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The grand finale

it's that wonderful time of year. Finals.

thank goodness...I only have 2 left.

What I've done:
Environmental Ethics
Health Promotion/Disease Prevention
Theology
Lab Practicum

What's left:
Health Care Delivery System
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY

The best part of finals is the random ways I find to procrastinate. I get the sudden urge to bake, to dust...and I just HAVE to alphabetize my bookshelf. And my coordinate my closet. Once I'm finished obsessing with my room or kitchen, I sit down with my books and laptop, prepared to study.

Until I check Facebook.

Or read Sara's blog, which is by far superior to mine...but always a source of entertainment. And Patrick's blog.

Or update my blog. Because pathophysiology can wait.

To everything there is a season....

Thanksgiving 2008

To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8


Well, it's been quite a while since I've last blogged...not because I haven't thought of it...I just haven't had the energy.

Or the humor.

Or the time.

Quite frankly, I haven't had much time for anything. I am spent; I am drained. Nursing school has officially gotten the best of me. It has challenged me. It has made me cry (but only once). It has pushed me to give more than I thought I could possibly give. But, it has also made me so thankful...for my health, for the health of my family. It has made me thankful for the opportunity to help others; I feel blessed to be able to help people in their most vulnerable times.

Most importantly, the past few months have reminded me to enjoy all moments of my life...whether it is a time for me to mourn, or to dance, to love, to hate, to pray or to heal....

Today...I will dance.

It is the LAST DAY OF CLASS!!

Its true...I have survived (almost) my first semester of nursing school. Now...I just have to get through finals.

But...to catch you up on my life since I last blogged...here are some of the these I've been doing to keep my sanity.

My cousin, Amanda, and I playing over Thanksgiving

I've also been playing on the nursing school intramural basketball team. We haven't won...yet. But we've enjoyed every minute.

I've taken a liking to hiking, as well. I suppose it started from my intense trip to Zion National Park in Utah with the Caldwells. If I get the chance to get outdoors, I use it. There have been beautiful hikes up here...once you get away from all the buildings, of course.

I signed up for my next half marathon. March 21st in Virginia Beach.

Great Falls National Park

I am still learning to balance. I am balancing my schoolwork and social life. I am balancing my stress and my exercise. Sometimes, I fail. However, I am reminded that "to everything there is a season." In between the weeping, there is plenty of laughter. I promise to keep you more informed. I hope you've all been doing well.

VOTE

Alright, it's official.
I'm officially a Virginia voter.

I found these posters from AIGA- they are my top 3 favorite.
I just wanted to get the word out to you all. Please vote. If you don't, we are no longer friends.

Coming Home for Homecoming

On a happier note:

I AM COMING HOME TO RALEIGH THIS WEEKEND!






I am so excited to go to the Homecoming football game and see everyone that I have missed oh so much! So...I hope I get to see you! =)

Warning: Studying for Patho is Hazardous to Your Health

Today was a bit of a whirlwind for me. We were supposed to have our first pathophysiology test. There has been such a HYPE building for this class. From day one, we have received multiple warnings that this class is difficult, time-consuming, and nearly impossible to receive an "A." Now, I try not to be intimidated by these warnings...but still, when you hear it every day from fellow classmates, professors, and previous nursing students...it gets in your head.

Since Day 1, I have been reading patho consistently and keeping up with class. Since Saturday, I have done nothing but eat, breathe, and sleep patho.

I have been living here:



(my dinner table provides excellent space for me to SPREAD out)





and here:





(the med school library...where the med students are getting angry at the infiltration of 2nd degree nursing students)








I have been so focused on my patho studying, that I completely put everything else out of my mind, including the expiration date on the milk that I continued drinking up until today :



If you can't read the expiration date...it's September 23. My roommates kindly notified me that my milk wreaked; I was too busy to notice. When I poured the milk down the drain, there was goppy goo on the bottom of the milk jug.















GROSS.

Needless to say, I was more than prepared to take the test today. Having devoted my life (and even potentially harming my health!) to patho...I WANTED to take the test today.

Unfortunately, one of the cafeterias on campus gave several students food poisoning- so my professor decided to postpone the test until Monday. He kindly let us know 1 hour before the test was supposed to start. ahhhhh SERIOUSLY!?

Well, good...because I need another few more days to allow my anxiety to build even more. Those of you who know me, you know I'm a spaz around test days.

Ally's 22nd Birthday

Today is Ally's birthday...and thanks to nursing school, I have a new wonderful sense of humor. Our pathophysiology test that is coming up involves patterns of inflammation, hematological disorders and peripheral vascular disease. One common theme in all of these: inflammation causes necrosis of the tissue. (Necrosis= fancy medical term for death). Well, imagine my surprise when I found THIS in the GU Medical School bookstore:




Meet Flesh Eating Bacteria: aka Necrotizing Fasciitis. and my birthday present to Ally.














you can find this bacteria, and more...at www.thinkgeek.com.

And it's amazing all the different kinds they have...trust me, it's worth a laugh.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

Friday night. Usually my nights off. Usually time to kick back and relax.
But not in nursing school.


Instead, Sara, Kim and I head to Murky Coffee (and funky little coffee in shop in Arlington) to prepare for this upcoming week.

Tuesday: Inclass Essay
Wednesday: Pathophysiology Exam
Friday: Health Care Delivery Systems Paper due. (I get to analyze the U.S.'s health care system and discuss our managed care. Or should I say, "managed" care).

Patho is definitely the most time-consuming, nerve-rackig, pulling-my-hair-out, crying over test.
Luckily, despite all the stress...we still manage have a good time =)

Bedbaths, Sterile Dressings, and Accuchecks...Oh My!

I'll spare you all the gross details. But nursing school is not a glamorous life, by any means. On Mondays and Fridays, I roll out of bed at a lovely hour of 4:40am....head to the bus stop by 5:30am, ride to Georgetown University to catch the shuttle to the Washington Hospital Center to be there by 7:00am, where my clinical instructor, Dina, waits to tell us what exciting things we have planned for the day.

Exciting things including: Patients with C. difficile- and they need a bed bath. If you're really interested, Google it (like I said, I'll spare the gross details). Then, after reading, imagine about 10x worse than what is explained on the Mayo Clinic website. When we treat patients with C-diff (oh you know...just teaching you some medical lingo)- we are on contact precautions and enteric precautions: meaning you gown up- full blown mask, gown, booties, gloves...the works. Then you get to bathe the patient (who is incontinent) while they remain in bed.

Or exciting things may mean we practice sterile dressing.
This is my butt:

















Ok. Obviously, not MY butt...but we really use this butt (yes, this model) to practice sterile dressing changes. In the event that patients have surgical wounds or decubiti (fancy word for "bed sores" or "pressure ulcers")...we use sterile dressings to keep the skin intact.

And then we have accu-checks. The daily ritual of taking blood glucose levels, usually from diabetics who despise you for pricking their fingers so often. The first time I went into the room (2 weeks ago), my patient was a schizophrenic with seizure warnings. She was confused and asking for "Robert" (apparently there is no Robert). Well, I guess she didn't like me very much because she got violent with me, which is when Dina said to me, "Becca, today is not the day that I will teach how to fight with a patient."

So, after doing all this, I get to return to school until 5pm, feeling the germs basically crawling on my body. It's enough to give you the hibby-jibbies and I am thrilled to hop in the shower at the end of the day.

It's a Hard Knock Life.

You know you're a Georgetown student (with plenty of loans and books) when you find quarters in the trash at the cafeteria and decide to take them out.
Thank you, Sara, for making my days far more entertaining than they should be.

Something new.

In the event of isolation precautions, I have to remember: I need the regular white mask.



Thank you to this lovely model for showing just how attractive this mask can be.












Not having a washer/dryer in my own apartment- very new.
Paying for each load of laundry- also very new.
Forgetting about my laundry and leaving it there by accident- it's getting old.







My mom will be so proud. She had the brilliant idea of color-coding my socks, so now they always match! I'm growing up so fast.










Textbooks: over $1000. Hopefully, it will be worth every penny.








Last night, my roommates and I cooked dinner with Katherine, Morgan and Jillian. Well, Jillian is a vegan...so our entire meal was vegan! (even the cake!) Instead of using eggs, sugar, and oil, we put a can of DIET SPRITE in the mix. Yup...just powder and diet sprite. Let me tell you...that cake is GOOD! and healthier for you! See, I'm already giving nursing tips.



Tomorrow morning, I have my second day of clinical at the hospital. The first day was mostly getting fit-tested (ie- getting my handy dandy mask that's pictured above and my sweet badge below) and taking a tour of the hospital (which is huge and I'm sure I will get lost). The cool thing is we don't practice on mannequins; we use real patients! Luckily, we're still doing the easy stuff (vital signs, moving patients, changing the beds, etc), which I already learned as a Certified Nurse Aide.

Something old.

Things I miss about North Carolina (or just haven't found yet anywhere in DC):





Pizza flavored Goldfish. Thanks to Kate Luckadoo for introducing me to this amazing piece of junkfood. But hello?! Why are you NOT in DC? (That applies to both Kate and the pizza flavored goldfish).








Mrs. Teeter- you always entertained me with your free samples of bread, cheese, and meat (which made for a quick, easy snack when I didn't feel like running home). AND- your coffee at a reasonable price. Sigh.







NCSU Football. Enough said. I miss it. A whole lot.











mmm Sushi Thai.






And last...but certainly not least:




My baby Blackie. I miss you so.

You've got a friend.

My fellow classmates from the nursing program have quickly grown to be close friends of mine. We study together, work out together, go to church together, and even cook together! (Yes, ladies and gents...I do cook).

My roommates: Kim, Becca, AllyKim is from Michigan and graduated from Michigan State with a degree in Movement Science. Ally is from Oregon and graduation from University of Oregon with a degree in Psychology.


The girl above is Jillian. She's from California, and she is graduated from Westmont in Sociology. She's a runner, too! We work out together and go to Frontline together. If you don't know about Frontline, ask me about it. =)

And that's Sara- I've mentioned her in previous posts. She's from Arlington, and graduated from James Madison University with a degree in Health Communications. She and I have some frightening similarities- you'll see when you meet her!

So that's just a handful of the wonderful people I've befriended- more introductions coming soon.

Hoya Saxa.

Here's a little trivia for you!

For those of you that don't know...HOYA literally means, "what" or "such." Yea, it's lame. Well, I noticed on several locations on campus that Hoya Saxa was written. That means, "What Rocks" in Latin.

Depending on who you ask:
1) Hoya Saxa was coined after the GU baseball team, which had the nickname the Stonewalls.
2) It refers to the stone wall that surrounds our campus.

Meet Jack...our little mascot. He's an English Bulldog, which obviously has nothing to do with Hoya Saxa.

Saucy Scrubs.

My uniform!








The best part about being a nursing student: the uniform is comfortable enough to sleep in!

That's crucial, so I can just roll out of bed at about 4:45AM on clinical days.

Get out, hide out, take out.

The 3 steps we need to take at the Washington Hospital Center in the event of a shooter.
1) Get out of the hospital.
2) If escape isn't an option, find a place to hide.
3) If we can't hide, take the shooter out.

If you have any idea exactly HOW to take a shooter out, let me know. We got this lovely piece of advice at our "welcoming" breakfast.

They also warned us about the possibility of terrorist actions, especially because this is election year. We are supposed to be especially cautious around inauguration day. Lucky for us, we are one mile away from the Capitol. So...in the event of any mass casualty, the victims are coming to us!

Oh but don't worry, if there is any biological/chemical warfare in the area, the hospital can be put on lockdown at the push of the button and we will be safely kept inside. Thank goodness!....?


This is where I will do all of my clinicals for the next 16 months (minus the pediatric rotation and the mental health rotation).

The Weekend of Labor

One thing I love about this city...there is always something fun to do!
The sad thing is...my free time/social life is slowly coming to a halt. So, I decided to make the most of it over Labor Day weekend!

Friday Night: My friend Sara and her boyfriend gave us tickets to the Nationals vs. Braves baseball game! and we WON!























Saturday: National Zoo. (and for those of you who know me....you know how much I LOVE ELEPHANTS).

Sadly, the pandas weren't out to play. We also went to the International Spy Museum- not quite what we were expecting...but it was still entertaining.

Sunday: Church then pick-up beach volleyball at the sand courts near the Lincoln Memorial.

Monday: Work day. All day.

A day in the life...

Here's my final schedule. You probably can't ready it...but it just goes to show, if you ever need to get ahold of me...Wednesday is probably the best day.
I am in lab/clinicals at the Washington Hospital Center on Mondays and Fridays. On Mondays, I'm there from 7am-1pm. Fridays, 7am-10am.

To give you a brief synopsis of my Pathophysiology professor...let's just say, Georgetown professors are a lot different. He does NOT use power point. In fact, he doesn't use anything. He stood up today, and just lectured to us. Thank goodness, I bought a digital audio recorder so I can record his class then transcribe it all later. We were warned about this professor from the other students. At least I'm prepared! I am not a "laptop" student...so I was writing as fast as my poor hand could move today.

73% or bust.

So I stole this from my NEW friend Sara's blog (I can't take the credit for this idea). I'm sure I'll tell you more about all my lovely new friends later! =)

During our 24 hours of introductory lecture and orientation...Georgetown kindly brought in current Accelerated BSN students. I was expecting words of encouragement. They gave us advice on how to "survive" the program. Then, GU School of Nursing gave us an entire lecture about maintaining at LEAST a 73% in our courses to pass. They wouldn't give us an answer when we asked how many students fail each semester.
Andy Hoffman, a fellow student in my program, then created the image above and made it his profile picture on Facebook. 73% or bust.

from NC to DC...

Hello friends and family!
Thanks to Dr. Odom, I have decided to start a blog to detail my nursing school career at Georgetown University!
To bring you up to date...
As many of you know, it has been my dream for several years now to become a nurse. I have spent countless hours researching schools, volunteering at Rex Hospital, and cramming in pre-requisite courses to go to nursing school..and here I am! Georgetown was my top choice for school, and I feel so blessed to have gotten this opportunity. I would like to say thanks to all of you who helped me discover my dream and supported me during my application and interview process (especially those endured late night phone calls from me freaking out)!

The courseload is quite rigorous- this semester I am taking 18 credit hours along with 9 hours of clinicals/labs per week. My courses include Pathophysiology, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Health Care Delivery System, Theology and Ethics.

I am so excited/nervous to be here, but I worry about the intensity of this accelerated nursing program, if I'm ready for this intense program, the amount of sleep I will get, balancing friendships, and even living in a metropolis.

But I can't help but smile. It's been quite an adjustment moving from NC to DC. Despite all of these anxieties, I know I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. And I love it!



Wolfpack at Heart.




















Hoya Saxa.