Lots to catch up on!

A lot has been happening recently, and I've been super lazy about writing it down.

First off, LINDSEA AND TRAVIS GOT MARRIED! It was tons of fun having family all here and seeing Linds and Travis. She was gorgeous! Janae did amazing on her hair and makeup, and was nice enough to do all of our (my mom, Whit and I) hair and makeup.  It's always more fun having someone else do it, especially when they are super talented. THANK YOU JANAE!!!

I started another semester of school, and have been incredibly lucky with my clinicals.  We are at a specialty hospital about 10 minutes from my apartment, so no more waking up at 4 to drive to Salt Lake!! Yay! I still wake up at 5, but it's a huge improvement. Last semester we were in a long term care facility that wasn't the nicest, but this semester it's more fast paced and higher needs patients. I am learning a ton. 

On my first clinical day I got to assist with dressing the wound of a patient who had had necrotizing fasciitis on her leg, which is a flesh eating bacteria.  It's disgusting, or I would have put a picture from the internet on, but if you have a strong stomach look it up. It was seriously one of the craziest things I've ever seen.  I could see her muscle and tendons and part of the bone.  I could see the muscle twitching.  I am seriously in awe of the human body. I've studied on cadavers but seeing alive tissue like that was incredible. The infected skin had all been removed but they didn't have a skin graft on it. They were putting a wound vac on it, which is a type of dressing to increase the blood flow to the area, and I got to help.  WAY better than last semester where I just passed out medication!

On my second clinical day I was sitting at the nurse's station with the unit coordinator and watching the heart monitor screens.  She was showing me the oxygen levels and the different heart rhythms for different patients, when one was all over the place.  He was in a room where there was a video camera because he was high observation, and we could see the nurse and CNA in the room with him.  They were putting him on his side to clean him up, when all of a sudden the code blue alarm went off.  The unit coordinator I was with went on the intercom and announced it, and EVERYONE ran to the room.  It was insane, but everyone was so calm.  The doctor was calling out orders and the respiratory therapist intubated him.  The nurse and CNA were alternating doing chest compressions and after about ten minutes his heart rate came back up.  I have never seen anything like it.  It's amazing how fast a heart can stop, but it's crazy what medicine and the people who know what they are doing can do.

In other areas of my life, I have the sweetest dad.  Every year on Valentine's Day as long as I can remember my dad has gotten me something.  One year it was a parakeet, and this year it was flowers.  I love looking at the roses on the counter and knowing my dad thought about me. He's the best!

I am on a dodgeball team with 5 other girls and we are pretty awesome.  We were ranked third and just started tournament.  We won our first game tonight! YAY! We also play on Wednesday nights with a friend from the ward.  It's been really fun, especially since the guys have learned it's okay to hit us.  Before I could stand in the middle and nothing would even come close to me. It's way better now though.

Something exciting happened today!!! I got a job!!! (If my references clear- but I already got an ID badge with my picture on it..haha) I will be doing home health visits for a staffing company, so I can pick my own hours and I get paid pretty well.  It'll be good experience too.  I've been trying to get into the hospital here but they want CNA's with more experience, so this will help with that too.  I'm excited to be working again!

That's pretty much my life. :) VEGAS FOR THE WEEKEND!