concussionista

This spring, I co-captained an intramural soccer team with a nursing school/soccer buddy. It was an interesting experience, since only three of us were there to play because soccer is vital to our mental health. Everyone else was either good-naturedly dragged or literally begged to play. We played every game, despite frequent forfeits by one or both teams due to lack of numbers. This week, we had a game Tuesday night and another one on Wednesday.

In Tuesday's game (which we won by forfeit), the other team had recruited some DI (read: better, faster, stronger) players so we could scrimmage. I was positioning myself to control a ball headed toward me from the sky, when all of a sudden there was an explosion of light and I was on the ground, my skin stinging in strange places. Apparently one of the other players had full-on body checked me or something. Anyway, my teammates who saw the collision were laughing, describing it as an "epic" fall. Got up, carried on, got body-checked real hard again later by another guy, spent the rest of the game trying to protect my head with my arms when the beefy guys came close.

Had a headache that night, put the pieces together and figured out I most likely had a mild concussion. Told my dad, he agreed, but said I could play Wednesday anyway. I've never had a concussion before, but I've played soccer for 16 years.

Wednesday night rolls around and it's pouring rain. We got the game started, but no more than five-minutes into it I was taken down by a two-footed tackle by some overly-zealous midfielder. Hit my head on the ground.

Haha.

We went out to one of our favorite pubs after the game. Some of my nursing friends were concerned about my head and agreed with my decision to stick with water instead of beer, you know, just in case. The others tried to peer-pressure me into drinking anyway, because "it can't be that bad." They thought it was funny to spontaneously perform neuro checks and vision tests. Right. Hilarious. I did appreciate one of the guys asking me to text him when I woke up the following morning so he'd know I was ok.

Apparently at school on Wednesday morning, my co-captain had mentioned to my favorite peds faculty that I'd been concussed, to which the reply was "She should take it easy this week." Of course, my co-captain knows me better than that, so she snorted delicately and pointed out is was me that they were talking about. A fair assessment, really, since I hit my head again in the game that night.

Play every game like it's your last game.

Anyway. The headache is manageable, but now I have to study for finals.

Lest we forget. ANZAC Day, Monday 25 April.

Click here for my long post on ANZAC Day and what it means to me and to Aus. In the meantime, listen to this beautiful song about the brave young men who gave it all almost 100 years ago.

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

-- from Laurence Binyon’s “For the Fallen”

In which I speak nonsense

This blog has been becalmed in doldrums of my nursing school life. I will probably never turn into one of the 20-somethings that blogs daily about their dogs or their husbands or their shoes, but since I'm two weeks away from pseudo-graduation and three and a half months away from finishing nursing school forever, the least I can do is update. Topical updates today, for lolz.

School:
The much-loathed classes of this semester are over. I have only a single final (in OB/peds) and I'm feeling rather ambivalent. Less so on the pediatrics front, as I spent Wednesday night in a pediatrics emergency department and ohmygosh I love the kids. We get along well, mostly because I never really grew up. And I like dinosaurs.

Love life:
Currently non-existent. Unless you include the rumor mill drama (wasn't that supposed to fade with high school?) and the "helpful advice" of various and sundry girlfriends on how the men find you when you're not looking. Sure they do. In other news, Downtown Bestie and I had our entire bar tab picked up by a couple of Lonely Boys during the Timbers match on Sunday. It's not all hardship on the singles front!

Other news:
Since my Camry finally died last month (for good), I am borrowing my parents' car, which meant a crash course in driving a stick shift and a month of grinding gears and trying not to stall. Now I feel all accomplished and successful and prepared to drive a car on any other continent.

Going to the east coast and Canada at the end of next month. Especially excited about going back to Boston, going to Montreal and Québec City for the first time and eating poutine with Boston Bestie.

I've gotten back into running and hiking, not to mention intramural soccer. I'm captaining a team with a friend and it's such good fun that we might carry on playing into summer on our own. These other athletic endeavors alleviate the disappointment that has been my ballet class (no mirrors, plus an unfortunate foray into the world of modern dance... turns out it's "earthy" and "natural" and you have to swing your arms and stomp around a lot. I think I'd like it better if we were T-rexs and not monkeys).

explodey things go boom

I had a conversation with a fellow nursing student the other day. It went something like this:

Me: "...now we're at war with Libya."
Her: "I didn't know that we're at war with Libya!"
Me: "Well, that's generally the idea when you drop bombs on a country."
Her: "Bombs? I thought we only dropped missiles!"

/facepalm

Roadkill

My car died yesterday.

In traffic. On I-5. I was running late to class because I woke up and found out my car need jumping to start, anyway.

See where I'm going here? The alternator'd had enough of life.

Anyway. I merged into the slow lane, and almost immediately my radio made that weird groaning noise that faded as my music disappeared and my car lights dimmed. Good thing traffic was standing still.

Setting aside the fact that this was absolutely a freaky situation, this is where it gets funny.

I quickly realized that since my car had no power of any kind, and thus, my warning lights did not work. Traffic was starting to creep forward, so I hopped out of my car and yelled to the lady behind me that my car was dead and I didn't know how to get off the freeway.

Keep in mind we are maybe 200 feet from the next, clearly marked exit.

Her response? "I don't know how to get off the freeway either! I'm from Oregon!"

*facepalm*

Maybe she didn't notice my Oregon plates.

Anyway, the nice man in the panel truck behind her jumped out, stopped traffic, and shoved my poor little car onto the freeway shoulder.

My hero.

i'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!

I love pediatrics!

Clinical conference today was awesome. We did blood draws and IV starts on each other. Succeeded at the blood draw, failed at the IV start (vein collapsed), but my clinical partner from last term said ages ago that I could practice on him.

YESSSSSS!

For the record, I want to be a trauma nurse someday, so I love needles and skills and doing things that some people think are gross.

Text message conversation following exciting clinical blood lab:

Me: "I did a blood draw! failed at IV start because her vein collapsed but OMG so much fun! You're next... mwahaha."
Him: "Ha nice! You can practice on me no problem. I'll show you a few pointers."
Me: "You're my favorite. For real. And hahaha, I could use some pointers."
Me: "Where would I get needles?"
Him: "That is the worst sounding message ever."
Me: "Hahaha you have a point. So do needles. Hahaha see what I did there?"
Him: "Yeah, you sound like a junkie... you need help."
Me: "Thanks. Did you expect any less of me?"

they always come home for christmas

Home sweet home for 32 delicious days of break, the longest vacation since the beginning on nursing school. I can literally feel the stress leaving my body.

1. Really pleased with my grades this term. Pulled a 3.94 (A- in research, dullest class ever, haha) but I got a 99 on my med/surg final, which is really exciting.

2. Watched the lunar eclipse two nights ago. Dragged my siblings out of bed for it. The sky was brilliantly clear and the moon was amazing.

3. This is the Break of Childhood Revisited, in which I am trying to stuff in as much film and literature as possible from an earlier time in my life. This includes reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy, watching the original Star Wars trilogy, and at the nursing student post-finals celebration, I accepted the challenge of reading the Harry Potter series as well.

Six days into break and I've finished Fellowship of the Ring and watched A New Hope. Can I do it?

I want to go snowboarding.