Birthday Nurse

It's been an interesting week...it was 1year ago (not by exact dates, but the 2 nd Wednesday in June) that I took my nursing boards for the first time. That is one day I will never forget. 3hrs, 270 maximum number of questions, left the test in tears. It was 1 year ago (again, 2 nd Friday in June) that I found out that I didn't pass boards the 1st time around. THAT is for sure a feeling I'll never forget. Seeing that big FAIL next to my name and that horrible sinking feeling in my stomach. I was the girl nobody ever expected to have any kind of problems with boards...and I was the one out of the class who failed. I felt like I was NEVER going to be a nurse, that maybe this wasn't what I was supposed to do, that all my years of work and dreaming had come to just that...work and dreaming without ever achieving my goals. I never felt as worthless, stupid and ashamed in my life. The next 45 days were the toughest ever, and I'm still not sure how I ever got through the...

Ok...one more story from my "non-work related life." Beautiful day today, so I decided to go for a bike ride instead of the running I was planning to do. There's a great trail just down the road that's about 24-miles round trip from end to end, so I thought it would be a great day to ride it. Set out, it's beautiful! About 5 miles into the ride there's a small hill on the trail that got wiped out in a flood a few years ago and they've never totally finished it, it's still gravel and torn up trail pieces. It's normally no big deal, but today my tire caught on it "just so." I skidded to a stop on my elbows and knees and the first thought I had was "it's gonna be a sore ride home from here." I've whipped out numerous times before (running, rollerblading, etc.) and I usually pick myself up and head back, 'cuz how else am I supposed to get there? Anyway, as soon as I got up everything hurt, especially my L elbow. My first...

Ok , hold the phone...last night...there were THREE nurses on L&D...ALL NIGHT LONG!!! I was a little nervous about it, combined, the 3 of us have about 4 years of experience, two of us are '08 grads, the other an '07 grad. Not that we're not capable nurses...but I know there's lots of stuff I've NEVER done, and if some train wreck walked in we'd be in deep meconium ! But...the night was great! I sent a triage home, there were 3 antes, I took a SROM , there was a cervidil , then after my delivery we had 2 ROL's walk in and then we had the 0730 C/S to get ready, but together we got it done! We were all pretty proud of ourselves. We had 4 nurses at home on call, so that made us feel a lot better, but we didn't ' need them! When we were leaving this morning I kept looking around wondering where all the night shift people were...and then remembered that there were only 3 of us! My delivery last night was a little crazy, she was a multip , SROM , star...

I probably just jinxed myself...but last night was so PEACEFUL!!! We had a nurse on call, and probably could have had more if we had really wanted to. We had 2 deliveries, 2 cervidils , 3 ante's and a few random triages that were in and out...and 5 nurses! I had ONE (1) ( uno ) cervidil all night...when was the last time that happened! It was WONDERFUL!!! Ah...for once I'm not "scared" about going back tonight! A bunch of us nurses were all talking about different charity or not-so-charity running events that are going around in the area this year, and I think we're going to try to get a group of us together and do some of them. I don't by any means call myself a "runner" but I go out and try to do 4-6 miles a couple times a week. I used to do 5+ miles 6+ times a week in college, but once "life" started, not so much any more. There are several 5k or 10k runs going on that look fun and I would never have guessed that some many of the nurse...

So I know at the beginning of this blog I promised it would only be "work related" stories and experiences, but I couldn't pass this one up... I went to the dentist today. NOT my favorite place to go (but who likes the dentist?). I had the first appointment after lunch and was on my phone when they called me back. As soon as the hygienist opened the door and called me back I had this sneaking suspicion that I knew her from somewhere. I kept thinking to myself "why is she so familiar? Why should I know her? Where have I seen her before!?" I figured I'd seen her at the hospital before, some random place, etc. I just couldn't place her. It was driving me nuts! All I knew is that I've gone to this same dentist since I was 2 and know all the hygienists , and this one had DEFINITELY not cleaned my teeth before! Anyway, I sat down, we chatted a little bit and got all ready to start the wonderful process of cleaning my teeth. The TV was on some soap oper...