The journey of a new nurse, an amateur photographer, and a youth pastor’s wife.

Monday, July 19, 2010

I can't believe time is passing so quickly. In just a few more weeks I will be on my own. Yikes. There is so much still to learn! I am finally starting to feel like I am getting the hang of things. I am still pretty nervous when I have to call a doctor or when a family member asks me a question I don't know the answer to. I still feel like I am behind all day, and I am rushing to get things wrapped up in time for shift change...and I am usually leaving 30-45 minutes late. On Saturday I actually sat down for about 20 minutes and I didn't have anything to do. It was an odd feeling.

We went to Dollywood on Tuesday with the middle school students. It was so crowded, but we had fun. I rained toward the end of the day, so we got rain checks and we are going back next tuesday.

I've been on a gluten free diet for about 3 weeks now. Not seeing much of a difference. I don't know if I'm happy or sad about that. Happy because maybe it's not Celiac's Disease. Sad because if it was Celiac's Disease at least I would be in controll of fixing it....and if it's not CD...then what is it? I finally found a GF bread that is kind of normal. It's $6 for a small loaf, but I think I will try to make some croutons and bread crumbs out of it. I'm not much of a sandwich eater anyway. I want to try to make one new recipe per week, but our schedule has been so busy we haven't had much time. We have made GF Crepes, GF mac and cheese, GF cornbread, and Shepard's pie (which is normally GF, but I found a awesome recipe for a crock pot).

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Last night I made a bean soup and cooked it in the crock pot over night. This morning when I woke up, I went downstairs to pack some for my luch. I got a quick taste and as a result got what might be a 3rd degree burn on the roof of my mouth.

I knew it was going to be a bad day.

Actually the whole day wasn't bad. Only the beginning and the end. Work was ok at first. I have felt kind of overwhelmed this week. I started out orientation with one patient. The next week I was supposed to have two patients. Well, that week I was actually only on the floor one of those days and the other days we had orientation/computer training classes. So then I went on vacation for a week, and when I cam back...BAM...I had 3 patients, and today I had 4. Of course I am still under a preceptor, but I am expected to do most everything on my own. I thought I was doing ok today, we discharged one patient and then got another one a couple of hours later. My first admission. (Which by the way, I can't believe I've gone this long without doing one!) Anyway, it was like 30 minutes before shift change.. and there were several things I hadn't completed on my other charts. Poor time management on my part for sure! I was running around like a crazy person, asking a bazillion questions, probably driving all the other nurses crazy. Long story short, I left feeling like a frustrated a couple of nurses, and I left without finishing everything I should have. What a bad nurse I am.

So tonight I made brownies. Gluten free brownies. That's right I'm back on the gluten free diet. Hooray. :/