My new friend

So I have been noticing that in the medical biz one needs to speak different languages. Mainly, well, Spanish. Because, well, when people come here from other countries nowadays the US makes it nice and easy to not assimilate, as it were.

Anyway, this blog is not for soap boxing. So. Where was I? Ah yes. My new friend. I have a new friend and its name is (I say "it" because it really doesn't have a gender)...Drum roll please...ROSETTA STONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom bought the first two levels of Rosetta Stone for Spanish for my nephew last year to help him in his Spanish class, but since it is really hard to do well in a class without going and he wasn't really interested in doing well anyway it didn't get used.

I mentioned to my mom that I wanted to learn Spanish so that I could communicate with my patients and I wanted to try Rosetta Stone and she said she had the first 2 levels. Anyway, to make a long story short (too late) she lent it to me. And I love it.

It doesn't teach by conjugating verbs and memorizing vocabulary, but teaches by showing a picture and saying a phrase. Like how we learn to speak a language when we are babies. It goes so fast and by using the words and phrases in different ways it makes so much more sense. When I finish I plan to take the professional Spanish class for nurses at the community college down the road, but I would also like to get the 3rd level. I think that's the last one. And then I want to get French and Italian and German. Unfortunately its like 500$ per language so I don't know how practical that is. Maybe after nursing school and after we pay off all our debts. That's kind of my montra right now - "After nursing school...."

TTFN

I think I'm getting old.

So yesterday I was driving to my clinicals and I suddenly realized I'm an adult. Okay, so it wasn't the first time, but seriously. It is kind of disturbing. I was driving behind a school bus and remembering how I used to take the school bus and then I remembered the last time I took the school bus home from school - 15 YEARS AGO. Hmmph. Well. I remember back then I thought 30 was so old. I am going to be 30 in 6 months. I guess I don't think about it much since I hang out with people my own age and older, but I think this is disturbing. And life is going by too fast. I don't like that either. I am glad nursing school is almost done, but then what? I can go on with my life, but it won't slow down. It will probably go faster. disturbing. Anyway. I think I will enjoy it while I can. It would be good I think. Wow....wow.

P.S.

My brother and his wife have had a new baby!!! I am an aunt!...for the 11th time. Baby Sophia arrived January 24th around 3:30. She was 7 weeks or so premature as my sister-in-law was preeclamptic and taking the baby out is the only sure fire cure. Baby was 5 1/2 lbs and 19 inches long. That is a big girl for being so early. It gives her a fighting chance. She was in NICU last I heard with a breathing tube and a GI suction tube. I would love to put pics up, but I don't have any. As soon as I have them you will see them!

Homestretch

Welp, here I am at the beginning of the last semester. I am both excited and scared out of my mind. After graduation I have the NCLEX-RN and then...I am in charge of real patients. All of a sudden I will be practicing on my own license instead of mooching off my instructors. I will be making decisions, sometimes life or death decisions. My mom says every nurse goes through the scarey phase at the end of school, but she also says it is not as bad as we make it in our minds.

We had a great Christmas. My family came over on the 22nd and we had a great time. Matt's Mom, Dad, and brother Daniel came on the 24th and stayed through the 27th. My family came to one of our Christmas Eve services and between services we had a little family gathering at our house. It was good times. We had Hogan family Christmas on the 25th. Unfortunately I don't have any pics because A) our camera is on the fritz and B) our computer is also on the fritz so the only way I have to blog is at work and on Matt's computer at the church and at school. If we get a tax return it is going to a new computer!

Matto left for Mexico the morning of the 27th and came back the next week with a horrid chest cold. I attacked it with fluids (much to his chargrin: "I have had so much grape juice I think I am going to explode!" "Well have some orange juice instead!" What a terrible thing to have a nurse for a wife!). Anyway, it worked because when we went on our wedding anniversary trip to San Antonio his cough was much better...So There!

We spent 3 days in San Antonio and had a marvelous time. We spent the first one in the hotel room and didn't leave until supper time! One of the days we spent just walking around the River Walk and Alamo and when we got tired we sat down and read our books. So great!

And now it is back to the grind stone. Except that I haven't done any studying for the first two weeks of school so I guess I will do that now! I think I will start reviewing OB tonight.

FINISHED (till January anyway...)

As of Thursday I am finished with all my classes and I have passed all of them with "Bs" straight across the board. No Phi Theta Kapa, but at least I will graduate in May! I was concerned for awhile that I wouldn't pass Management, but a good grade on my presentation and final paper turned me in the passing direction. 1/3 of my class did not. Next semester the class will be significantly diminished. Sad times.

In the middle of the semester I felt like I would never finish nursing school. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. There wasn't even a faint glow, but now I can at least see a glimmer. Next semester is all about ICU and critical care. We will also be taking an NCLEX-RN review class.

The NCLEX-RN is the licensing exam I have to take after I graduate. Before I graduate, however, I have to pass the HESI exam. This exam is kind of like NCLEX-RN, but not. It is like a practice test. We took the midcurricular HESSI last week and without studying I received an 82% chance of passing the NCLEX. I think I will study before the next one and before the NCLEX.That will give me an even better chance of passing!

Last Sunday Matto directed our church choir singing Vivaldi's Gloria. It was super fun. I got to sing the duet and soprano solo. Funny - People at the church kept saying to me afterwards, "Who knew that sound was in you!"

I also heard from several people that this was the best Christmas concert in a long time. Matto hired an orchestra. Also, the Gloria was a big deal. These people don't normally sing in different languages. It was a big challenge and they came through. Matto wants to do Rutter Requiem for Easter. It is longer, but it is more homophonic so it should be a little easier.

Matto was complimented to me and my mom on Thursday after choir practice. One of the singers came up to us and said he was grateful that Matt is so versitle. He was very impressed that Matt is able to direct choral master works, but in the next hour he is able to join the "good ole boy" group and in the next hour he can lead a contemporary worship band.

I am so proud of my talented man. I hope more people in the church realize how great he is and how fortunate they are to have him.

I guess that's all.

Guess what I did around 4:30 this morning...

You never will so I'll tell you!





I got to see a.........





CESAREAN SECTION!!! So cool. You know, when a uterus is taken out of the abdominal cavity it greatly resembles an uncooked turkey! The baby was a boy. The surgery was performed by a resident so I got to hear it "narrated" in a quiet voice by the attending. There was also a new resident observing so the attending pointed out the anatomy. The scrub tech got me into the surgery. She taught me all about what she does and she let me gown and glove up so I could be right up next to the doctor while she performed the surgery. It was awesome. Here's a cool pic of a c-section. (This is not the one I was at. This morning's was a breech so his hiney came out first!)

Labor and deliver and c-sections are so cool. It is so neat to see how humans develop from two half cells into once completely, different from anybody else ever made, person. I am in awe.


This pic is on my desk top. Is it not cool?

I think that is why I love this service in the hospital so much. Every day is a miracle. Even when the baby's don't survive it is an opportunity to witness God's perfect plan. From birth I have noticed that these new little people are not only different in their DNA make up, but in personality, too. Some babies will be unwrapped, bathed, weighed, changed, and all manner of being handled and never make a sound. Others start screaming the second the first layer is unwrapped. Others are in between. Each of these little people are designed personally by God. Wow.

That is what makes it ten times sadder when I see babies like another one I saw last night, whose mothers don't think while they are pregnant and do drugs and don't take care of themselves. That baby will go home today to live with the mother that put it in this constant state of addiction and immediate drug rehab. Why should a baby have to go through detox immediately after birth? In this unit I work in I not only see the glory and wonder of God's creation, but I also see how man is able to damage and destroy it. Heaven will be so wonderful when we can see God's glory and not mess it up with our stupidity.

God be praised for his wondrous works, even if we don't understand them. God be praised for sending his own son as such a small, vulnerable baby. God be praised for sending that son to the cross so that we, who are constantly messing up, might be with him and praise him without hindrance.

careplans - urg.

I really need prayer. I am not doing well with my careplans this semester. I don't know if it is me or the teacher or what, but I have done about 5 careplans thus far and have only received 2 passing grades - 77 and 81. This is not good. I need 4 passing grades to pass that class. I would really like some "A's", but at this point I'll take anything. I am so affraid I will have to repeat the class which means that I won't graduate until August instead of May. I am really hating school right now and if it weren't for the fact that I want to be a nurse more than anything and my little family is so counting on me being a nurse I would give up. But I can't. And that's final. Please pray that my attitude will improve and that I will be able to do better with these careplans.