Trip to the Homeland

After months of promising my parents a visit home, 

I finally had a four day break in my work schedule and hopped a train to New York Connecticut. 

We hit up the local haunts including Sal's Pizza

I wandered around my small, small home town (the tour of "downtown" ended in a few minutes)

I took a spin on the tractor

And hung out with the parental units

By some Amtrak miracle, I arrived back in Bmore tonight only 20 minutes behind schedule.

Beta-Carotene for Days and Days!

 Caution: corny jokes related to all things nursing and gardening ahead

Q: How do you kill a salad? A: You go for the carrot-id artery.

 Q: What does the Carrot priest say at church? A: "Lettuce Pray" 

Okay now that that is out of my system, lets get to the real root of the post (man the puns are just flowing).  Two weeks ago, I pulled up the rest of my carrots so I now have about 20 pounds of them sitting in my crisper.  While most will be sliced and diced for lunches, some will be cooked and frozen for winter time soups and stews and the remaining ones shall be pickled.  

Did you know the first carrots were actually purple?  Yup that's right, before the 17th Century carrots were purple; over the years, the Dutch began to cultivate the orange ones we most frequently see in the grocery store farmers market.  While the majority of mine were orange, the seeds I bought had a handful of purple and white carrots too.  I had bought some rocket red seeds, but due to heavy rains and no boards around my plot, I lost those seeds early on (every now and then I come across a random carrot when I am pulling weeds). 

Counting down the days until the fall veggies start to pop up!

Beatrice the Biologist

Right now my life is filled with all things nursing and gardening.  Now I know the internet is filled with other things, but my eye clearly gravitates towards articles and websites related to the above two above.  I stumbled across Beatrice the Biologist and spent some time combing through her cartoons.  Here are a couple of my favorites!

While most people might see this as dirt, the first thing that popped into my head was c. diff 

(talk about an occupational hazard).

And one more for good measure!

Stuff White People Like

Nothing says summer like an outdoor concert coupled with good friends and a picnic.  This one has been a long time coming; my ticket for the Matt Nathanson and Gavin Degraw has been burning a hole in my pocket for weeks!  On a side note in all the years I have been going to concerts at Wolf Trap, I never knew it was considered to be a National Park for the Performing Arts. 

You could put good money on the fact I was going to be there when the doors opened because we had lawn seats and who wants to be way off to the side or in the SUPER nosebleed seats.  Did I mention how excited I am for this concert?!?  Despite walking through the door at 1535 things were PACKED.  We did manage to find some good seats which was a relief.

While we had a whole bunch of home cooked items at our picnic (I brought an Asian slaw and roasted corn/tomato salad thanks to the urban garden) we looked like rookies.  A bunch of people around us had quite the spreads and even metal wine glass/bottle holders you could stake into the ground. 

A super grainy photo from the evening, but at least it proves we were there.

As the sun went down the weather was perfect and soon everyone was dancing along.  

Here is a picture taken by one of Matt Nathanson's band members. 

Still Standing

The last two weeks have been a complete whirlwind!  I had seven 12 hour shifts, 12 hours of ECG training and another 4 hours for a new graduate class; my bank account is not complaining.  Here is the recap as we round out week six:

1)  Full Patient Load:  I am now taking care of four patients and have perfected my brain sheet.  Having a well organized SINGLE sheet of paper is key to making sure you do not get your patients confused (there is a space for all the body systems, vital signs, medical team, code status, allergies, dx and hx) and to give you an outline of what you need to get done throughout the day(draw labs, give meds, etc).

2)  Drawing Blood: By this point in orientation I watched all the how to videos on drawing blood and placing IVs, but never had the opportunity to do it on a real person.  That has all changed and I was able to successfully draw blood for the first time.   Now I know this is not a picture of me drawing blood, but I only have one of me giving myself a PPD test.  

3)  Electrocardiography:  I survived the EKG reading class.  This is definitely a use it or lose it kind of skill.  While I could tell you the difference between a fib, a flutter, v tach and v fib before the class began, this was pretty much the extent of my skills.  Little known fact for non medical people, the medical shows have been lying to you all these years.  You cannot shock someone in asystole aka someone who is flat lining.  In order for defribulation to work, there needs to be some electrical activity in the heart; with asystole there is NO electrical activity. 

4)  Patient education.  When I was working as an AmeriCorps member, one of my favorite parts of the job was engaging clients in health education.  While some patients on our unti have a vague idea about their health condition and/or medications, this is usually not the case.  I am also a strong believer in see one, do one, teach one; the teaching helps solidify my knowledge and skills and sometimes patients will even teach me which is amazing.  

5)  Creating rapport: One of the things that drew me to nursing was the fact I would be able to interact with patients and their families during the majority of my shift.  While medicine treats the disease, nursing treats the human reaction to the disease.  Sure we can explain complex medical terminology, hook up IVs and administer meds, but we also get to create a special kind of bond with patients and their families.  There is nothing better than getting a hug and/or a grateful thank-you after a 12-hour shift. 

And now here we are and this is me.  Just kidding.  I am still standing, but definitely look forward to SIX days off; the scheduling gods were looking out for me. 

I am also happy to report that half marathon training is still going strong.  Okay okay we only in week two, but I have learned to celebrate the small victories in life (and the mileage hasn't gotten crazy yet so that is great for a non-runner). 

Happy SUS-iversary

It's that time of year again.  A time when all the feels for bikes, affordable housing and 26 amazing teammates come back.  Two years ago, SUS '12 donned some arm warmers and rain jackets as we completed the final 44.2 miles; my final odometer came in at 4027.8 miles, but the official mileage was just shy of 4200 miles.

Need another reason to celebrate?  Today the newest SUS members dipped their wheels in the Pacific Ocean.  Welcome to the family and congrats on raising $163,772 for the affordable housing cause!!