shoot 'em up

Injections lab tonight!

It was so much fun. I'm lucky enough to have a lab partner who's game for anything and doesn't mind a weekly dose of my crazy. My lab is the last one on Mondays, and it's half the size of the other five labs in my section. We ended up getting to give both IM and SC injections to each other... all of the other labs were short on time and had to pick one.

The hardest shot to give is always the first one, and it's just because of some weird psychological thing you have to get over when you're shanking your friend in the arm for the first time (I totally cheated and got to give a shot way back in January). Nobody minded GETTING a shot... it was the GIVING them that had everyone in knots. Everybody else was shaking, awkward and very timid about pushing the needle in all the way. My instructor said I did well and my lab partner was pleasantly surprised, so I'll take it.

The really funny thing is that I'm far more confident shoving needles into humans than I am about my medication test (on mannequins) next week. Ha.

I love lab. It's my favorite. I can't wait for real clinicals.

how to survive nursing school.

Ahhh... Easter break. Five-day weekend, just long enough to start catching up on sleep before plunging back into the mad carousel ride that is finals. One more soccer game and then that's over... must coerce classmates to stop being pansies and play some pick-up footy with me. Or I'll go join a rugby club and learn to be hardcore.

Suffice it to say, soccer and indie rock & roll keep my sanity from deserting me entirely. This is my playlist for the week.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

napping is my new hobby

I'm playing intramurals soccer. On turf. It's quite delightful, except for the serious carpet burns I get when I slide tackle people. Of course, that's why you're not supposed to slide, but sometime you just have to. Every game is total football for me. Oh soccer. You are balm to my school-weary soul.

In other news:

Grandpa: "I don't like that Reba lady."
Me: "Why? What'd she do to you?"
Grandpa: "She beat me when I told her I didn't like her music."

Hahaha.

nursing is srs bizness.

Epidemiology class. Talking about modes of transmission for disease. The prof asked us to give her examples for each type, so we did.

Sexual? Herpes.
Birth process? HIV.
Food? E. Coli.

Touching? COOTIES!


After the whole class finished snickering, she asked for a "real" example and the guy next to me protested that cooties IS a real threat. Yes, we are friends. Obviously.

Then we started arguing about how if vectors are living animals, are they still vectors when they die? For example, if a raccoon is carrying rabies, and it dies, and then you make soup out of it, will you get rabies from dead raccoon soup?

...yeah. I don't know either.

i don't remember signing up for this.

Spring break is over. Back to the daily grind. Mondays suck.

I gave a speech in communication class today. On why you should drink coffee (it's good for you, obviously). One of the guys said it was the best speech he's ever heard. He likes coffee.

In lab tonight we did blood glucose testing on each other. I ate M&Ms as fast as I could to see how high I could get mine while my partner laughed at me. 137*.

After that, we were doing neuro exams, got bored and had lightsaber duels and wizard fights with our penlights.

We also did restraints... we were practicing on a crib because it's easier to tie half-knots on round poles than on square ones. My partner and I were minding our own business and hammering the crap out of each other's deep tendon reflexes when we heard "HEY! SOMEONE COME TIE ME TO THE BED!" From our lab instructor.

Mondays are awesome.

*Normal blood sugar is ~80-120 (or 70-110 depending on which book you read)
**Obvously, stuffing your face with chocolate does not give you a fasting blood glucose.

well, poop.

We were tested on pain, cardiovascular funtion and bowel today. Interesting combination, yes? I studied CV pretty hard, but I was surprised by the amount of crap on the test. Literally. Oh, my life is so awkward. I think the worst part is that people I barely know are sharing things with me that I should get paid to hear, if I have to hear it at all.

I am not a very enthusiastic promoter of nursing school this week. One class. One class left and then spring break.

I can do this.

I got my summer schedule. Lab on Monday, class Tuesday-Wednesday (from 0815 to 1720), clinical Thursday and Friday. Social life, I'm kissing you goodbye now.

Actually, that was a joke. I'm totally a hermit. That's why I have a blog.

my soul was hardened already

Not quite halfway done with my first semester and they have my summer all plotted out. Two days for clinicals and two days for patho, psych and med/surg classes. Yay. Should be fun. I love having three-day weekends.

I got another A on my second pharm test, stayed above the class average. Sweet. I struggled with the material for awhile. Next test is everything from pain to poo in fundamentals.

Among the things overheard in catheter lab tonight:
"Hey, can I see your vagina?"

...