I am still alive! Just super busy with school the past few weeks. I can't believe it's March 1st! wow! Where did February go?! Last week I had clinical days on tues/wed and then a big test on Friday. Pharmacology was not my friend. Glad that one is behind me. As always the weeks are flying by. Last week in clinical I got to go to the OR with my patient. This was an awesome experience. Being on the ortho unit our patients are regularly in the OR, pre op, post op, etc. But often they are taken down to surgery before we come onto the floor for the day or they are already on post op day 1. Well when I came in on tuesday morning I was told that my patient was going down to the OR at 10:30 and to see if I could go. This basically entailed following whoever came to get my patient for surgery. : ) I went down to pre op with him and saw the anesthesia consult. Then I was taken to the surgical locker room to change into OR scrubs. Weird, communal scrubs. Not sure how I feel about that. Soon after we were in the OR room. My patient was sedated, intubated, covered and smothered with blankets and sterile sheets, injected with IV's, fluids, you name it! The CRNA (the nurse anesthetist) let me start a 16 gauge IV! That was the first time ever I had stuck a real patient. He was already knocked out. I told the CRNA I had never done this and she said "thats ok, he's not going to move". It was a 3+ hour surgery. The patient was having his knee replacement replaced and fixing a break in his femur. Basically he was getting a lot of new parts. Bless his heart. They had his knee all loosey goosey at one point. You could have thrown it over his shoulder. I mean it was empty! I did very well. At the beginning of the surgery the doctor asked me if I had eaten that day and told me where I could sit should I feel lightheaded. It didn't bother me at all! There was lots of blood, burning flesh, sawing, drilling, you name it! Maybe the OR is my calling? Most of my time was spend at the head of the bed with the CRNA. She was great to explain to me what was going on and what she was monitoring. Half way through the surgery I declared I was never going to run again. It just doesn't seem worth the risk of loosing my knees! Of course I haven't quit running but....I see the importance of cross training for sure.
After my test on friday I hit the road and headed to laurinburg. Nick was coming through town so I went to see him and the whole fam could be together. I'm lucky I made it out of there alive. Dad came home Friday with pink eye and mom had an awful head cold. I had to do everything but tape dad's hands to his sides to keep him from touching things. Seriously he tried to set the table. I explained to him if I got pink eye I could not go to school. Not class, not lab, nada. It was nice to be at home. When Nick and I are home we bump up the dog count to six. This involves an extensive baby gate/bungy cord system on multiple levels and entrances of the house. The beagle can't go out with the anatolian shepherd, the pug tries to get into the garage to eat the big dogs food, the big white dog can't be trusted...the list goes on. Below are photos of the farm. Mom's chickens, "lamby" the currently bottle fed baby lamb (all bottle fed lambs are dubbed lamby), the multitude of dogs, the collard grave yard (the cold weather has done them in), dad's farm bell that nick and I gave him for christmas, and a few other random shots.
