good heart. bad heart.

These pictures are examples of what I saw. The first is the picture of the blockage and then the second is after the stent is placed.

I got to go into the heart cath lab today at clinicals and it was so amazing - I learned a lot about the heart that I hadn't learned before, which I kinda found surprising because I have gone through so many physiology/anatomy/nursing classes. today showed me how much I didn't know about the heart which makes me know I have a lot to learn about the body. I got to watch to separate cathetarizations. They go in through the femoral artery and up into the aorta into the coronary arteries (they supply blood to the heart itself) they inject dye in to see if there are any problems that would lead to a heart attack. The first one the heart was very healthy and no occlusions were seen. it was so amazing to see the heart pumping the blood and how it would fill and empty. for some reason i always thought there was some blood in the arteries at one time but it pretty much all the way emptied with each pulse. the next guy was not so lucky in his heart health. he had 7 bipass grafts placed, artifical mitral valve replacement and something else and probably something else. It was crazy cause when we were looking at the chest/heart you could see all the wires wrapped around his sternum that had been placed after his open heart surgery several years ago. we had to check all of his coronary arteries and all of his grafts to see where his chest pain was coming from and we finally found it and another doctor came in and placed a stent to open the little artery back up. he was an amazing doctor stopping the procedure and showing us the filter net and the stent. after the stent was placed and the catheter was out he had the nurse show us the balloon they use to place the stent. I loved today and the nurses there are all so hilarious - they have way too much fun lol

flickr

so cool - andrew created a flickr page (you put pictures you have taken and then people look at them and can comment and add to their favorites, etc) and put one of the holga pictures of me up and someone loved the pic and put it on his blog!

holga take two

andrew and I got some more holga pictures developed. these rolls turned out awesome, i'm excited to take more pictures soon!

shirley :)

This is one of me and ashlee's favorite people in the entire world. ashlee and i had a day off of our crazy nursing school lives and went to courtyard (our old job) and visited shirley. I am so glad that we finally got to go visit her and show her that we still think of her. Her condition is getting worse and we realized we need to see her more often. I love both of these girls in this picture! <3

no sleep = nursing school

This last week has been crazy-- but full of a lot of amazing experiences! I had clinicals mon and tues at timpanogos hospital (still) wednesday 5 hour lecture thursday all day utah nursing assoc. conference friday peds lab saturday primary children's clinicals! and now again monday and tuesday at timpanogos. i've done some pretty cool things and all of them i had never done before! the nurse at primarys was amazing and let me do anything and everything i could. our poor little 5 year old had to get an enema and i know thats not too exciting or pleasant but it was awesome to expand my skills and then she threw up and her ng tube (it goes in through the nose and down to the stomach) and my nurse had me put a new one in!! that was so so cool and i had never done that or even practiced it! today i was in ICU and the doctor let me help him put in a pic line (catheter that goes from a vein in the arm to the right side of the heart and it delievers meds right to the heart) which was awesome! i didn't know they were so complicated -- i was in a sterile gown and gloves and had to maintain sterile technique for a long time and i almost got to suture the cath in place but then the other cath lady doctor did it :( but i have had a blast and all the nurses are amazing! thanks!!

i am

so tired

grey's anatomy here i come!

today was an AMAZING day at clinicals. kendy and i got placed in same day surgery, and we worked with the nicest nurses, doctors and anesthesiologists i've ever got to follow. the nurses were so helpful and really wanted to give us a great experience at same day surgery. the first nurse took us in the endoscopy room to watch the doctor do 3 colonoscopys and an something with a really long name and i don't remember what it was something like esophagealsomething something which they go down through the esophagus into the stomach and small intestine. the doctor was so fast at all the scopes! and the nurse said he was very good at what he does and i can totally understand. he looked at the whole colon and explained what was to a good colon and i learned so much that i haven't ever learned in my many classes.

after all the scopes were done the next really nice nurse made sure we got to go the OR as soon as one of the OR doctors came over she sent us over with him and kendy and i got to change into OR scrubs (!) and put on the booties, hat and mask. i felt like i was in grey's anatomy it was so cool! the first surgery i got to watch was someone who had endometriosis and they were trying to lessen the effects of it and cutting parts of the endometrium out. the second surgery i got to see was the craziest for sure, the surgeons took a 9 pound ovarian cyst out of a girl. it was so crazy and i couldn't believe that something could get so big and that no one would catch it until it was so big that the surgeons couldn't go in laparscopically and remove it but instead had to make an enormous abdomnial incision which required many stitches and staples to close it back up. the doctors were so excited (i could tell that it was something really out of the ordinary for them too) because once they took it out of the abdominal cavity they got a little measuring ruler and started taking pictures of the cyst. the third and last surgery i got to watch was mesh that had been placed in a woman's vagina to hold it up had eroded and they had to go in and take all the mesh out. i felt so bad for this woman and can't imagine what's she's had to go through since this was her second time through it and will have to do something again in a few weeks. it makes me scared to have children because i wouldn't want to have to go through that. ever.

i was so impressed with the OR and how smoothly they work. everyone is so professional and their number one goal is (besides the patient) to keep everything super sterile and they just have it down to an art. it was also surprising how EVERYTHING on the patient is draped and covered head to toe except for where they are going to work. even the face is covered and draped with plastic. it was kind of unnerving to see that their face was covered, but they are intubated and that is how they are breathing so the plastic isn't affecting breathing.

the anesthesiologist was also amazingly nice, when he intubated the patients he let me look over his should and see the esophagus and the vocal cords. he also was the one who came over and explained about what was going on in the surgery and answered any questions i had. it was such an amazing day and such a good first clinical!!