Christmas Vacation

I have loved being home for a white Christmas! We haven't had snow this early in the year in a while. Grace and Leah loved playing in the 20 inches we got over the weekend while they were here spending the night, and I'm glad that the snow came early enough that by today, the roads won't be too icy when I head into work.

I've had a decent break from arriving home from the end of the semester to getting back to the NICU. As always, I am excited and ready to get back! I am not scheduled to work Christmas (my last time saying that in a while) and I am off the day before (and day of) Mandy's wedding.

My trip to Dr. Brody's yesterday revealed a completely healed liver and bile duct! I got the complete work-up (meaning he used all of his machines on me :)) and he found that my heart, kidneys, and adrenals are the next up to be worked on. My adrenals were a 32 on his chart, which is the highest it can be, meaning that they are very fatigued. Those 4 years of having Mono with no immune system to fight it really took a toll on all of my organs! They each tried to fight it! The great news is that I will, at some point, be cured from all of these ailments, Lord willing! I am so thankful for two parents who are willing to take me to a doctor 2 hours away and pay for my treatment so that I can get better! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

... do the Master Cleanse Diet!

That's what I've been drinking for the last 10 days. A precise mixture of water, lemon juice, grade B maple syrup, and cayenne pepper, which I forgot to buy when I took this picture to share with all of you food-eaters.

This diet also includes drinking 2 tsp. sea salt in 4 c. water each morning and senna tea at night. It really wasn't too bad until 2 days ago, when I just couldn't get 'eating food again' out of my mind. I even made a list of the meals I want to eat when I am done this diet!

Today is my last day of the lemonade mixture, and tomorrow I spend the day drinking orange juice. Sunday I can have vegetable soup (drinking mostly broth), which I made on Wednesday night so I could feel like I was going to eat; it has been sitting in my fridge and it smells so good whenever I open the refrigerator door. Monday, my friend Kelsie and I are going out to lunch, and then I am heading home on Tuesday.... which means that Mom, Dad, and I (all 3 of us have been doing this diet together) are going to Chili's Tuesday night where we will become ravenous, and we won't apologize.

I finished my last final this afternoon. It was Nutrition, which I was most nervous about, and I got a 90%! Highest test grade in this class of the semester! I will pass :) My Psychology test went well this morning, and I have been enjoying not having to do any school work!

See you all soon!

Finals and Senioritis

I have all 3 of my finals this week. I actually took my first one today; Critical Care. It wasn't that bad! But I'm always careful to say that, because the outcome of the test is always a surprise to me. We were given a take home final for Critical Care as well, which I am half-way through. This test involves 3 patient scenarios and questions concerning their care. We are allowed to use our notes and books, and we have had a week to complete the 12 question packet.

Friday, I have my Psychology final at 8:00am, which I have yet to study for. I'll get a B in the class as long as I pass the final. My last final is in Nutrition, and I have to take it online by 5 pm. I am most nervous about this test! It has been the most difficult class for me this semester because of the way the teacher asks the test questions. It's set up like this:

What is.... blah blah blah?
a) one
b) two
c) three
d) A and B
e) A, B, and C

Ya get it? I can't stand it. I'll probably pass the class, but it won't be a good grade!

It's so hard to study! I just want to get home for Christmas!

I'm coming home on Tuesday and am looking forward to stuffing my face with lots of food.

Tennessee

Here are some pictures from my recent trip to Tennessee! I had a great time visiting with Laura and Logan and their precious little girl, Aydah.

Aydah is such a bundle of energy, just like Grace or Grae! I had fun playing with her and getting to know her more. She stops and stares at the TV whenever "Flo", from the insurance commercials, comes on; she loves her! Aydah would always wave bye-bye to me when Laura was carrying her into her room for a nap. It was adorable.

It was important for me to remind Aydah that half of her belongs in Maryland. She had no complaints after tasting her first Berger cookie while sporting her Orioles tee. Thanks to Laura's pregnancy hormones, she was liking chocolate and had a cookie too! And Logan is learning to deal with the fact that Maryland is awesome (just teasing ya, Logan!).

Aydah has a special smile for the camera:

While we were spending Saturday night and Sunday with Logan's parents (who made an amazing BBQ, sweet potato fries, salad, and home-made ice cream dinner), Aydah spent a few minutes saying "cheese" and modeling for pictures.

Monday we went to a pumpkin patch and picked out a pumpkin. It was a muddy day, but we had fun... and some more BBQ.

It was such a fun weekend! I was so thankful that I was able to spend time with Laura and her family after not seeing them for a while. Hopefully we will all be able to see each other again before long!

ATI

Guess what today is? It's ATI testing time! Remember last year? Hahahahahah! Guess what else? ATI doesn't count for seniors -it doesn't affect our grades this year. That means, I didn't study one tiny bit. I actually forgot we had testing today. This is gonna be a great day; Level 1's all around!



The only bummer is that I actually have to study for my Critical Care test today. I wish our other tests didn't count towards our grades. But on a lighter note, I am coming home in just 4 days! I can't wait to eat some good Thanksgiving food (Mom, I hope you're the one making that green bean casserole; it's so yummy!).

.... MY PIN!

I'm so excited! My nursing pin came in the mail today! I ordered this on September 18th and have been anxiously awaiting its arrival. It's another reminder that I'm almost done with nursing school! WOO HOO! I bet my Mom (with her "mother's heart") is glad that I'm almost done, too.

So beautiful:

The back has my initials and year of graduation:

Here it is with my senior ribbon:


Sophomore nursing students get blue ribbons to wear on their uniform, juniors get red, and seniors get the red, white, and blue.


Yummm. The look of the light at the end of the long, long, dark, long, tunnel.

9 Days And Counting!

I got 9 more days to go and I'll be on my way home for Thanksgiving! I'll get home late on the 18th and I can't wait. It's been a long time since I've really been home for a good break, and not just for a weekend. There's not too much for me to do until then; I have one project for my Preceptorship class due this week, and a Critical Care test next Wednesday. That, that's about it (Bubba from Forrest, Forrest Gu-ump).

My preceptorship project is a power point on aortic balloon pumps. What's that? Well, its a long thin balloon that is inserted in the leg, fed up the aorta all the way until it is resting close to the heart. The balloon blows up when the heart is relaxed, and deflates when the heart pumps. This basically allows the heart to rest a bit. Do you think just that will get me 15 slides?

Also, while I'm home, I'll be heading back to Johns Hopkins NICU! I am so excited to get my baby fix! It's so nice that they kept me on as an employee so I can work for them during my breaks.

Whelp, see ya (Lloyd, Dumb and Dumber)

April Wilson, Photographer

I have been having a fun time as Liberty Nursing Student Association's photographer. Yesterday, I shadowed the juniors while they had Simulation Lab. This lab takes the place of one of their regular scheduled hospital clinicals.

I can remember how nerve-wracking it was to be in their shoes, not knowing what was going to happen to Sim Man. Everything that happens is as if you were really in the hospital taking care of a patient. First, you receive report from the night nurse. She "just so happens" to not know some things, forget to tell you things, etc. Questions are allowed, but sooner or later, the night nurse "goes home", and you're left feeling quite alone. Each student gets a role; there's an RN, a CNA, a Family Member, and a Recorder (someone who records the time the RN does anything).

Here's Sim Man. He talks. He Coughs. He vomits (not really, but he makes the noise of vomiting)! His chest rises and falls with his breathing and you can hear his belly, heart, and lung sounds. He can have clear lung sounds, or he can have rubs or crackles or other adventitious sounds. His heart can have murmurs. His belly can be hypo- or hyper-active. His pulses can be strong, weak, irregular, or absent all together. His vitals are on the monitor, and they can all go up, or down. He'll even respond to all of your questions.

It was so fun watching and remembering when I was in Sim Lab. It was all the same. The moment you pull back the curtain and enter the room, you're nervous and just sort of look at Sim Man, not knowing what to do.

Eventually you step up, and start to assess. And just like when I was in Sim Lab, the first thing Sim Man complains about is pain and nausea. And before you can think of what to do next, he throws up.... a lot.


And soon, Sim Man becomes unresponsive. His vitals start changing; heart rate increases, blood pressure goes down, oxygen saturation goes down, what's going on with Sim Man!!!! You literally have no idea what to do. You just... stand there and look at eachother, look at Sim Man, look at eachother again. Ummmm....

Let's call the doctor! (Behind that double sided mirror is the teacher who is making Sim Man do everything) This part of the clinical is to teach that when you call the doctor, you need to follow certain steps, like give the situation, background of the patient, review the given orders, etc.

You can see on the monitor here his heart rate is 79 (green), oxygen is 91 (yellow), respirations are 12 (white).... soon, the girls will see that he needs supplemental oxygen that is hanging on the wall. Right now, they are listening to a strange lung sound.

Here's the worst part; everything is being recorded. After lab, they will all watch it together and talk about what they did well, what they need to work on, and what they completely forgot to do! When my group was being recorded last year, I was the CNA. I was on my way to tell the RN that the patient had a pressure ulcer starting on his bottom, and as I walked by the camera, I sniffed and rubbed my nose; and I was super close up to the camera. It was sweet.

Today, LNSA tailgated! We had fun grilling hotdogs and giving out food to LU students and their parents. It's parent's weekend!

Students were dressing up for Halloween, and when this guy ran up the street, we had to call him over. I asked if he was on a solid foods diet before we gave him anything to eat. I'm a critical thinker like that.
Batman also stopped by for some nourishment. I made him do a Pepsi Challenge, like they used to do on TV. I told him that if he could figure out which one was Pepsi and which was Coke, he could have a free hotdog. This was a ploy, because the hotdogs were already free.

Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right

Whate'er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate'er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God,
Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall,
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.

Whate'er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me.
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content,
What He hath sent.
His hands can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.

Whate'er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking.
My God is tue,
Each morn anew.
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate'er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father's care,
Is round me there.
He holds me that I shall not fall,
And so to Him I leave it all.

Vacation

I ate like a normal person this past week. A healthy, normal person, but still normal.... plus some Berger cookies and real peanut butter. Also, ice cream.

And I'm not going back to the way I was before Tennessee, I tell ya. You can't make me! I won't do it.

My refrigerator was empty when I got back, so I went to the store and bought:
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
green beans
sweet potato spears
apples
pears
bananas
Horizon organic milk (thanks, Uncle Bobby!)
Ezekiel bread and tortillas
organic pasta sauce
organic canned chicken and chicken thighs
organic lettuce

See? You can't make me. I did it by myself, but I noticed I was a little bit more grumpy leaving the grocery store than I was when I entered it.

Come on, digestive system! Fall in!

Fall

It's fall break time! Tomorrow, I will be heading down to Tennessee to visit Logan and Laura (Thomas) Abbott and their little girl Aydah. I can't wait to see them! It seems that every time Laura comes to Maryland for a visit, I'm in Virginia. We usually only miss eachother by a couple of days, too. It's such a tease.

I'll be with them for 6 days. I can't wait to leave tomorrow, grab a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (because they're all the rage, and I like to keep up with what's cool), and start my 5-6 hour drive down south.

And what's in my bag for this vaca? Why it's each and every season from The Office, of course!

The day after I get back from break, I have a Critical Care test over the Respiratory System. By the way, senior year is fantastic! It's much less stressful than last year. Senioritis has also set in. I missed a class today.

Because I Can't Make You Wait Any Longer...

That's a shadow behind the right side of my head.

So, do you like it? Don't you think I look more like Heather and Erica (Dahlke) Epple now? I do!

Code Blue

I went over to "The Dark Side" this past weekend; that's what they call working the night shift. I worked in the Cardiovascular Recovery Unit (for my Preceptorship nursing class) Friday, from 11pm-7am, and Saturday and Sunday, 7pm-7am. That's why I'm up right now! At 11:46 pm! I'm not sleepy!

Friday and Saturday were pretty slow. I was caring for a patient who was doing great and sleeping through the night. The only thing that I really needed to do was assess every 4 hours and check up on/get urine output every hour. But... in the middle of the night on Saturday going into Sunday morning, I heard over the hospital-wide intercom "Code Blue, (#) floor, (unit name)" My preceptor looked at me and said, "Wanna go? Look for the room with all the people in it." Off I went, just down the hall from where I was. Turned out that the patient had more of an episode of distress rather than an actual code (which is when the heart/lungs stop working). I hung around for a few minutes then went back to my unit. Not 30 minutes later, I hear the Code Blue call again, and I go running. I exit my unit's doors and see 3 other nurses running down the hall; with a Code, nurses from many floors respond, as well as respiratory therapists and a few doctors. This time, the patient was coding. When I entered the room there were 3 other LU nursing students there as well; one of them being my good friend Kelsie, who responded with her nurse from another unit. The respiratory therapists were bagging the patient at the head of the bed (giving him air through a face mask), the nurses were getting drugs from the Crash Cart and pushing meds to try to get the patient's heart functioning while one nurse was doing chest compressions. Then, the nurse doing compressions called one of the LU nursing students to switch out with her, then Kelsie switched out with that student to do chest compressions as well! It was such an adrenaline rush. The doctors had to shock the patient because the patient went into Ventricular Tachycardia, a fatal arrhythmia. I was hoping to be next in line to do chest compressions if anything else happened, but the patient needed some tests done to determine what the extent of the underlying problem was, so I had to head out of the room and get back to my unit. But boy, it was so interesting to be "part" of the code. It made me want really want to be an ICU nurse! NICU, PICU.... we'll see!

Just A 'Snip'pit

RUF

Love. It. (I hear Mom saying "I told you so").

But here's the deal, I actually have time to go enjoy myself on Thursday nights as a senior. Last year, Thursdays were dedicated to writing 20-35 page profiles, beginning the project around 2pm and finishing around 9pm. **shivvvvver** Soooo glad to be done with those.

As I mentioned before, this meeting began with Opal Hargrove from MTW speaking to us about opportunities for a summer program/spring break missions trip. One option is in the middle of Mexico where we'll do construction work, another option is Cherokee, NC where NCPC has gone before (these are both for a spring break trip). The trip I am excited about is to... GREECE. If we went to Greece, it would probably be over the summer for a week or so. While in Greece, we would be serving the community by picking up trash each morning (evangelism is illegal in Greece so this is a good way to serve). Another amazing opportunity in Greece is a ministry with girls who have been trafficked (sp?). I really hope to be able to go on this trip with RUF! We'll see where God decides to take us :)

Remember When...

I miss Guatemala. It's hard to believe that it was nearly 3 years ago that I went there on my missions trip. I was looking through my pictures today:

I miss these little kids! They are so cute. Tomorrow I'm going to an RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) meeting a little early to hear an MTW missionary talk about opportunities available to students. Maybe there will be something I can participate in this summer; the last summer I have before entering the working world! We'll see if there is an open door for me somewhere in the beautiful world!

To Grandmom, Pop Pop, Mom-Mom and Poppy

HAPPY GRANDPARENT'S DAY!

What a blessing to have such wonderful grandparents in our lives! Lots of love!

What I Should've Said Was...

I learned something in my Mental Health class today.

Anyway, this has to do with those "brain burps" you have when you're discussing hot topics with someone. Here's what I learned about why you always feel you come up with better things to say after a conversation has come to an end.

Ever been in a confrontation-type conversation (that sounds nicer than asking if you've ever been really angry and arguing with someone) and couldn't think of what to say until it was all over?

Here's why: when you are in any such type of discussion, your pre-frontal cortex in your brain slows down as the limbic area is in overdrive. This means that your IQ (part of the pre-frontal cortex) actually goes down when you're angry! That's why you can't articulate when you are in the moment and why afterwards, when you calm down and your pre-frontal cortex comes back up to par, you can think of what you wish you had said!

God's way of helping us hold our tongue.

Funny, huh?

Cardiovascular Recovery Unit

Umm, yes, please, I'd like to work with children. Thanks.


Today was my first hospital shift/experience of my senior year. This clinical was for my Preceptorship class on the Cardiovascular Recovery Unit. Patients come to this floor after they have open heart surgery to recover before they are transferred to another unit. And boy, what a day! There were only two patients on the floor (the floor has only 6 beds, but surgeries are done only on weekdays), who were transferred to another area, meaning that our floor could closed down for the weekend (again, because there are no surgeries on the weekends to have to stay open for). My patient had a CABG (pronounced like "cabbage"), or Coronary Artery Bypass Graft. In this surgery, a vein, usually the saphenous vein from the leg, is taken to form a "bridge" over a damaged area of the heart in order to restore bloodflow. My patient was so sweet and recovering well.


I realized today that I was still in CNE/Neonatal mode. For example, yesterday in our critical care lab, I was asked how many mL's of air to put into a patients NG tube (the tube that goes in their nose, down to their stomach. You push in air, and if the tube is correctly placed in the stomach, you can hear a burping noise over the stomach through your stethoscope) and I was close to saying 2 cc's, when I realized that that was the NICU in me talking. The adult answer is 30. THIRTY?! Gee whiz, that's a ton! So anyway, today on the floor I got slapped with a giant brick wall of reality with flashing lights that said, "now you're a nurse, not a CNE".


But I learned a few new things, and was even able to do my very first central line dressing change on a real human. If you remember back when I did my IV lab, a central line goes directly to the heart. My patient had the kind that went into the jugular vein on the neck. Changing the dressing, and doing so in a sterile manner, is important for infection control.


I also learned how quickly I can forget about the noises adults make when they cough up phlegm and mucous from their lungs.


Now, today was a "slow" day since both patients were a few days out of surgery. If I'm there when a patient comes directly from a procedure, I will be able to see and do a lot more. Not only will I be able to see a 4-6 hour open heart surgery, but I will be able to care for the patients afterwards, when they have breathing tubes, chest tubes, drains, catheters that go in their neck and run half-way through their heart.... lots of learning opportunities to come, I'm sure.


But raise your hand if you think spit is more cute on a baby.

Two For One

This post is actually going to be two posts. Why only write about one topic and then have to wait a few days to write about another when you'd rather just write about both, right now?

Ok, the first post is titled "No More Babies"

Hello Johns Hopkins NICU! I miss you.
I miss the 35ish babies that were there when I left, and I think about them.... probably every day.

Last semester, I signed up for the Critical Care Program. This included taking Preceptorship this semester, where I follow a nurse at our local hospital for a total of 90 hours. I signed up for the Intensive Care Nursery and hoped hoped hoped I would be assigned a position there. Guess what. While waiting for news of where I would be placed, Hopkins spoiled me. I now crave the 45 bed unit of the cute little ones. But, I figured the ICN here (20 bed spots?) would help me to see if I was really fit to be a Neonatal ICU nurse; the fact that the majority of the patients here are not as critically ill as those at Hopkins, I figured that I would still enjoy the experience. (I am NOT saying that the Neonatal ICU here is not good, but it is not a level 1 NICU, and I really enjoyed the cases that Hopkins dealt with).

Well, today we got our assignments, and I am in the Cardiovascular Recovery Unit. At first, I was bummed that I would not be working with any babies, but I think I will enjoy my time in the CVRU. I hear that it is a very interesting floor, full of learning opportunities. And, bonus!, this class has no class time, we just go to work and write journals about our experience after each shift.

Ok, the second post is titled "Today, We Celebrate"

Celebrate what? Eating. Food. Eating whatever I want, and whatever I can, for dinner tonight. Only Mom and Aunt Beck-a-Roobie can truly understand what I mean when I say that I don't like Blessed Herbs. 5 days of no food is too much, man.

So after class today, I stopped at Sonic's, just on a whim, and got a Caramel Mocha Java Chiller. Or something like that. It was gone within a few stop lights. I did show self-control when I only scraped the lid with my finger and not the whole cup.

I've been planning what I would eat for dinner ever since I knew I would be doing this whole fasting thing. I thought;
"Pizza?", yes.
"Mac and Cheese?", yes.
"Mexican?", yes.
"Bacon Cheesebur... Ok, wait. Don't go crazy April. Get a Domino's PASTA BREAD BOWL!", yeeees. Another bonus - it comes with a free chocolate lava cake.

Now I'm normally all about healthy, pizza on a sprouted grains crust, but tonight I'm going for the un-healthy, non-organic three cheese mac and cheese in an oven baked pizza crust.


It was everything I'd hoped it would be.

Tomorrow? It's all back to my favorite diet and yours, RAW.

Senior Year Begins

I'm back in Lynchburg, ready to begin my last year at LU. I have finished moving into the new house, which is really starting to look nice! Pictures coming up soon.

My classes don't start until Tuesday, but I already have a clinical for my Critical Care class on Friday. I don't know why I always imagine having a week off of clinicals in the beginning of the semester... it never happens. This clinical will take place in our brand new Critical Care lab from 12-3pm! I don't know where I'll be in the hospital for clinicals yet, my first choice being the ICN (Intensive Care Nursery, a.k.a Neonatal ICU), but hopefully I will find out more during lab.

Also, we have found a third roommate! She will be moving in tonight!

So Much Time, So Little To Do

Scratch that, reverse it.

Once I get home from my last summer shift in the NICU tonight, 'round 8pm, I have to start packing up to head back to LU! Luckily, the majority of my packing is clothes and random odds and ends. Mom, Dad, and Matt are home now packing up the big items, like my couch, loveseat, chair, and dresser.

I haven't begun packing anything yet, and we leave tomorrow at 6 in the morning! I'm excited to go back, and hoping that this year will be a lot more relaxing than last!

Thursday, A Long Day

My day today began at 5:00am when I decided to hit the snooze button 7 times. I started getting ready at 5:28am and was out the door by on minute before 6. I was planning to stop by Dunkin' Donuts for a bagel but accidently took a really slow route (which I never ever take to get to work, boy I guess I was really tired!) and ended up just heading straight to 95S. Once I got to work, I finished taking my medications and headed out to wash my hands, under my fingernails, and up to my elbows. It's 7am.

Head into the nurse's station and print out the census. 31 patients. 14 empty bedspots.
Check the census to see who is receiving formula and who is receiving breastmilk. Go to bedspots of babies of whom we don't know which feeds they are receiving and figure it out/place breastfeeding info packets at the bedside. It's 7:20.

Check the emergency equiptment: 3 emergency bags, 3 crash carts, transport monitors are plugged in, transilluminators for IV access uses are plugged in, EKG machine is working and full of paper and electrodes, defibrillator is working and has pedi-pads, adult pads, gel, and paper. Sign my name, It's 7: 35.

Walk around to see if anyone needs help. Help take pictures of a baby, ones that look really nice. Our printer is broken. Head over the the NICU offices to put the pics on the computer but the printer paper doesn't work, too grainy; not as good as they should be for the parents. Go to Labor and Delivery to use their printer, pictures look nice. Receive info from the L&D nurse on professional photographers that give their time to capture last memories; God is good, I've been trying to think of ways to ensure beautiful pictures for families, and He layed out my day so that I could pass such info along to our nurses in the NICU. Place pictures in memory box. I've stopped looking at the time.

Notice a baby de-saturating, turns out she spit up, so I change her shirt and blankets while I talk with her. Run an IV through tubing. Start to make name tags for babies who don't have one yet. Almost lost my goldenrod color crayon, which is the perfect color for winnie the pooh and lions. Watch and listen as doctors make rounds. Go to the storage closet down the hall and get a pop-top isolette, grab an incubator, two IV poles, and set them up in empty bedspots 32 and 14. Grab some fruit from the cafeteria. It's 11am.

Grab the elevator key and run to open the elevator for a baby going to the OR. Help prepare a baby to go to MRI. Each of the 3 IV lines need extension tubing so the metal IV pole can be outside of the MRI room. Run down 3 floors to MRI to grab 9 packs of extention tubing, run back up to the floor and run the fluids through. Un-plug the baby's bed and IV pole, grab extra blankets and diapers, get suction tubing for the baby's breathing tube, get the emergency bag, call the nurse practitioner and let her know we are leaving for MRI. Help the nurse, Nurse Practitioner, and two Respiratory Therapists to MRI. It's 3:00.

Get back from MRI. Its 5:00.

Put 15 or so sets of vital signs in the computer; we took vital signs every 5 minutes while at the MRI procedure. It's 5:20.

Go to "lunch" break until 6.

Re-stock emergency bag with what was used at MRI; a 1mL syringe, a needle, and some syringe caps. Help by getting vitals on 2 babies. It's 6:55.

Go to my locker, head down the escalator. Go home. It's 7pm.

Get home at 8. Exhausted. Don't even feel like typing full sentences.

And Matt didn't save me any pizza for dinner. "Not a slice", he said.

That's ok, I can't have pizza anyway.

The Countdown Begins

I am 8 days away from returning to Lynchburg and my final year at Liberty University! These past 3 years of college have gone by so fast, and it's hard to believe that I will be graduating!

I just received an e mail from my 3rd roommate. It turns out that she is unable to return to school this semester. My other roomie and I will be on the lookout for a third roommate. This was unexpected, but I'm sure it will all work out, and we hope our friend can return for the second semester.

I have 7 days to go in the NICU. This summer has been amazing. Johns Hopkins is such an exciting place to work. I have seen so much and been able to spend my days holding and caring for adorable little ones. God's incredible design is so evident in the small 24-weekers we admit. These early babies are amazing to watch grow outside of the womb, and the medical doctors and nurses have so much knowledge of how to help the babies develop. There is one little baby that came to us at 24 weeks and is now 2 months old. The baby is growing and improving so much and I love knowing that it was God who sustained him! There are so many other amazing things to be seen, and it shows me how God's design for the human body is perfect, and that any alteration in the body's systems causes a problem of one kind or another. I will miss being able to learn at our nations #1 hospital while I'm back at school! Thankfully, we at LU are able to work at great hospitals with fantastic teachers.

This year, I will be the photographer for the Liberty Nursing Student Association. Heather taught me how to set my camera to take a great picture. Thanks Heather!

Keep up with everything we are doing this year at www.lunursingstudents.blogspot.com, or you can follow the link to LNSA on the right hand section of this page!

The Swine Pneumonia

At Dr. Brody's yesterday, he found that the swine flu I had a couple weeks ago has become a slight case of pneumonia. I came up as a number 16 on his scale; 32 would be considered "walking pneumonia". No biggie, it should be knocked out within a week.

In other health news, I'm getting much better. My mono and ebstein-barr viruses (the virus that causes mono) are still gone, so after 4 years of mono, I have now been mono-free for a month!

"Hello, my name is April,"
"Hiii Aprilllll."
"I've been a mono-sufferer for 4 years, and today marks my first month clean."
*clap clap*

Dr. Brody did, however, find that my bile duct is clogging up with thick bile (a result of where my mono settled) and that my digestive system is still pretty messed up. My heart/vessels are still some-what collapsed, but I no longer have the heart of a 80 year old (like I did in December), now I'm down to having the heart of a 40-50 year old. Yay? The good news is..... my heart muscle itself is not damaged, nor is my aorta (the pretty important large vessel that delivers blood to my body).

Though "recovery" is taking longer than expected, I have felt a change for the better, and hopefully I'll be in the body of a 21 year old before I turn 22!

Gracie

Grace giving Mom Mom a ponytail:

Grace... not taking a nap:

I'm A Survivor

I am proud to say that I had the swine flu at the same time as Rupert Grint... from the Harry Potter movies! What does this mean? My theory is that one day, my dreams of being an actress will come true, and instead of all of Hopkins knowing I'm contagious, the whole world will know.

I was diagnosed with Influenza A/H1N1 on Tuesday afternoon, after making an appointment to get checked out half-way through my shift in the NICU. My test came back positive within a few hours, where it can take up to three days to be conclusive. The results gave me a 7 day ticket to the basement where I could cough away from the family. May I suggest the following things: Frost Nixon, I Love Lucy re-runs, M*A*S*H re-runs, and my new favorite show 18 Kids and Counting (I love that family!).

I am heading back to work tomorrow morning for an 8 am appointment where I will hopefully be cleared to go back to work that evening. I have missed being able to go places this past week, but have certainly enjoyed cheating, in a pretty hard-core fashion, on my diet. I'm off the bandwagon folks, and have not yet been able to pick myself up and jump back on.

The NICU has been very supportive of my situation, understanding and ensuring me that this could happen to anyone and not to worry. I feared for two little ones that I had held during the one and a half days that I was at work and sick (thinking then that it was a sinus issue). There are many teams in place at the hospital to make sure that anyone exposed to an infectious disease is well taken care of, and everyone seems to be just fine! I am excited to get back to work; I have been thinking about those babies!

Victory Jam 2009

I'm fresh from a week at Harvey Cedars Bible Conference in Surf City, NJ. Every year, New Covenant gathers with other PCA churches from Maryland for 5 days of insane fun! It's for middle schoolers, but all of we college-aged counselors and youth pastors enjoy the camp just as much, if not more! This year, I went as the camp "nurse". Duty called within the first few hours of camp when one girl fell on the rocks and sliced open her knee, requiring 12 stitches; and may I just mention that I had guessed that she would need 10, whereas Mr. Don guessed 9 and Joel Loftus guessed 8. That's why Mom and Dad pay the big bucks for a Liberty University education, so I can show up my youth pastor and friends with good guesses.

Monday night, Brandon came wobbling up to me with a dislocated pinky toe. May I just say, this was the best experience I had that week, and I laughed myself to sleep that night; I'll try to do this story justice in writing, but it was a "I guess you had to be there" experience. But away we go:

We were outside around 11:00pm for a fire drill, when I hear someone say, "Uh oh, April, you might wanna look at Brandon, here he comes!" I walk up to Brandon and he tells me to look at his toe. It is at a 90 degree angle, going the wrong way. Brandon is.... whimpering? giggling? I couldn't tell; anyone who knows Brandon will understand the fact that he looks exactly the same when he laughs as when he cries. His little face scrunches up and he sort of whimpers. My first question was, "Are you laughing or crying?". He was laughing. I told him he needed to go to the hospital to get it reduced, or put back into its socket, because I sure didn't want to fix even what possibly could be the smallest socket in the human body. I wouldn't want to try something when only knowing the theory of how to fix it, but Mr. Don didn't want to take the trip for such a menial injury. Turns out that a counselor standing with us was a Marine and had learned basic first aid, including care for dislocations. So, Brandon sat sideways on a nearby bench with his injured left leg up on the seat. I, remembering a splinter injury Brandon once sustained while I was baby-sitting, stratled Brandon's leg and held it down (might I explain that in order to remove his splinter, both Aunt Michelle and Uncle Freddy had to sit on Brandon lest he hit the ceiling). The Marine was settled at the toe. Here comes the moment. Just as the Marine asked if Brandon was ready, someone threw a ball point pen between Brandon's puffy cheeks, I turned around to watch Brandon's face, the Marine tugged, and Brandon let out a brilliant "Aaaaahoooowwww" straight from the chest as he, still, sorta giggled and smiled. It was a sight, and I wish you all could have been there. His toe back in place, I was much too happy from the moment to remember to do my job as a nurse and check that there was life-blood coursing through his toe. As I was lying in bed thinking about this, I figured that if his toe fell off in the middle of the night, it would be a great ending to an already fantastic story (just kidding).

The rest of my week was filled with changing the dressing on the stitches, putting on band-aids, handing out water and ibuprofen, and sending two more people to the hospital; one with an infected and fractured foot, another with a neck and spine injury. It was an intense week, but lots of fun. While no one was in need of my service, I watched the kids play from my window and enjoyed bible studies and skits.

This was some raw organic strawberry watermelon juice, which, believe it or not, goes sour just as quickly as raw strawberries or watermelon would.

I'd sit and read while the kids played X-Games outside.

Here we are playing the Green Grenade Gangster Gnomes in water balloon volleyball:

Some encouragement from the sidelines:

A bible study:

And a quick attempt at a pyramid:

The thing about being a counselor, or nurse, or adult at Victory Jam, is that there seems to be this invisible brick wall that comes out of nowhere in the middle of the week, and hits you in the face.

Here's my room:

Complete with a bunk bed for any sick kiddies.

I had to take my own food because of my special diet I'm on right now:

The proudest moment came on Thursday as our very own NCPC middle schoolers swept in the final relay race of the X-Games (a competition of pool and beach games between all the churches) and won the first place prize! It was a big day for the Blueberry Bagel Pandas.