what's on my mind today

well i'm still sick. everyone kept telling me i'd quickly get sick sometime soon after my start here at children's. i seriously haven't been sick in like 3 years, but it must be true little kids have lots of little germs! i'm not entirely convinced i got it here though. a lot of little kids i've been around at church have been sick lately. regardless of the source, i'm tired of it. i hate being sick! i'm off for like 5 days after today, so hopefully i'll be able to rest up and get better before coming back.

i'm at work now trying to kill time until 7:30. we had critical care class today from 7-3:30, but i have to stay to get my hours in for this week. i've finished all my unit modules i had to work on and wish i was home, but i guess i can't complain too much for getting paid to hang out in the hospital library for a couple of hours :) being in here is making me wonder what you have to do to be a librarian..any guesses?

i'm especially excited to get home, because brandon was in detroit yesterday and today for a church plant meeting of some sort with the rc3 staff. i love that his job means getting to attend things like this, but i can't lie...i do miss him when he's gone. i sleep with pillows on each side of me and close the bedroom door so maya has to stay in there with me, lol.

i am so excited i'm off for 5 days in a row!! i really need the rest, and i have been here at the hospital some odd hours of every day since last wednesday. next week it will be like that from wednesday through the next thursday - half of them days/half nights (8 days in a row!), so i'm going to enjoy this time off!

yesterday at work our boss made us watch this documentary called a lion in the house. it was about 5 kids with cancer that were treated right here at cincinnati childrens in the late 90s. it told their true stories from the family's point of view, and followed the kids over 6 years. if you've ever wondered what kids with cancer and their families go through, watch this documentary. i'm warning you - it's heartbreaking and you will cry, but it will be worth the tears. these kids are amazing, and it really helped me as a nurse understand things from their side.

holly furtick wrote a good post today about respect and the election. i loved what she had to say about teaching kids by example - it's so true. go here to read it. she also had a great post about pastor's kids a couple of days ago and how to pray for them. i could relate to it so well and am thankful for the people who prayed things like that for my brother andrew and i growing up, especially our parents. they did a wonderful job. read it here.

1 more hour. what shall i do? make my grocery list...online shop...doodle...

i know this post was incredibly random and most likely just as boring to most of you, but it's just what's on my mind today. i'm sure your day was much more exciting :)

sending spidey to the PICU

saturday night i had the privilege of taking care of a sweet little boy i'll just call spiderman.  you see, i walked into a room to find the tiny patient dressed head-to-toe in a spiderman costume and slippers with spiderman's 3d head on them.  his sheets, blanket, and pillow case were all spiderman.  kid drawings and paintings covered the walls.  a scooby doo dvd played on the tv screen.  (i'm not sure why this one thing wasn't spiderman..)  the last nurse who changed his central line dressing drew a little picture of spiderman on it.  you get the picture.  the kid loved spidey.

he was to have a bone marrow transplant in 3 days, which means he was getting very intense, high-dose chemotherapy as prep.  one certain drug he had gotten earlier in the day began to affect his blood pressure during our shift, sometime around midnight.  it was dropping, and we couldn't get it back up.  long story short, we had to give him extra fluid bolus' and dopamine and then transport him to the PICU (pediatric icu).  

we're on our way upstairs, 5 nurses/3 doctors, all hurriedly pushing a bed with a tiny little 4-year-old lying in the middle of it covered in tubes, monitors, and spiderman paraphilnalia.  as i'm concentrating on pushing the iv pole at the right speed to avoid running over the people pushing the bed, i see a little brown hand stick up in the air.  then again.  and again.  

he was shooting webs.  at the walls, elevator doors, and medical professionals surrounding him.  despite all the things he was having to deal with, things a 4-year-old should never have to worry about, he was still a kid.  and he still was trying to play and have a little fun.

i realized just how great this pediatric thing is.  no offense to all you adult people out there, but i think i like taking care of little people best :)

what?

who would have thought?  it's freezing here in cincinnati, ohio, but where is it snowing?  my hometown in western north carolina.  check it out.

weekend

friday/saturday nights i worked at children's.  i hadn't worked a night shift in a while.  it was rough friday night.  i was SO sleepy, and hadn't eaten much before going in.  about 2am my blood sugar dropped really low (50s) and i almost passed out.  i felt so dumb, because we were right in the middle of a central line change.  i had a mask on and got really hot, dizzy, and nauseous and had to practically fall into the patient's mom's rocking chair at the bedside.  so embarrassing.  on my first night on the floor, lol.  saturday night was much better.  i have a really cute story that i'll post about later.  back to work tonight.  i like my job.  it's harder and more complex than my last job, but i LOVE the kids.  

sunday afternoon brandon, thomas, and i went with mike and annie to an indoor gun range.  it was so much fun!  i shot a bunch of different guns that i can't remember the names of, but one of them had laser grips, so when you shoot it a laser light is on your target.  i got several bulls-eyes too!  after that we got some dinner and starbucks, then hung out by their fire in their backyard.  it was a great afternoon.

i still haven't kicked this cold.  i slept in really late (i won't say how late - it's embarrassing...lol), but i really need the rest and i do have to stay up all night tonight.

happy monday :) 

friday

• not feeling too well today.  sore throat, sinus pressure, etc.  i've been drinking lots of hot tea in my attempt to get better fast.  i seriously don't hardly ever feel bad; i hate being sick.
• working tonight, 7p-7a.  i cannot be sick around these kids.  transplant patients have zero immune system.
• i haven't stayed up all night since my last night at st. francis in july.  i'm hoping i can stay awake, lol.  
• i have to work saturday night too.  weekends mean good money (extra $9/hr), but i hate sleeping all saturday.  i feel like i miss stuff.
• brandon's good friend thomas from greenville, sc is here visiting for the weekend until monday.  it's always fun to have friends over.
• we ate at the breakfast club this morning.  i love that place.  i had biscuits and gravy...yum!
• right now i'm just resting, drinking like my 5th cup of black coffee, and listening to the rain.  it's awesome.

have a great weekend!

one thing to say

from my original pick for president, mike huckabee ...

"while there is plenty of blame and fault to go around for both parties, there really is hard evidence that john mccain tried in vain to get attention focused on the totally absurd lending practices of fannie mae and freddie mac that are at the hear of the meltdown.  barack obama is the second highest recipient of political cash from the big bosses of these entities, and his chief economic advisor, franklin raines, took over $90 million in bonuses from fannie mae.  that's right - $90 MILLION.  do you really think that barack obama will lead "reform" of a system that he has helped grease??

his radical view on when life begins and his priority of protecting abortion rights over the right to life for the unborn are beyond most of even the most extreme leftists.  his work with acorn, a radical political organization is especially noteworthy in light of the fact that acorn received over $760 million in "fees" from banks to help push people into n.i.n.j.a. loans.  (loans made to people with no income, no jobs, and no assets).

imagine obama as president and democrats holding majorities in the house and with a possible 60 vote margin senate...

goodbye, 2nd amendment rights, protection for the unborn, tax breaks, diligence against state sponsored terrorism from rogue governments like iran, north korea, and others, parental rights as a fundamental right to not be supplanted by the government, holding traditional marriage as one man, one woman for life.

i'm not ready to accept that."

i'm not either mike.  are you?  and that's all i'll say about it. 

this is where i work

per my family's request to see where i work, i decided to snap a few shots of children's from the outside.  i wouldn't be allowed to take any pictures on the actual unit where i work, but these give a general idea of the place.  they don't really do justice to how massive the campus is, but you can get the picture.  it's a great place to work.  so many new things to learn all the time.  so many kids to serve.  this is my mission field.  what's yours?

i'm working today (7a-7p), so i tried this automatic post thing.  i guess i'll see if it worked when i get home :)

happy birthday cathy!

today is my mother-in-law's birthday.  cathy has been such a blessing to me since meeting her.  brandon has a great mom, as do i.  so i hope you enjoy your day cathy!  eat lots of butter cream icing and drink a starbucks frap :)

monday happenings

- i had to leave the house this morning at 6 am.  i rolled over in bed and thought the clock said 5:50, jumped out of bed like a mad woman and ran to the bathroom to get ready.  it said 5:05...lol

- i got to spend the day on the unit (finally), taking care of housekeeping issues (getting a locater, keys, put into the pyxis and nurse server machines, etc).  i also got to see some of the patients - so sweet and adorable!  i cannot wait to work with them!

- random fact i found out - our unit (blood and marrow transplant) gives more meds than any other unit in the hospital and most of those meds are not even fda approved yet due to clinical trials and cutting edge treatments.  this makes me excited to learn, but a little nervous, lol.

- my sweet hubby is lying in our chaise beside me napping.  he's snoring a little...:)

- i got home today and brandon had cleaned the house, vacuumed, cleaned out the fireplace, and put together the rest of our chairs for our new dining room table.  he's just awesome.  i love him so much!

- we're getting ready to head over to jos and ginger's for his birthday party.  should be fun.  ginger's getting chipotle for us...yum!

- i'm off tomorrow!  but i have to work friday and saturday night...boo.  i haven't worked night shift in a while, so i'm a little worried, lol.

better go wake b up, happy monday!

lazy sundays

i seem to have gotten in the habit of writing update posts on sunday afternoons, so i'll keep with that today.  it always just seems appropriate.

• church this morning was so good!  along with some great others, brandon played "oh how he loves", which i have grown to truly love worshiping to.  paul preached about letting go of one's past and accepting God's grace and mercy.  everyone had a little piece of flash paper that he/she wrote down something to let go of.  we took them to the front and held them over a candle.  they burst into a quick flame and vanished - just like our sins forgiven by the Almighty.  awesome.  i really love our church.  it's solid, real, and deep.
  
• just finished watching the end of the bengals game...sad.  they are 0-7 now.
• we had a good and restful weekend.  i had the day off friday, so b and i went on a morning date to the breakfast club.  i had pumpkin spice pancakes - yum!  we spent the rest of the day running errands and cleaning up, then we had our catalyst group at mike and annie's.  saturday we did pretty much nothing but hang out, watch football, and attend jonah's 2nd birthday elmo themed party.
• georgia beat vandy yesterday, so that made me happy :)
• i got my schedule through the first week of december.  i'm working thanksgiving night...:(  but that's the life of nurses i guess.  at least i'll be with a bunch of kids trying to make them happy.  it would really stink to be in the hospital for thanskgiving.
• the best  part about this weekend is that we built a fire in our living room fireplace.  i love fires when it's cold outside...:)

my week on the road

i know, i haven't been a great blogger this week.  work has been crazy, and here's a little bit of why.  i haven't started my normal hours yet (7a-7p/7p-7a), so i've been working 8a-5p for the past 3 weeks.  i've found that this is prime time for cincinnati traffic.  holy cow, i've never seen anything like it.  at first it was horrible, but it's funny how you get used to things after a while.  here's some shots i took in traffic this week.  i did not grow up a city girl :)

starting off in the morning, sometime around 7 am

(below) now i'm on my way home...

it does get old going 5 mph on a 4-lane freeway...lol

fall in my backyard

i took this today.  it's fall in my backyard.  simply gorgeous.

and just to be clear - that is not my house, it's a shed in our back yard :)

thoughts

first of all, i am really glad to have brandon back home.  he was gone for a couple of days to the catalyst conference in atlanta, georgia with the rc3 staff.  this was the first time since we've been married that i've had to stay alone at night, but i ended up being fine.  i do miss him when he's gone though, and although i'm so glad he could go, i'm glad he's back :)

my team, the georgia bulldogs, redeemed themselves and beat tennessee yesterday.  whoop whoop!  brandon's south carolina gamecocks beat kentucky too, so we were both happy!

since starting work, i haven't felt much like cooking.  i wanted to make brandon something last night, so i got in a domestic mood and called up my mom.  she makes the best potato soup in the world.  i think that's one of those things that is easy to mess up or turn out bland.  so i followed the directions exactly, and it turned out so good!  just like mama made it :)

as if that wasn't enough, i also decided to make homemade beef stew with potatoes and carrots.  i got out my mac daddy crock pot i got as a wedding gift (that i don't use nearly enough), made the stew, and let it cook all night.  we ate it today after church with some brown rice.  the meat practically fell apart.  so good!

church was really good this morning.  for some unknown reason the sound cut off during worship, and brandon did such a good job with ad lib and went into an acoustic worship song.  the whole church connected to it and you could really feel the holy spirit in the room.  it was awesome.  paul preached his second-to-last message on letting go of misconceptions we all have regarding christianity and things that keep us from living the full life Christ has made us to live.  i'm so glad to be a part of a church that is so humble and real.

right now i'm sitting here watching project runway and brandon is napping beside me.  i've never watched this before, but i'm kinda liking it.  heidi klum is pretty darn awesome.

it's a gorgeous 80 degree october day here in lebanon, ohio.  i don't know about the winter time (we'll see!), but so far i am loving the weather here in ohio.  i do not miss the humidity of south carolina that is for sure!  i do miss fall in the nc mountains though...

enjoy your sunday afternoon!

fall football

it's 3:30 - kickoff

i am watching football

this makes me happy

GO BULLDOGS

day and night

my day -

• leave the house at 6:50 am
• 45 minutes in traffic going to children's downtown
• 9 long hours of classes and lectures on hospital policies and procedures
• 1 hour in traffic coming home...ugh

my night - 

• dinner at home
• shower
• grey's anatomy at farrah's (whoo hoo!)  i can't help it; it's so good!
• bed, ahhh :)

tomorrow is friday!  YAY!

a fall favorite

one of my absolute favorite things about fall in north carolina has always been going to the apple orchard  to buy apples.  at home near my parent's house there is a fruit stand that sells the best apples every september and october.  they also sell the mac daddy of apple dumplings.  holy cow.  well brandon and i found this place a mile from our house called iron's fruit farm.  although not exactly the same, it reminds me of home ... :)

putting IVs in kids

one main thing nurses do is insert and maintain iv sites.  this has never been my favorite thing to do (i like inserting ports), but i've never been scared to give it a try.  practice makes perfect right?

well today at work we had this woman from the iv team come talk to us, and frankly, she made me nervous.  there are a lot of considerations and differences about putting an iv in a child vs. an adult like i'm used to.  they're smaller, more fragile, and very squirmy.  they have higher rates of infiltration.  i also learned that nurses all draw their own blood work at children's too.  most hospitals have phlebotomists that do that.  

one thing is for sure - i am going to learn a lot and become a more skilled nurse by working here.  it's going to be a little scary, but fun and very rewarding! 

random

this week is off to a more successful start.  this morning i left on time (6:50 am), found a unbelievably close parking spot in my assigned garage, made my way across the massive campus of cincinnati children's hospital, and found the right room where my classes today were held, all with 10 minutes to spare.  and guess what?  i had no problems!  i even got out early (3:15), so i beat most of the downtown traffic home.  let's hope the rest of the week is just as good!

tonight brandon, jos, ginger, and i went to tyler and cherie's to throw tyler a little surprise birthday dinner party.  he was in the shower went we all got there and had no clue we were there.  it was funny.  we had a great time just hanging out all together.  brandon and i have made some great friends since moving up here, and we're so thankful.

congratulations to our greenville friends lauren and david who found out today they're having a boy!  this baby is truly a long-awaited miracle, and brandon and i are so happy for them!

i got outbid on an item on ebay tonight.  i was so mad about it, lol.  brandon has gotten me addicted to ebay and craig's list lately.  i just keep looking and looking, not really buying..:)

should be a pretty uneventful week, which is okay.  happy monday!

words on food

for most kids now, a chicken is rectangular.  it's got plastic on top, and it doesn't have eyes or feet.  this is scary.  you should never eat something you cannot recognize.  a simple principle, but important.  children never lie.  i have a granddaughter, and if she likes something, she says, "papa, it's good," or, if she doesn't, "it's no good".  there is no sarcasm.  i remember my daughter standing in her crib the first time i gave her caviar.  i put it on bread.  she ate it and said, "encore, papa".  

cook with love.  sit down around the table and share your food with your children and your family.  when my daughter was small, she'd get home and say, "mum, what's for dinner?".  my wife would say, "food".  that's where it stayed.  we have been married 43 years now, and i don't remember a time when we did not sit around the table an hour every night.  it's not necessarily a pleasant conversation to recap the day, but it's necessary.  otherwise there is no communication.

jacques pepin - chef, founder of american institute of wine & food

i like saturdays

it's been a good day.  brandon and i both slept in, had a lazy morning, and went to eli's 4-year-old birthday party (craziness...).  i'm getting ready to head out for a girl's night with narnia and annie.  we're going here and then to a movie.  i love this restuarant.  probably some of the best italian i've ever had.  should be a fun night :)

no hitting zone

i learned something interesting today.

cincinnati children's has a written policy that calls the hospital a "no hitting zone"... as opposed to a hitting zone???  basically this means that you cannot spank your child, or any child for that matter, while on hospital grounds.  it sure is different being in a pediatric hospital, lol.

i actually totally understand why they have this policy and agree it should be in place for a number of reasons; i just think it sounds so funny - excuse me ma'am, this is a no hitting zone :)

sad news

i talked to a friend and past coworker from st francis hospital today.  back in march i wrote about this patient with lymphoma named adam (not his real name), who received a bone marrow transplant early this year.  he was a 24 year-old regular guy who never failed to make all us nurses laugh.  he was one of the first patients i met when i went to work there last december.  today jenna told me that his body rejected the transplant.

he died last week.

this breaks my heart.

one of those days

well today the drama continued, lol.

i did get out of the door on time, early actually, but that's where the good stuff stopped.  i felt so tired and achy.  i had to park in my assigned area, which happened to be "central garage".  sounds easy enough right?  well i find the main hospital fairly easily.  by this time it is 7:30 and there is lots of traffic.  keep in mind these people all know where they're going.  i drive around the hospital taking all kinds of wrong turns and end up on some sketchy neighborhood road near the emergency room.  i quickly turn around and head into the closest parking garage i see.  i try to scan my badge, and guess what?  it won't work.  by this time there is a long line of people lined up out into the road impatiently waiting for me to get myself inside.  i had to push this black button and plead with security to let me in.  her words exactly - " (sigh) well did ya swipe your badge?".  um yeah, duh.  "(bigger sigh) fine, i'll go ahead and let ya in.  look at that line behind ya."  so nice :)

i find a place to park on the 3rd level, and run down the stairs, leaving my coffee in the car.  :(  i have no idea where i am on the main campus.  i see a sign that says "concourse d".  um we're not in an airport ...  this place is massive.  i finally figure out how to get out to the front where the shuttles load.  luckily, i got on the right colored one, and made it to the building a few blocks over where my orientation classes were taking place.  the shuttles were what i was worried about, but they ended up being the easiest things, lol.

classes were long and incredibly boring and finished right around 5:00.  i got back to my car with no problem and was actually feeling better.  i pull out and follow general traffic and a sign that says "to 71 N".  that's what i needed.  great.  not so easy.  30 minutes later i am still in downtown cincinnati with no clue where i am.  it was kind of scary to be honest.  i just prayed and prayed and finally found 71 N.  i do not understand why they have to make that city SO confusing?!  there are no signs and nothing is clearly marked for people who don't know the area.  add 5:00 traffic and impatient crazy city drivers to the mix, and you can imagine how much fun i had.  country roads take me home.  i am not a city girl when it comes to driving.

all is well now though.  it's cold outside and warm inside, and i'm sitting here on the couch by my hubby and a nonfat pumpkin spice latte in my hand ... :)