Andrew & Theresa's AMAZING wedding pictures:-)

Hope she doesn't mind that I stole them...

Done!

I finally finished my Clinical Integration paper! For some reason it took me forever (even though I started it two weeks ago!). But it's done now and that's all that matters. Now that med-surg clinical is over and that paper is over we pretty much decided third semester is over, LOL! No we actually still have Peds but that rotation is much easier and does not have a 20 page paper to go along with it. There is a med-surg test Monday and sadly I am looking forward to studying for it because that is much simpler than writing a paper.

This is random but I saw the strangest thing driving home from the VA the other day. There was this lady driving in front of me and all within a matter of seconds her small dog jumped out of the window of the car...while it was moving...and she reached out just be for it fell and pulled it back in! Never thought I'd ever see that, LOL! We will no longer drive with the windows all the way down when we have Izzy!

Oh and I will be 22 on Sunday! Not too exciting of a birthday but I am just one year older!

So Tiny!

Go to this website (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sweetadeline) and look at the pictures of this preemie! They have some neat pictures of her and she is too cute!

Found some time to blog :-)

Of course I found some time to stop writing my paper and blog! I have been finding time all day to not type but luckily I have actually gotten a big chunk of it done with only a few big chunks left, LOL! While all of this school stuff is going on I still find my self thinking about Peyton and her family. Her father was able to write tonight and I again cried and cried. Her parents are dealing with it in the best way they know how, but her little brother doesn't quite understand. I pray that his parents are able to help him through it and that God will always allow him to remember his big sister...

I don't wanna...

So everything...especially blogging and running will be slacking this week. Nursing isn't hard but they just love to make all our projects due the same week. Right now I am attempting to work on/finish my Clinical Integration paper (big words meaning ridiculously long care plan) and then sometime start/finish an Evidence-Based Practice presentation (again big words meaning summary of journal article and powerpoint presentation). Neither are hard but most of all I just don't wanna do them :-), LOL! Well I guess I should stop whining (cause I hate when everyone else does it) and just get it over with! Cause once it's over that means NO MORE MED-SURG for the rest of nursing school! We are on to Peds starting next week and that makes me a very happy camper:-)!

Thought this was funny

I was looking on a nursing website and came across some blogs of other nursing students/nurses. One was from a male nursing student or Murse as we love to call them :-) and he had some things on his that I thought were funny!



This is SO true!

Also on one of his posts he was refering to an article posted by a Doctor who didn't seem to think nurses were all that wonderful and didn't have enough education...this was the student's response:

"Do you think this is an ego trip? I think so. Honestly, I know a few RNs I'd let do surgery on me and I know physicians I wouldn't want taking my temperature."

HA that's great! It makes me think of the time I was doing an observation day at the UMC high risk pregnancy clinic. They had me working with a Med student because they thought I would get to see more. Before going into see our first patient we read through the chart to prepare but unfortunately there was almost no info on her. The Med student proceded to tell me that he didn't know what he was doing or what he was going to say (because he didn't want to do OB and was only here for a week) and if I could talk to the patient to get a feel of what was going on. He was SCARED to go in the room! Are you kidding me?! A third or fourth year med student was telling a second semester nursing student to do his job...so glad he's going to be a Dr.! I told him he'd be fine and to just go in there!

Sad...

Around June of this year Brant and I were at Chick-Fil-A in Tucson and noticed a fundraiser going on. It was for a little girl named Peyton who was battling a horrible brain stem tumor(Glioblastoma to be correct). We only had $5 to give but wanted to help in any way we could. There was a flyer being passed around with her info and father's blog website and since then we have been following her story. Her father had the courage to write at least once a week no matter what was happening. She was going to UMC almost everyday for Chemo and medical treatments that were not even approved yet. The drugs were making her sicker than the actual tumor but her parents did not want to give up without trying every last option. A couple of months ago they finally decided to stop treatment and have a Hospice (end-of-life care) nurse come to the house to make sure she was comfortable and to check her vital signs. As of Tuesdays blog her parents knew it would happen soon. They finally took the opportunity this past week to explain to her little brother, who is four, what death is and what would be happening to Peyton as her journey ended. At 0710 this morning little Peyton Elizabeth passed away. Thankfully she is no longer in pain and she is in the best hands possible...

I never thought I could become so attached to a story...to a family...that I didn't even know. I am sorry if this saddens some, but I am telling her story to spread the word on cancer and what it is doing to these little ones and their families.

Many think I am crazy for wanting to be a NICU nurse and dealing with the death of babies and children but this is exactly why. The nurses that helped Peyton's parents through this, especially the Hospice nurses, will never be forgoten and they were able to make a difference in their lives as well as Peyton's. Although there will be sad times I know there will be many rewards as well!

If Peyton's story intrests you more, you can visit her blog at:
www.caringbridge.org/visit/peytonelizabeth

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday:-)!

~Heather~

Jesus is the truth...

I was driving Saturday morning on Campbell to pick up Brant for breakfast and there was something that really caught my eye. On the corner of Grant and Campbell there was a guy hold a sign that said "Jesus is the truth". For some reason it really meant a lot to me. With all the political and anti-war protests people are always having on the side of the road it was really nice to see someone holding a sign that is positive! He wasn't homeless or from the looks of it crazy, LOL, and he had a huge smile on his face while waving at the on coming traffic. It was just a simple message that went back to the basics of everything we believe in.

It's all coming back to me now...

We ran the Jim Click Run & Roll 8k (5mi) today! Jenny and Kevin did awesome on their time and I...well I didn't walk, LOL! That was my goal and I did it:-)! I finally feel like this running thing is coming back to me...like I might actually be a runner (not a fast runner but a runner)! I was able to keep my heart rate steady and my mind positive even when I felt like I had gone 3 miles but was really only at 1 1/2 HAHA! I was beginning to think that I was going to have to run walk the half marathon but I know think I can actaully run the whole thing! Having people all around you really helps...so does the free food calling your name at the end:-)

CODE BLUE!!!

This is one of our creepy Sim mans and the other isn't us but exactly what we looked like during our codes today!

So today we did our mock codes in the SILC lab! We had to cover death and dying of the DNR/DNI patient first...that wasn't so cool. We talked about it for 3 hours then watched Sim lady die for 8 mins!!! We were able to get to the good stuff after, though, so it was worth it! We learned how to run Code Blues as if we were in the hospital and are patient coded. To put it simple....it was pure caious HAHA! We each had a job (patient's nurse, charge nurse, code cart nurse, anethesiologist, Dr., person doing chest compressions) but considering we had never done it before everyone was running around with their heads cut off! The "crazy" family members were the best, though. They'd come in and see what we were doing and start freaking out! Derrick actaully tried to pick Lesley up at one point after she pushed everyone off her "grandma" who was dying! We didn't think about taping it at the time so we wanna ask if we can do it again to tape it...it would be HILARIOUS! Especially watching people doing chest compressions up on the bed over the patient for 10 mins, LOL!