Busy fingers

Rest is so underrated when you're in nursing school.

I'm doing absolutely nothing but catching up on television shows everyone talks about and knitting. In fact, I've been focusing on this one project I started last spring for my mum. It's a scarf I had to put down last spring. I had planned on finishing it before the summer semester started, however, there was this little tornado in Tuscaloosa...I'm sure you've heard about that.

Needless to say, I've made good progress, I believe. I'm hoping to finish this today and start on some baby projects for all of my girlfriends who are about to pop...actually... starting now!

Yesterday, we had a grill out to celebrate surviving semester I. It was awesome. I hope everyone had a good time. I love having all of my friends over. They are my Tuscaloosa family. I'm so blessed to be surrounded by a great support network. And people who introduce me to great recipes to try, like the amazing sweet potato cobbler we made and we each subsequently made love to.

Another small step towards the big picture

The BSN NURSING degree has been chosen as the toughest degree among all the college degrees by the Guinness Book of World Records on 18 MAY 2011 . It has 64 university exams + 130 series exams + 174 assignments within 4 years (max 1000 working days). RMFT

And I passed pathophysiology today.

They say semester II is worse than I... I say, "Bring it, Semester II!" Rrrrriiight after I finish this two week sabbatical...

The Home Stretch

Friday afternoon feels so far away but it is so close. I will have survived my first semester in upper division.

This has been exhausting. I've had a lot of unnecessary stress during this time, so I'm sure that hasn't helped my experience any. However, I still have loved every second of being there.

Currently, I have 12 chapters of material to make sure I know backwards, forwards, inside, and out by Thursday at 8 am. Who's idea was that time?? I'm not just physically exhausted, I'm mentally exhausted. I can barely focus on anything. I just have to pull that last little bit of energy out of me to make it and then Friday night, it's me, a bottle of wine, netflix, the cat, and maybe a pizza.

The pizza is only if I can get the magically disappearing $300 back from Kangaroo and Raceway. Somehow, I purchased $300 worth of gas at these stations. McQueen doesn't hold that much gas, in fact, it only holds approximately $28 worth at a time, and I most certainly do not have $300 worth of gas in canisters somewhere. Just more unwanted stress I have to handle. I'm going to have to skip the test review in the morning to go to the bank and not only change my address but alert them to fraud on my account and fill out whatever I need to get my moneys back. Thank God I have a good bank (knock on wood) and I feel confident I'm going to get my $300 back. It's just a scary thing to realize that you are holding your debit card and somehow, not one but two gas stations have added additional charges to your card even after you cleared your information from the pump. At least the old apartment officially released me from my lease and I'll be getting back more than what was stolen in the event working with my bank or whoever proves difficult. I just pray it doesn't consume my whole two weeks off.

Notice how late I'm up? Yeah, that's because I no longer work the morning shift. In fact, this girl is on sabbatical... I guess you can call it that... maybe more like semi-sabbatical. I'm only helping out on an as needed basis so I can recharge before semester 2. This is why I saved my money up before it was stolen: so I can relax!

Everybody likes a debate!

Funny nursing school story:


We have to do these debates. School assignments like these are asking for it... If you can't tell, I'm a little opinionated. Maybe a little strong-headed... but just a little. Not much at all...nah. They divided us up in to groups and the first two groups delivered their debates yesterday. The rest of us were allowed to ask questions following and active participation was encouraged because these debates would be a part of our midterms and finals.


OK...


The first group presents the pros and cons of whether or not an alcoholic should be allowed a liver transplant. I take out my notebook, jot down the arguments as the list them, their reasonings and immediately on the side for allowing alcoholics to get a new liver, I see that they have a contradictory argument. So I form my question and wait patiently to ask it. When they conclude and open the floor, I raise my hand because I'm a good student like that and ask, "This question is for the pro side, you mentioned that most alcoholics who receive a new liver and commit to lifelong rehab and sobriety are said to be successful. The cons mentioned that 95% of alcoholics have at least one drink within the first year post surgery and your side also mentioned that alcoholism is a disease and stressed the importance of treatting that disease. Do you think that allowing an alcoholic to receive a liver is really treating the disease if 95% have a drink in the first year?"


Crickets and blank stares. I didn't think I was asking that hard of a question! But they couldn't answer it!


The next group comes to the front and presents the pro's and cons of increasing health insurance premiums for smokers and the obese. This should be good. Now granted, these are kids ten years younger than me so they have missed decades worth of news articles and debates I've already seen and heard on these subjects. Despite that, I forgot this myself and assumed to hear the same arguments when this issue came up in the early 2000s. I again pay attention, write down my thoughts and their points, form my question and tuck it aside and wait for my turn. This debate, I admit, got me more fired up than the prior. The side in favor of allowing insurance companies to raise premiums missed major points and had huge holes. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one with tough questions.


"You mentioned that insurance companies have a right to raise insurance premiums selectively because they are their own business. The United States constitution explicitely protects from discrimination such as this. By allowing these companies to selectively choose who has higher premiums, do you not find this unconstitutional? What about people who need the insurance to help them pay for medical problems with obesity as a side-effect? Or those on fixed-incomes who can't afford a healthier eating regime? Can you tell me how it is constitutional for an insurance company to pick and choose who is a higher risk?"


The group stood in silence with their mouths open, looked at each other for a second and then stared back at me. Finally, a one of the first girls to speak stuttered her original argument. So I asked again, "So you are saying that yes, it's constitutional for an insurance company to discriminate?"


"I don't understand those big words."


This is the future of America and somebody's future nurse --- not Mine!!


After the debates, I was flooded with people thanking me for not asking them a question and the rest of the nursing students asking me to be nice to them when it was time for their group to go...


Yup... leave it to me...