ten days
A lot happens in ten days! My apologies for not writing sooner.
At the start of these past ten days, I was working. I am an ICU nurse working night shift. I work 7pm to 7am, I have two patients, and it’s usually pretty busy for most of the night. My patients need constant checks on vitals, medications, safety, etc.
And I love it.
It is interesting, fun, scary, exciting, all at the same time, and my shoulders sit uncomfortably in my ears from stress for most of the night. Having people’s lives in my hands is no picnic, especially for a newbie. It has only been six months, so I am still learning every single day. Not that I ever plan to stop.
So, a quick overview of new work experiences:
I gave blood by myself (no preceptor) for the first time to a patient who was bleeding internally.
I got a patient on a medication that I had never cared for by myself (no preceptor) before.
I know these are silly things, but being a new graduate nurse, I still get excited over the little things. I’m going to hold onto that for as long as I can, with burnout and compassion fatigue being so prevalent in my profession (I’ll get to my thoughts on those in a later post).
After my four days of work, I flew to Colorado! So, here we go.
August 14th: I got a new haircut! I got about eight inches cut off! It seems like a lot, but my hair was super long. With the cut, it’s still below my shoulder blades.
August 15th: I went to Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater for the first time! I got to see Mumford and Sons (for the second time; the first time was a week prior at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington). It was a super cool venue! The front section are all seats, and the back is grass. We sat on the grass- just brought a blanket. Once the show started, everybody stood up. They were absolutely phenomenal.
August 16th: I got to have lunch with my best friend from nursing school! We went to this adorable restaurant in Louisville, CO called The Huckleberry. She got crepes, and I got eggs Benedict, and they were both unbelievably delicious! I hadn’t seen her in six months, so it was wonderful to catch up. Just to toot her horn a bit… she is an amazing float nurse (meaning she floats to most of the floors in the hospital) at Children’s Hospital in Denver, CO. This hospital is incredibly competitive to get into, and she got in right after nursing school!
August 18th: I did a beautiful hike to Lake Isabelle with my mom this day! I’ve hiked to this lake before, but it was a notable day to get to be unplugged for a while and relish in the beauty of an alpine lake.
Lake Isabelle, CO
The other occurrence of note on this day, was that my plane home got turned around just prior to take-off due to a person having heart palpitations. They had to turn around and go back to the gate for the paramedics to help the person off of the plane! It was quite the lengthy journey back to Idaho.
August 19th (today): Wow. Today hurt my heart more than it’s been hurt in a long time. Today, my friend took me to a house north of Coeur d’Alene where she was watching the house and animals of a woman she met. The woman was in the hospital, and had three horses and three dogs that needed to be cared for on her property. What I did not know, was that these animals were not well cared for due to financial reasons (though they were getting excellent care from my friend). I was fortunate enough to never have seen a neglected animal before, so the sights today were haunting. It hurts my heart that animals even have the potential of being neglected, and I hope that better homes can be found for them soon.
Quite the eventful ten days.
I will try to be more regular about posting, sometimes life gets away from me, but at least it’s being filled with fun, new things! I’ll leave you with a quote that spoke to me after my Colorado time.
“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”
John Muir
