Honduras Retreat

I did get some Hunger Games reading in last Wednesday night.

I got in a run on Thursday and did a little more studying. 

I had time that evening to read more of The Hunger Games. I've a little over 100 pages left.

I went to bed early to prepare for my second day of Gero Clinical.

I woke up at 5:30 AM and made the 40 minute drive to Apex. It started pouring on me and it was really windy. There were times when I didn't think I was actually going to make it. The rain was blowing sideways on my windshield and I couldn't see very far in front of me and it was still dark out. I'm thankful I made it.

After a 12 hour shift I had to go to a retreat with my Honduras group. I arrived a little late because of clinical, but we were served enchiladas for dinner. They were very tasty! 

We played the "name game" and went around in a circle stating our name, where we are from, what we are studying, and our favorite body part...all in Spanish. When you move on to the next person, you have to repeat all the previous people's info. It took for-EVER! We learned 3 songs in Spanish and then played Spanish BINGO. I know no Spanish and had a hard time. The lights were finally turned off around midnight and I was beyond exhausted. I got up way too early and spent 12 hours on my feet. Sleeping on the floor didn't help. It took until 2:30 for me to fall asleep.

They woke us up at 7:30 AM and we played more Spanish games. 

I was set free at 10AM and climbed in my own bed and continued to nap on and off all day.

my view waking up at the retreat

I video chatted with my parents...and Penny!

I would call her name and she would cock her head back and forth. It was really cute.

I spent today reading over 9 different Gero articles.

I did get out and run.

This is what my work has been looking like the past couple of weeks.

I've written out what is needed for next week already (week 4).

I'm going to relax and prepare for class tomorrow. 

Goooooood News

Something BIG happened on Sunday!!!

I APPLIED FOR GRADUATION.

It is happening and it is getting SO CLOSE.

So close that I am freaking out a bit (A LOT).

I'm still ahead on my studying (almost by a whole week). 

I find myself doing any amount of schoolwork when I have free time. 

Monday was our first in-class lecture for Geriatrics. It is very laid back and I enjoyed it. The class time flew by and it was already 1. 

I came home and attempted a nap. I got around 30 minutes of sleep time in before I snapped out of it and did an ab workout. I then got some schoolwork in.

I got to sleep in on Tuesday because my first class was cancelled. I met my research group on campus at noon to go over our first PICOT assignment. It is due next Tuesday and we are trying to finalize it. 

At 1 I had my first meeting in Senior Seminar. We have two big assignments to do in there and my first one is due on Feb 27th. I have to write a paper over the Texas Nurse Practice Act. The first step is reading the dang thing; it is 118 pages long! We also have to do a certain amount of NCLEX practice questions a week and turn in documentation that we did them.

I came home after class and watched some Gero lectures for next week and a documentary on Alzheimer's. I installed the NCLEX review software and began doing some questions.

at 6 pm I had my second lecture for my Honduras prep course. I also said my first sentence in Spanish, ever. 

I slept in this morning. When I woke up I prepared for my first Well Elder visit. In Gero we must meet with a well elder 3 times and gather information. The first visit was mostly filling out a comprehensive health history on my well elder. I had my first meeting this afternoon at 2 pm. It last a little over an hour and I had a lot of fun. When I got to my car, I realized I had received the email that had our preceptorships listed.

I read down to my name and saw....

I GOT MY FIRST PICK! 

I will be working in DUKE's NICU for my preceptorship!

I am beyond excited and I cannot wait. I remember how I felt after getting to spend one shift in the NICU during my maternity rotation and I cannot wait to feel that way over and over again.

Once I calmed down, I drove home and wrote up my well elder information. 

I went for a run because it was a GORGEOUS day (which are few and far between in January).

I've spent the evening watching a Research lecture, doing 100 practice questions, reading up on Diabetes for my N447 class, and watching American Idol.

It is now time for me to watch Whitney and then maybe get some Hunger Games reading in.

Night!

My first Duke Basketball Game

Tuesday 1/17

This was my very first day of official classes and I felt that it was a waste of my time to get up. I got to school at 9AM for my Community Health III class and we went over the syllabus. After that, we were to get in our community groups and start to get ideas and work on our poster. The problem is...my group has not been to Honduras yet. We are the only group that has not completed our community clinical and we won't complete it until April. She gave us permission to leave. My group for research utilization was supposed to meet after class, but we were all sitting around and decided to have a pow wow right then. After, I went upstairs and printed massive amounts of stuff for my classes. I drove home and organized everything, ate lunch, and watched some TV. 

I drove back up to school to take our comprehensive ATI exam (NCLEX predictor). It was 180 questions and we had 3 hours to complete it. I finished in under 2 hours and went to grab a bit of food with Stesha. I drove BACK home and relaxed before driving BACK up to school for my Honduras class.

I really enjoyed learning about the history of the country. The second hour of the class was dedicated to learning Spanish. I SUCK at learning foreign languages. We went over the vowels and the rest of the letters. I struggled. I can't roll "R"s for the life of me.

At 8 PM I was finally done for the day.

I do not like having my classes all spread out. I have several hours in between my 3 classes for the day.

Wednesday 1/18

I do not have classes on Wednesday. I slept in and made me breakfast.

I had the crazy idea to do the ab ripper and the arms workout on P90X. I am still suffering the consequences. 

I went for a run/walk.

I had dinner at Sushi Love with Stesha.

Thursday 1/19

There is a pattern here.

I woke up, had breakfast, and went for a walk.

I spent a huge chunk of the rest of the evening doing a bunch of schoolwork for next week. I'm still keeping myself ahead.

Friday 1/20

I slept off and on all of the night before. I might have gotten a total of 3 hours in. I had to wake up at 5:30 and make the drive to Apex. It took me around 40 minutes. I took the backroads instead of the highway and it ended up being a good choice. It took me right by Jordan Lake. Seeing the sunrise over the lake was a delight.

After a 12 hour shift, I drove my way home and collapsed on the bed.

I was all tucked in when I got an invite to meet Stesha at a bar.

By the time I had cleaned myself up (after clinical), they had left the bar and headed to Cosmic Cantina for some food and margaritas. I met them there, they ate, and then we headed to Dain's Place down the road.

It is a very low key bar that is not crowded and they had cider. I tried two kinds: pear and apple.

They also had Jenga.

By that time, there were only 3 of us. Asher lost to Stesha and I twice and then he bolted. He literally left 5 seconds after he lost the second game. Some people just cant lose. hah!

The bathroom was an adventure all on its own. I felt like I was taking an anatomy class.

Saturday 1/21

I woke up in a daze and regretted going out the night before. I really need to catch up on sleep. 

I picked myself up out of bed and went to Old Navy. I had a return and they had a sale for reduced items being an extra 50% off. I scored some cheap clothes.

I walked out and Stesha called me. She told me to be at her place in 25 minutes. 

We were going to the Duke basketball game.

I was very excited.

I've been here a year and I had still not been to a game.

We arrived VERY late to the walk up line.

Side note: Duke grad students can just walk up to a game with their ID and wait to get in. You have a good chance of getting in if you get there early.

We were late.

It was past the 200 marker and we didn't have wrist bands with a number.

We waited 10 more minutes and people were moving into the stadium. 

We did end up getting wrist bands without numbers and were told we probably wouldn't get in.

They ended up having EXTRA general admission tickets to hand out to us. We didn't get seated in the Grad student section...we were in a better place: directly behind the players' bench! 

woohoo!

The grad student line

 Did I mention these tickets are free?

Cameron Stadium

Me, Stesha, and Garrett 

Laura, Me, and Stesha

It was a very exciting game. We had the lead the majority of the game.

We lost by three in the very last second of the game =(

BUT, I did see something rare. Duke losing a home game. It's not everyday you get to see that.

This broke their 45 home game winning streak.

So sad.

We all went out for dinner and I just got home.

I have some Gero reading to get done tomorrow...after I sleep a long long time.

Happy MLK Day

I've been freezing my buns off around here lately. I kept bringing everything I need EXCEPT my gloves.

I remembered them for the first time and it made for a more bearable run.

I've been beaten down the past couple of days by school stuff. Even though today is technically a holiday, my Gero class had an online lecture to watch because we did not have class today.

As always, I got everything that needed to be done for week 1...done! I never keep this kind of productivity going throughout the semester, but I've made it a tradition to get everything done the first couple of weeks.

The challenge this semester is going to be keeping my two online classes straight. It is really easy to get them mixed up and forget what is due when and for what class. 

For the first half of the semester, my schedule goes a little like this:

Mondays: Gero 8AM-1PM

Tuesdays: Community Heath III 9AM-10:30AM

                 Senior Seminar 1PM-2PM

                 (prep class for Honduras) 6PM-8PM

Wednesdays: off

Thursdays: off

Fridays: Clinical 7AM-7PM

My in-class time isn't too bad, but I have 2 online classes.

The second half of the semester will be a challenge once I am working three 12 hour shifts a week. I'm also going to be missing 2 weeks of classes while I'm in Honduras. 

Enough about schedules.

I roasted red potatoes for the first time last night and I was pleased with the outcome.

I rinsed 4 red potatoes and sliced them without removing the skin.

I used 1 tablespoon of light olive oil, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic (the recipe called for powdered or fresh garlic), 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a bit of fresh ground pepper.

I mixed it all together in a bowl.

The oven was set to 350 degrees and I let them bake for around 30 minutes.

Voila!

I stayed up too late watching The Last Three Days on Netflix and absolutely enjoyed it. A husband attempts at breaking his wife out of prison.

I woke up this morning thinking someone was banging on my door.

Turns out it was my new neighbors hammering nails into the wall. I can hear them walking around and stuff...but I have yet to actually SEE my new neighbors. They keep the shades drawn.

I was washing some dishes before breakfast and noticed something moving out of the window.

I went out on the back porch and I spotted a deer.

He stared at me for a bit and then scampered off. I saw the deer meet up with two others. It was such a treat. It had been some time since I had seen a deer.

I have a big comprehensive ATI exam tomorrow that helps place me in my preceptorship position. I tried to study today, but it just wasn't happening. The lack of sleep and having just spent two days reading for this week's lectures was just too much.

I'm going to try and go to sleep early tonight.

The Beginning of the End

It was back to reality come Wednesday morning.

It was time for Geriatric Boot Camp!

I walked to the nursing building without another student in site. I started to worry thinking I got the time all wrong (was I supposed to be there at 7 and not 8?).

Nope!

I was there just in time to begin.

We were put in 4 different scenarios throughout the morning. One included an acute incident with an elderly patient in the hospital. The next scenario was out "in the community" and we had to be little investigators to put the picture together of an elderly man with 

Alzheimer's Disease. In the third, we used different tools to screen for alcohol abuse and worked on a focused assessment. 

After watching a video on a full head-to-toe assessment on an elderly patient, we got to practice on real volunteers from the community. We were each chosen a specific organ system to focus our assessment on. I was given the skin. 

That concluded the big chunk of my day. We were given boxed lunches after that and sat through another video. This one was on gathering a sexual history on the elderly and the struggles that elderly gay and lesbians go through. 

By the time I was done for the day, it started pouring. I printed a bunch of school stuff in the hopes of it dying down by the time I was done.

No such luck.

I decided I wouldn't be going to the grocery or on a run.

I would spend the evening reading Zeitoun. It is a required read for my Honduras class.

Stesha and I met up for Barbecue for dinner.

Thursday I awoke and went to the grocery store, but not before I dumped some trash at the bins. I noticed all the trees lined up to be taken away.

The holidays are over =(

 My tree will probably remain up until I move.

Speaking of the grocery, one of my good friends in nursing school gave me some coupons!

This was perfect because I hadn't been to the grocery yet and I've recently become obsessed with the show, Extreme Couponing.

It was a 3 dollar off coupon on the Smart Ones frozen meals and they also had a deal that if you buy 10, you get a 5 dollar gift card. I saved 8 dollars and got butterflies. I am officially a freak of nature.

I made me a salad and cooked me a meal.

I let it settle while I read some more of Zeitoun and then went for a run.

I had bought some ground round and needed to cook it into chili and taco meat. I got that out of the way and ate some chili.

I mentioned the books Lance got me for Christmas and I got around to taking a pic of them. One is missing because I didn't have the room for it in my suitcase. I'll have to grab it on my next trip home.

I awoke Friday to a bang at my door.

My final book of the semester had arrived. We need an NCLEX review book for one of our classes.

It's a built in way for us to pass. Let's hope.

I had a smoothie for breakfast, read AND finished Zeitoun, and then went for a run/walk.

I froze my butt off. 

I was starving by this point, but I was having dinner with friends.

I joined Stesha to meet up with Erica and her boyfriend. It was the big "meeting of the boyfriend" dinner. She has been dating him for 3 months and we were wanting to meet him.

We ate at a place called Dos Taquitos. 

The chips and salsa were AMAZING and the tacos were great too. 

We had an "interesting" waitress, so the owner gave us a free dessert. It was a fried banana type thing. It was heaven in my mouth.

We walked 8 steps over to the bar next door, The SawMill. It seemed like a place with a bunch of regulars. We hung out and had a drink.

This afternoon, Saturday, Stesha and I had a date to watch Insidious. It was a scary movie that we hid under the blanket watching. I made smoothies and she made omelets. It was a nice brunch activity. 

I spent the evening (over 5 hours) organizing my school stuff, writing my first paper of the semester, watching 4 lectures, reading 5 articles, and posting on my class forums. I am pooped. 

Time to relax!