Dodged a bullet

Well, to follow up on the last post, it turns out my bike injury may have been more serious than I initially thought. That evening when I got ready for bed, I noticed my left hand and shoulder were still hurting pretty bad. Then I noticed that just above my wrist there was lots of swelling and bruising. Plus, it hurt a lot when I pressed directly on the bruise. Uh, oh. Those are classic signs of a fracture. I started to get real worried that I had broken my hand or wrist. On top of this, Melyn and I haven't had the greatest of luck this year with medical bills, starting with her visit to the ER last April. Our health insurance has a pretty high deductible, and though Melyn has a job, we obviously don't want another large expense this year. Plus, wrist fractures often require surgery. So I started to panic. On top of all this, I wouldn't be able to ride my bike to school!

I'd like to mention that when Melyn came home, she did a great job at cleaning me up and dressing my wounds (it's so nice to have a wife who's a nurse!).

The next morning I called the local clinic and was able to get an appointment with the doctor for that afternoon. They took some x-rays, did a physical exam, and to make a long story short: No fractures! The doctor told me, "You dodged a bullet." Yes, yes I did. The whole last night I was so mad about the whole thing, of possibly having a broken bone and to go through all the treatment that would require. I thought that since we had been so blessed for the last little while, it's certain that trials would come along too. In the morning I prayed that the injury would be as least serious as possible, but I honestly didn't believe that I could go through this incident without at least one broken bone. Oh me of little faith. Well, we're pretty happy to have gotten through this ok and excited for the Halloween weekend. Melyn is off work today and tomorrow. Sweet!

At least we don't have snow

Believe it or not, things have been pretty good for Melyn and me. I'm going down the career of my dreams and Melyn is a working nurse. Although things do sound pretty tough lately, more so for Melyn than me. As Melyn has mentioned in her previous post, her new job has been quite an adrenaline rush. It's super busy and a rehab care facility is a much different working environment from a hospital which she is used to. Still, I'm super proud of the work she's doing and I know she's the best nurse in the world. Plus, we finally have a real source of income for the first time in our marriage (yay!). I've been trying to help out more around the house to compensate for her being at home less. In other words, I'm cleaning up after myself more.

As for me, I've been really enjoying school, but I just wish I was smarter. The hardest transition to medical school from college is the fact that you can no longer coast to get by... ever. You are in a large group of students who are way smarter than you and it feels like a struggle to keep my head above water at times. The hard part isn't getting a passing grade on an exam, but rather performing favorably compared to my peers. The fact is, the classes we have now are just preparation for the boards we will take at the end of second year. When you apply for residency positions, the score you got on your first board exam will be the largest factor (usually) that they take into consideration. And so if you score below the national average, then your chances at getting the residency you want don't look so good. And so, I'm working really hard to perform well now so I can perform well when I take the boards.

Right now I'm taking gross anatomy. This course is known at my school for being the first real challenge for medical students. The hardest part is simply memorizing every little muscle, nerve, and artery in the body. I feel like my brain hasn't been absorbing very well all the names and details I'm throwing at it while I'm studying. My first anatomy exam is in two parts, one on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday. The first part is called the practical. This is where they have each cadaver marked with a few points and you have to name the muscle, nerve, etc that the marker is pointing at. The second part is the written exam, which is simply a list of questions that you have to answer regarding gross anatomy. I'm not putting too much detail into describing all this information, but really I'm just writing to take a break from studying.

Also, I've been biking to school. We live about 7 miles from the medical campus and it takes me about 30 minutes to get there from our house. We're limited to one car, so me taking the bike allows Melyn to drive to work and do whatever errands needed to be done (like shopping for groceries). To me, the real advantage in riding a bike is that it's basically free. I don't have to pay for parking, yearly registration, insurance, gas, repairs, and the inevitable parking/speeding ticket. All those reasons are why I hate owning a car. Plus, in the rare event that my bike gets stolen, it simply means I'm going to be browsing the yard sales for another $20 bike. I'm also considering getting a scooter, at some point in the future when we've put a decent amount into our savings. Sometimes it feels just too cold or rainy to bike, so having something motorized would be nice. With the laws here in Richmond, I don't need a motorcycle license or insurance to drive a scooter (as long as it's a scooter that doesn't go faster than 35 mph, which is fast enough for the route I usually take to school). And I can park it next to where all the bikes are which means I don't need an expensive student parking pass ($120 a semester). I will have to pay for gas, but at 90 miles to the gallon, they are quite efficient. This, however, is all just a dream of mine. We really won't have any money to spend on such a luxury for a good long time, but it keeps me motivated.

Although biking has been pretty good, today I had my first crash. Coming home, I was riding a little to close to the outside of the lane and I hit my right handlebar right smack on a parked car's side door mirror. I crashed and burned pretty bad (lots of cuts on my palms and shoulder) and banged up the front wheel. The wheel now runs a little crooked. With this happening and also the stress of a major test that I don't feel ready for; it hasn't been a good day. But when things are real bad, I remind myself "it's snowing in Salt Lake right now. I'm so lucky to be here."

I love you all, thank you for reading. Sorry for the spelling and grammatical errors, I'm too lazy to proofread. Also, please comment on Melyn's entries when she blogs, she feels like no one reads them.

The Worst Day Ever

On the 19th, two of the worst things that can happen in nursing happened to me. I know that I've been writing really downer stuff lately, so if you don't want to read it, don't. It's just how it is.

I was in the middle of my first medication pass, getting things done on time, and then it happened. I was giving an insulin injection to a patient, and the needle went through his skin, into my finger. I got a freaking needlestick injury. I was bleeding, and so I washed my hands really well and told the supervisor. I filled out one incident report. I had to leave the building and get blood drawn at a clinic a couple miles away and ended up being gone from the floor for almost 2 hours. 2 hours! That's a quarter of my shift! I knew then that I would be there late.

Then, during the second medication pass, I was trying to go fast and ended up giving the wrong medications to a patient. I had to complete incident report number two, call the doctor, and call the family members (always scary). The patient ended up being fine, but it was the fact that I made two big mistakes in the span of four hours that killed me.

A lot of my nursing friends have been really reassuring, telling me that it happens and that they've all made these mistakes too. Nurses are human and mistakes happen. I'm not a perfect human being.

On the positive side, I only had 2 hours of overtime yesterday, not 3 like I usually do. I'm getting better slowly, but surely.

October

Well, not much has been happening here in the past couple weeks. Jordan has begun his anatomy course and is working with a small group on a fresh cadaver, dissecting it and learning all the different parts of the body. He enjoys it, but complains that the fat that they have to cut out is very greasy and slimy. Yum. :)

I've gotten my official work schedule and I work 40 hours a week, 5 days a week. It's been a good learning experience. I had 5 days of orientation and now I'm working by myself. To be totally honest...I am not truly enjoying working at this place. The patients see me as a "pill-pusher," which is really sad. As a nurse, you do SO much more than give medications. The problem with working with over 20 patients is that half of your shift, literally, is spent giving medications. Then you have to complete tons and tons of paperwork for everyone. It's very frustrating and really a lesson in time management and multi-tasking. I hate multi-tasking, because I always feel like I'm missing something. In addition to all the paperwork and medication passing, I need to keep track of the work of 5 CNA's, and they don't really communicate what's going on. A few are decent, but below standard work is so frustrating. I can't stop dreaming about work and Jordan has witnessed me sleep-walking and sleep-talking about stuff I've forgotten to do at work. It's exhausting! This is really why I haven't written a post for a couple weeks, because I don't really have anything good to say about work.

I've committed myself to work there for at least a year, and then I'll start looking for a job in a hospital environment. They'll for sure hire me after I've worked somewhere for a year.

We haven't decorated for Halloween, but I'm going to decorate for Thanksgiving. Our finances have been extremely tight. Imagine two poor college students living on nothing anyway, moving across the country, and living on meager savings for 2 months while paying exorbitant amounts of college tuition and trying to find a job. Not a pretty picture. Things will be tight for a couple more months, but then we'll be ok.

Since Jordan is going to school in the mornings, and I'm working in the evenings, we don't really see each other except for the days I have off. And even then, Jordan sometimes has school in the afternoons. Jordan suggested that we have "Family Home Afternoon" instead of FHE :) He also suggested that we have our meals Brazilian style, where the biggest meal is lunch, not dinner. On the days he gets out of class early, we'll have a big lunch and then I'll go to school. I loved his suggestions!

We've been trying to find a way to come out to Utah for a weekend in December. We'll keep you posted, but since the only weekend both of us have off is the weekend of Christmas, it may not happen. I might be able to switch weekends with the previous week though. We're crossing our fingers, because we want to see everyone. We miss you all so much and love you!

Good News!

1. Well, it seems there aren't any more mice living under our stove! Hallelujah!

2. It's fall....makes me happy for many reasons: comfy clothes, boots, scarves, changing leaves, quilts on the bed, hot chocolate, cooler weather, more rain, turning the heater on (truly signifying the end of summer).

3. I got my orientation days set up: Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday!

4. I got my adorable (albeit white) scrubs I ordered in the mail! :)

5. We finally set up the guest bedroom bed after living here for two months. The office/guest bedroom looks much more put together.