Reality Check

I knew it was part of the job when signed up for it, but I never thought I would actually witness it so soon. I got into clinical at 6:30 yesterday and got on the floor at 6:45. I got my patient assignments and was looking at their charts when I noticed some commotion coming from a room right across from the nurse's station. The door opened and a family member came out crying. She called the nurse over and the nurse rushed in. It turned out that an 81 year old woman had passed away. Within about 15 minutes, teams of doctors were coming onto the floor and going into the room. It was kind of strange being present for all of this. One of my classmates helped a nurse prepare the body. She was explaining it to us what she had to do and it may have been the creepiest thing I've ever heard. As nurses, we are so used to healing the sick and helping people get better. But death is part of the job. It kind of gave me a weird feeling the whole day, but it kind of made me realize that life is a one time deal (unless you believe in rebirth and that sort of thing) and you have to make it as good as you can. I'm thankful for that kind of experience because it makes me understand what life is about.

/end depressing rant

If you want to have really bizarre dreams, forget Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". Try Miles Davis instead; anything from "Bitches Brew" will do (hey, that rhymed!). Now there is an album that will make your head spin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUVXMWOWaS8
This song is 20 minutes long. I dare you to listen to the whole thing without wanting to shoot yourself.


I had clinical this morning which went pretty well. My patient was a 61 year old woman with MS. She needed pretty much total care (feeding, bathing, etc) but she was one of the most easy going patients I've had, so she was a breeze to work with. I also found out that my off floor experience in a few weeks will be in the OR. I am beyond excited; one of my classmates went today and I was super jealous while she was explaining to me the details of the surgery. I will most certainly post details (gruesome and all) when I end up going.

Alexandra

Mmmm...Ribs *drool*

This post marks the first one about food, and it's about time too! My story for today starts a few days ago, when I was looking online for some new cheap restaurants to try for when the urge hit. I came across something that made the rib lover in me get very very happy: The East Cambridge "Smoke This" Rib Fest. At $15 a ticket, which allows you to try ribs from restaurants all over the town, this was an exciting deal. In Boston, let alone the Northeast, a barbecue competition is not a very common happening. There is one every summer in Government Center that I always seemed to miss, so I couldn't pass this up. My brother, who is also a big fan of anything barbecue, has a birthday coming up next week, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and take him for his birthday. However, the plan had a flaw: by the time I found out about this event, the tickets had already sold out. I figured we'd head on over anyway just to check it out, and maybe get some food while we were at it.

He came to my dorm at noon and we set off for Cambridge. Two T rides, and the most annoying street performer to whom I would give $10 just to shut up, later, we were walking around Kendall Square looking around for this festival. We finally came across it, after getting lost, and walked around, looking at all the different stands and checking out our options. Barbecue is one of the most amazing smells ever. It just makes me hungry. I don't know if it was the smokey smell in the air or the sight of all the people eating ribs, but the whole atmosphere of the festival was really comforting. I also saw this huge black smoker that looked like it used to be one of those iron lungs back in the 20s. We decided we were going to see if there were any tickets left, but sadly, the website was correct. After a quick discussion, we decided to go get barbecue somewhere else a few Red Line stops away in Davis Square.

Redbones is a really cool place that you would only be able to find if you just happened to look down the right street at the right time. It's a pretty famous BBQ place in the city, and I think it even has a catering service (good to know). They have a list of more styles of ribs than I knew existed. St. Louis, Memphis, Arkansas, Texas, blah blah blah, the list goes on. The server brought us over jugs, and I mean jugs, of water and took our order. I went for the Memphis ribs, and my brother got some double platter of St. Louis ribs and pulled pork. The food came within 5 minutes, and I am not lying. I pictured this enormous slab of ribs in the back that they just cut up whenever they need them. In reality, that is probably what it is.

The Memphis ribs were super smokey and had that pink line around the edge of the meat that needs to be there if it's considered a good rib. You didn't really need sauce to give them flavor; it was all in the meat. This smoke, added to the fact that the meat pretty much melted off the bone, equaled a really good rib. And there were a lot of ribs! I got a small, which had 6 fairly large ribs, a side of beans and cole slaw for only $11. Add in some cornbread, which comes free with the meal, and I was a happy camper.

So even though we didn't end up at the festival, which I will try to get tickets to in advance next year, I still got my barbecue, and my brother still got his birthday present. And I'm pretty sure he was happy with that.

Yay! Shots!

You ever have one of those days where you think it will be incredibly lousy, but then it turns out to be pretty great? I guess today was one of those days for me, depending on if you're into measuring urine and that sort of thing. Waking up at 4:45 isn't my idea of a good time, considering I am not very attractive when I wake up (I'm talking about bags under my eyes, crazy hair, raspy voice). I get to clinical via the grandmother who has trouble seeing in the dark and therefore almost gets into near impossible driving situations. The nurse I was going to follow didn't seem like she was going to be of much help. You kind of hit or miss with them. They either want to teach you every little thing, or they're like "eh". And I mean, eh. This one ended up being okay, but she kind of handed over all the responsibilities to me for the patient I was assigned.

My patient was this really nice 40 year old who pretty much told me his entire life story. He talked about his past smoking and drinking habits for about 30 minutes. I gave my first intramuscular injection, which believe me, is much scarier for the nurse/doctor than it is for the poor soul getting the shot. It was one of those things I knew that I had to do eventually, but never ever wanted to have to do. I'm relieved that I finally did get to practice today though. My last experience giving a shot was alright, I guess, but I definitely went in too hard and made the poor guy jump. Not to mention my instructor said "WHOOOOA THERE". So yes, today was a much more pleasant experience, and now I'm a little "shot happy". So watch yo back. Also removed a catheter which was pretty uh....painful.

I forgot to mention that the floor I'm on is down the hall from the Labor and Delivery floor. This makes it extremely difficult for me to restrain myself from going down that hallway. It is right there. There are babies! Lots of babies! I realize this sounds as though I'm planning on stealing a baby, but this is not true. This is the area of nursing I am most interested in, although this could change, since I'm not exactly sure what I want to do.

Sidenote: Currently into Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogarty's voice is like listening to some soulful black man who sings on his front porch except that he's actually some goofy looking white guy. Kind of like Rick Astley. But that's a different story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZe9OtFNt_8


Alexandra

Yes, it's ME again.

So it's been about 5 or 6 years since I decided to end my stint on LiveJournal, and I have returned to the blogging world with probably some more interesting news than I used to have. Basically, I used to bitch a TON about life and school. It was entertaining to read, yes, but looking back, it was just a bunch of teenage blah blah blah. I would like to say I've changed now that I'm 20, and I've gone through some pretty interesting experiences since then, so I figured now would be the time to get a blog as a place to share my thoughts on school, life, interests and all of that stuff.

I'm in my Junior year in nursing school at Simmons College. It's quite a ride, I'll tell you that much. I'm kind of at that point between having no idea what is going on to feeling somewhat comfortable. I'm also one of those people who doesn't shut up when it comes to asking question. I feel like I'm one of those nerds who keeps raising their hand in class saying "EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME! TEACHER, I HAVE A QUESTION!". But, there's nothing wrong with asking questions. There's nothing wrong with being that nerd. Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far even though I'm super nervous about the future and where I'm going to go.

I have clinical tomorrow at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge and already I've been having good experiences there. I'm on a first name basis with one of the guys from transport, so I guess that has to count for something. I've spoken to a woman with severe multiple personality disorder who was threatening to sue Cambridge, took a man down to dialysis, and changed a peripheral line dressing. Tomorrow I'm giving meds. I've only given a shot once, and it was to a blind man who I'm pretty sure couldn't speak. Another time, I tried cutting a pill in half and it went flying across the room. It could go either way.

In addition to my nursing entries, I'm going to try to put some stuff about local restaurants and places that I've been to in the Boston area. Also once I start up my radio show again (Grandmaster Strakus and the Furious One 7-9pm Friday nights on Simmons College Radio- how's that for a plug?), I'll be putting up my playlists and some info on the songs I've played. If I feel like it of course. So I hope you enjoy!

Alexandra