Of Mice And Women

Yes, I have legs so pale they are almost transparent. But, this is what I look like every night while getting ready for bed, because we have a mouse in our house.

And yes, it knows we are afraid of it, and yes, it probably lives in our walls with an army of 500. And yes, I refuse to walk around the house without shoes on, because if I did, the mouse would know, and scurry across my feet (or, in my process of jumping and screaming, I would accidently land on top of it and feel it under my foot).

And I'm sure that the mouse can get into my room despite the fact that I have found a new use for my school books; blocking the crack under my door.

It turns out my fan sounds just like a chitter-chattering mouse.

And yes, when I heard there was a mouse in our house, I mentally went through Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat, Fox in a Box, Mouse in a House rhyme.

And yes, I am quite certain that this mouse knows how to climb into washing machines, cabinets, bath tubs, beds, and toilets. And for that reason, I take deep breaths before entering any room of the house, and I whistle under my bed each night to see if a little creature responds.

My Goodview Room, With A Good View!

Here's my house on Goodview Street,

before:

and after:

I'm watching "Say Yes to the Dress". I have a little entertainment corner, with a TV, bookstand, and chair to read in.

Behind that is my dresser with some of my favorite pictures of my travels on it. My bed wall was boring, so I put up a painting from Australia.

My desk, across from the window, full of things to distract me from doing my schoolwork.

And last year's The Office calendar is hanging on my wall.

My door and closet...

... and a lose up of the awesome mirror my dad custom made for me!

My view outside my window is so pretty in the spring, our neighbor has a large garden, and there is a bush just outside my window that grows beautiful pink flowers.

But right now, the view is nothing but snow! We have about a foot so far, and it's supposed to snow every three days or so for the next couple weeks.

Leadership Clinical

I have gotten my Leadership clinical assignment and it is..... the Neonatal ICU in Lynchburg! My plans for carpooling to Richmond didn't work out, but I am still thankful that I will be able to work with neonates this semester. I pray that God uses this clinical time to help me feel more comfortabe as I begin caring for these patients as the nurse, and not the CNE. I hope to be the kind of nurse that can be trusted by my patients (or the mommy and daddy in this case), their families, and the staff I work with! I am excited to begin my time in the NICU developing my crital care skills!

Update, Senior Year

It's hard to believe that it's my senior year already! This place has become my routine; when I go HOME I feel out of whack! I forget to take my medicine, I eat "weird" food (not raw food)... I can't wait for home to be my normal routine again. Not so I can eat normal food and forget to take meds, but so it can become my full-time life again.

This semester has been super easy so far. I am in Community nursing, where my clinical experience involves 4 Mondays of working with a hospice nurse. It will be a new experience for me, but I am curious all the same. My Leadership class will have 5 clinicals, one weekend every month, from 7a-7p. I haven't heard where I will be yet, but I signed up for the NICU here in Lynchburg and the NICU in Richmond, VA. It is most likely that I will be going to Richmond because I have 2 other friends that signed up to be in the same hospital. Our professor should want to take advantage of 3 students willing to drive and stay in Richmond together. It would be a fun weekend for us to hang out together and have time with eachother before graduating. My Advanced Critical Care class has just a handful of students in it. It is a much more personal class, where we have discussions on what we are learning and have lab days where we run through codes and trauma cases. There are no tests in this class either! Lastly, I'm in Biomedical Ethics. This is an interesting class because it will help me to be able to back up my opinions better; like how I feel about abortion, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, etc. These are issues that I will have to face in the NICU, probably even during my interview!

Each of my professors in my classes said that we will get out of this class what we put into it, meaning that getting an A should be easy, heh heh heh. Yay! I would love to get straight A's this semester!

Just a few more months left!

Go Ahead, You Can Laugh

The road to becoming a nurse is not without its troubles and concerns. On occasion, the learned nursing student will self-diagnose her/himself with everything that s/he has learned in class.

I am not the exception. I might even be the extreme.

Over the past 3 and a half years, I have self-diagnosed, at one point or another, believing it to be true for any amount of time, the following conditions:

1. Supraclavicular Nodes (feeling one of these is bad news)
2. A Blood Clot (that was not too long ago)
3. Leukemia (I had a total of 1 symptom)
4. Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak (because I had a runny nose)
5. Urinary Retention (turns out I just didn't have to "go")
6. Pre-Ventricular Contractions (actually this wasn't too far-fetched, but I still didn't have it)
7. Atrial Fibrillation (which would cause a blood clot, sooo...)
8. A blood clot, again
9. Ventricular Septal Defect (this is a BIRTH defect, I was 20 when I "acquired it")
10. Anemia (like the serious kind)
11. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (again, not too "out there", but not entirely accurate)
12. Crohn's Disease (just a little tummy ache)
13. Meningitis (my neck really hurt, okay?)
14. Umbilical Hernia (after a big day of eating...)
15. Melanoma (some people pronounce this as "freckle", as in my diagnostic case)

I won't even go into things I learned in my Psych class.

Lucky for everybody else in the world, I keep these diagnoses to myself, until now.

Also, don't meander onto GOOGLE Search when you have any of the concerns listed above, it's just not helpful... or when you have a runny nose, a full tummy, an ache or pain...

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!