived with. It was super fun to be with them and laugh and act silly (although most of the silly was coming from Bethany).















Park City with Kellie

On Monday Kellie and I went to Park City to ride the Alpine Slide. I am almost embarrassed to admit that despite the fact that I live 15 minutes from Park City, I have never been before. But oh well, I guess there has to be a first for everything. Anyways, it was totally fun. I highly recommend the Alpine Coaster. While the Slide was fun, the Coaster flew down the mountain. Totally adrenaline rush, plus there was the beautiful mountain scenery. So much fun. Afterwards we went to Main Street in Park City to eat and walk around. I think this may have been the first time that I haven't gotten lost trying to find Main Street, so that was quite an accomplishment. After that we went to the Factory Stores, and I bought cute pink shoes. I really like having a real job, so that I can finance my addiction to cute shoes.

Kellie has the best pictures, but I did take one of myself while I was going up the Alpine Coaster. I'm still trying to perfect my self-portrait technique.




Tomatoes

One of the exiting things about my apartment is that I have a patio. I decided to take advantage of this and bought two tomato plants and a gerber daisy in June. While the daisy died, my tomatoes have done well. I've already had two ripe ones, with a few more on the way. It makes me feel so domestic to grow my own vegetables. Even if they are tiny and small in number.















Work

So work has been crazy the past two weeks. I like working three shifts in a row, and I just finished one this morning. I am really enjoying my job, but Thursday morning, I was not feeling too peppy after getting chewed out by the morning nurse because I didn't take a blood sugar on a couple of babies that were too small. Both had been eating great and had maintained their vital signs well, so I didn't think that it was a big deal. While I was greatful to learn that I needed to take blood sugars on the small babies, the nurse was very untactful and almost downright rude while I was giving her report. I was almost in tears when I got home, and that never happens at this job.

When I went back last night, there had been a mistake on the schedule, so I had no patients. It was easily fixed because one of the other nurses wanted to orient in the nursery anyway. This nurse was the charge nurse, and she really did not want to give me the patient that had received a blood transfusion because "I was too new." Well, after some thought, I remembered that I had taken care of a transfusion patient before, plus I have been a nurse for over a year, if you count my experience as an LPN, which I do, and additionally, I probably had more clinical experience in one semester than some nurses have while in nursing school.

Two of my patients I had taken care of previously, and both of the recognized me. The one was downright estatic when I walked in the room because her day nurse (who just happened to be the nurse who thinks I lack experience) had ignored her pages and she had been in pain for a few hours. My other two patients were fairly ill considering I work on a unit with mostly healthy people, and their previous nurses had failed to give them very important medications, so I had to fix those messes. By the end of the night, two of my patients expressed their gratitude that I had been their nurse and had done so much to help them.

Stuff like that really makes nursing worth it. When you really think about it, the most important person in the hospital is the patient, and as long as they are happy, you are doing your job. I came home this morning on cloud nine.

Busy Week

Thomas, Jordan, April, and I at Jordan and April's wedding in Logan.

Karen, Jeff, Christine, and I at Jeff and Christine's wedding in Bountiful.





So this has been a crazy week. I worked three twelve hour shifts in the beginning of the week, and then took a quick trip home this weekend to watch the sheep show at the Summit County Fair. Apparently once a sheep shower, always a sheep shower. Also in the mix was a quick trip to Logan for my friends' April and Jordan's wedding. My friend Thomas agreed to drive up with me, which was super nice because I had forgotten how far away Logan is. This is the third wedding I have gone to in the last two weeks, so I feel like I have donated my life savings to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. But all in all it was a pretty good week, but I'm glad to be back in West Jordan. On the upside, I can actually start going to some more ward activites now. I only have two more weeks of night shifts left, which is super sweet. I need to intersperse some fun with the craziness that is the life of a nurse. :) Tomorrow I get to go play capture the flag, so that should be interesting. Activities are always interesting in the Heritage 9th Ward.

My First Post

Since leaving Provo, I have felt out of touch with my old friends, so I decided that I should create a blog. Nobody will probably read it, but at least it will provide me with yet another way to avoid my bedtime. So sometime when it is not after midnight, I will try to post something on here, but as the most interesting things in my life can't be shared because of HIPPA, who knows what I'll be able to post. My life right now basically consists of working, eating, and sleeping, with occasional jaunts to Church and Church activities. :) Do you like my background? That's as closest I could find to a leopard. :)