Stress Fracture

I didn't post this earlier, but Jordan believes he has a stress fracture in his right foot :( in the first metatarsal, a.k.a. big toe bones. He is so depressed about it. He absolutely loves to run and is so stressed that he can't put any more stress on the break, otherwise it will get worse. He was planning on running the Ogden half marathon but wasn't able to because of the break. He is doing a lot of cross-training (mainly biking) right now to keep his heart and muscles strong.

Up in Ogden on Saturday we were able to see Jordan's sister (Lindsey), dad (Jim), and family friend (Steve) run the half marathon. When they were finished we went back to the hotel and ate breakfast. Afterwards, the immediate family and a TON of friends and extended family went back to the finish line and bleachers. Jordan's sister (Allie) and dad joined Wendy and Anthony (Jordan's cousin who ran the entire marathon with her) in the last stretch and all the supporters and well-wishers were screaming and shouting out "50, 50, 50!" It was so exciting! After the marathon, the news interviewed Wendy, Lindsey, and Josie (Jordan's other sister). Then we came home!

Now, Jordan's sisters planned a surprise party for Wendy with tons of people - family, friends, neighbors, etc. They were all going to be coming over at 5 that evening to celebrate her huge accomplishment. His sisters planned everything, and it was so perfect :) We distracted her and took her to a movie (Letters from Juliet, which, by the way, is so cute) and then planned on going to Cheesecake Factory afterwards for dinner. We went to their house after the movie to get coupons for the restaurant (hehe) and all the people were standing in the front yard when we got there. Well she was shocked! It was awesome! Allie also made a sign that had all the marathons Wendy has run around the edges and hooks along the bottom for her to hang up all the medals. The party had catered Cafe Rio and many delicious desserts. It ended up being a wonderful night :)

This weekend was also great because my brother ran at the state high school track meet held at BYU on Friday and Saturday! We weren't able to see him but he did very well. See his results here. The high school is Maple Mountain, and they are 4A. This is only the first year the school has been open and they've been doing incredible! Here is another story about them. I love it - I'm so proud of my family!

Study.

Yesterday Jordan and I went to the Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) in Salt Lake to apply to become a Registered Nurse. The process was VERY fast and easy. I just gave them my application and then they fingerprinted me! After Westminster gives them my transcript, they will contact Pearson Vue, the company who runs the NCLEX, and give me an Authorization To Test (ATT). Pearson Vue will then call me with the ATT and ask me to pick out a date to test. I'm hoping for sometime in June, after our immediate family on Jordan's side goes on a cruise. Until then, however, I'm studying two hours each day with the Hurst review, Saunders review, Incredibly Easy review, and online study aids!! Ahh! I will conquer this test!

On another note, Jordan's mom, Wendy Henderson, was on the news yesterday! See her story here. The story is about her running her 50th marathon before the age of 50. She is truly an inspiration and motivation to accomplish goals that you set for yourself. The marathon is tomorrow in Ogden, and we will all be there cheering her on!

The Big One.

One more post...Jordan and I have been married for 11 months and one day :) almost one year! If I could give any advice to anyone it would be to treasure the moments you have. Time flies and you never know when you may not have more time. I love Jordan so much! He is such a great husband and he is simply amazing. He takes care of me, has a plan for his future, is dedicated, is spiritual, is kind, and is loving. I am so blessed to have him as my eternal companion! Eternity, here we come :)

Done.

We seriously never imagined this day would come! WE ARE DONE WITH SCHOOL!!! Getting our bachelors degrees has been such a rush and time has flown by so quickly. I makes me a little sad, but mostly happy. Jordan is SO happy he is done with Physical Chemistry and that he NEVER has to take another one of those exams again. We really have had so much free time since school got out yesterday that we don't know what to do! Yesterday I had my last final early in the morning. Jordan spent the morning playing games and watching movies. I came home and we got ready for the day, ate lunch, cleaned up the house a little, went to the temple grounds and walked around, played the piano, read books, took a nap, talked about stuff besides school, went to dinner, took another walk, and watched another movie!! :) It was so great!

I now know what I'm going to be doing with my free time. I'm going to be playing the piano again! I haven't seriously played since my freshman year of college, simply because of the time my classes took away from it. But I'm going to be learning a new piece called Wedding Day at Troldlhaugen by Edvard Grieg that is simply amazing! I'm really excited to get back into playing again - not just church hymns. There are only so many times you can play through the hymn book. After Grieg, I'm going to get a book of Chopin pieces and learn some of those because Chopin is such a master! I'm so so so excited.

I am going to officially be an Nurse Apprentice on May 7th and will be making almost double what I am now. Plus, I'm not going to be limited to 12 hours each week of working. I can pick up empty shifts whenever! So I'm going to be working about 16-24 hours each week. May is going to be amazing. My dear friend Amy Sampson is getting married on May 8th at St. Marks Cathedral and then she and her husband are moving to Connecticut. I sincerely hope that the weather in May is warmer/better than it was in April! Funny story - so on Jordan's phone, he has the weather for both Salt Lake City and Richmond. He got so excited one night after it snowed because it said the weather the next day was going to be about 80 degrees and sunny. Well the next day, it snowed again. He looked at his phone and realized that he was looking at Richmond's weather the previous night. We want to live in Richmond - mainly because of the weather! The rainy weather here in Salt Lake City has been beautiful though. It has made everything so lush and gorgeous. It looks a little like Oregon on Westminster's campus because of all the greenery!

Here is to a great May!! :)

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 :)