wow, i didnt realize i had been MIA for this long! lol... work's really got me all tied up. when i'm off, i dont even really feel like going online or writing on xanga... all i feel like doing is sleeping or watching tv. i was on monday night off tuesday night, on wednesday. i basically slept for 36 hours lol. amazing. no wonder i'm still up after this shift. last night was crazy with me. they had gotten 16 discharges and 16 admissions on days. so we were full when our shift started. but of course they still send up patients. we had a few in the hallway! dude... send em somewhere else! i just had really busy kids with issues: mediport blood draws, a meningitis kid who all of a sudden decided to have respiratory issues, a vp shunt revision with q 4 hour neuro checks, a girl with redman's sydrome, a gastro kid who all of a sudden had this episode of stridor... man... i was up the whole time. never got a chance to sit down, pee, eat, or even have 1 sip of water. and i am not exaggerated at all. lol but we had some pretty quiet nights where we were looking for extra things to do lol. so i guess this was pay back. plus we had a staff meeting so that took up an hour and a half.

well, i guess i'm getting more used to it. i'm more confident now, but i still feel like i need to run things by people cuz i get nervous.

besides work, things have been going good with the live in boyfriend. a few fights here and there,,, and of course fights when there's alcohol involved lol. but we never stay mad at each other for long. apartment is full furnished and lookin pretty

join myspace.com. i've found so many people that i have lost touch with throughout the years. if ur on it, look me up (or ask for my info so yall can find me.) k... i'm hungry... gonna go eat. ttyl...

®CoCo

it's been a while... i know... i was mia. let me brief yall on whats happened....

i moved in with my boo on november 5th to fresh meadows. spent mad money on all the stuff we bought. all we basically had was his bed lol. its been good so far. lil fights here and there, but thats expected. not like we never fought when we were living together. its nice to have him here

i finished up my day orientation and moved onto night orientation for three days. this is why i wanted to move out so quick... i needed to have a quiet place to sleep during the day. night orientation went by so quick and now i'm all on my own! i work 8p-8a and the most i've had is 6 patients which wasn't too bad. the only thing i really need to get used to is the sleeping schedule. the nurses i work with are mostly all my age and sooo nice and helpful. i can actually see myself being friends with them. the doctors that ive worked with on nights are cool too, although i am dreading working with this one doctor that i can't stand from days. ive only worked alone for three days and then i had a nice lil thanksgiving break (off thursday, friday, saturday, sunday and monday night). back tues, wed, fri, sun, and mon nights. i ahve another lil vacation coming up during christmas too. how did i luck out and get them without using any vacation days? i dunno... i'm just good like that

went back to my old house again today cuz my bank is by there and i went to my old room, dang my cousin took over my whole side of the room! all her stuff is in my closet, drawers, sheets on my bed etc. was kinda sad. it was different when i was in the dorms cuz all my stuff stayed where it was and i slept there on the weekends. now its totally different. could it be i actually miss it? i think i'm there now more than when i lived there! hehehe... was there thurs-mon whether it was stopping by or having dinner there. its weird when u finally get what u want, and then u kinda miss what u had. but its impossible to have everything i want. i love living at my new apartment tho! bills suck of course lol.  well, i'm off to be a bum.... updates laters...

®CoCo, RN

wow, next week is my last week on days! i start nights the week after that, and then i'm off orientation... God help me.  i'm taking the full patient load on days now (which is usually 5 kids at a time). but then with all the discharges and admissions, you see 5-8 kids a day.

my preceptor said i was doing really well, but she could just be lying to me. hopefully she's not, cuz i would rather just know what i need to work on instead of having people talk behind my back. why do females love gossip so much? thats one of the downs of a majority women's profession.

so, i'm movin in with my boyfriend on saturday!!! so excited! we found an apt. in fresh meadows. we bought all new furniture... lotsa stuff to build. i'm really excited tho!  just want the next couple of days to go by fast.

i'm off for the next 4 which is good =) but next week is my first 4 day week. =( mon, tues, thurs, fri. shoot me...  imma be too shot to enjoy my first week of being a domestic partner lol.

®CoCo

i think i'm in the middle of week 4 on the floor. i can't believe its been a month already. i'm on 4 patients now basically on my own. i do all the paperwork, assessments, and interdisiplinary team communication. all my preceptor does is check the medications before i give them. monday i had 4 patients and i got one admission later in the shift. today i had 4 patients, discharged 2 and admitted one. i had a scary incident with one of my patients. 15 year old s/p left vp shunt yestererday after a craniotomy a few weeks ago for a brain mass. she's basically been refusing to walk around or get up. all of a sudden she started throwing up after she was advanced to a regular diet from clears. she seemed slow to answer, although she's been having a pretty flat affect. all of a sudden she started trying to get out of bed saying she had to go to the bathroom. she didnt wanna go on the bed pan. just from sitting up she was incredibly dizzy so i was scared to make her stand up, so i had another orientee help me. she kept dosing off it was so scary. i had a doc come look at her cuz she just didnt look right. luckily she settled down after that and fell asleep. (she had a loading dose of a med that was probably makin her sleepy.) then there was another incident on monday where this 1 year old came in with his mom. all of a sudden the mom started feeling week, dizzy, and she couldnt breathe well. then she started throwing up. this wasnt my patient but i saw another orientee and she looked a lil frazzled. so i helped her out, trying to get the mom's history. she was refusing to go to the er. it was weird cuz the kid came in with something unrelated to GI. then all of a sudden the kid started throwing up a half an hour later. mom finally agreed to go to the er. the kid went down to picu. dunno what else happened with them. crazy past 2 days. hella tired. 2 days off then i'm back on friday. i think i start with the whole patient load on sunday.

®CoCo

so i had my 4th full shift on the floor on sunday and i feel alot more confident than when i started. i think i need to be pushed because when someone spoon feeds me, i don't try too hard. but when someone makes me do things (like my stand-in preceptor this week) i have no choice but to do my best even tho i'm terrfied. usually on days, you have 3-6 patients. sunday we had 4. she wanted me to take 2 of them by myself... check orders, give meds, write notes, do all the care required, call doctors, and sign everything off. i was sooo scared cuz thats so much responsibility and i didnt wanna do it, but i figured i would suck it up (i'm gonna have to do it eventually anyways). it got easier as the day went on. then we were getting an admission... actually, I was getting the admission. i had to call the ER and get report from the nurse there, all by myself. then when he came, i had to do the admission stuff (13 page history and physical, a care map, an education sheet, a flow sheet and a nurse's note). the i had to give report on all 3 of my patients (2 of which were complicated and lengthy), but my preceptor said i did an awesome job, esp. with report because it was so detailed. she said she couldnt have done it any better. it turned out to be a good day after all.

® CoCo