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Week One of CPE II

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:29:00 +0000

Too soon, my vacation has ended. Now it's back to school I go. *groan*

I know, I shouldn't be so reluctant. I should be excited! But vacations are always so good. I never want them to end.

Clinical Begins

This term, I don't have any classroom classes. I only work at the hospital three days a week for 8 to 9 hour shifts. I like to think of it as free labour, but it's meant to help us to practice our skills and become better. After this semester we will be able to work as employed student nurses.

Close One

So far, my experience has been good. I was expecting something much worse. There are a couple teachers at my school that have a notorious reputation for failing students. I don't know if the accusations are true, but my classmates have made it sound so terrible that I was preparing for the worst. I had put down my top choices for hospitals and accidentally chosen the hospitals with these notorious teachers. (Oops!)

I don't know how it happened, but I didn't end up getting either of my top picks. I think they placed me with a student that I normally carpool with (very thoughtful!), and that student chose one of the other hospitals. So, magically, I got placed with a super nice teacher instead. She has been nothing short of sweet and informative so far.

You can imagine my relief.

First Impressions

The first day of clinical was an orientation. The next day we got to shadow a nurse. My initial impression was that the hospital was very posh. They had wide hallways, gardens, big atriums, a fully-loaded cafeteria with actually tasty food... it was pretty amazing. Best of all, I didn't notice a single hallway patient (the ones that live in the hallways on beds when the hospital has no rooms available).

Super Nurses, Super Place

I was available to help my nurse all day, but she didn't actually need my help (huge surprise). She could manage all of her patients and I just watched. She also only had four patients.

I didn't know what to think.

Either she was a super nurse (which she was because she could remember up to two patient's worth of data without writing it down at all), or this hospital had a good patient to nurse ratio (which is also probably true because the nurses I've met so far usually have more than 4 patients). I think the hospital must be rich or something, but that doesn't really make sense because all of these hospitals are publicly funded. Maybe this hospital gets a lot of private donations?

I'm stumped, but I like how things are better here. Each patient has their own blood pressure cuff, the blood sugar testing machines require less blood (and they're smaller), and the bed pans are made of metal (I hated those environmentally friendly paper ones. They were rough and I always feared leakage.)

The Guinea Pig

After a day of shadowing, I was given a patient from the day before. He had never had a student nurse before and he was very skeptical. He assumed that he was a "guinea pig" and he didn't like it. I promised him that it would be a good experience and that he'd get special treatment. "What kind of special treatment?" He asked.

"You can have water whenever you want," I joked. He scoffed. He told me that he was going for a walk.

"What time are you getting off?" He asked.

"Two."

"I'll be back at two," he said. I felt a little hurt and I hoped he was joking. I laughed anyways and told him to be back soon for his medications.

Special Treatment

Once he was gone, I had nothing to do. He was my only patient. So I changed his sheets and made his bed. I got his medications ready, set up his breakfast tray, and I filled a cup full of ice. I remembered that he had liked this the day before. I even tidied up his room and cleaned the table.

When he got back, I was ready with everything that he needed. He looked around and he couldn't hide his surprise. I don't think he expected me to be so busy while he was gone.

"See? I told you you'd get special treatment." I said.

He still went out for walks frequently, but he wasn't upset about having a student nurse anymore. He got his medications on time, I spent time talking with him and cheering him up, and I even massaged moisturizer into his dry skin. He was literally pampered.

Easy Peasy

I had convinced him that student nurses were a good thing, and he told me that I was the best of the bunch. That cheered me up.

Anyhow, this wouldn't be possible if I had more patients, but one patient is pretty easy when he can toilet and bathe himself. While he was out, I took care of the patient next door. That patient was supposed to be a real grump, but I think she took a liking to me. She kept asking if I could come back and help her again.

End of Week One

Sigh, so week one is complete. Only four more weeks to go. I don't believe that it will be this easy all term so I need to gear up and get ready. This is a Trauma and Orthopedics ward. The patients are recovering from motor vehicle accidents, falling from heights, sports accidents, work accidents, etc. My patients so far were at the end of their hospital stay, but I expect that patients at the start of their stay won't be as easy.

There's a lot to learn.

Have a good week!

(P.S. - This is my succulent plant collection from last year. It survived through winter and now it's growing "tentacles". I have no idea why it's doing this, but it looks cool! Kind of like an octopus!)

Somewhere Over The Rainbow In Hawaii - My Trip in Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:27:00 +0000

I'm back from my very first trip to Hawaii. What a beautiful place! I hope I'll get the chance to go there again one day. Here is my trip in photos to share with you!

As the plane approached Hawaii, the skies were vivid blue with fluffy white clouds. A far cry from the grey, rainy city I had left behind.

The clouds cast shadows on the blue waters. I found it neat to see the clouds from above instead of below. Airplanes are a marvel to me.

Thanks to a three hour time difference, we gained three hours on arrival. Sweet! A full day to spend exploring Hawaii. We were greeted with marvelously fragrant leis made from tuberoses.

We came to recognize this fragrance as a way to identify newcomers at the hotel. You could smell the newcomers from a mile away and they smelled sooooo gooood! :P For days after, the hotel room smelled fantastic. We put one lei beside the shower and one in the bedroom. I was sad when they finally wilted, leaving a light, lingering fragrance. I wanted to dash out and buy a new one!

The beaches looked amazing. The waters were so blue and the waves so... alive! They would crash onto the white sands and soak you, throwing interesting coral bits and stones your way. Sometimes I would see a shell, but before I could grab it, the waves would literally suck them away out of my reach. So fast!

Children played in the shallow waves at the beach front and surfers played in the bigger waves farther out.

Here's an interesting beach thing I found. Is it coral? I liked the orange colour and the texture.

I made myself a little collection on the sand. I'd run about the waves, collect bits and things, run back to deposit them on the sand wall my hunnie built as he baked in the sand, and run back to the ocean to find more. It was fun. Once in a while, a big wave would come up and take the sea things back.

There were pretty seaweeds along the water edge.

I saw some sea creatures as well like fishes in the water and crabs. I also saw a funny looking spotted fish thing. I didn't get a good picture though. The ocean sucked it back too fast.

This is overlooking some coral reefs. There are a lot of people with scuba masks padding around here.

I didn't get to swim here, but maybe I'll do that if I ever go back one day.

We visited a Japanese temple and there were sooo many koi! Here they are in a feed frenzy as I throw them some food.

This dove looks like he's enjoying the fish too. It looks like he wants to eat the fish, but really he just wants to eat the fish food.

See? Tasty, tasty!

Plants that I've only ever seen in the middle of malls or in the tropical section of Home Depot grow wild here. It's weird seeing tropical house plants grow so lush here.

On Lei Day (May 1st) our hotel had tables set up with piles of local flowers and greenery. A volunteer showed me how to make this pretty corsage. It smelled great (most of the flowers in Hawaii seem to smell good). The lady who sat beside me turned out to be a florist from Canada, and she was commenting how expensive it would be to make something like this in Canada because fresh tropical flowers cost a lot to ship over.

I also made this orchid and plumeria lei. When I considered how each orchid plant costs about $30 at Home Depot and how I had just used over 60 blooms to make this lei... yup, it would be costly to do this in Canada. In Hawaii, you can buy a lei for $5 or make it for free (like I did!). It makes me want to run out and buy/make a gazillion leis each day while I'm in Hawaii.

We visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial. It's a beautiful but somber place. Black dots of oil still leak from the ship sunken below and they call them black tears. Thousands of soldiers are still buried with the ship because it was impossible to get them out without making the ship explode.

The driver told us about how his relatives cried one day a month after the ship was sunk. The divers had discovered that they could still hear knocking coming from the ship. People were still alive in the ship, but there was no way to get them out. I can't imagine the horror of waiting to die in this ship when it's so close to the surface of the water. There were thousands of people on that ship. So the memorial remembers and respects those that were sacrificed for the sake of their country.

I was pretty depressed after thinking about all those people trapped below the memorial, but the people of Hawaii are generous and kind. They treat you like family, and they feed you like family. We went to Ono's Hawaiian Foods. It's just a little hole in the wall place, but the food is delicious.

They make an amazing dish called Lau Lau. It's chicken or pork wrapped in taro leaves and steamed. It doesn't look like much, but it tastes soooo gooood. I don't know why we don't eat taro leaves. They're so yummy!

I also liked the Lomi Lomi Salmon. It's very refreshing. I loved the Kalau pork too. I found the taste was very good. If you go to Oahu, you should check out this restaurant. Don't expect stellar service and expect a hole in the wall, but the food will be tastier than the fancy luaus you go to (we went to both the luau at the Polynesian cultural center and the one at Paradise Cove. The food at Ono's is tastier.) Oh, and for $20 for a set meal for two people, it's a seriously good deal!

It was good enough that we went back on our last day. Back for Ono's and back for Leonard's fresh malasadas (donuts). My favourite was the hot macadamia filled version. Yummmmm!

As a random photo, check out the price of milk here! $10 for 4 liters, and that's on sale! The driver joked that it was because there's only one cow on the island :)

Our trip was winding down. We had learned so much about a different culture, a different lifestyle, and we loved it. Hawaii is a mixing pot of different people from all over the world. As a result, the Hawaiians we met treated us like family, what they call "Ohana". They call you their cousins when they greet you, much like we call people "brothers", "brotha", or "buddy" around here.

This is not to say that everything is perfect. We saw a different side of their city while we were there too. We saw an old man (homeless?) walking around drunk with poop coming out of the top of his pants. Another man came and saw him and told him to stay there so he could go get help. Unfortunately, while he was gone getting help, the old man found a $20 in his pocket. His eyes glowed with delight and he stumbled away into the nearest liquor store. It reminded me of downtown Vancouver.

As we walked along Kapahulu, we saw a man who looked utterly depressed and hopeless. He had his head down like Eeyore and his shoulders were slumped. He was the saddest man I had ever seen. The image was a stark contrast to the tourist areas I had come from, and the image of happiness and perfection that they talked about.

I walked the beach for the last time, and I looked at the little bird foot prints in the sand. Pigeons in Hawaii are white and they are everywhere. They're even in many restaurants because most building are open to air.

Most of Hawaii is dependent on tourism now. Plantations like the Dole plantation have shrunken down to a small fraction of their original size. I saw mango trees everywhere with juicy fruit hanging down, and yet when I went to buy mangos at ABC stores the mangos were from Mexico. I didn't know what to think. It didn't seem right.

One day, I'll go back to Hawaii and eat a ripe mango fresh from the tree. I think that will be a very nice day indeed.

Have a wonderful day, and remember to enjoy your life. Life is short, and there are so many beautiful and wonderful things in this world to experience. You should go try them :)

Take care~!

Mooned By A Hedgehog

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:53:00 +0000

Poggles is my study buddy. Usually, he sleeps as a general blob of prickles, but today is a "let your butt hang out" kind of day for him. Lol!

How shocking!

Be Kind To the Lepers

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:27:00 +0000

I woke up yesterday morning with red eyes. "Ew," I thought, "Why are they so red?" It could have been allergies, but I was worried that they were infected. I went to the doctor just to be safe. You can't be too careful with eyes! Plus, the running joke at nursing school is that nurses only go to the doctor when they're dying.

Nurses are notorious for diagnosing themselves with everything under the sun ("Oh! I think I have that!), but refusing to go to the doctor until it's obvious that we'll die unless we get help. In this case, my fear was that I'd go blind. The doctor looked at my red eyes and said, "I think you have pink eye."

Huh? Honestly, I knew very little about pink eye.

Unfortunately, pink eye is apparently well-known as some kind of contagious, yucky, leprosy-like disease among some of my classmates. I must have missed the memo. They took one look at my eyes and pulled back in fear. "You don't have pink eye do you?"

I should have said no. I should have made up some excuse about how it was allergies or some other benign condition... like crying or something.

Instead, I naively answered that my doctor thought it might be pink eye and she had given me some eye drops for it. After that, they told me to stay away from them. They wouldn't touch the same things I had touched before. I seriously felt like a leper.

I washed my hands incessantly because I felt dirty and proclaimed, "Unclean! Unclean!" when people came near me. I felt so bad. How did I get pink eye? Where did this horrible disease come from?

Fortunately, not all of my classmates were so unkind. One of them shushed me when I told her I was unclean and gave me some chocolate eggs to eat. That made me feel a little better.

After only one day, my eyes are back to normal. I don't feel like a leper anymore, but I have learned a very important lesson: Be kind to the lepers. By that I mean, be kind to the people with socially unacceptable conditions. Maybe that would be AIDS or something else that people would judge you negatively for. It's no fun being the leper.

When you see people shrink away from you and avoid touching you in any way, you feel really lousy. I'm not saying you should go hug an infectious person or something, no. You should wear the protective clothing and take precautions, but you can still be nice to the person and talk to them and do your best not to act like they're gross.

The second thing I learned is that I should go to the doctor more often, not when I'm dying. It's okay to be afraid of what the doctor will say to you, but you should still go see the doctor when something is wrong. Take good care of yourself. Your health is important, and you're the best at knowing when something is wrong.

Have a great week!

Make Your Own Puzzle Ball

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:17:00 +0000

I wanted to make something special for my friend's baby over the holidays. In my search for the perfect home-made gift, I came across puzzle balls.

They look neat, you can take them apart, they are soft, and they're easy for babies to grip onto. They're also washable. Perfect for a baby!

I had trouble finding a tutorial and template that had everything that I needed though. So, with some experimentation, I came up with my own tutorial!

Want to make your own? You can find the tutorial and template in my Etsy shop. The instructions are easy to follow and there are 32 colour photos to illustrate the steps.

You can also buy the puzzle ball pattern through this secure link to Paypal:

It's work-intensive to make, but the result is so satisfying you'll want to make more!

One of my customers told me that her grandmother used to make these for her when she was little. She was excited to find a tutorial for something that she had valued as a child. I think it would be very sweet to get one of these from grandma or from another dear person. What do you think?

Have a great day!

Home Is Where The Pouch Is

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:33:00 +0000

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and Poggy is out to play :)

He's burying into his blanket.

Peeking at the camera.

Making funny faces.

Playing hide and seek.

Meditating/contemplating/doing nothing...

And after a long day (aka minutes) of being out of his house. He wants to go home.

He misses being cozy in his pouch... and sleeping.

So Poggy goes home.

And he likes it here :)

Have a great week!

Taking Care of Myself

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:50:00 +0000

I have lost track of which week it is in my fourth semester of nursing school, but I like it right now. Clinical wrapped up and I now have two extra days off each week. I *should* be studying like a mad woman and catching up on all my readings, but I have opted to take a break instead. I need it.

My classmates have been falling ill in various ways. Their illnesses vary from high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, and anxiety to stomach ulcers, anemia, and the common cold. Most of them are simply tired. I think it's related to all the stress we are under to perform well in clinical, pass our classes, and stay up to date with our studies. It's a lot of work and most of us don't sleep enough. Ironic that the very career that aims to heal people and save them from illnesses is making us ill.

I decided that I should do something about my health. I walked myself to the counselling office so that I could talk with someone about how to better manage my stress, I went to physio for my aches and pains, and I even went tried out acupuncture (it's free at the school). The end result of my efforts was very satisfying.

The counsellor said, "You advocate so much for your patients so that they can have good health. What makes you any less worth advocating for?". It stopped me in my tracks because she was right. I deserve to have good health too. She asked me what kind of care plan I would write if I was treating myself, and I verbally constructed one. It was a very good exercise.

At the acupuncture office, I was poked a lot. The needles don't really hurt, but I don't know yet if they work either. I did like the heat stones and the heat lamp though. Those were relaxing. The acupuncturist gave me some pretty awesome advice though. She told me to go swimming.

I wasn't sure about swimming, but I thought about it that night as I fell asleep. I imagined being in the water and moving weightlessly about like a mermaid. It was such a peaceful and stress-relieving visualization that I determined to go swimming the next day.

I swam for hours and it was a wonderful experience. The buoyancy of the water made me feel light and free. I didn't feel so weighed down with the world. Honestly, I swim terribly, but I didn't really mind. I just paddled around however I was able, and rested in between. Afterwards, I sat in the hot tub and let the hot jets of water massage all the aches and pains away. It was really cathartic.

I told my classmates about how nice it was so a few of them plan to start swimming too. I hope it will help them as much as it helped me. If you're feeling stressed out, maybe you can try swimming too. You might like it.

Take care!

Painted Lace Rocks Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:11:00 +0000

I've been eyeing the lovely lace and crochet rocks on Etsy, but the prices are out of my range. So here's a really beautiful way to make faux lace rocks with paint for a whole lot cheaper!

You will need the following supplies:

Polished river rocks
White acrylic paint
Polyurethane outdoor gloss sealer
Painting surface
"Spotter" paint brush
Soft, flat brush with rounded sides
Water

First, wash your rocks with soap and water to remove any oily residue. Dry well.

Then, squeeze out some white paint onto your painting surface.

Add some water to your painting surface and use the water to dilute some of the white paint until you have a smooth mixture to work with. You don't want it too watery or the paint will dry light coloured, but you don't want the paint too thick or it will make giant blobs instead of neat, small dots.

Start with a small ring of dots and then start adding dots out from the center.

Work in a circle and keep adding dots to make an interesting design.

Keep adding more dots in curved arcs. Depending on what you want, you could even stop here.

Add dots outwards to extend the design.

You can form petals by connecting dots into triangles.

As you get closer to the edges, you can modify the design to fit the size/shape of your rock.

Here's the finished design!

Here's an alternative design idea. Start with a ring of dots that touch each other.

Make a cluster of these rings.

Keep going...

As you form a good shaped mass of these clusters, start to imagine what design you would like to finish with.

I added paths that curved out in opposite directions.

And then built up the shape into something that I considered to be lace-like in design.

Once you're finished with your design, let it dry overnight.

The next day, take the soft, flat brush with rounded sides and paint the surface of your rock with the outdoor gloss sealer.

Work in short, slow strokes to avoid bubbles forming. Paint along the sides of the rock too, but don't let the sealer drip down the sides. Always use a thin coat of sealer.

Let it dry for at least 30 minutes before painting a second coat on. Do only one side on the first day.

Let it dry overnight. Then flip the rock over.

If you want, you can paint a new design on the other side.

The possibilities are endless!

Seal the other side with sealer in the same way, being careful to ensure that the sealer eventually touches the sealer on the other side of the rock so that the entire rock is covered with sealer in the end.

Never try to seal the whole rock at the same time. Do one side at a time and be patient with drying. Otherwise, the sealer will look ugly on the side that touches the drying surface.

Never paint sealer on a wet rock, the sealer will bubble up and look cloudy. Don't add water to thin the sealer either. (But follow the instructions on your sealer in case it's different for your brand of sealer.)

The rocks look great on a windowsill or in a bowl. You can use them as paper weights, home decor, or as outdoor decor (if you used an outdoor sealant). They would make lovely gifts for friends, I think.

Enjoy your new painted lace rock collection!

If you're interested in buying some painted lace rocks. You can find some here.

Have a great day!

Poggles the Wonderful Hedgehog

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:24:00 +0000

It was prime time for a photo session with Poggy. He wasn't always the most cooperative though...

Smile! No, no, no, that's not a smile!

Ah, okay, that's MUCH better!

Poggy? ...Poggy? Where did you go?

There you are, little guy! What are you doing there?

Are you going somewhere?

... and then he parked himself into his pouch and settled down for a long snooze. *Sigh* But we got a few good pictures in there. Not bad for a day's work :)

I hope you liked the pictures! Have a great weekend!

Piles of Elephants

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 09:33:00 +0000

My sweetie bought me a giant stack of new scrapbooking papers so my desk is covered with new origami elephants. They make me happy.

They look funny all fallen over.

I'm also loving these new papers. The variety means that I can make lovely new colour combinations that inspire me.

I started off with some papers that reminded me of East Indian textiles.

Then I put together a marvelous collection of papers that look like paintings. I love this set!

These pretty floral prints looked just right together in a sort of shabby chic rose collection.

And in the process of collecting the flower papers, I found that these orange, yellow, and blue-grey-green papers fit well together. They remind me of an orange creamsicle in the summertime.

If you'd like to see more pictures. You'll find them in the shop!

It has been pretty busy in the shop lately. I think that a lot of customers are preparing for weddings and babies. The elephants and butterflies are popular as party and baby room decor.

Have a great week!

Mango Pudding Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:20:00 +0000

I love mango pudding. I could eat it all day. Here is an easy recipe for some yummy mango pudding.

Ingredients

Mango Pulp - 850 ml (or use 2 regular cans of sliced mangos)
Fresh ripe mango - 1
Whipping Cream - 500 ml
Gelatin - 4 small packets
Sugar - 1 cup
Cold water to add - 2 cups
Cold water to boil - 2 cups

Instructions

Remove the skin and pit from the fresh mango. Dice up mango pieces and set aside.
If you used the sliced canned mangos, dice up the mango pieces and mash some of them.
Combine gelatine powder and sugar.
Put 2 cups of cold water into a pot and add the gelatin and sugar.
Bring water to a boil, stirring occasionally. Ensure that sugar and gelatin have been dissolved. Mixture should become clear.
Turn off heat.
Add mango pulp and 2 cups of cold water. Mix.
Add whipping cream. Mix.
Let cool.
Chill in refrigerator.
Enjoy!

Notes

This mango pudding is not like Jello pudding. It's more like mango jello, but softer. Maybe you could call this mango mousse, but you can serve this like a cake...
I used the sliced mangos for the pudding shown in the photo I didn't use the drained mango juice, but I think I could have added some of it without any problems. (I couldn't find the canned mango pulp at first. I eventually found some at Superstore in the East Indian foods section.)
The fresh mango makes it taste more fresh and fragrant. You could experiment with using all fresh mangos for this recipe. I think it would be awesome.
You could swap out mango and replace it with pureed strawberries instead.

Reading Break Bliss

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:31:00 +0000

It's the middle of a reading break. It feels sooooo goooood to sleep in, watch TV, and relax. I think my classmates and I really needed this.

Midterms
The week before reading break was crazy. We had three midterm exams and one skills mastery exam. Lucky me got the IV push to demonstrate. I was very nervous about it, but I did fine in the end. It's definitely good practice for the real thing.

The Good-For-Nothing Zero
On top of this, we got some marks back and I was gifted with the delightful surprise of a ZERO on my written paper for Pathophysiology. Apparently I had used the wrong kind of article because I didn't realize that "Current Opinion" is just another name for "Editorial". *groan* I wouldn't normally get a zero for this, but my teacher refuses to mark papers that don't fit the assignment criteria. *double groan* So since she won't read the paper, I can't get any marks. I'm not allowed to rewrite and resubmit the paper either so I'm basically, well... S.O.L.

Why me?

I was very upset about it, and I still am, but I can't do anything about it. Instead I have to double my efforts to study the material so that I can redeem my sad, sad mark. I got about 83% on the midterm exam. That's normally pretty good, but I'll have to aim for something closer to perfect to make sure that I still finish off with a respectable grade.

Grrr, it makes me so angry. I should have at least gotten marks for the criteria that I did meet. Getting marks for even APA formatting would have been great. The worst part is that, aside from using an editorial article, it was actually a pretty good paper! I worked really hard on it! Now I'm getting the kind of mark I would get for not handing in a paper at all. How is that fair?

Bah, but it's pointless to fret. It's all non-negotiable. Good bye pretty GPA!

Surviving Clinical
Anyhow, the good news is that I had my midterm meeting with my clinical instructor and she thinks I'm doing fine. I always dread those meetings because that's when they'll tell you if you've screwed up and it's time to say goodbye to nursing school. So far, four students will be leaving us. Some of them were given the "either drop out or fail out" speech and some of them have had such a hard time with their instructors that they need a break.

I always hate it when this happens, but it's starting to be pretty standard. The funny thing is that this is a lot like my old job. Every year there were layoffs. It was never good for morale, but it always happened anyways.

Well, I better get back to my study break. I haven't studied yet, but I did write a paper and hand it in. The paper isn't due until the end of next month so, hopefully, I'll get feedback and have time to fix any major problems before it's too late. *fingers crossed*

Have a great week!

Fry Brain, Flip, Repeat.

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Okay, I know you hate it when I gripe but, really, it was a hard week last week!

Of course, this week is even harder.

I got to the point where my brain stopped working. I just sat at my computer, folded origami elephants, and watched episodes of Charmed. I couldn't bear to read anything nursing-related.

What's going on?

Well, things didn't go so well at clinical. I had a patient whose condition deteriorated last week. She was fine by the time I left, but it really scared me. It was so bad that they pulled the licensed practical nurse off and put a registered nurse in her place. After that, I got to see what it was like to work with an RN under pressure.

I never knew it was so hard!

All of her patients were total care, which means that the patients can't really do anything by themselves. She was running around giving medications, washing them, checking up on them, and constantly re-prioritizing what had to be done first. It was quite the hectic job!

I watched, helped, and learned. Honestly, it was a really good learning experience, but I was exhausted by the end of the day. I felt fuzzy in the head and not quite right. Of course, it might have been the bug I was brewing. I ended up sick on the weekend and basically slept through it.

I still ended up handing in a journal assignment by Sunday, and finished writing a paper for Monday. I was so relieved to be done with the paper on Monday!

Of course, all was not well.

It turned out that the paper was due at 11:30 am for a 12:00 noon class. Who would have guessed? So I handed it in at 11:45, thinking that I was early, only to receive an instant 5% off for being 15 minutes LATE. Grrrr!

So, here comes another week. Fry brain, flip, repeat.

I hope yours turns out better than mine!

Cheerio!

Poggles Is A Big Boy Now

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:07:00 +0000

When Poggles was a baby, he pooped everywhere. He couldn't control it. Today, however, is a big day. Poggles is a big boy now, and he only does his business in the litter tray (hurray!).

So, the oven tray can now go away. I will have one less thing to clean, and Poggles can enjoy soft, warm "carpet" everywhere.

After a thorough cleaning of his cage, Poggles was unceremoniously dumped out of his dirty pouch into his clean toilet (poor boy). Don't worry, he is dumped from the ground level.

He scrambled quickly to hide under the wheel as I began to populate his cage with his belongings. He got a fresh toilet paper roll to play with, a clean pouch...

... his food bowl and water bowl came back clean, his dome and cosy came back, he got a fresh paper towel, his ball... and everything was clean.

Of course, Poggles hated it. He came out and sniffed everything, deemed them unsuitable, and went back under the wheel. He did this several times, each time concluding that it was unacceptable.

He slept there all afternoon, and only moved into the new pouch once I gave him back one of his dirty fleece scraps (tsk tsk!) After that, he pulled the paper towel so that it was plugging the entrance, and hissed at anyone that disturbed him.

Yup, he's a big boy now. That doesn't change how grumpy he is though :)

Week 3 of Semester 4

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:36:00 +0000

This was a pretty busy week so I was back to my bad habit of not sleeping enough. I zombied my way through a group presentation, assignments, and homework. What really tired me out though was clinical.

I had it easy last week. My patient was only sub-acute and I had a lot of extra time to putter around bonding with patients. I think my teacher knew I wasn't being challenged enough so she gave me an extra complicated patient this week. I also got to start on medications.

Tube feeding
This was my first experience with feeding tubes. I had only seen suctioning tubes before this, and we had only just learned about managing feeding tubes in lab. Now, here I was with a feeding tube before me. I was pretty intimidated.

However, once I had gone through the process of delivering medications by the feeding tube once, it began to seem pretty straight forward.

There's a lever on the tubing. You open the port, put the syringe in, turn the lever, and flush it with 10 ml of water. Turn the lever, take off the syringe. Suck up the medication (which is crushed and mixed with 30 mls of water), put it in the port, turn the lever, inject the meds. Turn the lever, take off the syringe, suck up more meds, do the same thing as before. When you're done, you flush it again with 30 mls of water, close the port, and you're done!

Okay, so it doesn't sound so straight forward in print. I swear it's easier in real life!

Teacher Feedback
Anyhow, it was quite an experience, and I had to remember to keep the patient upright before doing this to prevent choking. I liked how the teacher gave me feedback on what she saw, and then asked me how I thought it went and how I wanted to improve for next time. It made me do some thinking and it helped me to review what I had read and what I had just learned from the experience.

Parkinson's Disease
This was also my first experience with Parkinson's Disease. The pt basically had no (or extremely limited) control over their own body (twitching, shaking), but the mind appeared to be aware of what was going on. Worst of all, the patient couldn't talk and sometimes could only whisper quietly. I found it incredibly distressing.

I felt that the patient was at the mercy of the nurses, and if something went wrong, the patient couldn't call for help or even push the call button. I didn't like seeing the patient with such little control over what happened. It would be one thing to be unconscious like that, or to be a baby, but this patient was aware of what was going on. I can't put my finger on exactly why I find that so frightening, but it is very scary to me. Maybe it's because it reminds me of being trapped in a doll that can't move or talk, but can move its eyes, think, and feel.

Anyhow, I did my best.

It's Worth It For The Smile
I told the patient every little thing before I did it so that they were not surprised, and I talked the patient through any procedures done by other people (ex. inserting IVs or drawing blood). I asked for permission before I did things, and the patient nodded or shook their head (thank goodness, they could at least move the head a little). I leaned in beside the patient's head so that I could catch the whispers when they came through, and heard little comments like "I'm scared" that broke my heart. I felt so bad for the patient.

I did get a smile once though. That was nice. Parkinson's often creates a mask-like expression in patients so I didn't expect the smile.

Sore Feet
I don't even remember what I was doing, but I was walking/or speed walking a lot around the ward. There were always supplies to gather, people to find, things to do. My feet were super sore at the end of each day. I was walking gingerly when I got home. Maybe I need better insoles or something.

Fatigue
I was so tired. I was emotionally drained from wanting so badly to be good to the patient, and physically tired from lack of sleep and hard work.

It has been a good experience and good learning this week. I wonder what next week will be like?

Enjoy yours!

Week 2 of Semester 4

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:43:00 +0000

The second week of Semester 4 has gone by, and it was a good one.

Homework hadn't quite gone to the killer level yet, and I got my first patient to care for independently in clinical. He turned out to be a really nice guy, and since I wasn't giving any medications yet, the workload was light. I ended up helping my nurse out a lot, and the nurse spent time teaching me about different things on the ward, and showing me different procedures.

Some of my favourite moments this week:

Taming the Sheet Monster
There was a patient loudly crying in a room. The LPN said, "Wow, it's been a long time since I've heard that around here." Unfortunately, he was on his way to do something so he had to hurry off. I didn't see anyone else around to intervene and there were no contact precautions on the room door, so I walked in to see what was wrong.

The patient was tossing and turning and crying about how she was uncomfortable. She seemed to be all tangled up in her sheets. I know how much that bothers ME, so I talked soothingly to her and set about fixing her sheets up. I think she was feeling tired, stressed out, and uncomfortable, and the tangled sheets just tipped her scale. Anyhow, after I fixed her up, she seemed to settle down. I put her call bell in her hand and told her to call if she needed someone.

You're Not Alone
After I said good bye to my patient, I heard another patient moaning/sobbing in her bed. I walked over to check what was going on, and found her very distressed. She told me that she was all alone, and that she was frightened. I explained to her that she was not all alone - there were three other patients in the room with her. I pointed them out to her, and reminded her that there were also many nurses bustling about just outside her room. "I can't see them though!" she said.

I realized that her eyesight must be poor even with her glasses, and that the dimmed room made it impossible for her to see the other patients. I told her about how it was quiet time in the hospital, and how the lights had been dimmed so that patients could take a nap, watch some TV, and relax quietly. They were all still there around her, they were just sleeping. "Just because you can't see them," I said, "doesn't mean that they're not there. There are people all around you. You're not alone."

All the soothing talk seemed to make her feel better. She thanked me and I tucked her into bed. I suggested that she take a nap too, and she agreed that it was a good idea. I adjusted her call bell so that she could hold it in her hand. "Push the button if you feel scared, " I told her, "and someone will come here to check on you. The nurses are just outside your door." She smiled, and I felt good inside. It hadn't been a very hard task, but I think it was important.

Why I Do This
That sort of sums up the gist of what the past week has been like. It was a very good start to the semester, and I am looking forward to the rest of it. I was worried that I would fail and that the learning curve would kill me, but these experiences have reminded me about why I am going through all this trouble. I know that I have the ability to help people even if I don't feel confident about my skills yet.

Lovely Teacher
Also, I am starting to really like my teacher. She is so darn polite! I could really learn a thing or two from her in the manners department. I think she could tip-toe around most uncomfortable topics without offending anyone and still get her point clearly across. She's also very knowledgeable.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Semester 4 of Nursing School - Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 07:20:00 +0000

Ohhh... first week is over. I am soooooo tired!

First Day Back

My first day back was a scramble of activity. Class started at 8am and before, between, and after classes, I had to wait in long line ups to renew my student ID, nursing ID, and UPass. I also had to buy my coursepacks, which were unreasonably expensive.

Brain Food

I would have died of hunger in one line up at lunch if it wasn't for a free bagel at the the student union table. I don't know if it was really a good bagel, but I devoured it instantly. That tied me over until I got home where I ate anything in sight.

For some reason, I get really hungry when I'm stressed out. I think my brain needs extra food to function at maximal capacity.

Anyhow, the first day finished well, but then I had a new challenge - the first day of clinical. *gulp!*

Steep Learning Curve

The teacher told us horror stories about the steep learning curve we would encounter this semester. It honestly made me feel nauseous. Every time she mentioned students that didn't make it or students that had issues or challenges, I thought it would be me next. The teacher was trying to prepare us so that we wouldn't be surprised, but it was very overwhelming for the first day.

Acute Medicine

We got a proper tour of the ward we would be working on, and the teacher explained how it was an acute medical ward. This means that the patients are experiencing a short term medical problem with complications. For instance, they might have had a small heart surgery, but they also have kidney problems, diabetes, a recent stroke, high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, etc. When you add up all these separate conditions, you end up with a REALLY BIG problem.

So, it should be really interesting. The teacher says that we'll learn a lot about how all the different problems interact and influence each other. She promises that we'll leave the semester feeling a lot more confident as nurses.

I am excited about all that learning.

Zombies Rise Early

Today, however, we started our shift at 6:30am. That's pretty early. I know some of you early birds won't find it THAT early, but my sleeping schedule hasn't fully switched yet. Even though I head to bed on time, I can't fall asleep until much later.

This means Zombie Student Nurse.

Luckily, the teacher put us in pairs and she put us with less complicated patients. I am very thankful for this gentle start. My patient was super nice too! He was so cooperative, thankful, and easy to cheer up! There's something to be said about leaving the room with a smile.

Being Sick Sucks

The funny thing is that he seemed genuinely happy to see us and to be cared for by us. He greeted us with such a big smile, and he would hold our hands and give us the most heartfelt look of thanks. It made me feel bad for him. I felt like he must have gone through a lot of bad experiences to value his experience with us so much.

I think being very sick must be very miserable. I can't understand exactly what he is going through, but I can sense that it is very difficult for him. It makes me want to help him more. He chuckled over how we were "fussing" over him, but we really wanted him to be comfortable, clean, and well-cared for. I guess he could tell that we meant well.

The teacher said we did a good job, and that helped to make us feel less terrified.

I would tell you more, but I am much too tired. I wasn't the only one either. I noticed that some of my classmates looked like they would fall asleep on their feet after the shift. We're on the ball when we're on the floor, but on our way out the door...? Zzzzzz!

Have a great weekend!

Reflections on Semester Three

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:54:00 +0000

It's amazing how soon a semester ends, a holiday comes and goes, and another semester begins again. Someone slow down time a little!!!

So let's reflect on the last semester and see how went.

Babies and Mommies
Well, I finally saw the little babies get born. They were a lot bigger than I expected them to be at birth and a whole lot cuter to cuddle. Moms turned out to be braver and more formidable than I expected, and the birthing process was a whole lot messier and scarier. I don't look forward to giving birth. At the same time, I'm comforted that God designed women to be able to handle this very frightening process, and to be extremely good at being moms :) There's hope after all.

Magical Humans
In terms of surgery, humans are magical creatures and medical science is amazing. I rather liked working in surgery, and I better! I'll be working in Medicine all semester coming up.

So, what can I say?

Thank You, Nurses
I think I still like nursing. That's good. I get tired sometimes though. I get to do all this good for people, but it's draining. The work is hard and it's super stressful to get through the classes, assignments, exams, and mastery courses. It's not all roses, that's for sure. We should all be thankful for nurses. They work really hard to make sure we get better when we're sick. Oh, and they work really hard in school to make sure they become good nurses in the first place!!!

When In Doubt, Choose "C"
I was relieved to find out that I had passed all my courses. One exam really kicked me in the butt, and I was terrified that I had failed it. Fortunately, "C" was the correct answer for all of the questions I didn't know (just joking!), and I finished with mastery, two B+'s, and one A-. Hurray! Onwards to Semester 4!

Next Semester
I got assigned to the hospital I had wanted for this coming semester, and I hear that my teacher is excellent. It looks to be a good start. However, this is rumoured to be one of the killer semesters where they really test you. We'll be given really difficult cases to care for in the hospital, and they expect us to apply all of the knowledge we have learned so far. It should be interesting.

Sigh, so the holiday ends January 4th. It was a really good break. I'll tell you about it in a bit.

Enjoy the rest of yours, and good luck for the new year!

Cheers!

Poggles the Hedgehog

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:08:00 +0000

Once upon a time, there was a little hedgehog named Poggles.

Poggles was a very frightened little guy. Every time he got scared, he would put his quills up.

No one wanted to be Poggle's friend. They were scared of getting poked.

Poggles tried to put his quills down.

"Hello! My quills are down! Come and say hi!"

But no one was around to say hi. Everyone was having fun somewhere else.

Poggles decided it was no fun putting his quills down. No one cared anyways. "I'm going back to sleep now. If you bother me, I'll hiss at you, " he said. And that's what he did.

The End

Fresh Christmas Wreath Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:57:00 +0000

Christmas wreaths get more expensive each year, and they're not even REAL! Make your own evergreen wreath with boughs from your neighborhood trees for less than $5! Here's how:

You will need:

Large metal wreath frame. (I got mine at Michaels with a 50% off coupon, so it was only $2.)
Florist wire. (I got mine at Michaels for under $2.)
Evergreen branches from the neighborhood trees. (I gathered about 2 grocery bags' worth, but I had a lot of branches left over, so maybe 1 or 1.5 bags full is enough.)
Real red berries or artificial berries.
Optional: Pinecones and ribbon.
Pruning shears to cut the branches and the wire.
Garden gloves to protect your hands as you work.

Place the metal frame with the rounded side up.

Gather 2-3 stems of your evergreen branches. Layer them on top of the metal frame. I had two kinds of evergreen available and I put the prettier/denser one on top. Use a long strip of florist wire to twist-tie the branches securely to the metal frame.

If you have real berry branches, you should include them in each cluster of branches. I couldn't find any real red berries in my neighborhood, so I added fake berries.

Gather another three branches together. Lay them on top of the first cluster, but move down a little. Tie them to the metal frame with florist wire.

Here's a close-up of florist wire tied to the metal frame. Trim the excess wire off with your pruning shears, and tuck it safely away.

Keep adding clusters of 2-3 branches along the metal frame. The closer you put the clusters, the rounder and more full your wreath will be.

Keep adding clusters until you are all the way around the wreath.

For the last cluster, you will need to lift up the first cluster branches to get underneath. Tie the last bough down with florist wire.

Ta da! You've made it all the way around!

Now use the pruning shears to snip off any stray branches that make the wreath not-round. You can snip any super long branches shorter too if they look out of place, and tidy up the center of the wreath too. If you have any bald spots, tuck an extra branch in and tie it down.

If you had real berry branches worked into the wreath. It will look amazing and be finished. If you don't have any real berry branches, you can use fake red berries. I had a bunch of random red berries left from previous wreaths. Some of these berries fell off of Christmas tree decorations, I think...

Honestly, you could just leave the wreath without any additions. It looks really nice with just the evergreen branches.

I wrapped my berries with wire and tied them to branches, weaved them into the branches, etc. Then I adjusted them so that they were more visible.

If you have pine cones, you can wrap them with wire and tie them in too.

Now, if you have some big ribbon, you can tie it on and make a bow. I rather liked mine without any other additions so I left it.

Here is a second wreath that I made a few days later. I found some real berries to include with the fake berries, so I tied them down with each cluster of branches. I also included some other random branches that had small, oval leaves and tiny red berries.

So, there you have it. For under $5, I have a lovely Christmas wreath to brighten my doorway. When Christmas is over, I'll snip all the branches and florist wire off and save the metal frame for another year.

I hope you will have fun making your own wreath too!

Cheers!

Poggle Laughs

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:20:00 +0000

With exams imminent, here's a funny picture for you!

Poggles was trying to flip himself over when I was blow drying his belly. Um... he looks ridiculous... poor fellow. He looks like he's bracing himself from the super blow drying power :)

Happy studying!

Another Fun Bath With Poggles

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

Poggles needed his nails trimmed. I figured I might as well give him a bath at the same time since his feet were looking a little grubby.

He wasn't as enthusiastic this time about getting a bath. He tried to run away.

But you'd never know it from this smile...

In fact, he looks a lot like he's grinning in this picture. Hee hee!

I filled the sink with water and let him soak a bit, first with Aveeno body wash. Then I rinsed him off and let him soak with a drop of Aveeno bath oil. It was easy to trim his nails under water. Poggles was very cooperative and the water made his nails soft. There was no loud sound to frighten him.

He got blown dry after that, and I even flipped him over to blow dry his tummy. Last time it was still wet underneath. He wasn't too thrilled about being flipped over.

After all that excitement. It was nap time. (If you zoom in really close to his nose, you can see that it kind of flares out on the edges. Neat! It reminds me of a star-nosed mole.)

Poor fellow. He was all tuckered out. He looks super cosy in his pouch though. Now's he's drying/warming under my desk lamp while I study.

I hope you have a great week!

Last Day of Maternity

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 06:53:00 +0000

It was the last day of my maternity rotation today. I have the radio blasting Christmas music, I'm filling orders for my online shop, and I gave Poggles a proper cleaning. It's a good day today. (Of course, Poggles thinks it's a terrible day. He's afraid of going into his new, clean pouch and he's hiding out under his wheel.)

My sister set up the Christmas tree and I piled the presents I've been hoarding in my room under it. Sigh. How lovely :) On top of that, I'm munching on the little sandwiches I made for our potluck today at the hospital.

So, what can I say about this maternity rotation now? Well, I finally got to see a birth. It's not exactly what I had envisioned.

Labor
There was something like a roll-bar arched over her bed and the mum had her feet on it. She was pulling on a blanket tied to this row bar so that she could have leverage. Meanwhile, people were walking in and out of the room - doctors, nurses, family members. It was a bit confusing, but they were just checking on her progress.

My job was just to watch and to provide encouragement, so I just smiled at the mum, gave her thumbs up, and said encouraging things when she made a good push. Sometimes I put gloves on and changed the towels under her. The mum didn't mind. She was focused on the pushing part.

The nurses were very nice to me and explained what was going on and the different machines. The mum had a fetal monitor over her tummy so that the nurses could monitor her blood pressure, her heart rate, and the baby's heart rate.

Delivery
At one point, I started to see something dark at the vaginal opening. The nurses told me it was the baby's hair. My eyes got really big then and I couldn't stop staring. The dark part got gradually more visible until it was pretty obvious that it was a little head pushing it's way out.

The doctors were called and they all came bustling in with their various teams. There were doctors to deliver the baby, doctors to observe the doctor, and doctors specializing in babies to take over when the baby was born. Everything happened pretty fast after that. Push, push, push, and SPLOOSH! The baby was out! It was amazing.

Newborn Care
The baby's cord was clamped and cut, and the baby was passed to the baby doctors. They checked the baby over, checked the baby's throat, and did a little bit of suction. When they had made sure the baby was healthy, they let the nurse take over. She cleaned the baby off and called me over. I got to put eye ointment into the baby's eyes to protect it from infection, and she gave it a Vitamin K injection to protect it from bleeding. I was pretty excited to see a brand new baby.

Placenta
Then I got to examine the placenta. The nurse showed me the part that was housing the baby in the womb, and the part that connected to the mother. The part connected to the mother looks a bit like chunks of raw liver. She showed me how we have to examine it to see if it looks intact with no pieces missing. If pieces are missing, they have to check the mum to see if some pieces are still inside her.

Stitches
Meanwhile, the doctors were stitching the mum up. Because the baby came out so fast, she had some tearing. Poor mum! She didn't seem to really notice though. She was in a rather delirious state saying things like, "My baby...". I think she was a bit wrapped up in what had just taken place and the miracle of having just given birth to a real live baby.

We wrapped the baby up and passed it to mum. She was overcome with happiness to see her new baby, and it was a very sweet moment.

Mum Amnesia
I took care of the mum for the rest of my shift and checked her studiously. She did great! I was happy to be part of her experience, and I hope it was much better from her perspective than from mine, lol! It's a bit scary to be the observer. The mums seem to "forget" what they go through though. One mum said that she knows in her brain how traumatic and painful it was, but that it's fuzzy. Instead, they glow over their new babes and enthusiastically plan for more children!

It's Growing on Me
So, looking back at these last two weeks, I'd have to say that it got better. I wasn't as stressed out anymore, and I could see how valuable the teaching was for the parents. Everything was hands on and applicable. I would teach the mum to breastfeed, and then I'd watch her actually do it; I'd teach the dad to bathe the baby, and then he'd show me how he could do it alone. It was really nice.

I think the highlight of my time in maternity was cuddling with the babies. Sometimes the mums would leave the baby in my arms while they went to the bathroom and I could croon and rock the baby. It was really sweet. The babies are so cute, so soft skinned, and downright lovable. They make funny noises and they can sometimes smile. It warmed my heart.

I think that despite all the scary things that happened in Maternity, I could get used to it based on the fact that I like the babies so much. Funny how things work. Well, now to hit the books. Final exams start next week! *groan*

Wish me luck!

Have a great week!

Hedgehog Rambles

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:42:00 +0000

Hello! My name is Poggles. I'm the beloved hedgehog of the perpetually strange lady that feeds me.

She's very odd. I spend night after night messing this house up, and what does she do? She throws away my perfectly scrunched up paper towel, wipes off my perfectly coated wheel, throws away my poop collection, and gives me a horribly clean, hedgehog-scent-free pouch! Ugh!

... but then she gives me apples... and cat kibble... mmm! I hear she's growing mealworms for me too!

Just the thought of that yummy food makes my mouth water *smacks lips*

So, I guess she's okay. But, geez, just look how clean this litter is? How can any hedgehog stand this?

Time to start my poop collection again. Maybe I should build a tower with it like last time...

(Have a great week!)

Almost Done - Week 10 & 11

noreply@blogger.com (Mytutorlist.com) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:10:00 +0000

The maternity rotation is starting to be fun. I've learned more in lab, I'm getting assigned two patients at a time (or one complicated one), and I've done my first baby bath. I also know how to do baby assessments.

Babies

Babies are super fun. They wave their arms and legs around, make cute noises, and blink with wonder at blank space. They're also fuzzy. I think fuzzy babies are awesome. Newborns have soft downy "fur" all over them called lanugo. After you bathe the newborn, the soft fur goes all fluffy. It's fantastic!

One thing that has surprised me is how big newborns are. I always thought they would be smaller considering the size of the opening they come out of. Sometimes I look at the baby, look at the mom, and scratch my head. How did it get out?

Teaching

New moms (and dads) have a huge learning curve. If they're lucky, they did a ton of reading while mom was pregnant. If not, they have to learn an encyclopedia amount of information in a very short time frame. It means that I can rattle off information non-stop and it's likely that mom will get something out of it that she didn't know before.

I have been impressed at how eager new moms are to learn. They're like sponges. I guess when you go through that much trouble to bring a kid into the world, you want to make sure you're doing your best for them. So I do my best to provide as much info as I can, keeping things as bite-sized as possible.

Less Blood

Thankfully, I haven't had to work with as much blood as last time. There's still blood, but it's manageable now. I think I won't be as scared if I ever come across the same situation again. I know a lot more about what I can do about it, and about the resiliency of a mom. Moms have super powers, in a sense.

This week, I'll get to see a mom give birth. I'm worried that I'll pass out. Fingers-crossed that I'll be more useful to mom than as a decorative floor mat.

Have a great week!