6 months as a new nurse

I am coming up on my six months as being a new nurse on a med surg floor in a busy hospital. Most days I go into my 13+ hour shift with a knot in my stomach. I have moved past the throwing up once I get there phase and now just have the knot in the pit of my stomach. In this short time, I have gone from night shift to day shift and am much happier as a day shifter. While I have not been doing as much crafts as before, I am happy to be awake when the rest of the world is awake.
I learn something new every time I work a shift. Rather it be something I did not know about the floor, a procedure, or something about myself. I am still nervous when it comes to talking to doctors, but I am getting better. I was able to confront one when he questioned if I had done something on a previous shift and I knew it was done. I was able to show him where I had charted it and the results.
I have a good relationship with my coworker. More so on days than I did on nights. Plus I have a really good manager who is always there to lend her hand.
I am better at charting than I was when I first started. But still get behind at times. It is a lot to keep up with and make sure you are giving the best care. I cry at  least one of my three shifts.
But I know I am at least good at "customer service:" I do get positive comments from my patients and I got one card from one of my patient's wife that made me feel like all this was worthwhile. I even framed it and put it on the wall of awesome.
Sometimes I feel like I want to quit and run screaming from the place. Other times I am happy to have been the one there for my patients.
I don't know if this floor is where I want to be for the entirety of my career, but I am thankful for the experience I am gaining. We get all different kinds of patients on this floor. And to this day, I know I have started three successful IV's and one successful female catheter.
One patient has died on me. She was a DNR and died in the night.
I do my best to get my things done and to take care of my patients. I do have more confidence than I did when I started. And I am able to stand up for myself and my patients.
As stressful as nursing is, I can't imagine choosing anything else as my career choice.

Other New items

Black and green beaded bracelet $5

Blue Corkboard $10

Decorative board to be customized for you $5

Football Time! Crafts for the Vol Fan

Show your Volunteer Pride! $12

Or if you are not a Vol fan, I suppose I can do your team colors too! :o)

$6

Orange and white bracelet

Orange and White Bracelet #2

$6

Orange and White Bracelet #3

$6

Crafts

Project #9

Vase and Flowers $8 plus shipping

 Project #10

Pink hope dangle bracelets $3 plus shipping

Project #11

Purple Cork board $10 plus shipping

Project #12

Purple charm dangle bracelets $4 plus shipping

New Supplies

I bought some new supplies today for some other craft ideas I have. I bought some wood to make some more signs and some cork board and fabric for a couple of things I have found. The cork board, I realized tonight once I opened it and started playing with it needs to be reinforced. So I will have to figure out what to use for that before I cover it with the fabric. Tonight I worked on a couple items for a friend's up coming birthday.
I have not posted pictures of the new items, as I need a model for some of the bracelets. And I can't do it my self seeing as Peter is asleep and I am too short to take the pictures on my own arm. So next week I will get the pictures up on the new items. In the mean time, look through the blog to see the current items I have for sale.
I am connect to Paypal.


On another note, after I left the room last night and turned out the light, Miracle started banging at the door and clawing at the carpet, trying to get out. She was so loud she even woke the dragon, (Peter) from his slumber. So I had to come back up here, lay in the floor with her for a little while, and when I left, turned off the fan and left the light on and she was fine.
She did it again this afternoon when I got up. I have since tossed one of my T-shirts in here, and my flip flop that she has chewed on. For some reason she likes to do that. So far so good, but I am about to close up shop for the night, so we will see how she does.
She is still limping, but she seems to have more energy today. I saw her playing with the twisty tie a few minutes ago.

Miracle Lou, the trooper

So I noticed Monday morning that my female orange cat was limping. So I freaked out and took her to the vet. She hates going outside the house and hate riding in the car and pretty much hates everybody except me and a handful of others.
We make it to the vet which is about a mile and a half up the road with her squawking the whole way and hanging on my arm like a dog. We get there and they put me in the room to fill out paperwork. Because I no longer have a cat carrier that is big enough for my cats. Those little bitty ones, that say they are for cats. Forget it. None of my cats are fitting in those. Length wise or width wise. Luckily I thought to grab her blanket as I am going out the door and I toss that on the bench in the room and she hides in the corner behind my purse, snuggled on her blanket. When the vet tech comes in, I bring her up on the table and she starts to get her temperture. She does not like this. I end up with a couple new back piercing and a new cat scarf. The girl is trying to get her off me and this is causing her to freak out even more and dig those claws in a little more. So finally I tell her just to leave her for a minute and let me calm her down.
Finally I get her loose and soothed and the tech takes her out to weigh her. She did okay during this part. She weighed in at 16.7 lbs.
Once we get back in the room a dog starts barking and this sends her back into the corner, trying to make her self as small as possible.
Finally the vet comes in and we get her to walk across the floor some so the vet can see her limp. Then we get her back up on the table and the vet starts feeling on her leg with me and the tech holding her. I was talking to her and trying to comfort her. And she did okay with only a few little growls.
Turns out she pulled or tore some ligaments in her knee.... yes cat's have knees just like we do.She got some pain meds and is on isolation from the boys for several days. And I was told she needed to go on a diet. The vet said that would help with the healing and would decrease the arthritis from setting in.
So Miracle is all set up in the computer/craft room. She has her own new litter box, new food and water bowl. New kind of food, and a new bed which she has yet to sleep in, along with some new toys and a twisty tie. I also brought up the scratch pad that she loves.
She seems content in here. She wants out in the afternoons when we are all downstairs, but I do not want her running up and down the stairs.
And since I am pretty sure this is the result of her running from the boys, I do not want that to injure her more.
I have been in here with her for most of the night working on crafts and such. She is still limping, but she is not crying out in pain or anything when she moves.
The vet said we could do surgery, but usually it is only done on dogs and that it should heal on it's own. That and surgery is close to $2000.
I hope she is okay. She is nearing ten years old and even though she is shy and kinda crazy, she is sweet to me and love me.
And she is very pretty.

Crafts for Sale

Project #7 Hemp Beaded Necklace

Pink and white beaded Hemp Necklace $6 plus shipping

Project #8 Beaded bracelet

Pink beaded bracelet w/ lock and key charms $4.50 plus shipping

More Crafts for sale

Project #4 Fat Tire Bottlecap necklace

W/ Red Yarn necklace $5 plus shipping

Project #5 Cross stitched Music Cleft

Come w/ a 5x7 wooden frame; $10 plus shipping

Project #6 Beaded Yarn Bracelet

Purple bracelet w/ gold and purple beads; $4 plus shipping

I use PayPal for anyone who is interested in order anything. Will also take special orders for special colors or designs.
I will process the order and the shipping before I confirm the cost for shipping.
If you think I am asking to much for something; please let me know along with how much you are willing to pay for it and I will consider it.
Thanks for visiting Cole's Corner.

Crafty

So now that I have some free time, I needed to find something to do. After strolling through the Farmer's Market on Saturday and seeing all the over prices hand made stuff, I decided that I needed to get back into the craft business. So I hit up that craft board on Pinterest and started working on some things.

Project #1 Personalized Board

Good for hanging pictures or as a memo board; Asking $12 plus shipping; will customize

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project #2 Hemp Keychain

$5 plus shipping

 Project #3 Bottlecap Necklace

Blue bottlecap w/ Cross emblem $6 plus shipping

2013; Year of Awesome!

So far this year, I have trained for and ran a half marathon with my best friend, Lenae Price.

and we finished in under 4 hours with Peter and Jordan waiting to cheer us on at the finish line.

 

I graduated from Nursing School.

I went to Ireland and London with the love of my life and found my happy place

 
 Cliffs of Moher top left ; London's eye top right; Cork bottom left; and  my happy place bottom right

 Then, I came back home from this awesome vacation. Studied my butt off for the boards. Then just when I thought all hope was lost;

Appointment	Exam Description	Details		Status
Thu, 20 Jun 2013 Start Time: 08:00 AM Pearson Professional Centers-Knoxville TN, Knoxville, TN, USA	NCLEX-RN: The National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses English			Pass

I passed and became a RN!!!!!!

Then started my new job the day after. 

So far this has been the best year ever, and it;s only July!!

Starting 2013 off Right

So, remember that post a little while back about me being able to fit back in my skinny jeans? Well, as of today, those are no longer the skinny jeans I will be referring to. (those "skinny jeans" were a size 10.) Yesterday, I was washing my new dress pants and dress skirt that I got for Christmas. (They are a size 8.) And I started to wonder if I dare try to get in a size down. So I went to my favorite store and bought a pair (size 6.) And guess what!? They fit!! I didn't expect them too. I thought they would become that pair hanging in the closet that I dreamed of fitting in. But they fit. And I wore them today and can sit in them and still breathe. I have not been in a six since....... sophomore year at UT..... so .........9 years ago..... I think is about right.
So those will now be my skinny jeans and I can already fit in them. I think I am pretty happy being at that size. We will see. I want to keep losing a little. I have a number in my head and I want to weigh that much again.
Otherwise, today was the first official day of classes. We had orientation in Harriman.
I got the hospital and the floor I wanted for the Transition phase. The only down side is it is nights. But I only have to do it for 60 hours. So that will only be 5 shifts. Surely it will not be that bad.
Also, I am about to register for something I never said I would do. I am going to register for the Louisville Half marathon. It fits into my schedule okay and I have decided that I can do it. Lenae is running it with me and I will be about on the same pace with Betty, I may be a little slower than her, but I am doing it. I never thought I would be 29 and in the best shape of my life. When I was 18 and in size 0 I did not have the energy to run upstairs, much less run a half marathon.
I am also going to register for the 10k in Louisville so I can have some one to help me through that one since I struggled so much with the last 10k.
Technically my training starts February 9th with a 4 miler, but I have already been running a bunch and have a base of 3 and a half.
This semester is going to be busy and I have already felt crazy just thinking about it. We have a lot of projects in Transitions that we have to do. We have a heavy load in Psych, with only 3 tests the whole semester so there is a lot of pressure up front to get a good grade and maintain a good average. There are a lot of unanswered questions. Like I really want the Nclex review class and they have not been clear on when that is going to be. Plus the money demands are high this semester.
But on the bright side, Only one more semester of it, then  I get to go to Europe with my wonderful husband. Then no more school for a long while.... if ever. And hopefully I will get a job and actually get to work as a nurse.
I still have some organizing to do, and my schedule is not complete. I have to set up a time to meet with my preceptor to set up the schedule I can work with her.
And there is a Roane State Exit exam I have to take. Plus we have the HESI test to take this semester, but luckily they schedule that for us.
So I am ready for this year. I am knocking out nursing school. Running my first marathon, and going to Europe. What could make this year better?
That's only in the first 5 months of the year, so who knows what the next 7 months will hold.

Knocken' it out!

Back over the summer I went to the Medic mobile station and donated blood. A couple of weeks later I get the paper in the  mail from them that tells you blood type and cholesterol level. My cholesterol was really high. I think it was like 260. Now, this was the end of the day and not a fasting cholesterol letter. And I have actively been trying to lose weight since last January and had been Zumbaing (can I make that a verb?) just about every day and we had been watching what we eat. Mostly I had already cut out sweeties and chocolate. So I became a little concerned. I knew that my grandmother has high cholesterol and I am sure my mom does to if I can ever get her to go to the doctor.
But I found us a new primary care doctor and went to see her.
On October 23, 2012 my overall cholesterol level was 240. Normal range is 170-196. My LDL (the bad cholesterol) was 160. Normal is 120-130 with >100 being optimal. And the HDL (the good cholesterol) was 66 and the optimal is 45-130 with > 60 being the desired.
These were my numbers fasting in the am, by the way.
So needless to say I was a little high. The doctor was concerned because it was so high and I am young and active. My triglycerides were good also, so she said that it had to be a genetic factor. She told me to start taking 2 tablets of Fish Oil twice a day and to keep exercising. She asked me to check back in three months.
So I went back on Tuesday January 7, 2013 so I could get it out of the way before school started.
She called me that evening and said she was very impressed especially coming off the holidays and wanted to know what I have been doing. So I told her. Zumba, running, Fish Oil and watching what I eat.
My numbers were down.
Total was 228; LDL 136, and HDL was 79. She said she could not get most people down that much in three months on 10 units of prescribed cholestrol medications. So she told me to keep up the good work.
I had hoped it would be down under 200, but she was so encouraging that I felt good about it. And since I have the genetic factor it is likely to always run high. But I do not plan on ever going on the prescribed medications. As long as I am active, it should stay where I need it to be.

15lbs later.... the pictures

Me and Peter last December 2011 at Nanny's. I weighted about 148 lbs

Me and my cousin Daymon at Nanny's this December 2012. I weigh about 133lbs

15lbs later

Christmas 2012 was slightly different for me. We still traveled from Knoxville to see our family spread across the state of Tennessee. It still felt like we spent more time in the car than we did in one single house. But never the less, it was different. What was different about it? I was.
 For starters, I am 15lbs lighter and 5 pants sizes smaller.
Second, I got up early on December 22nd to go for a run. In the cold. It was like 38 degrees. And I ran for 2.25 miles around Bellvue.
Third, I got up on December 24th and rode the stationary bike in my grandmother's basement for 30 minutes.
And Fourth, I ran 2 miles on December the 26th in the snow on Spring Hill Rd in Paris, TN and if you have never been there, there is a steep ass hill that has to be ran up.
Why is this so spectacular?
Because last year I would have said, "It's too cold." "It's Christmas." or "It's snowing."
But I like being smaller and in shape and able to fit in smaller sizes.
I also like sweet potatoes casserole and country ham and biscuits and gravy. And grand mama's peanut chocolate candy.
I'm not going to lie. The whole time I am running I am thinking about food. I like food. Especially good food. I have just learned over the past year that I have to be rationale about what I eat. I can eat chocolate every now and then. Just not every day and not because I am bored.
I drink beer with my husband and we have pizza usually at least once a week. But smaller portions and above all else, finding an exercise you really like.
The credit for that one goes to two people. First to Peter for finding me a local Zumba class that is less than five minutes from the house and affordable.
And second to Sandy. The instructor at Knoxville Zumba. She is a great instructor, who make exercise fun and something that I look forward to every day.
I learned how to tone myself with the Zumba moves and learned that I am very very competitive when we did the plank contest.
Not only have I lost weight, but have also became more confident. That has a lot to do with the fact that I actually like myself now and the way I look now, for the most part. And Nursing school has boosted my confidence as well. I like knowing things.
Plus I cut 10inches off my hair and have short hair again for the first time in about 4 years.
2012 has brought a lot of changes in my life and 2013 is sure to hold much more. I plan to graduate in May with my RN degree. Peter and I are planning a Europe trip soon after. I hope to have a job in the hospital of my choice, and then who knows....... maybe a little one.