Finals

Just a quick update...Jordan had a final today, a take-home test to turn in tomorrow as well as a final, and a final and 20-page paper due on Wednesday. Then he is done!! Yay! I have a final on Thursday, one this Friday, and one next Friday (the 7th). I also have a required national review of all things nursing that I'm attending the first week of May. I have my pinning ceremony for nursing students at St. Marks Cathedral on the 28th, and graduation for Jordan and I is the 29th at the E-Center. I then plan on taking the national test to become a nurse, the NCLEX, sometime in June, but I have to register for it first. Until then, I will be working as a Nursing Apprentice (essentially a glorified CNA). But I will be making $2 more per hour and get to pick up all the shifts I want. Yay! It doesn't bother me. I'm going to be studying like crazy for this NCLEX. I really really REALLY want to pass it the first time and I'm going to make sure that it happens! Otherwise I have to pay for it all over again...something I don't really want to do. It costs about $200 for each test. Anyways, thought I'd catch you all up on our crazy life. We are literally in a whirlwind, which is why I named the blog that :D

papers...boo!

I have so many papers to write and I don't want to! I only have a few weeks left until the end of school and then I'm done! Jordan has been taking a ton of tests lately for all his classes too. He is worried about this semester and what it is going to do to his GPA. We had better get in to VCU :) I have a really good feeling about moving there, and I think we will get accepted soon. I have been looking at houses and apartments, jobs, and everything that is fun to do in Richmond. We plan on selling my car before we leave, driving across the country with our few things, and getting an apartment for a few months while we go house hunting! It is so exciting. I am so so excited!! I will work here until the end of July hopefully and then we will move. I'll start work again at the end of August/beginning of September and work on the house. Jordan has been thinking recently about becoming a neurosurgeon - basically doing brain surgery. Wow, my husband is way way smart! He loves the brain, it is his favorite organ. My favorite organs are the kidneys :) haha, now everyone will think I'm weird. That's ok though, because I'm a nurse and I'm allowed to have a favorite organ. Oh, and I haven't have bad chest pain since the day after the ER visit, so I'm happy. Our insurance is covering part of the CT scan, so we hope they cover most of the ER visit. Ok, wow, I'm really procrastinating. We will keep you in the loop!

Good News and Bad News

Those were the words my doctor told me yesterday. They also relate to our life as of yesterday.

I was getting ready for the day yesterday, and during my shower, my chest started to hurt tremendously. I could hardly breathe, and bending over and leaning to the side just increased the pain. I finished in the shower and told Jordan. He asked if I wanted to go to the ER and I really didn't. Although I am a hypochondriac, I hate going to the doctor. It makes me feel weak and like I can't take care of myself. The pain just kept getting worse though, so we decided to go. I grabbed all my medications I take and my nursing textbook so I could study and we drove to the U of U ER. I refuse to go to St. Marks, even though it is closer to our house. I have been there for clinicals for school, and have seen the horrid care most of the nurses and techs give.

So we drove through traffic to the ER around 0850. It was empty, thankfully, so I got in quickly. They attached a 3 lead ECG to me, took my vital signs, and I met the nurse, tech, and resident. The resident interviewed me. They then did a 12-lead ECG which is a better diagnostic tool than a 3-lead. The nurse inserted an IV and then drew a rainbow of labs. They both assessed me and when I told them that I had fallen down the stairs about 2 weeks ago, they started wondering if I had a clot that traveled up from my leg to my lungs or heart. So instead of doing an X-Ray, they decided to to a CT scan of my heart and lungs. The reason for this was because of several factors that put me at risk for a blood clot. First, I had lower leg trauma recently. Secondly, I am on estrogen because of my birth control. Third, I have chest pain. This put me at moderate to high risk for a clot. Essentially, an injected dye shows the flow of blood in the chest and you are able to better see a clot (if there is one). I also had to get the nurse a urine sample to test for pregnancy (which was negative, by the way :)) Can I just say how difficult it is to do a clean catch urine sample in a hospital gown and with cords hanging off you? It was hard!

I just chilled in my room with Jordan and then the volunteer came to take me to the CT scan around 1000. The techs helped me to get settled and told me to put my arms over my head in order for the scan to read more clearly. They then injected the dye, which made me extremely boiling hot, feel nauseated, and feel like I had to pee really bad! It was weird. The machine told me to breathe in and out and then hold my breath. I then went back to my room and waited for the test results to come back. The clerk in the ER came in to have me sign some paperwork for my admission. A volunteer from the Pain Research Center came to have me do some paperwork for a study to determine how to assess pain better. Jordan then decided to go to school since he had already missed a lot of class and had a big paper to work on.

After he left, the resident told me that the labs, ECG, and CT scan came back normal and they were going to move me to an observation room. This would be a much quieter environment. They moved me over at 1200. The nurse and tech there got me set up on a 5-lead ECG and got my vital signs. The plan was to wait until 1500 to draw more labs, so about eight hours after my chest pain started to see if there was any heart damage present. I read a little bit for school and then fell asleep for about an hour and a half. At 1330 I asked for some ibuprofen for pain. That didn't do anything, so I got some morphine :) THAT did the trick! It burned a little in the IV, but my pain was completely gone in about 10 minutes. I decided I like morphine.

The phlebotomist and ECG tech came to get labs and the other ECG at 1515. Then I just waited for an hour to get the results. Jordan came back to see me. He got an email from Virginia Commonwealth University that... dun dun dun... he is on the waitlist!! It's official!! We just need to be patient a little longer and he will hopefully be accepted :)

Then the physicians assistant came in at 1615 and told me the labs and ECG were completely normal, so they were just going to send me home. He said, "This is a good news, bad news sort of situation. The good news is that you don't have a blood clot or heart attack. The bad news is that we don't know what is wrong. We are going to give you some pain medication to go home with, and if the pain doesn't get better by the time the weekend is over, call the doctor. We want you to have a follow-up appointment with a primary care provider (PCP) early next week. If the pain gets worse, come back to the ER." The only problem with this is that we don't have a PCP. I am just hoping that our insurance will cover the majority of the costs for this visit. He also said that the pain could be related to inflamed cartilage in my ribs, so I could take 600 mg of ibuprofen three times a day to help. The nurse went over my discharge education with me and had me sign some paperwork.

Jordan and I then got dinner at the hospital which was pretty good, and then I got dressed and my nurse showed us to the pharmacy so I could buy my percocet. By the way, percocet is amazing and it completely handles my pain. Jordan and I left and went and bought groceries and then came home. I attempted to read for school for today, but the percocet got to me and I decided to go take a nap at 1830. This nap turned into sleeping for the entire night! I slept for 12 hours that night, and had really weird dreams because of the medications. It also makes me pretty itchy.

Anyways, today I woke up with the same exact pain, and couldn't take any medications because I had to drive to school and last through my lecture. But now I'm happy and medicated, haha :)