Pray For Me

I’m studying for nursing school finals!  It’s almost over!  PRAISE GOD!

Reflecting ...

Nursing school is hard! Getting accepted into nursing school is hard! But here I am just 2 and a half weeks from being finished. WOW!

I can't take all the credit though, actually none of the credit. ... 3 years ago I felt led to go to nursing school, and had absolutely no faith in my abilities to be able to do it. I prayed about it, and God told me "Ask, Seek, and Knock.", and He told me to take a leap of faith, that He would be with me the whole way if I trusted in Him. I did, I trusted Him completely, and He was there the whole way, and many times He carried me :)

I owe it all to Him ... It just goes to show that God will not ever lead you to do something that He won't help you get through or do. I praise Him! I thank Him! And I know that I am doing His will by being a nurse ... Now if I only knew what department He wanted me in ...

Waiting To Exhale ...

I have my last final exam on Monday, May 11th at 8:00 AM. It is the lab exam for Medical Microbiology, and it consists of being assigned an unknown bacteria and applying different stains and doing different procedures to find out what bacteria it is. EXCITING! [enter sarcasm here]

I have a very busy week this next week, so please keep me in your prayers. My son gets his pump on May 12th, so he will need your prayers as well since it could cause him to become low at first, and is very scary. My birthday is May 14th (I'll be 35) ... I sometimes feel much older than that. Then on May 15th I have a renewal CPR class. After that I have the summer to rest and recuperate. :-)

Starting in August, I will have one semester left of nursing and then I will be studying for state boards. I cannot wait! I've been in school now for two and half years, and I'm ready to be finished and working in the hospital. It's almost over! Thank God!

3 Semesters Down, 1 To Go!

Well today was my last day of nursing 203. We had a potluck dinner and it was delicious! Everyone passed this semester, no one failed, THANK GOD! These people are like family, we spend more time with each other than we do our own family's, and so when we lose one it's hard ... but we didn't, so that's great!

I still have Medical Microbiology until May 11th, May 12th Austen gets his insulin pump installed, then May 14th is my birthday, and then the 15th I have CPR renewal. But after that I am done until August 17th, so I can relax and study 2-4 hours a week to keep up on everything.

I am tired, no I'm beyond tired, I'm suffering from severe information overload. I'm going to go take a nap and then head to the gym ... I haven't been able to workout all week, and I'm ready to burn off some stress!

Counting It Down

We have two exams left in the next week of nursing school, and then we are out for the summer. Medical micro will continue thanks to our lovely professor who always changes things on us. Our last lab exam is now on May 11th ... PFFFT!

The pump people called yesterday and they are shipping out Austen's insulin pump. It sure took them long enough!!! It should be here in a few days and then we have to go see the dietitian for her to set it up.

Now ... it's my bedtime, I have worked out for a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes and I'm dog tired :) Have a blessed sleep!

Busy Couple Of Weeks Ahead

The next couiple of weeks are going to be crazy. I have set up mobile blogging so that I can do it from my phone, but I'm not sure how much time I will have. This is what the next couple of weeks looks like for me. Your prayers would be appreciated, THANKS!!!

Monday April 20, 3009

Medical Microbiology @ 7:45-9:30
Nursing Exam #5 @ 3:30

Wednesday April 22, 2009

Medical Microbiology Lab Exam @ 7:45-9:30
Comprehensive Pharmacology Quiz @ 3:30-4:30

Friday April 24, 2009

All Meds Publishing Campus Labs are Due

Monday April 27, 2009

Disaster Lab

Tuesday April 28, 2009

Nursing Exam #6 @ 2:15-4:00 Anderson Technical Building

Wednesday April 29, 2009

OFF FOR STUDY DAY

Thursday April 30, 2009

HESI Nursing FINAL EXAM @ 2:15-5:15 Anderson Technical Building

Friday May 1, 2009

HESI SCORE REVIEW
Class Potluck

May 4, 2009

Medical Microbiology Final Exam @ 10:00 Waller Hall (LAST DAY OF CLASS)

Catching Up

Last night I was texting my BFF, and she was worried that I was going to be worrying all weekend about Tanner's lump since we don't see the surgeon until Monday. I told her that it is what it is and me worrying isn't going to change that. I think he will be fine. I did not know that at church last night that the kids in TeamKid prayed for him. It could be the reason why I am feeling better about things. I'm sure of it actually because I know that God answers prayer, especially when more than one person is praying for the same thing while believing the prayer will be answered. God is so good!

We have 3 1/2 weeks of school left for this semester ... I can't believe it!!! It seems like I just started the first semester and now I have just a little over a semester left! December will come fast after school starts back in the fall. Especially since we will only have class for two months and then our Preceptor the following two months. Then I will take my Boards sometime in January and I could be working as an official RN sometime after that! My dream is almost a reality, and I can only thank God for it ... and my husband of course, for doing most of the chores to allow me to study.

I have a paper to write today for school, two actually, but one is due on Friday. I also have some studying to do and some note cards to write for medical micro. I am so happy that our micro professor changed the date of our final exam. We have our last unit exam in nursing on the 28th, then we were supposed to have our micro final on the 29th, and then our nursing final on the 30th. He felt sorry for us and moved the micro final to the 4th ... THANK GOD! That was too much! The last two weeks of nursing and micro are bad enough as we have 6 tests! Can we say OVERLOAD? Thank God summer break is almost here, and I can study at my own pace with no pressure to stay on top of everything for my comprehensive nursing final in the fall that covers everything we have learned so far from every semester.

Well I am off to study and do some laundry. have a great, glorious, and blessed day!

Feeling Great

Well it has been one month and a day since my surgery and I feel wonderful. That is a blessing for sure! It took a week and half before I did not regret the surgery due to the massive pain I was having, but all is good now ... Thank you GOD!

We have started painting the house. We have lived here for two years and we have only done minor work on it due to me being in school. I felt so good this past weekend that I had to start working on it, and so far it is looking great! I didn't even answer the phone in fear that I would stop painting.

We spent Saturday night at a friend's house playing Rockband (one of the coolest games on the planet if you like music). We ordered out for pizza and sat around talking and catching up, and then I took turns singing and playing the guitar while Stanley did not feel very musically inclined, so he just watched and listened to us. We had a great time! I think we are going to buy Rockband and Guitar Hero World Tour Band so we can jam at home :)

School started back yesterday and so far I think 203 is going to be awesome! Our professors are a hoot let me tell you. I also liked my Medical Micro professor and think this semester is going to be one of the best so far.

Now we just got to plan out devotionals for our family and get closer to God and all things will be great in the Stevenson household!

Feeling Rushed/Bad

I need to be studying, my daughter and best friend's daughter are having a joint early Halloween/birthday party that I am not even close to being ready for, and I feel ill, I think I am coming down with something.

I need prayer. I need to be able to study, study, study, and I don't need to get sick right now. My grades ARE NOT where they need to be and I really need help to get all of this content into my brain so I can do well on the next 4 tests.

The Irony - Studying = Student & Dying Put Together

Seems like studying is all that I do. Today is no different, I have a test tomorrow and so I will be out of pocket most of the day to STUDY-STUDY-STUDY, then I will DIE from serious brain overload!

I hope YOU have a stress free day!

STRESS

I have a HUGE test on Monday. It is EIGHT (8) CHAPTERS LONG!!! I am studying a little everyday, but today I am really studying, and will study all the rest of the week and weekend. I just had to take a break long enough to eat and clear my brain. GEESH! I just keep telling myself "ONE MORE YEAR!"

Clinicals - Day 3

Yesterday I was in the ER for clinicals, it was really interesting. I performed a quick cath for a sterile urine sample, and I removed 2 IV's and discontinued the IV line from an IID. I could have put in an IV, but I was nervous about the veins of the person being so small, and the RN I was with all day missed twice and that shot my confidence down. I need to just jump in there and not worry about it I suppose, but I don't want to hurt anyone if I can keep from it :)

My Day

Today I got to give a TB skin test, change the dressing on a central line, and give another sub-q injection. I was going to do an IV push through an IID (Intermittent Infusion Device - or IV with no tubes attached to it) but the AdminRx had problems with it so I wasn't able to give it, but I did flush the IID with saline.

I have studied for my IV competency test that is tomorrow at 1:15 PM. I will have a little more time to study before the comp. I have been working on organizing and printing things I need to study for my next exam. It is sure hard to study in a house with 4 kids ... I'm thinking the library needs to stay open 24/7 just so I can study in quiet. I don't see that happening though.

I talked to 3 of my friends in text messages today. I don't know what I would do without my friends, besides my husband, they are my biggest support and source of encouragement!

I hope you have a great, glorious, and blessed week!

An Interesting Day

Today in clinical I had a blast ... no really, I was so scared but my teacher was there to help me with everything, and when I went to another department, the nurse there walked us through everything we did.

I gave two sub-Q shots in the belly. I de-accessed two central venous ports, and flushed one with normal saline and heparinized saline. I stopped an IV pump, I took two blood pressures, and I documented it all using the Admin RX system and the computer.

I watched people getting their chemotherapy, and that was the two ports I de-accessed. I watched a new needle and tubing get put into a central venous port. I had a really good day!

Then as I was coming home, my husband informed me that my son's glucose monitor was stolen at school, along with his books and homework, and he spent half the day looking for it and trying to get a new monitor. I just pray that the boy that broke his nose did have anything to do with its disappearance, because he was close by when it went missing. I can't believe anyone would be so mean as to steal a diabetics monitor, that is his lifeline literally, it had all of his insulin in it that he needs everyday. Now I am out a bottle of insulin. That stuff isn't cheap!

I just pray that whoever got it, got it by accident and will return it. He was able to get a new monitor, but still, I hope someone did not deliberately take it to cause my son harm.

So Far So Good

God has already answered two of my prayers this week, both on Monday. I released everything to him and now that I am out of the way, he is working on it. I may have a third answered prayer by the end of the week!!!!

I am still waiting to hear about my thyroid ultrasound. I am really not wanting to have a needle stuck in my neck ... haven't you heard that nurses and doctors make the worse patients? Yeah, that's me, a nurse in training and I am the WORST patient. I want vercet if they do the biopsy, that's the only way to go ... to Lala land, Ha ha!

I am busy-busy-busy this week with school. We are learning how to do IV's very first thing ... It's exciting but a bit scary at the same time. I have had bad experiences with IV's myself, and you have to "practice" in order to get good, but I don't want to practice on a real person :-(

I probably won't post as often as I did over the summer due to my busy schedule, but I will update as soon as God moves my mountain! Have a great, glorious, and blessed week!

Praise The Lord

I am finished with school for this semester, and I passed all of my classes! I am totally amazed at how God gets you through when HE puts you in places you never thought you'd be! I feel so blessed to be where he has put me, but it is very hard, so I know I can't do it without HIM!

I hope your feeling blessed today and are praising the Lord with me!

I Can See The Light ...

... At the end of the tunnel, for this semester anyway! My last day of actual classes is May 2nd. That is also when my nursing 101 final is. My A & P 2 final is May 5th, and May 6th I have to go back to nursing class for a mandatory meeting, I am assuming it is to get us ready for nursing 202.

These next two and a half weeks are going to be hectic. Tomorrow I have an Acid/Base Balance quiz, Monday is a nursing test, Tuesday is my last lab exam for A & P 2, then we have the last bit of content for this semester in nursing. The 24th is a physical assessment competency, then the 25th is catheterization check-off, then the 29th is the catheterization competency, then the 30th is our last exam in nursing before the final. YES I'M STRESSED!

I am vowing to do nothing on the weekends from now until this semester is over, (except work-out). I am looking forward to summer vacation, do you blame me?

By the way, I've lost 8 pounds working out at the gym for the past three weeks. I am feeling better and stronger!

Waiting To Exhale

I have been so busy that I haven't had much time for anything but school. Thursday was my first day off from school since the semester started, and I sure enjoyed it, though I was studying for an A&P 2 test. (I made a "B" on that test).

Today I don't go to school until 2PM and that may change due to the weather situation. Thursday is my first clinical experience, and I'm excited! Things should slow down a little bit now that clinicals have started, and I should be able to breathe a little bit easier too.

I have a big A&P 2 lab test coming up, and a few quizzes in Nursing, but overall, I think I'm doing pretty good and enjoying school so far! I'm really looking forward to when this is all over and I am a registered nurse!

I hope you have a great, glorious, and blessed day!

Too Busy To Post

I haven't had time to post lately, I have been swamped with reading and studying. The nursing program is definitely living up to it's reputation of being "tough". It also requires a lot of critical thinking skills that I'm not sure I have enough of just yet. I am hoping that those skills will come easier as I learn more.

Please pray for me! I know this is where I belong, and Satan has sent a lot of people to me who are trying to discourage me from this profession. As hard as this program is it would be easy to give up if discouraged enough. Please pray that God will send encouragement my way to counteract Satan. I don't think I will give up, I just think that it will hurt my confidence.

I hope you have time to "be" with your family. You take for granted the time you spend with them until you don't get that time anymore!!!!

Have a great, glorious, and blessed day!

First Day of Nursing School

Well all I can say is so far, so good. I was given a lot of information in one day, but they say they are taking things slow for us the first few weeks, so I'm happy about that. I do have homework for tomorrow though :( I have to be at school every day at 8AM until we start clinicals. Once I start clinicals I will have one day that I won't have to be in class until 2:00 PM.

Anatomy 2 was interesting, we have already started in there as well and I have to start reading the chapter over the endocrine system for Wednesday. I also had to go buy even more stuff for nursing and Anatomy. I had to purchase an online course that we need in nursing for $126, then I had to purchase a lab coat (used at Wagoner's) and goggles and gloves for dissecting a cat. I have to buy the cat next week at another $85 but if I get a lab partner or two, we can split that cost. After it's all said and done, I will only get back around $600 in 6 weeks when they hand out FA checks, and I will need that for gas money. I had over $1500 in financial aid, but that is all I will have left.

I'm going to have to borrow $200 from somebody for uniforms. It's crazy ... I don't know how people can afford school without financial aid ... It's expensive! I just thank God for financial aid!!!