To all the lovely ladies out there who wear tights as their workout pants: If others can see your stripped undies (or the printed design -- or even worse, the color of your undies) THROUGH your tights, they probably shouldn't be worn as workout pants! I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't know that your tights were semi-sheer/opaque. Appropriate workout clothing will do you good. Lets keep it classy!! :)

It wasn't that long ago when we were sitting on the lightrail, catching up and then talking about pedometers on our way to school. You were one of the most genuinely kind people I've ever met, especially back in Middle School, when the (pre)teen population was vicious. Rest In peace, Clayton Wallace. I won't forget you.

I got to give my first set of medications to a patient this last Monday during clinicals!! I got to give a Subcutaneous (SubQ) shot of Heparin into my pt (patient)'s abdomen, an IV push of some pain med, and an oral medication of another pain med. :)  So exciting!!!!

(Here's what a SubQ shot looks like):


Lets just say, I was SUPER nervous holding the syringe filled with Heparin (a blood thinner). I was so afraid of poking my patient, I literally froze in place when the needle was 1 inch away form my patient's skin. My professor had to say egg me on a few times before I finally poked my patient. What happened was that when I poked my patient, I had to hold the syringe in place for 5 seconds before I got to slowly inject the Heparin. Then I had to wait another 5 seconds before I could withdraw the needle.  I felt super bad when I saw that my patient flinched when the needle entered his abdomen. After the injection, I asked my pt how he felt and he gave a sarcastic/light-hearted response saying he felt "Great-excellent!" :P  I also made sure to check up on my patient during the IV-Push to see how he was feeling.  Before bedtime, I told my pt. that my shift was going to end soon, and he shared some encouraging words with me about school and reminded me to "keep up the great work."  He thanked me for my help, and I thanked him for letting me work with him. The end. 

During post-conference, my professor commented on how she liked my patient rapport - that I had good interaction and relationship with my patient. She even noticed that my pt gave good feedback whenever I would ask him something. :)  Also, it feels like everyone is a lot more comfortable with each other. We're able to joke more with each other and my professor had to play the role of "Mom" when we were jokingly accusing each other of doing things. :)  10 more weeks of clinicals! :) 

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The perk of working as a (student) nurse in a large hospital is I get to spot cute EMTs in the hallways. Last Monday, the fire alarm went off with the bright blinking lights. My classmate, J, and I looked around and noticed how everyone was so calm. We didn't know what this all meant, so I asked a nurse nearby what the alarm was for, and why all the doors suddenly closed (including big hallway doors, and patients' room door). She told me it was a fire alarm and that a fire must have started in one of the patient's room. I looked around and saw an EMT - the most innocent/clean looking white-boy, with blond hair (imagine the guy from Taylor Swift's "You Belong with me" music video, but more innocent looking) - looking at me while giving a small laugh and then smiled.
[Imagine:   but better]
I felt kind of foolish for not knowing what the damn alarm meant, especially when there was a cute opposite gender present to witness my "ditziness"!! Awwwhh Snaps!! Aaaaarrg. 

Around 8:30 when our shift ended and when we were waiting for everyone else to wait by the elevator, I told my female classmates about the EMT we spotted in the hallway earlier. I retold what happened and then J said that the EMT also looked her way and gave a small laugh and smile when I had asked what the fire alarm was all about. I joked about how he was probably thinking how stupid/ditzy I was. J responded by saying "No, no. It was more of a 'how cute' kind of laugh/smile."  LOL!  Uh huh..   (I'm sure he was a nice guy had no malicious intent.)

For the future, my female classmates and I came up with a code word for every time we spot a cute EMT in the hallways. It's "Code Neon-green."    I'm sure we'll all be on the lookout for Code Neon-green next week. :P 

Talk about major blogging hiatus!!  It's been a while since I've last blogged.
Well, here's a recap:

- A finished my first semester of NURSING! ONE down, FIVE to go! (2.5 years)!
Here's a lovely class photo we organized ourselves:
 
We all agreed to take it during our Pathophysiology lecture break and change into our scrubs for this picture.
I hope we'll be able to take annual class photos like we intend to. :)
Becha don't know where I'm at! (hint: i'm the 2nd row, 5th to the right)
- I was elected class Secretary :)
- I passed all my classes!! (thank goodness!)
- Not that it's of any interest to anyone, I have consumed 10 bottles of "5 hour energy shots" throughout the past semester. (i kept a tally.) That's like... 30 bucks!  BUT - those precious energy drinks have saved my grades as I was able to stay up for longer hours to catch up in my studies.
- Due to massive amounts of stress I never really quite experienced before in all my college years, I have developed some sort of unusual and persistent acne breakout on my forehead. It's terrible! I think it's from a combination of my long, grown-out bangs, and resting my forehead on my dirty grimy hands from flipping through textbooks, notes, laptop keypads, and stress. Blaaa! I'm developing a better skin care routine now though, so that's helping!
- I'm currently working more hours at the office where I have the opportunity to practice basic skills I was taught my first semester (like taking vital signs such as taking blood pressure manually, which is very important!)
- I feel like I still need to improve my interaction skills with patients because I find that I'm too hesitant and that I doubt my own skills.  Also, I need to be more assertive.
- One of the scariest things for me is finding that my patient has a low blood pressure reading than normal, and/or not being able to feel/accurately measure their radial pulse due to them having a diminishing pulse, or a very-VERY weak pulse that makes accuracy difficult to find. BLAAA. I'm afraid of reporting false readings... which would make me liable for malpractice...? (I really don't know.)
- After months of not biking for school anymore, I've FINALLY gotten back in the routine of biking again. I've been biking to and from work. I'll be honest, I kind of dread it sometimes, but I feel so good after a bike ride! It feels very accomplishing after every trip, so I hope this biking habit will stick. I'm not too sure what will happen once it starts to rain again... but until then, I need to savor the experience. :)
- Something completely off topic: throughout last semester, I wasn't able to really watch any of my favorite TV shows due to school. Even now, with winterbreak, I STILL can't watch anything due to the weather change, wind and all... i CAN'T CATCH A GOOD SIGNAL for my antenna! (I have digital TV at home - no cable/dish.)  TOTAL BUMMER!!!! I'll never be able to watch Grey's Anatomy, Glee, New Girl, or ANYTHING!! T____T  At least on the bright side, I get more reading time in! (non-school related, of course)

Okay, I think I've said enough for one night. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!! 2012 is coming! :)