I haven't posted a new blog in forever. I'm not even sure where to begin. I just finished OB nursing. Got an A in the class (a 97!!) which I am very happy about. I only have two more classes until I graduate... two!!! Can you believe it? I will be in pediatric nursing the next 8 weeks (finishing right before Christmas break) and then in the Spring, starting in January, I will begin a 12-week class for Adult Health 2 (aka, medical-surgical nursing part 2). Then the very last thing we do is "role transformation" which I don't count as a class because basically it's 3 weeks of being a nurse, but you are shadowing another nurse. You have to do three 12-hour shifts per week, including two shifts that are over night (yikes!). I can't begin to express how happy I will be when they hand me that degree on stage on April 27th, 2010!! I will finally be an R.N. like I always wanted to be.
In other news, my mom had a hysterectomy exactly three weeks ago. She had a very large fibroid in her uterus that was causing her a lot of problems so they opted for a hysterectomy. She was very nervous about it beforehand but is glad she had it done and is feeling much better. They left her ovaries in so she won't have any hormonal problems until she goes through menopause.
An update on baby making... I'm not pregnant yet, but my last cycle of medicine was a success in that it made me ovulate. I was so excited... I think my level of excitement was similar to what it will be when I find out I am pregnant. So I just started my next cycle with this medicine, and am coupling it with a very expensive fertility monitor. I hope it works this first month, but at the same time... it would be weird to have spent so much money on something I only used once, you know? I won't complain though!
We painted our family room and kitchen this past weekend. The family room is basically the same color, but the paint that was there had a shiny, metallic finish that didn't turn out right and I have been wanting to paint it ever since. The kitchen, however, is a different color. I was tired of the pink and there were a couple areas where we tried to color match the paint and do some touch ups, but it ended up not being the same color and looked really bad. I will post pictures later.
In sad news, a 7-year-old little girl went missing after school on Monday here in Jacksonville. She had an argument with a friend and stormed off, and never did make it home, so people were searching, cops and FBI were involved... an Amber Alert was issued. Yesterday afternoon around 4:00pm they found the body of a small white female child in a landfill in Georgia where our trash is dumped. They confirmed this morning that it was the little girl's body. The part of Jacksonville where she went missing is VERY close, within a couple miles, of where my niece lives, who is also 7. The story just breaks my heart and makes me fear for Makenna's safety. You just can't keep a close enough eye on children these days. I am sad that my children won't be allowed to play outside alone from dawn 'til dusk like I was able to do when I was growing up. Childhood just won't be the same for the new generations of children thanks to this sick world.
That is about all for now. I am going to a concert in Orlando this weekend with my best friend Kelli. I am so excited!!
Take care!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Life Ramblings
The past week was so very tiring! We had Monday off and pretty much spent the day at the beach with some friends. I was proud that I didn't get burnt. I put lotion on frequently. Jimmy did get burnt though. He seems to think he only needs lotion on his upper body... so he burnt his legs and feet pretty good. We had a lot of fun, though. In the evening we had my parents, sister and Derek over for dinner. We made bar-b-q cheeseburgers, had Publix potato salad and my mom made coleslaw. Then we watched Batman Begins but I fell asleep and ended up moving to our bedroom. The beach always takes a lot out of me.
There is drama going on in Jacksonville right now with budget cuts for our police department. The budget committee is trying to implement a 3% cut across the board and it will cause 94 community service officers to lose their jobs (including our good friend Tommy whose wife, if you remember, is expecting their second child in January! They just found out they are having a boy this week but find it hard to be excited when they are about to have no source of income). As you can guess, this will also affect the hiring of any additional police officers... therefor all this trouble Jimmy has been through to get into the police academy might have been for nothing. But I am not going to stress about it... things always seem to work out.
So, my new job... is amazing! I love it. I had orientation on Tuesday which was just the main orientation for the hospital to go over policies and procedures, parking, security, etc. etc. (it lasted from 8:00 to 4:00! Yikes! At least they provided lunch and we get paid 8 hours) and then scheduled to work Wednesday 11:30-5:00, Thursday 8:30-5:00 and Friday 8:30-5:00. So on Wednesday I reported to my unit... I was very pleased to discover that they decided to put me in the brand new renovated Breast Health Center on the first floor. It is sooo beautiful there, and it's all women. They basically only do mammograms, breast ultrasounds and bone density testing. I work at the front desk checking patients in and then I call them back, provide them gowns and then explain to have gown open in front and put their belongings in the lockers provided and take the key. It's a really fun job and I love the patient interaction. I also love the people I work with. They are all sooo nice! I pretty much trained for one day and they were so surprised with how fast I caught on with their programs and paperwork that I was on my own, at my own check-in station, the rest of the week!
School is going well. We start clinical this coming Thursday. Should be interesting. I hope I get to see a birth, but at the same time I hope I don't pass out or become so horrified that I decide I don't want to have a baby, lol.
Until next time...
There is drama going on in Jacksonville right now with budget cuts for our police department. The budget committee is trying to implement a 3% cut across the board and it will cause 94 community service officers to lose their jobs (including our good friend Tommy whose wife, if you remember, is expecting their second child in January! They just found out they are having a boy this week but find it hard to be excited when they are about to have no source of income). As you can guess, this will also affect the hiring of any additional police officers... therefor all this trouble Jimmy has been through to get into the police academy might have been for nothing. But I am not going to stress about it... things always seem to work out.
So, my new job... is amazing! I love it. I had orientation on Tuesday which was just the main orientation for the hospital to go over policies and procedures, parking, security, etc. etc. (it lasted from 8:00 to 4:00! Yikes! At least they provided lunch and we get paid 8 hours) and then scheduled to work Wednesday 11:30-5:00, Thursday 8:30-5:00 and Friday 8:30-5:00. So on Wednesday I reported to my unit... I was very pleased to discover that they decided to put me in the brand new renovated Breast Health Center on the first floor. It is sooo beautiful there, and it's all women. They basically only do mammograms, breast ultrasounds and bone density testing. I work at the front desk checking patients in and then I call them back, provide them gowns and then explain to have gown open in front and put their belongings in the lockers provided and take the key. It's a really fun job and I love the patient interaction. I also love the people I work with. They are all sooo nice! I pretty much trained for one day and they were so surprised with how fast I caught on with their programs and paperwork that I was on my own, at my own check-in station, the rest of the week!
School is going well. We start clinical this coming Thursday. Should be interesting. I hope I get to see a birth, but at the same time I hope I don't pass out or become so horrified that I decide I don't want to have a baby, lol.
Until next time...
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Yay!!!
I got the job at St. Vincent's!! Jimmy is going to be so happy! Can't wait until he gets home so I can tell him!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
We are officially out of our minds
We made the mistake of going into a puppy store today after Church. We had time to kill before a movie that started at 1:00. Well, as you can imagine, we didn't go see the movie... we had to tend to our new puppy. Neither of us could leave this adorable little girl there. It was love at first sight! Announcing our newest addition, Cecelia (Ci-Ci for short):
In other news, I had a job interview on Friday for a part-time position at the BEST hospital in town: St. Vincent's! I LOVE St. Vincent's hospital and am SO excited about the possibility of working there. I am hoping it will lead to a job as an RN when I finish school. I should hear something this week! Keep me in your prayers!
In other news, I had a job interview on Friday for a part-time position at the BEST hospital in town: St. Vincent's! I LOVE St. Vincent's hospital and am SO excited about the possibility of working there. I am hoping it will lead to a job as an RN when I finish school. I should hear something this week! Keep me in your prayers!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tired of this heat!
It has been SO hot out lately. I think today is a record or something. I about died walking up to the school building (a quick 30 second walk!)
I am officially done with summer semester! Only 2 more semesters and I am a nurse! I got 2 A's and 1 B, and I am very content with that considering several people failed out!
Jimmy only has one more step in the JSO police academy application process: his medical physical, which I am sure he will pass with flying colors since he is so active. He had his psychiatric evaluation this morning and he says he did well. Keep your fingers crossed! We are hoping he will be able to start the academy in January instead of October so that he can finish his bachelor's degree. He only has 4 classes left that he is registered for this Fall and will graduate in December. I'm so proud of him!
We had another health scare with Bella which ended up costing us hundreds of dollars. Jimmy took her to the dog park on Sunday, as is his weekly ritual, and when he got home she was squinting her eyes, or just keeping them shut altogether, and she was whining, breathing weird, having difficulty swallowing and was drooling. Jimmy said she collided with a large dog when they first arrived at the park but they stayed for over an hour and she played and seemed fine. Well, I was worried that she had cracked her wind pipe or torn her esophagus, so we gave her a bath and watched her for a few minutes. Once she rolled over on her back in the "dead" position as though to notify us that she was dying, I told Jimmy we needed to take her to the animal ER. $300 later we discovered she had a lot of air in her stomach and throughout her intestines that was causing her pain and nausea (thus the drooling). By the time we left the ER (3 and a half hours later!) she was completely fine. I was upset about the $300, but at the same time it could have been something serious and we love Bella too much to just let her die an agonizing death.
Not much else is going on. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday to see if the medicine worked (i.e., whether or not I am pregnant) and to diagnose me with PCOS based on bloodwork I have had to get periodically through this cycle (3 times!) as well as an ultrasound the doctor will be doing on Thursday of my ovaries. This is all just so crazy. Humans are meant to reproduce, why is it so hard?!?! In any event, wish us luck and say a little prayer.
I am officially done with summer semester! Only 2 more semesters and I am a nurse! I got 2 A's and 1 B, and I am very content with that considering several people failed out!
Jimmy only has one more step in the JSO police academy application process: his medical physical, which I am sure he will pass with flying colors since he is so active. He had his psychiatric evaluation this morning and he says he did well. Keep your fingers crossed! We are hoping he will be able to start the academy in January instead of October so that he can finish his bachelor's degree. He only has 4 classes left that he is registered for this Fall and will graduate in December. I'm so proud of him!
We had another health scare with Bella which ended up costing us hundreds of dollars. Jimmy took her to the dog park on Sunday, as is his weekly ritual, and when he got home she was squinting her eyes, or just keeping them shut altogether, and she was whining, breathing weird, having difficulty swallowing and was drooling. Jimmy said she collided with a large dog when they first arrived at the park but they stayed for over an hour and she played and seemed fine. Well, I was worried that she had cracked her wind pipe or torn her esophagus, so we gave her a bath and watched her for a few minutes. Once she rolled over on her back in the "dead" position as though to notify us that she was dying, I told Jimmy we needed to take her to the animal ER. $300 later we discovered she had a lot of air in her stomach and throughout her intestines that was causing her pain and nausea (thus the drooling). By the time we left the ER (3 and a half hours later!) she was completely fine. I was upset about the $300, but at the same time it could have been something serious and we love Bella too much to just let her die an agonizing death.
Not much else is going on. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday to see if the medicine worked (i.e., whether or not I am pregnant) and to diagnose me with PCOS based on bloodwork I have had to get periodically through this cycle (3 times!) as well as an ultrasound the doctor will be doing on Thursday of my ovaries. This is all just so crazy. Humans are meant to reproduce, why is it so hard?!?! In any event, wish us luck and say a little prayer.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Illness and Puppies (a lot of them!)
I have been sick the past 2 days, and currently can't fall back to sleep so I figured I would update my blog. It started Saturday morning with a tickle in my chest and then progressed into coughing throughout the day, and then turned into coughing and aches Saturday night. By Sunday I was miserable... and I had to study for an exam I had Monday morning. I ended up studying for all of 1 hour and slept the rest of the day. It was awful. I think I did OK on the exam though. I got a 100 on the last one we had two weeks ago and I didn't study much for it, so I am hoping for at least a B on this one.
Two weeks ago we noticed my sister's black Labrador looked different... her nipples were more prominent and she was acting funny. Last night (roughly two weeks later) she had a litter of 10 puppies (yes, I said 10!). My sister is so overwhelmed. The father is the golden retriever my parents got after Bruno (their little yorkie) died last July. Once Beau (the golden retriever) got bigger, they realized he was too big for them to handle, so my sister adopted him. He ran away about 3 weeks ago and Erika never could find him. Anyway, neither Beau nor Deezle (the black lab) were fixed... so apparently at some point they mated and this is the result:
Moral of this story: spay or neuter your pets unless you want a litter of puppies!!
Two weeks ago we noticed my sister's black Labrador looked different... her nipples were more prominent and she was acting funny. Last night (roughly two weeks later) she had a litter of 10 puppies (yes, I said 10!). My sister is so overwhelmed. The father is the golden retriever my parents got after Bruno (their little yorkie) died last July. Once Beau (the golden retriever) got bigger, they realized he was too big for them to handle, so my sister adopted him. He ran away about 3 weeks ago and Erika never could find him. Anyway, neither Beau nor Deezle (the black lab) were fixed... so apparently at some point they mated and this is the result:
Moral of this story: spay or neuter your pets unless you want a litter of puppies!!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I guess it's time I make a new post
Well it has been an interesting past couple of weeks, to say the least. I enjoyed a much needed, though very short, break from school. This next 8 weeks is going to be sooo easy, so it is kind of a break in itself. I am glad to have made it to the top of the nursing school hill and am slowly making my way down the other side. In other words, it's all downhill from here!
This week has been strange. I decided to go see a specialist about all the issues I have been having since stopping birth control... i.e., very irregular periods, breaking out on my face, slight weight gain, and we haven't gotten pregnant (when most people get pregnant straight away). The doctor suspects I have something called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (or PCOS). Basically, it means you don't ovulate. The signs/symptoms are: irregular periods, acne, weight gain, facial hair, male pattern balding, infertility and the scary list goes on. So, she has me on this crazy regimen for testing. I had to start a pack of birth control so that it forces me to have a period in 28 days (like a normal woman should) and then on day 3 of my period I go in for some blood work that checks certain hormone levels (that are only accurate on "day 3") then I start a drug called Clomid on days 4-8 (5 days) that will force me to ovulate. She said if we want, we can use this opportunity to get pregnant (Clomid is a fertility drug... it helps people get pregnant who have PCOS) but the main purpose of taking this drug this time is so that she can do a "day 21" ultrasound to see what is going on with my ovaries. Jimmy and I haven't fully decided what we are going to do. On the plus side, if we got pregnant with this round of Clomid the baby would be due in May, which is after graduation and before I would take the NCLEX (the test required to become a registered nurse) so I would have a few weeks before I would beging working as a nurse. Another upside is I would only have to pay for this one round of Clomid, and I wouldn't have to worry about having to take it again. The major downside is that with Clomid, there is a higher chance of conceiving twins. In Jimmy's words "Rach, I don't want to be like Jon and Kate" (from Jon and Kate + 8). The chance of having twins is only 30%, but that is still huge for us... we do not want twins!
I am beyond frustrated and brokenhearted that something is wrong with me. I never in a million years would have thought that I, Rachel, who has ALWAYS wanted to be a mother, would meet such an obstacle. However, that is not my main concern. Women with PCOS can get pregnant... it isn't a question of "will you get pregnant" it is a question of "when"... my main concern is all of the other adverse affects of PCOS. I do not want to be overweight, I do not want to have hair in unwelcome places, I do not want acne, and more importantly, I do not want heart disease or type 2 diabetes in the future (there is an increased risk for both of these with this condition). Luckily there are medicines out there to help with this, but I have always been anti-medicine. I rarely even take tylenol for pain. I just can't imagine living my whole life depending on medicine. But, I am trying not to freak out prematurely. I am trying to just chill out and wait for my upcoming tests to see what is up inside of me. Maybe I don't have PCOS, but the more I read about it, the more I am convinced.
In closing, if you could say a prayer for us that everything will work out, we would appreciate it.
This week has been strange. I decided to go see a specialist about all the issues I have been having since stopping birth control... i.e., very irregular periods, breaking out on my face, slight weight gain, and we haven't gotten pregnant (when most people get pregnant straight away). The doctor suspects I have something called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (or PCOS). Basically, it means you don't ovulate. The signs/symptoms are: irregular periods, acne, weight gain, facial hair, male pattern balding, infertility and the scary list goes on. So, she has me on this crazy regimen for testing. I had to start a pack of birth control so that it forces me to have a period in 28 days (like a normal woman should) and then on day 3 of my period I go in for some blood work that checks certain hormone levels (that are only accurate on "day 3") then I start a drug called Clomid on days 4-8 (5 days) that will force me to ovulate. She said if we want, we can use this opportunity to get pregnant (Clomid is a fertility drug... it helps people get pregnant who have PCOS) but the main purpose of taking this drug this time is so that she can do a "day 21" ultrasound to see what is going on with my ovaries. Jimmy and I haven't fully decided what we are going to do. On the plus side, if we got pregnant with this round of Clomid the baby would be due in May, which is after graduation and before I would take the NCLEX (the test required to become a registered nurse) so I would have a few weeks before I would beging working as a nurse. Another upside is I would only have to pay for this one round of Clomid, and I wouldn't have to worry about having to take it again. The major downside is that with Clomid, there is a higher chance of conceiving twins. In Jimmy's words "Rach, I don't want to be like Jon and Kate" (from Jon and Kate + 8). The chance of having twins is only 30%, but that is still huge for us... we do not want twins!
I am beyond frustrated and brokenhearted that something is wrong with me. I never in a million years would have thought that I, Rachel, who has ALWAYS wanted to be a mother, would meet such an obstacle. However, that is not my main concern. Women with PCOS can get pregnant... it isn't a question of "will you get pregnant" it is a question of "when"... my main concern is all of the other adverse affects of PCOS. I do not want to be overweight, I do not want to have hair in unwelcome places, I do not want acne, and more importantly, I do not want heart disease or type 2 diabetes in the future (there is an increased risk for both of these with this condition). Luckily there are medicines out there to help with this, but I have always been anti-medicine. I rarely even take tylenol for pain. I just can't imagine living my whole life depending on medicine. But, I am trying not to freak out prematurely. I am trying to just chill out and wait for my upcoming tests to see what is up inside of me. Maybe I don't have PCOS, but the more I read about it, the more I am convinced.
In closing, if you could say a prayer for us that everything will work out, we would appreciate it.
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