Ann Arbor...

Patrick and I have talked about visiting Ann Arbor ever since Taylor moved there to go to the University of Michigan in the Fall of 2010. Although Patrick went there every Wednesday for a few months for GMAT classes that didn't really count and we wanted to explore the town. So Saturday I surprised Patrick by taking him there. We woke up early and headed to the farmers market. They have a bit of everything but mostly greens and flowers. We explored shops close by and downtown as well. We bought some rye bread and spices. Then we met up with Taylor and enjoyed lunch at Zingerman's Delicatessen. 

It was amazing. Zingerman's is a must hit place while visiting Ann Arbor. We each picked a sandwich for lunch and split them. They have multiple stores there including the deli we went to, a coffee house, bakery, and roadhouse. The best part is that you can sample anything from their store. Anything at all, the cheese, meat, jam, olive oil, ice cream, and chocolate. So after lunch we wanted to try some things. We started by trying the gellato. Then we each picked a chocolate we wanted to try. We tried a Mexican cinnamon chocolate, dark chocolate bacon bar, and some sort of pistachio goodness.This turned into quite the chocolate sampling experience with the worker trying them with us as she described their unique flavors and made suggestions of what we needed to try.  She had us try a $20 hazelnut chocolate bar followed up by chocolate bar topped with coco nibs. It was awesome! We were so distracted by the fabulous chocolate tasting that we forgot to sample the cheese, bread, and oils next store. While there we drank tons of their unique soda pop and finished up the trip with dessert of course!

We brought the camera but forgot to take pictures. Taylor snapped one of us across from his dorm at the end of our visit.

Freezer Meals...

My mom talked with Patrick and I about making some freezer meals so over General Conference weekend we made some. My mom picked out recipes she found on pinterest and we divided up the shopping list. It was nice that we had all of the meat we needed already in our freezer. When Sunday came we turned on conference and cooked up a storm. We made orange chicken, stuffed peppers, pot roast, meatballs, manicotti and barbeque pork. Patrick cooked the orange chicken and served it over a mix of onions, peppers, and snap peas. We liked it and are excited to try more.

I'm no longer wearing white scrubs...

I finished my 210 hours of clinical! It was officially 216, but really closer to 235-240 hours. I could not be more excited. Because I was so nervous about clinical I never really paid attention to the big sign by the unit that said neuroscience unit. So after I was there for some time and realized everyone always needed a neurological assessment and had experienced a stroke, it finally clicked. Besides working with stroke patients, the majority of my patients were there because of  mini stroke,  mental status change, new onset of seizures, or cerivcal/spinal fusions. Overall clinical was a great experience but some days were difficult. I only cried once leaving clinical as I was on the phone with Patrick. That was when I was sick and on the first day of me working three 12 hour shifts in a row which of course fell on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Here I am with my preceptor on our last day together.

My top ten experiences during clinical as a nursing student:

10. Cleaning up poop and pee. It happened from my first clinical at the nursing home to my last clinical. I guess I got a break when I was at an alternative high school and when I was on the psych floor. For some reason the pee smell was far worse for me. One of my favorites was having a patient's suprapubic catheter leak at the insertion site that it saturated them, their bedding, and was dripping on the floor.
9. Giving pills to a four year old who could swallow pills. What four year old can do this?
8. Putting all sorts of restraints on patients including mitts, wrists restraints, and lap belts only to see that confused elderly people can escape them as quickly as I leave the room.
7. Seeing someone with drastically different pupil sizes. It startled me especially when the larger pupil would not react to light. Apparently it was normal for this patient.
6.Walking into a patient's room to smell cigarette smoke. Yes the patient was smoking in the hospital.
5. Seeing all sorts of surgeries including a bedside incision and drainage of a neck cyst, Cesarian section birth, electroconvulsive therapy, a gallbladder removal, and more.
4. Talking to someone with dissociative personality disorder. Ever since learning about this as a psychology major I've always wanted to meet someone with multiple personalities and now I have.

3. Dressing wounds. All sorts of wounds. Weeping cellulitis, pressure ulcers, and my personal favorite a fistula on someone's buttock.
2. Seeing twins born vaginally, with the second baby born breach. I'll never forget his blue leg dangling out first.
1. Helping to take my patient to the ICU as he was rapidly declining following surgery.  He was hooked up to a defibrillator "just in case" as we transported him. We literally were jogging down the hallway as we transferred him.

I am so excited to be done with nursing school! I graduate the last Saturday of the month and look forward to passing the NCLEX-RN licensing test this summer so I can start working as a registered nurse in Utah!

Our New Car...

When we were sitting in the hospital after my car accident Patrick realized we would get to go car shopping. He started researching that day and after hours and hours of researching online, reading reviews, watching car videos, test driving, talking with car salesman, and trying to figure out what we wanted we narrowed it down to a few options. It came down to a new Honda Fit or a used Ford Focus. Of course we wanted the Fit because it gets great gas mileage, is super cute, has some great storage options, and it would be a manual. But we realized that with our budget and things we had coming up, going the used route would be a smarter decision for us. We settled on getting a used car from the man who sold my parents the car I used to drive that we bought from them.

Patrick had been taking care of the insurance claim and getting reimbursement from the car I totaled. He ran into some problems as the insurance lady was out of office for days and would not return his phone calls. After we sent the title to the wrong address, finally got it back and resent it we found out the insurance had sent our check to the wrong address too.  Patrick made more calls and had to talk to the agent’s manager but it finally got worked out.

For the past month we have been sharing the car and that has meant that we have both had to wake up earlier than usual at times. Poor Patrick had to be at work from 6am-8:30pm one day while I was at clinical, but he never complained about it. He also didn’t complain when I was slow to get ready so he was at work a little later than he hoped.

So we are now happy owners of a 2007 Ford Focus. Patrick’s only complaint is that it is silver and that’s kinda boring. But it has a sunroof and that makes up for it. It was also a great deal with 22,000 miles on it.

Goodbye blue car...

In February I was on my way to clinical bright and early on a Saturday morning when I was in a car accident. It had snowed the night before so I was going slower than normal. I had pulled out of our neighborhood and was coming over a little hill when I noticed the car coming towards me was driving in my lane! As soon as I could I started braking and heading towards the shoulder. I was too late and we hit head on. It all happened so fast and the next thing I knew the airbags had gone off and my car was on the side of the road. My door barely opened enough for me to climb out and I went to see if the other driver was okay. She was and she yelled to me that I was bleeding. After texting my preceptor and instructor for school to tell them I was not coming and calling Patrick I made my first police call ever.

Turned out the blue car was totaled and I needed stitches in my knee. Thankfully the accident happened maybe a mile or two from the house so Patrick could come right away. He was supposed to work at the temple that morning but called in sick which worked out well because otherwise he would have been in the shower when I called at 6am. When he got there I was so happy to see him and sit in the warm car. We had the other lady sit in the car with us because it was so cold.

The cold worked out well for my knee. Because of the temperature my knee was still ice cold when we got the hospital after the police report was done. And this meant very little bruising instead of the huge black bruise the ER Dr. told me would happen.

 Here is my knee after a few days. It did get a little infected which didn't surprise me. A round of antibiotics fixed that. Dr. Patrick took out my stitches at home about 2 weeks after the accident.

Last Clinical…

Earlier in the month I started my last nursing school clinical ever! I’m on a medical surgical unit, which was my top choice, at a hospital about 40 minutes away. The set up for this is a bit different than my other clinicals where I was with an instructor and about 7 other students. This time it’s just me and my RN preceptor for 210 hours. And instead of having assigned clinical days I work when she works. Thankfully and to my delight my preceptor works the day shift 7a-7p.

Like all of my previous clinicals I get really nervous for it and can’t sleep the night before. But hopefully this will pass. My preceptor is really nice and I think I’m going to have a good experience. I’m hoping to learn a lot and have some good stories to tell.

My interesting experience on Saturday, which was my second time at clinical, actually happened after I completed my shift. To my surprise I got locked in an outside fenced in courtyard. And it was cold with snow on the ground.  My normal exit out of the hospital was locked so I used the one in the stairwell. Once outside with the door shut I realized I’d made a big mistake. I tried not to panic but the gate to the fence was locked, the doors leading into the hospital were locked, I couldn’t scale the fence (even though I tried twice), no one heard me banging on one of the doors, and my preceptor wouldn’t answer her phone. I was about ready to dig through my backpack to find the phone number to the unit I’m on to ask them to send down security when I thought I try one more thing.  I saw another gate that had two doors that were chained shut. I thought that maybe I could maneuver the chain so I could open the gate a little and slip out. After a little work I was able to do it and barely squeezed out.

When I got home Patrick had bought me chocolate milk, made me dinner, and gave me a long foot rub. It was nice to see him after being locked outside in the snow and being gone all day. Thankfully my exit from the hospital on Sunday night went much smoother.

Patrick got me these flowers to celebrate my last first day of clinical. I was so tired when I got home I didn't even see them on the table until the next morning.

Here are some pictures from a few of my past clinicals.

 Pediatrics

 OB

Medical Surgical 2

Auto Show...

 Last Monday Patrick took a half day and we went to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It was his first time going. It's something that you have to do when you live in Michigan. We went with my dad, Taylor, and Brian. We spent the day checking out cars and for lunch we rode the People Mover to Greektown. 

Everyone had their own style of looking at the cars. Patrick liked to look at them all, get inside, open the trunks, and move things around. My dad liked to walk up to every car, get in some of them, and read the information for them. Taylor and Brian took pictures of every concept car and the cool displays. I tried not to get separated from the group because there were so many people there. I kept up with Patrick and did a lot of people watching in addition to looking at the cars. I've also decided that if this whole nursing thing doesn't work out I think I could make it as a car model.