Interesting sights and heart stopping moments

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and I think this is true, because I think even nothingness is bigger in Texas.  That's what driving across west Texas felt like, but it still isn't as boring as Nebraska!  I even saw new road kill: a hog and a mountain lion (which was actually sad).

I made it to Mesa without mishap, just short on sleep.  I received a call early in the day about troubles with my flight.  I had to wait an hour to talk to a representative and they pretty much said I would have better luck at the airport.  Delta wasn't going to get me home Friday as promised, so they put me on the red eye with US Airways, which I had not booked specifically because I do not care for that airline.

Airports bring out a lot of interesting behaviors in people.  I was haunting the gate of the earlier direct flight in the hopes of getting home sooner and got to see a spectacular meltdown and parenting fail.  I think I watched a sociopath in the making, and while I am a firm believer in 2 parent homes, I truly hope this kid only sees his dad on the weekends.  They had missed their connection, and the dad went on a quite vulgar rant.  The little boy at first thought dad was mad at him, but after being reassured that wasn't the case the dad then proceeded to yell at the attendant when she came back up the Jetway, and the little boy mimicked his attitude and volume, but thankfully not his words.  I was sitting by 2 other individuals and we speculated with equal horror about the future of that little boy.  

So I did make get a ticket for the earlier flight, which of course was promptly delayed.  I spent the flight home being abused by everyone on the flight.  The flight attendant threw a cup at my head and everyone tripped on me.  We had freezing rain in Des Moines, and I'm pretty sure we almost overshot the runway on landing.  Then I get to our neighborhood and no matter that I'm going 5 miles an hour I'm sliding.  I had to park on the street and skate to the lawn just to make it to the house!!

I pray you all have time to reflect on what we are celebrating: The coming of our Savior.  From birth in a stable He came to die in our place for our sins so that we might have eternal life with Him. 
Merry Christmas!

Count down is on!

Down to 10 shifts left at Hendrick Medical Center.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the floor I work on, the people I work with and the overtime I've been able to work....but I am ready to be home and move on to somewhere new.  My dad tells me I have a bad habit of taking my marbles and going somewhere else when I don't like things.  I suppose that is part of the appeal of travel nursing!  By the time I start to understand where the lines in the sand are, I'm moving on!

So things I dislike about Abilene: no one seems to know where they are going as they all slam on their brakes and turn at the very last second.  I do this too because I often don't know where I'm going, but I also have out of state plates to explain my erratic driving.  Not sure what the excuse is for the natives.

Also, it is nearly impossible to get a drink from either Starbucks location (yes, they have a grand total of 2) in less then ten minutes.   I talked to someone who works there last night and she explained they'd been without a manager for quite some time and even with the new manager they have a hard time keeping employees.  This explains why I get very pleasant service every time, it's just really slow.

Things I like about Abilene:  having family style dinner at work.  This is a P3 tradition, and I really like that there are 4 meals a week I don't eat alone.  Eating alone is definitely one of the harder parts of traveling solo.

Another plus is that I have owls now living on the roof of my apartment.  There presence has greatly discouraged other birds from hanging out up there which keeps the chirping to a minimum while I'm sleeping.  The downside of that is I can hear them up there at night and I worry about the integrity of the roof.  Another traveler had a good laugh just imagining me sitting in me apartment and an owl falling through my ceiling.  I would have laughed except I have a real fear it will happen.

So since I'm quite certain there is a owl sitting directly above me right this second I'm going to find something to do in another part of the apartment....closer to the door!

This IS my first rodeo

So my stomach still hurts from all the laughing I've done since I found mom and Rita at the airport.  The adventures so far include wandering around the parking garage at DFW, another couple brushes with mom's curse and a rodeo.

The airport adventure wasn't awful, just confusing.  However finding two women wearing cowgirl hats wasn't overly difficult.  The Dallas/Fort Worth airport is quite confusing and driving around it at night is not something I wish to do again.

So I finally got to go to Waffle House!  I'm still bitter there isn't one in the armpit of Texas.  Rita had never been so that was quite a new experience for her.  Thankfully this location was pretty tame and didn't scare her away.

After breakfast we started shopping.  It had been recommended to us that we try the Galleria shopping center, so we plugged it into the GPS and away we went.  And it's not there anymore.  The building is, but it's abandoned.  So we found random people and got directions to a different mall.

Lunch involved the first brush with mom's curse.  My mom seems to attract accidents.  This event was a bit of a repeat, but the drink tray was once again spilled on her.  This happened to her one other time, but it was with cherry lemonade and that was a direct hit.  This time was just water, and really was spilled next to her, but she did get hit.

After a short rest at the hotel we went to find the Stockyards.  They have a rodeo every Friday and Saturday night.  None of us have been to a rodeo before, so this was quite exciting.  The trip from the car was another repeat performance for mother.  We came to a crosswalk and she tried rolling into traffic.  Just writing this has me in tears.  Thankfully Rita caught her before she tumbled.  It's a good thing Rita was with us because I'm pretty sure my dad would not have caught her, like the last time this happened.

Anyway, we made it to the rodeo intact.  I cannot wait to see another one, because it was amazing.  I'm pretty sure you couldn't pay me enough to stand by the chute for 8 seconds let alone get on the bull.  The talent of the cowboys and cowgirls was so much fun to witness.

So now we're onto another day and new adventures.  Who knows how many more brushes with the curse remain, I just hope we all come through in one piece. 

Mmmm....Cave Bacon

Today I finally got around to seeing some sights.  Of course this means driving far away as there isn't much to see here in Abilene.  Before I got going I ran some errands and decided to get Starbucks.  There are only 2 here in Abilene, and the one with the drive thru is a logistical nightmare.  And it always takes forever.  I honked at the people in front of me for not paying attention.  Turns out this earned me a free drink.  I totally deserved that drink paid for after their order took 10 minutes (at least ten minutes because I completed 3 levels of Candy Crush Saga while waiting). 

It was a perfect sunny day to be driving and I actually really enjoyed it.  I think the only stretch I've not enjoyed driving is Nebraska.  Anyway, the destination was Caverns of Sonora.  Once I got there I had to dodge past the guard peacocks to get to the gift shop/information center.  Happily, they were starting a tour just as I got there.

It's really hot in that cave, and humid.  And they tell you up front about how long it will take, how many stairs there are and not to go if you have lung issues.  What they don't tell you is that nearly all the stairs are at the very end.  They should be more forthcoming with that tidbit, I think.

I'll put pictures on Facebook so everyone can be jealous they weren't there.  My next adventure will involve mom and Rita, and I have no doubt that will include lots of laughs!  Also, please feel free to point me to other sights to see while I'm in Texas.  I have a book, but personal anecdotes are always preferred.

There is nothing like being a nurse

Since I'm working nights while in the armpit of Texas (Abilene) I have started working on my continuing education credits to maintain my nursing license.  I have seen nurses and other professionals (my dad) scrambling to finish them right before their license comes due and decided to avoid that stress. 

This has been good in that it gets me back in the groove a bit of studying and thinking more seriously about getting back to school and what I want to do when I grow up.  It also is interesting to me as a nerd because I'm learning and a lot of the articles I'm reading are relevant to my field and can be put into practice.

That said, I truly believe that knowledge is power and ignorance in bliss.  There are things I wish I didn't know.  Things like "In a few studies of contamination of nurses' uniforms, researchers have reported up to 65% nurses' uniforms are contaminated with body fluids and bacteria/MDROs at the end of a shift."

In theory I knew that, but seeing it in a research article with statistics is just disturbing.  I truly just want to burn my uniform when I get home now.  For all my nursing friends with kids, don't let them touch you while in uniform!!!  Oh, and to those who aren't in nursing, MDRO is multi-drug resistant organisms.  The super bugs you hear about in the news.

On a more positive note, I'm making excellent progress on the cross stitch.  I am nearing done with the stitching and then on to the finishing work! 

Week 2

Things I dislike about Abilene:
   -No Waffle House
   -The wind

Things I like about Abilene:
   -My floor takes their dinner break together
   -Extra shifts are not a problem.

Funny things I've heard:
   -"I forgot what dementia was before I started working here"
   -"My blood flows on instinct"

So nearly finished with week two.  So far it has been going well.  Small hiccups include no hot water for two days and still no internet at the house.  On the other hand I'm catching up on Redbox and cross stitching my heart out!

Hobby from Hobby Lobby

So Monday I went to Hobby Lobby and got a hobby.  Abilene, TX isn't a hotbed of activity, and I know no one.  I don't have internet yet and the TV isn't digital ready so I don't have TV service (and am unlikely to change that).

I decided to try cross stitching again.  It had been quite some time since I have pursued this activity and I forgot how much I enjoy it.  I find it relaxing even, but I am a nerd.

Anyway, this is my progress thus far, which I think is pretty great for just a few days!  I plan to finish before this assignment does, which gives me plenty of time, right?

I think I see the problem....

What do you do when your patient complains they can't breath?  You flip on the light to discover they have two heart monitor electrodes in their nose and the nasal cannula tight around their throat.  Huh, might be why you can't breath at the moment, let me help you with that!

I think I'm a skeptic...

So a bonus of the travel nursing is I get to go so many cool places.  This week another traveler and I headed to New York City for a few days....because why not?  We had a ton of fun.  Baseball game, Broadway show and bus tour.  She almost has me sold on the idea of getting an assignment there....almost.

The experience that makes me think I might be skeptic (or maybe cynical) is seeing a man sitting on the street with a sign asking for money because he's homeless and on dialysis and having a hard time.  My very first thought was "He has good looking veins for a dialysis patient" followed closely by "I'd actually want to see his dialysis port before I gave him money."   I'm from the Midwest, and I know I am naive.  I have this great fear of being taken advantage of, and that fear is magnified in a place like NYC. 

Another gentleman approached us and asked for 40 cents.  My hands were full as we had just grabbed food at a joint right by our hotel otherwise I would have given the guy the money, but I had no extra hand.  He proceeded to give us a hard time about not having money, which was kinda funny since he was asking for money. Just because I don't have cash doesn't mean I don't have money.

Anyway, it was a truly great time.  We saw so much in a short time and I look forward to going back someday! 

Random laugh

Okay, I need to start this, but no promises on regularity of posting.

Currently I am doing travel nursing.  This has given me some incredible opportunities to go places I would never get to go, and I do like that.  I also meet some incredible people and share some amazing experiences.  I have to say,  I really like that.

So to start this off I will share a story from before traveling, one that still cracks me up:


While charting on a patient one night I read the evening nurse's note stating "the patient makes little to no eye contact."  I reread this, and sat puzzled for several moments.  Then I turned to another night nurse:

RealNut79: Have you taken care of this patient?
NurseRatched70: Yes.
Realnut79: Aren't they blind?e
NurseRatched70: Yes.


And there you have it.  This is what happens when you don't get adequate report: you chart stupid stuff!