What a way to start the day!!

This morning as I was driving to work (in the dark and fog - 0530) I saw a big tool box in the middle of the road...about half a second before I hit it with my front tire. Nice. I pulled my car over and proceeded to change my tire, but the problem was, I had never changed a tire on this car before. The set up was completely foreign to me (especially on a pitch black country road in the middle of nowhere). I finally extracted my spare (with much fake swearing and praying and resting and praying) after I called work and told them I would be late. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out the set up and I was trying to jack the car up at intervals. I would jack up the car until a car came, stand back and wait for the car to pass, jack up my car some more, wait for another car to pass... Finally, 30 minutes and countless cars passing later, a guy pulled over and asked to help. I looked at his silouette through my humidity fogged glasses and said yes, thank you. He was kind enough to change my tire for me (he was much faster than me). I drove home, changed scrubs (the originals were quite wet and dirty), and borrowed Matto's truck to get to work. I was 1 1/2 hours late to work. When I got to work I found that my preceptor had called in so I had to work with someone I didn't know as well. No thanks to the yucky start, though, my day is not going too bad. I owe that to praying over and over on the way to work for a good attitude. I find that if I pray for a good attitude I usually have a good day!

Migraines...huh...that's new

So a few weeks ago I started getting migraines. At first they would just be at the end of the day and I would go to bed and wake up fine. Then, a couple weeks ago I got the migraine Sunday night and when I woke up the next day it was still there. I went to work anyway, hoping it would go away, but I ended up going home in the middle of the day. I had to call in sick the next day because the migraine was still there. For the next couple days I was down for the count. I went to the doctor and she did a full work up on me (mostly just blood work and EKG) and sent me in for an MRI (yay for insurance!). The blood work, EKG and MRI were normal. So far, since my last migraine, I have been okay. I am keeping the migraines at bay with aspirin, Benadryl, and coffee. The doctor gave me a pill to try and it actually made the migraine worse. That was the first time in my life where I could say my pain level was a 15 on a scale of 0-10. Special.

A new nurse!

I took the NCLEX-RN June 17....and....PASSED! God was very good to me that day. I wasn't nervous until the test cut me off after 75 questions and then was sure I had failed. Not sure why, but I went straight to the christian bookstore after that. I had never been there before, but I ended up there. I was reminded (in the "way to expensive to buy for just a verse hanging on the wall decoration" section) to trust God. Specific verses that caught my attention were: Psalm 37, Psalm 46:10, and the last section of Col 3. Psalm 37 says over and over again "don't fret, don't fret, don't fret." Psalm 46:10 reminded me to just be STILL and trust God. The section in Col 3 was talking specifically to servants, encouraging them to dedicate all that they do to God and work for the glory of God. At the point that I read that chapter I realized that as a nurse I am a servant. I dedicated my service as a nurse to God. Everyday, as I place my hand on the doorknob before leaving for work, I pray for God's glory. I pray that I will actually be a conduit for God's glory.

Now I am in orientation. I did two weeks in the nursery, learning how to transition babies directly after birth. I was shaking with my first baby. That was the first time I had ever done nursing care all by myself. It took me awhile to get used to writing RN after my name too. Now I have to stop myself from writing it when I sign credit card slips, checks, etc. Now I am in the second to last week of postpartum (new moms and babies). So far I am really enjoying being a nurse. There is more responsibility, but for the most part it is really fun.