A surgical experience

Ok, here is the first update on my 4 week final rotation. I am currently working on a very busy surgical ward. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do what is called a patient follow thru. My patient was admitted to the floor on friday afternoon after falling 15 feet off the roof of his barn and breaking his femur (huge bone from your thigh to your knee) in three different places! That takes talent people! Your femur is the strongest bone in your body and to break it in 3 different places is phenomenal! And painful! So when I came on for my 12 hour shift on Saturday morning I was given this man as one of my patients. I was to help prep him for surgery by administering all his pre op meds etc. Then I got to accompany him to the O.R. and watch his surgery. This was one of the neatest surgeries I have ever seen! But it had its draw backs. The surgery involved drilling a hole into the femur from hip joint to knee and inserting a metal rod that would then be screwed into place. All of this was done through a teeny tiny incision at the hip and the surgeon was guided by a machine called a fluoroscope which takes xrays and real time pictures of the leg while the surgeon is operating. This was great except for one thing! Because of this constant taking of xrays everyone in the O.R. had to wear 20lbs lead vests and collars to protect themselves from the xrays. This would have been fine for oh say 30 mins but the surgery took almost 3 hours!! I was so stinking hot and my feet killed after wearing almost 25lbs of lead strapped to my body from head to toe for 3 hours. Nonetheless the surgery was very interesting and then I was able to stay with my patient in the recovery room while he recovered from his anesthesia. Then to finish it all off I had him as one of my patients again today and will have him again tomorrow, so the continuity of care is really good.

So thus far my rotation has been very fun and my instructor is great! She assigned me to 3 patients today and I was sooo stinking busy running around like crazy trying to time all my patients pain meds and IV solutions correctly, and do dressing changes and help people walk to the bathroom and deal with vomit, but it was a very rewarding day. Especially when you leave and your instructor tells you that you have done a good job and she is impressed!

A day that shall go down in history!

That's right folks, it was a truly memorable day today. This day, November 20th 2006 at 11:30 a.m. marked the completion of my last patho class EVER!!! Yes, you heard me, last EVER! I am done with that horrifically boring and confusing class that I loathed, yes loathed going to every Monday for the last year!!!! Granted, the material in that class is very much applicable and pertinent to my nursing career but I might as well have taught the class myself because all my instructor did was read off of the power point notes that we all had in front of us! Some of you may have read my blog entry about my first day blues and my extreme loathing for this course and know exactly why this is a day to go down in history! But that is not the only reason why this day shall go down in history, the other reason is....drum roll please....I am in a clinical rotation group with Kim and Darla, my two best buds in the nursing program! This is history in the making people!! Ever since day one the instructors realized what good friends we were and what trouble we could cause together, and we have always been separated from each other. We have never EVER had a clinical rotation all together! Well someone must have screwed up because for the next 4 weeks Darla, Kim and myself will be ruling the floor!! I am so excited to get to work with these two fine women and nurses! I think this will be my most memorable rotation yet!! Stay tuned for updates during the next 4 weeks of fun!

They will know we are Christians by our love...

I have been struggling with this statement for some time now. How do people know that I am a Christian? Do people even know that I am a Christian? Because I am, and I want people to be able to tell. Do people only know because I have told them, or they have over heard me talking about being a youth leader or attending church? These are some of the things that I have been talking to God about recently and I have been listening for him to give me some answers. Well in the last 4 hours I have had a couple answers. Ok God! I get it! I hear yah! :) Here is what he told me: This morning in church the pastor was talking about being a living example for Christ. I can be a walking, talking, living, and breathing advertisement for the wonderful and powerful work of Christ. Then I received a phone call from my good friend Darla and we got to talking about this very topic (she brought it up out of the blue! not me!) and how we struggle daily to live Godly lives. It is such a hard thing to do when we are sinful by nature. We began to talk about a conflict within our class and how we have acted and essentially driven this conflict forward. I was startled to realise how un-Godly I had been acting without even thinking about it! I am so glad for Darla and her ability to keep me accountable to God and keep me accountable to live a Christ centered life. There are only a handful of Christians in my nursing class and I want people to know that I am one of them! I want people to know that I am a Christian by my words, deeds, actions, and especially by my love!