11-17-88

I had such a great birthday! thanks everyone especially andrew : ) andrew worked so hard this weekend to give me the best birthday ever (and i think he definetely succeeded).
FRIDAY: We started the celebration on friday with lunch at pizza factory - which was so yummy. it reminded andrew and I of pizza port which is disneyland. (so now we want to go there even more lol) and later that night andrew, kiefer, britt, tyson and i headed down to the sand dunes and made a huge bonfire and camped out. It was so freezing especially in the tent - my feet didn't warm up until I took a shower when I got home. but the sand dunes were amazing. I have never been there before and I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. and the sand was so soft. in the morning we ran up the steep hills and could see for miles and miles around. and of course andrew decided that wrestling on the big hill would be a great idea - needless to say we were covered in sand.
SATURDAY: we headed up to gateway after our warm showers :):) andrew bought me the CUTEST shirt from the black chandelier (which i wore yesterday on my real birthday). we ate at guru's for lunch which was so yummy :) we were both craving some healthy food after junking out at the fire the night before. that night we rented baby mama which i thought was pretty funny. we were going to go dancing but we were way too tired and i worked at 630 the next day...
MONDAY: Happy birthday to me! my parents decorated my bathroom with a huge 20 on the mirror and balloons and reeses peanut butter cups mmm! andrew and i went to ez out for lunch because tim provided us with free lunch and shakes! mmmmm! so delicious! then andrew and i went to tepanyaki for dinner - (which i just ate the leftovers for lunch) and i actually caught the shrimpie in my mouth when he threw it at me. i always have anxiety about catching it and don't ever want to try haha. andrew and i had shutchka bars (i have no idea how to translate it into english) which were my two leftovers from ukraine. we ate at least 2 of them a day while we were there. it was the day of yummy food.
TUESDAY: tonight my whole family and i are going up to sundance for dinner! i am so excited :)

ICS

so I know I haven't written in for absolutely ever, but I feel like I have been so so busy. and I was sick for a week. I just wanted to write about how amazing my new job is. I love going to work and getting to work with my kiddos. generally you get a lot of the same kids each time you work because they are in the hospital for a long time and the unit puts you on the same pod (nurses desk + 4- 8 patient rooms) you were on before. I love all the kids I work with. Most of them are watching tv, playing video games, doing crafts or just playing. I love playing with them and talking with the families. You get to know the kids and the parents so much. One little 2 year old girl (so adorable i wish i had a picture but i'm sure i'm not allowed lol) blows me kisses and wants to help me put on her blood pressure cuff and pulse oximeter. I can't even write down all the cute moments I have had with the kids, it would take up too much space :)
Working on this unit has shown me how resilient children are and how they just want to be kids even though they are so sick. they just want to play and have you tickle them and do everything that other little kids would want. I love working in pediatrics - they are so strong.

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!!