Hell-week

I'm in the last class of my pre-semester week at USD. We're studying EKGs today. On Monday, we reviewed skills and on Tuesday, we had the orientation for Maternal Child.

I'm understanding the EKG stuff pretty well. I think I'm very logical when it comes to things like this. It's kind of like geometry with all of its theoroms and postulates. With EKGs though, it's all about the regularity of the beat, the length of P-waves and QRS complexes and some other things which I don't quite comprend well enough to explain without being able to draw it for you. Suffice it to say, I feel a lot more prepared for my ICU externship.

Speaking of which, my first day in the DOU (I'll be there about 2 months before I actually go to the ICU) will be next Saturday, the 3rd. This should be pretty fun. I was going to work tomorrow, but the nurse I'll be following isn't working tomorrow, soooo I have a day off. Yah!!!! Now I'll actually have time to study and learn.

Well, class is starting again. Only 2 1/2 hours left til my weekend. Oh, and we're moving to a 2-bedroom apartment this Saturday! Yah!

Child Birth

As most of my readers know, Shannon, my wife, is pregnant. Today I just had an orientation class for the Maternal-Child nursing class for this semester. I learned a lot of stuff about the actual delivery, breast-feeding/lactation, and assessment of the baby after birth. I felt like a sponge.

Obviously, the information was very relevant to me right now. So I payed attention. But I also felt very overwhelmed. I'm sure all the other students felt inundated with new information, but they don't have a wife who is about to actually go through delivery. Some of the info was intimidating. Some info was funny. I don't know what really to make of some of the information presented, but I do know that this class will be my "Respect of Your Wife 101" for me this semester.

I've recently noticed how difficult women seem to have it without childbirth. They have the monthly cycle, an extra article of underwear (which isn't very comfortable from what I'm being told), societal pressure to shave their legs and pits, and pressure to look "pretty" which means lots of upkeep both on hair and the face. Then there's the optional tanning which some girls value. All their clothing is more expensive. It costs more to clean than men's clothing. There's a million and one special things they have for the bathroom (which I'm most would like to do without if didn't seem so necessary to have). And then, of course, there's the weight/exercise/comparison cycle which drives many women to eating disorders and loads of stress. Let's face it, men don't have as much of a problem. Some of us really put effort into our looks and some of us care about having power. But our toys are optional whereas most of theirs are a necessity in the current cultural climate.

So all this said, pregnancy, while a blessing, seems to be another burden to dump on an already insurmountable mountain of stress. There's the back pain, difficulty sleeping, UTIs, soar nipples from breast-feeding, lack of sleep, frequent feedings.... the list goes on. I probably am over dramatizing all this, but the way I see it, I have no worries or stress in comparison with the average woman.

Anyway, what I learn from this is that my wife is amazing. I'm in awe of her, her body and her ability to love me when I forget how difficult her burden is bear at times. I praise God for sustaining her and giving her patience for me, slow as I am. And she's so cute right now as she sleeps next to me as I finish this sentence.

14 Shifts in 3 weeks

14 shifts! That comes out to 168 hours! (12 hour shifts, remember?) In only 3 weeks. That's like 4 weeks of work in 3 weeks. Wow! I feel more important or responsible or something like that... And I'm not that tired today either, but my mood has been a bit labile (up and down)... but that could be the mocha I had from Starbucks.

So, great news! I just officially signed up for my nurse externship class with Alvarado Hospital in the DOU/ICU. I'll have 2 months in the DOU and 2 months in the ICU. When I finish with this, I'll go into a New Grad nursing program in the ICU for about 3 months or less and then start a full-time job in the ICU on night shifts. I'm totally excited. A little scared too, but excited. I know it's a lot of experience for only a year's worth of nursing experience, but I feel like I'll be ready.

So far I've done 6 days on the telemetry floor in Sharp Grossmont. Telemetry means that the patients are on heart monitors because they either have rhythm irregularities or came into the hospital with chest pain. I've learned a lot about this stuff too. For example, any patient who experiences A-fib (atria of the heart don't beat in a regular pattern) will have to be on anti-coagulant therapy, Wafarin (Coumadin). I've also learned some more medications and the parameters under which to give them. I feel so smart! Yah me!... ahem. I mean, Praise God! :D

I started another successful IV also. And I've taken out 2 foley catheters.... from women! :
Monday begins our re-entry into school for this last semester. We'll have some skill reviews, orientation for maternal-child and a review on EKGs, for the Telemetry floors that we're on. I hope to learn a lot from that day because I only understand the basics right now. (If there's no P-wave, then the patient is in A-fib/A-flutter; if there's more than 10 normal QRS complexes with P and T waves, then it's Sinus Tachycardia, etc.) I still don't understand PVCs very well or what V-Tach looks like on the monitor (but I do know that V-Tach is when the ventricles are beating independent of the Sinoatrial node, which is fairly dangerous).

Monday also is Shannon's next scheduled appointment for an ultrasound. Yah! I'm so excited to see my unborn child. It's been awesome to see Shannon's belly grow. She just started to feel it kick this last week. By now it's practically fully developed. All the organs exist and most of the neural connections are complete. Everything just needs to mature and the bones need to develop from the existing cartilage (pre-bone) I think.

Now... add all of what I said to the fact that we're moving this next weekend and, hopefully, you'll feel so compassionate that you'll volunteer to help us move. We're planning on Saturday, but might do it on Sunday if our friends move on Saturday also. So please, come help. New address: 4496 1/2 48th St. Yah!!!!! a 2 Bedroom, just for baby McMahon. Thank you Jesus!

I'm Back!

I just finished my first day back at Nursing since Shannon and I left for Christmas vacation. It was quite a hectic day. One of my patients was a borderline code for most of the day (more about her later), another patient who was status post-hip surgery kept trying to go to the bathroom because he didn't believe me when I explained the purpose of his foley catheter, and another patient I had was perhaps the saddest-looking person I've ever seen. She could barely talk, had an NG tube for suction, and was very weak. To make matters worse, I attempted to untangle her long and dirty hair but probably only made things worse and caused her unnecessary pain... sigh.

I think I saw a parable in the first patient I mentioned, so I'll tell the story and then you can compare it with what I got out of the experience:

One day in the hospital I had a patient who had a history of drug abuse and was found to be positive for barbiturates and methamphetamines in her urine. Her eyes were puffy to the point that she could barely open her eyes and whenever I tried to assist her or obtain vital signs, she would yell at me and complain about the poor nursing care she felt she was receiving. Eventually, about 2/3 through my shift, we found that she was desaturating (she had a low O2 reading). We put her on oxygen therapy and continuously monitored her O2 Sat. However, whenever her O2 sat got to a high enough level she would regain consciousness, take off the oxygen mask and desaturate again. I would then wait until she was asleep again and unable to fight me so that I could reapply the oxygen mask. This continued over and over again until the end of shift when I left.

So what did you get out of it? The woman is us! When we're lost in sin, God comes to our rescue, but as soon as we regain control and healing, we turn right back to our ways. We reject the assistance God offers. To put it another way, God is offering us medicine. We can choose to take it of our own free will or wait till things are so bad that we have no choice.

Ironically, the only way that I could have maintained her O2 sat would be to restrain her arms and legs, which would practically take away any choice of hers to work with us. In spiritual terms, God would essentially be removing our free will from us which would take away all purpose in living. But in real life, this happens in the hospital from time to time and, hopefully, the patient no longer needs the restraints by the time they leave the hospital and can once again make good decisions for themselves.

I think the deeper meaning of all this for me is that nursing ceases to be just a job when I choose to love this person and not give up on her. God has never given up on me even when I have given up on Him and myself. I think this can be seen in Matt 25. It's a great verse and speaks volumes to the life of a servant.