back on track.

Spring break has come and gone - school time once again!

Although my break was just lovely - filled with family time & work - I am relieved to be back in the swing of things. I'm really accustomed to the university/residence life!! And although I could do without the immediate due dates of various assignments, school gives me something to do and anything that can keep me busy is a good thing.

I have recently joined a small group that meets on Sunday nights, here in the city. We had our first actual 'study' session last night, which I really enjoyed. We are working through Francis Chan's book, "Forgotten God - Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit", along with his DVD series. The first little teaching was good - it challenged us to think about actually 'walking the walk'. How can you tell a Christian from a non-Christian? What does it mean to live with and by the Spirit? Lots of deep, unanswerable questions for us to chew on before kicking off a new week! But it was a great time, and our leader made us a fabulous home-cooked dinner which is always greatly appreciated by college students.

In other news, I've been getting ready for a 10K run at the end of March, in about 3 weeks. It's the St. Patrick's Day 10K, which completely owned me last year - it was such a bad experience that I had given up running entirely. But now I'm back, determined to run it again and to finish on a hugely positive note. However, seeing how the weather refuses to warm past -20, the prospect of this outdoor, river valley run is looking rather bleak. Fingers crossed for a rapid 3-week melting spree!

Happy Monday!

D.

as a kiddlet.

I distinctly remember playing 'Doctor" when I was a kiddlet. I'd hook up my patients - willing or otherwise - to home-made IV poles and bandage up all their injuries. My IV's were Ziploc bags filled with water, and my bandages were scrap sections of fabric from Mom's craft projects. My folks had given me a 'Doctors Kit' that was my favorite toy: a little black Doctor's case with a pint-sized stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, etc. From then on, I was set! My diagnoses would include broken bones, bleeding organs, or some gruesome condition my mind could make up. And finally, if my patients were fortunate enough to recover, I would give them a crutch - aka: my horse-head-on-a-stick. The poor pony's head was filled with enough stuffing to support anyone in need of assistance.

Fast forward 15+ years: life isn't that different! We are given 'Lab Kits' to use in the lab then take home and practice with - that's where my needle in the previous post came from! So far my 'grown up' collection of 'Doctor' tools include: IV bags & tubing, needles, syringes, ampules, stethoscope, REAL wound dressings, saline solution, and so on.

Being in lab is like being a kid in a candy store. Enough said!

D.

schoolschoolschool

Sometimes, school is just ridiculous.

For example, this was a question on my Health Assessment midterm:

What is the most appropriate teaching intervention for an adolescent male?

A: How to manage hypertension

B: The side effects of birth control pills

C: The importance of wearing a helmet during sport-related activities

D: The risks associated with high cholesterol levels

Yes, this is a second-year exam questions.

Moments like these make me a little mental.

FYI - the correct answer is C.

LAB: Intramuscular Injections

What I get to take home:

Needles & ampules. Look out, family! Hide your glutes and deltoids.

Kidding, kidding - I can't actually use it on humans. Yet. Just oranges and sponges.

a little bit of everything.

I figured that if I were to blog every time I'd log onto Facebook, I'd have a million posts! I'm going to try for more consistency here. :)

Yesterday was our first Pathophysiology midterm. All off the questions were something like, "A man walks into your ER with a knife wound to his thorax, puncturing his lung. What is this called?" or "While working at a day camp, a child plays with poison ivy and develops rashes all over his forearms. What type of allergic reaction is this?" It was like playing 'House', but on a low-key scale. All in all, I think it went well, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

Spring break is next next week and marks the 1/2 point of the semester. ALREADY! The dates for final exams are posted, and then summer will be here. I'm still waffling over where I'll work: stay in town or go to camp? The convenience and stability of staying at home is attractive, yet the idea of living out at camp and working on my 'kid-nursing' skills is equally tempting. I flip-flop on my decision daily, which is OK for now - but I will need to make a choice pretty soon.

With Valentines Day coming up, the roommates and I have decided to celebrate our 'singleness' with a pizza-&-chick-flick night. Originally, it was just the two of us, Elisa and I. But a few invites later, and we now have a crowd coming over! It should be exciting... and it's a great excuse to take a break from studying!!

D.

learning to love.

Living with roommates comes with some interesting learning curves. I have realized a lot about myself, what my funny quirks are, but also how I interact with others.

One of my roommates is my polar opposite, in every way imaginable. Most of the time we get along - we're childhood friends. But at moments, our 'oppositeness' is really apparent. For example, when she goes over to her 'non-boyfriend' friend's house... or repetitively curses the big guy upstairs with every snowfall. Or when her crumbs leave a trail across the kitchen counter, or when she voices her position on pregnancy.

I know I am the only Christian influence in her life. I'm not wanting to go all preachy in her life, but I hope that somehow, I can model a better lifestyle for her. A lifestyle without frantic pregnancy tests and black-out parties. So when I want to pull out my hair at her quirks and comments, there's a voice in my head that warns me not to ruin our friendship over an opinion. On the days I want to just yell when she tells me stories of her 'escapades', I realize that somehow, despite her choices, I need to love her for just being her.

God does that for us - He loves us just the way we are: quirks and all. So with this in mind, I hope that my actions are what she'll remember, and that she'll see a better road for this life.

D.

listening in.

Everyone once in a while, it hits me - the human body is incredible.

We have been learning how to assess the respiratory system, and how to detect normal from abnormal. I don't know about you, but I don't pay much attention to my lungs and heart on a regular basis. They are constantly moving and beating, bringing air in and sending 02 throughout the body. Listening to them, via a stethoscope, it's like listening in on separate world, a realm that functions without our conscious effort. AMAZING!! Things like just excite me beyond no end. I am such a nerd. But the coolest part is learning about disorders, or malfunctions, and how to detect them: COPD, asthma, emphysema, pneumothorax, etc. SWEEET.

Today was also the reconciliation - aka test - lab on dressing changes. Again, I found myself so engrossed in wound care: definitely an area of nursing I'm becoming more and more interested.

I had my first midterm of year two, as well - pharmacology! I think it went well, and I'm usually OK with pre-exam stress. I tend to choose sleeping over late-night cramming, so I hope picking the extra ZZZ's helped. But still... all those '-cillin' and '-cycline' drugs can get pretty confusing.

Otherwise, my week is done! Finito! Having no classes on Friday has been just great - it's helped balance out school with work, and is a great day to use for catch-up.

Cheers!

D.