Se...No Habla Espanol

Since I have at least one Spanish speaking patient a week I am picking up on the Espanol, a little (pequito). None are complete without the motioning and mild stuttering and speaking loud even though the patient can HEAR you. Top 10 Spanish words/ phrases for the hospital:

1) Bano (bathroom) crucial for the most basic of functions
2) Sangre (blood) ---good for drawing blood so the patient doesnt retaliate
3) Todo bien (everything ok) not complete without a thumbs up sign
4) Tu bien ( you ok) same as above
5) Dulor (pain) point to area because I don't remember high school spanish body parts
6) Yo soy.....( good for introductions)
7) Eschucar (listen) I don't have any idea what the word is for lungs or heart
8) Estramiento (constipation)
9) Diarrhea (this is is pretty self explanatory)
10) Agua (water)

Here's a some I am working on:
1) Do you need anything? ( I was told what this was but I can't say it right)
2) Can you rate your pain?
3) Trouble breathing?
4) Saline Flush( All I say now is IV agua)

Trevor and I at Medieval Times, Orlando

Trevor and I at Universal Studios, Orlando

Trevor and I at IAAPA with the Witch King (one of the Nuzgul) from the LOTR

IAAPA 2004 Orlando Florida

Back again

Back home from Thanksgiving at my parents house.... I also was able to meet my friends Todd and Rachel who are getting married this summer. I have been asked to be a bridesmaid in their wedding. Congrats to Todd for the awesome ring on her finger. I also saw National Treasure, which is a pretty good movie.

...Through the fire (Isaiah 43)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I continue the saga of becoming a nurse. Last night was a hard night, certainly not the hardest night but the toughest since I have been on my own.Basically, I need to clone about three of me. Since that is not possible or ethical, I will have to suffice. God was with me though, sending me help when I needed it most. I pray for strength once again, but calm too. Calm most of all. Since I am sure last night did not register high on the bad night scale, tell me about your worst work experiences in the comment section.( Yes I have had much worse, say when I worked in the nursing home two summers ago and two of us had to change everyone's bed in the facility.) Thank you, good night to all.

Putt-putt golf night in Orlando

Trevor and Dylan on our recent trip to Missouri in October

Tested....

So this is my first official night as a nurse....on my own. The questions fly through my mind, will I know what to do? Will I remember everything I have learned? Will ever start getting IV's? I have to consider though that just as tests in nursing school and boards this night and many nights after will chronicle my transition into my career as a nurse. I pray for patience, strength, integrity, but most of all for calm. I will need calm in the midst of countless uncertain situations, compliants, and even questions against my person. No matter what happens, I am not alone. Isaiah 41:10.

Moving on

Well, the trip to Florida was awesome!! Will have pics later on. The whole trip to Orlando, Florida took about 24 hours on the road each way. It was a company trip for Extreme Inflatables, the company Trevor works for to IAAPA. For those of you who don't know, which would be most of you, IAAPA is an international preview for the amusement industry. We sampled free pizza, dippin dots, smoothies, rides, arcade games, and more. Like I said pics to come. Trevor and I also went to Medieval Times and Universal Studios. Now many hours later I am safely back in Houston.

Soon

Well about one and a a half more nights to go then to OK then Florida! I have almost stopped the invasion of the moth/wevils in my apt. Its a long story but just don't leave granola or cereal in your pantry for more than a month. Don't worry the little suckers are gonna die.
I will be leaving Monday afternoon to go to OK so I will be taking a little hiatus, unless I find an idea and a computer in the meantime. Well gotta get back to work....soon. I have had an exciting night, even went to visit the morgue. It was interesting but a gross place. Well to leave on a happy note-- only one more day!!!

Quotable quotes..from The Jerk

*Some readers may find offensive but often funny.
You gotta watch this movie,it's a classic. Here are a few quotes I enjoy....censored of course.

"You shouldn't name the dog Hero, you should call him S***head."
" I was raised a poor black boy"
"The new phone books are here! I'm somebody now!"
"See this, this is s***. This is shineola."
"Don't trust whities."
"All I need is this chair...its all I need....and this ping pong paddle. All I need is this chair and ping paddle...and this remote......"
"These cans are defective!" "No, we got a person out there who's defective!"

The Joys of Nursing*

*Warning. This blog entry may contain graphic information that is some readers may find disgusting and/or offensive.

Well this week at work has been interesting. Haven't gotten off orientation yet. Had a fun time with another group of patients. I am sure I will have them when I come back because no one else wants to take them. Here's my list of things of "You know you are a nurse when..."
1)...you find it amusing to deal with confused patients. And tell confused patient stories. * Funny patient story at the end.
2) ...you watch someone vomit, spit, defecate, or urinate to document the color, consistency, amount.
3) ...you find yourself saying, "So I hear what I hear you saying is" "That must be difficult", etc.
4) ...you find blood draws and IV's challenging and sometimes even exciting.
5) ...you discuss bodily functions with others on a regular basis.
6) ...you realize you have a "nursing voice" which is usually loud and slow. You switch to the nursing voice when you find someone or a situation irriating but dont want to show it.
7) ...you diagnose people, situations even if they don't ask to be. call it "nursing intuition"
8)... you have ever dreamt about patient care, documentation, etc.
9) ...you have ever called the hospital to tell the nurse on duty about something you didnt do.
10) ...you start trying to sign things (your name), RN.
11) ...you start to answer your phone at home by your name and unit.
12) ..you find yourself doing multiple things at once.
13) ...you talk to yourself...quite frequently.
I'm sure there will be more to come....
The funny confused patient story....
One of my older confused patients kept wanting to get out of bed. Since he was so weak, both he and his wife were constantly having to plead with him, give him excuses to stay in bed. Since confused patients rarely censor themselves he said many comical things. At one point, he pushed his call light and the nurse at the front desk got on the room intercom and asked what he needed. The nurse heard the wife plead with him to stay in bed to which he replied, " I have to s***; I have to p****" just to get out of the bed. Later he was sitting on the edge of the bed and I told him to sit there a minute. He had been saying he needed to get out of bed to get off his back. I told him he was off his back to which he replied, "But I am sitting on my tool." I'll leave that up to you to decipher.

Less than one week...

Less than one week to Florida!!!!

Watch out!....for tires in the road

Another adventure in the life of Amanda, a tire in the road causes not ONE but TWO flat tires. It seems at least four other people ran over the same tire last night about 7:40 on the entrance ramp to 610 after South Main. I'm ok, at least thanks to two guys from my church, Ralph and Stacy. Oh and a man who also ran over the same tire, waiting on the wrecker. He actually changed the first tire while he was waiting on the wrecker, since the lugnuts were impossible to move. Thanks guys for all your help. You went above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks also to Ralph's wife, Lori and the "chain" of people rallied from the church to come to my aid. I almost changed one of the tires by myself but try as I might I could not loosen the lugnuts. We had fun times with a wrecker/tire repair guy named Alex who seems to have taken a few too many tire wrench hits to the head or something but seemed nice enough. Well I guess he had to do since he was the 24 hour tire guy we could find in all of Houston. Oh and one complaint from the whole situation, the DPS does jack squat to help unfortunate motorists like myself. Never saw one officer the whole time and as I said FOUR cars were stranded like myself. AND I called the Roadside Assistance number on the back of my driver's license. If you ever need help with a flat, forget it, not sure what they do help with but they can refer you to a wrecker. Thanks so much DPS, for NOTHING. Guess they are too busy issuing tickets and important stuff like that.
As of 10:30 this morning, I am the proud owner of two new tires. Amanda's wish list now includes: full AAA coverage, a four-way, and decent jack. Hopefully, tonight is a blissfully uneventful night at work. Running on little sleep....running on little sleep.

Day Number One.....

I'm off again....what to do? I am sure I can think of something. My driver's side window is going out....man that's going to cost me. Thankfully, I have built up an emergency fund so I will stay in the black. Thanks so much to Dave Ramsey, who was coincidentally on 60 minutes tonight. If you don't know that much about Dave Ramsey, ask Trevor or go to the above site. Dave Ramsey is fighting a one-man fight against the credit industry that has so ensnared the American public. Enough of the our "meaningless consumer driven lives" (Ten Things I Hate About You).
When I go back to work I will be on my own in a day or two. For those of you who don't know, I am a Registered Nurse and I have been on orientation with another nurse since July. I know, I know that's a long time to be on orientation but I hope it will prepare me for my career in nursing. Yes, I'm ready....I think. Please pray for calm in crazy situations to come. I haven't seen a lot of things, like someone not breathing.....but thank the Lord I have other nurses for help.

An Evening to Remember

Well, the story begins, I was on my way to youth bible study when..... I guess I didn't get lost, Yahoo Maps was lost, though I am sure Trevor would disagree. But either way I was somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Houston area about 7:00 last night. I called for directions but alas I did not make it to Bible Study in Missouri City but Pearland instead. I am still not sure how that worked. So instead of wasting a perfectly good opportunity to go to to Panera bread and Kohl's, two of my favorite places, I chose to go for it. At about 9:00 I headed to work out and decided to go to the 12:01 showing of The Incredibles. Of course the real reason I went was that it was rumored that the trailer for Episode III was to be released for the movie. The rumors were right, the trailer was awesome!!Episode III is due out May 19, 2005. I plan to set my work schedule around it.
Tonight I have to work though, but only two nights on this time and two nights off. I get to go to Florida with Trevor in less than two weeks!!!

Me and Trevor at the Royals game in July, not the best picture but I'll work on it(:

...Bush really IS the man

I am so proud of Bush for the integrity he has shown in this presidential race. When others have stooped to pointing fingers and concocting lies, Bush kept on fighting the good fight. He did call Kerry a flip-flopper but itsn't that true? When my co-workers all whine about the unfairness of "four more years of Bush" I am tempted to tell them that they are the reason the country is the way it is and that they need stop whining and start reuniting the country(reference to previous post Closet Repulican in Houston). I want to ask them what is going so bad for them and couldn't they make it better by making better choices themselves and not asking for everything to be given to them. Bush is going to need our support but better our respect to reunite this country. We will win the war in Iraq; our commander-in-chief and armed forces have a plan. The race is over but the fight is only beginning. Yes, Bush won so let's show some respect since he IS our president. Kerry even says so.

Bush is the man....but so is Kerry

Anyone who knows me well knows I have said some strong things about Kerry. Liberal wiener, liar, etc. I add to that list: man of character. I don't know what prompted him to call the election but I am so ....proud...of him. He went against his party hopefully to unite this country and end the bickering. Who knows it may have been another "flip-flopping" move but I don't think so. I think he truly saw the uselessness of dragging the country through a pointless fight. He brought the wrath of his party upon himself but I believe he had the country in mind this time. Maybe he really did--and does--have the country's true interest at heart. Hat's off to John Kerry.

Closet Republican in Houston

I really want to write today about how tired I am of being called names by Democrats here in Houston. I thought Democratic supporters were in favor of free speech and fairness. My co-workers keep staying " Oh, whoa is me, Bush, four more years." Regardless of how bad it could get with Kerry, I ask them how bad is it really now? You have food. You have a great job. You have that free speech that you seem so willing to fight for. What I ask is "What has been so bad about the past few years?" I am sure I would get a collective whine of "wrong war, wrong this, wrong that." Heard enough of that from your spokesperson himself.
The other thing I want to be see less of (or not at all) is the bipartisan mudslinging and stereo-typing. Sorry to say I am guilty of this as well. I see so many anti-Bush people putting all Bush supporters/Republicans down. One of my coworkers called me a "piece of s***" today because I am a Republican. Well her exact words were "Republicans are the reason the world is the way it is today. Republicans are a piece of s***." I kept my mouth shut. I really wanted to tell my co-workers how wrong they are. But I wont. The Proverbs say something to the effect of a fool opens his mouth and a wise man keeps his shut. I pray my time will come to stand up for what's right. Let's stop calling each other names in the sake of a political party. Please, let's stand up for freedom and fairness and not trash talk and bashing. Respect me and I will respect you. I lost respect for that woman who said that today. I need to think about that before I bash their party next time too.
All this said, I still would like to "come out of the closet" and represent. Would a "I'm a right wing nut job" sticker be appropriate? What about a W'04 for the lunch bag? Happy thoughts now as I go to sleep....Happy thoughts now as I go to sleep......

I Voted

Well I cast my vote. I agree with Trevor, if you didn't vote today then you have no right to complain about the results of this election. I am glad it will all be over soon, though I am sure tonight will still be plagued by political garbage. I am still appalled by the shady policticing outside the election pollst today. Oh and it is so one-sided. May you be judged, stinkin' cheaters. You know who you are.But when it comes down to it, I did my job. May God be with us all. I am so glad I am redeemed by Christ and that I have done all that he has asked of me.

"Though every man be found a liar, you will be found true"---Waterdeep