orbityl

I seem to check-in on here once a year. Hmmmmmm work is going ok. I've somehow been talked into being charge RN a couple nights per schedule.... and I'm precepting new nurses to our unit. Wow. Never thought I'd be doing that. It's funny because I keep telling myself that they asked me to do this because everyone else had refused (which is mostly true). Just the other day, a Nurse Practitioner told me "You must be a very good nurse. They wouldn't give that job to crap nurses." lol :) I need to give myself more credit.


In other news, I've been feeling very crafty/creative lately. I re-covered the lampshades in my bedroom. I took some white fabric and stenciled some Japanese kanji onto it and then used spray adhesive to attach it to the old lampshade. Finished the edges with binding tape. Looks decent for my first time. :) I also sewed some stethoscope covers - can't wait to use them at work!

Had a bit of a scare yesterday night. I had just woken up and got in the shower. Maybe 8 minutes into the shower, the edges of my field of vision started to get darker and my hearing became muffled. I started to feel nauseous, too. I felt like I was gonna black out so I got out of the shower and called my husband. I decided to call in to work too (which I've never done in my 1.5 years of working there) and they told me that staffing was critical and there would be only 2 nurses for 18 patients... AND I wouldn't get my holiday pay. So, I felt obligated to go anyway, I didn't want to leave my co-workers with 9 patients each (we're only supposed to go up to 6 patients per nurse). My husband decided that he would drive me. Maybe 5 minutes after we left the house, nursing office called me to tell me that my floor was down to 13 patients and they decided to give me an LCD (low census day) so I could stay home. :) Thank GOD for that. I was still feeling nauseous.

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man, I feel horrible. I have a cold or something. Alternating runny/stuffy nose, chills, cough, fatigue...the list goes on. I just feel like crap! My head feels all stuffy. I hope I feel somewhat better before I go to work tomorrow. :(

Well, we bought a refrigerator tonight :) and a dishwasher...and a stand for the tv

here's the fridge:

Things are going well @ work. I'm on my own now. They're keeping me at 4 patients for now. After August 30th, I'll go up to 6 patients. My patients last night were nice. One of them gave me a hug when I went in to tell her goodbye. All 4 of them said I was wonderful. :) It's really nice to hear that.

I started an IV last night, by myself, for the first time. Got it on the first try. After I got it in & flushed it w/ saline, my patient was like "wow, you're wonderful!". I asked her if it hurt at all and she said "not at all, you're a miracle worker!". lol :) I was so relieved that I managed to get the IV started, but it's great that she didn't even feel it! It was a weird feeling afterwards..that I actually started an IV.. I was a little paranoid about it going sub-q, but it was infusing just fine. I'm too critical of myself! I'm proud of myself though. Of course, I didn't mention that she's the first patient I've ever started an IV on by myself. ;)

Life is good right now. Things aren't going as quickly as I'd like them to, but I'm happy with how my life is going right now. I'm just anxious to get my own house. David and I found 2 houses that we'd like to check out soon. Our goal is to buy a house before the end of this year (as long as we find the right house).. :) Also, maybe a couple months after we move into the new house, I'd like to start a family! It's all so exciting :)

One of 4 new blood parrot cichlids that I recently got :)