Work, School and Adoption

I started school again last Wednesday. It is going to be a fantastic semester! I am taking Anatomy and Physiology. Before you comment that I'm crazy for taking these two classes together- I already know! It is going to be a lot of hard work, let there be no mistake about it but I have great professors and my sister and I are taking the classes "together". By together I mean she is also taking the classes at the same school (Salt Lake Community College) but from different professors so we will be able to bounce ideas off each other and study together- at least a little bit.

JD continues to stay busy at work and with the freelance jobs that he works on from home. He is such a hard worker and I appreciate him so much. He is such a wonderful provider and support to me. He is constantly studying new programming languages that will help add depth to his skills and make him more marketable. He plans on returning to school eventually and getting his Master's degree in Computer Science. He likes the program at BYU so it's a good thing we live in Utah County- at it appears we will be for awhile. As of now, it will probably not happen until I am done with my nursing degree or until he finds a job that has tuition reimbursement to help pay for the cost.

And finally...we are thrilled and anxious to be meeting with LDS Family Services on September 7 for an adoption orientation meeting. That's right we are going to adopt. We aren't sure what to expect except that we will get the paperwork to start filling it out. It can take up to a year and more to have a child placed but we are looking forward to the road ahead and the experiences we will have and the opportunity to meet birth mothers and welcoming a baby into our home.

I have the unique opportunity to occasionally take care of birth mothers placing their babies for adoption at the hospital and it never short of extraordinary seeing the love those women have for their babies and what a sacrifice they are making to give those children a better life. I am so grateful that adoption is an option for us and that we will be starting the process soon. So with all of that said we would appreciate your prayers and letting anyone you may know that we want to add to our family through adoption.



Until next time...

On the go

This seems to be the theme of this week. JD and I just simply run by each other as one if coming from work and the other is going to. I am headed into night four of a four day work week and I'm not sad to see it end. JD has been teaching again at Broadview University in West Jordan this semester and his last class was on Monday. I'm not sad to see that end either because now he will be home on Monday nights with me.
I should be sleeping right now but my brain won't shut down. When I come home from work and have some things that I need to get done it takes me longer to finally get to sleep. This morning when I got home from work I made a cake for our "team day" dinner at work tonight and baked some chicken and made chicken salad. I am excited to eat both of them...yumm-o!
JD's company party is today. He is golfing with the couple we have played with the past two years and another guy he works with. I'm sad I'm missing the free golf day but sleep is much more important. I am missing the picnic/dinner that DHI hosts tonight too because of work but I am never very comfortable there anyway. I had to convince JD before he left for work that he needed to go even though we wouldn't see each other until the next morning and I think he is going to bring me a surprise to work tonight anyway so we can say hello and good night all in the same breath.
Oh how I love that man and his kind heart and unending love for a sometimes cranky wife like me. I love my job and the people I work with and the babies I get to cuddle while I'm there but one of the biggest benefits is how close we live to the hospital so JD can just swing by when he wants to at night (always around 9 pm after my first rounds are done and he is willing to just hang out if he needs to while I wrap things up with patients) so we can say good night to each other. He has come to the hospital everyday this week...I think the ladies I work with might be a little bit jealous that my handsome hubby can and does come by to see me...I love that he does and realize just how lucky I am.
I knew this would do the trick...I'm getting droopy eyed and ready for some sleep...but only until 4 pm so I can finish the cake and maybe go pick up some new scrubs for work.

Until next time...

PS I'm considering attending one of the "private" schools that are in abundance here in Utah for nursing school. I could be done in 5 semesters or less because of the classes I have done already- the one hold up is the cost of tuition...OUCH!! but I would more than double my salary once I'm a RN. Things I'm pondering right now...

It finally happened...

I worked in the Maternity unit at Riverton Hospital yesterday. When you go to a new place to work- which I do as a float pool employee- everyone wants to get to know you. I appreciate that it gives me a chance to get to know the people I am working with too.
Whenever I have worked in a maternity unit the first question always seems to be "Do you have kids?" (This happens in other units too but not usually the first question.)
My canned response is "No... but we are trying." This response typically gets a "good luck" or "oh" and more questions some which include how old I am or how long have you been married?
Well yesterday was the first time EVER that I have got this response...
"If you just relax you will get pregnant. I mean seriously I know so many people that once they quit trying they were able to have kids...like bam they were pregnant with twins and everything."
This was from someone that I was working with, she is also a CNA. I tried to calmly explain to her that "relaxing" wasn't going to help us because it was physically impossible for me to get pregnant without medical intervention. She then said "I assure you that if you could just relax about it you can get pregnant!"
I decided this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere good and I was going to just end up more annoyed and possibly tell her off so I just got up and walked away. My telling her off would have included- "well I wish I would have met you a year ago because all the money we have been paying a fertility specialist wouldn't have gone to waste to learn that I just needed to RELAX! I'm so glad that your one year of nursing school and 1.5 years working on a mom/baby unit have made you an expert on the matter since here you see the happy end result of "just relaxing"!
Now on the other hand the patients I had yesterday were fantastic and it makes me even more excited to start working on the Maternity unit at American Fork Hospital. It is so fun to watch a new mom and/or dad love on their baby. One dad specifically yesterday just made me want to cry with the way he talked to his little one. I needed to check the baby vitals so I asked dad to put the baby in the bassinet for me. He was so nervous and looked at her and said "I promised daddy is going to get better at this." It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

Until next time...

Life and Death

I just got home from my first 12 hour shift for the week and what a night it ended up being! The MET team had to be called for one of my patients last night. This specialty team is called when a patient is having trouble breathing but they aren't in cardiac arrest so there isn't a need for a code blue. It was an eye opening experience to say the very least and I am glad to have that first experience behind me but I wish it would have ended differently. This patient also died last night...I had a patient die. I have never had this happen before and I am still trying to wrap my mind around it. I'm hoping that as I sleep today that isn't what I dream about. It wasn't a traumatic experience at all. The patient's family was able to get to the hospital before she passed and say goodbye to her and for that I am grateful and I'm certain they are as well.

It was good for me to have this experience and I'm glad I got to learn how important it is to be respectful of a patient even when they have passed from this life to the next. I didn't learn this because I was having difficulty being respectful but because of the 'coldness' that the person had that came to get the patients body to go to the morgue. It may have just been their way of dealing with the situation or maybe they were having a bad night at work- this I don't know-
but it was very bothersome to me.

I'm sure I will think of this patient every time I have to be part of a similar experience. I hope I will always be moved, just as I was tonight, when I have a patient pass from this life to the next. I am grateful for my job and for the opportunities that are afforded me.

Until next time...

Today I learned...

I had a work meeting this morning before classes and I just can't seem to get this thought out of my mind...you reap what you sow. This meeting was a training class for the PCA's (PCA= Patient Care Assistant aka CNA) on the Float Pool that I work on for Intermountain Healthcare.

Have I mentioned that I L-O-V-E my job...I learn so much everyday and meet interesting people and co-workers each shift because I have the opportunity to work at 5 different hospitals in the Salt Lake valley, not to mention that I get to pick my schedule...you can't beat that!

Anyway back to the meeting this morning... we were talking about the standards that are expected of us when we work at different locations because while the care is (or at least should be) consistent each unit has a little bit different protocol for some things. I have learned as I have gone to work that sometimes it is more the people you work with rather than the policies of a unit that dictate how things are done...which is what makes me think of reaping what you sow.

One of the PCA's in this meeting this morning would NOT quiet down about how the nurses at a certain hospital just don't help and they are lazy and they treat this person like a runner even when they are swamped with their own work to do. It was interesting to hear this woman and her opinions and of course, once one person starts other people had to tell their sad story of how they have been "misused and abused" by nurses on certain units at different hospitals. Anyway, it occured to me if you focus on those kinds of things that is all you see but if you focus on the good things in the people you work with- that is what you will see.

If I was to find something that I didn't care for much with my job it would be that people pass on their opinions about patients and staff you will be working with during the shift change report. I HATE it when that happens. I learned a couple of weeks ago to just let it go because people are going to have their opinions but they don't have to be mine.

I had a patient that I was told was terrible to deal with and mean. My first rounds I waited until the very last to go into that room and was very apprehensive because of what I had been told. I tried to be nice and cheerful but I know he could feel my nervousness. I decided after that that I was going to ignore what the previous PCA had told me and not treat him any differently than I did any other patients and that changed everything. Maybe it was my imagination but... his attitude toward me changed when I changed my attitude towards him- crazy how that works! It was a good lesson and I am glad that I learned it earlyin my nursing career and I hope that as I progress I will be able to pass that on to others.

I have heard it all before from other people about like attracting like and reaping what you sow but this morning it never rang so true to my heart and mind. I love learning moments like that!

Until next time...