One

A couple weeks ago we celebrated baby S's 1st birthday. My SIL did an amazing job decorating, I would not be surprised to see these photos repinned. Scarlett was such a trooper through all the photos and messy cake. It is so fun to watch her personality grow. She is spunky, shy, flirty, clean, smart, and CUTE! 

Love you S!

Final SNA

Thursday was our final SNA meeting. Since it is also Mrs. Murphy's final semester we decided to celebrate her. Andrew had a brilliant idea to invite her husband, Dr. Murphy. Since he has clinical on his floor he was able to find him and invite him personally. The meeting started as usual to make sure she wouldn't catch onto anything that was planned. For the final item on the agenda Andrew announced there would be a new award and scholarship handed out biannually in her name. Then she was given an award to take home recognizing her leadership and compassion that inspired this scholarship. Because we love her so much, we also created a book of notes from all 4 semesters saying thank you and other sweet things. It was super special to see her husband surprise her and her reaction to all the recognition and "thank you's".

If you didn't know, Mrs. Murphy is the SNA advisor and 1st semester instructor. I am super thankful to have had her as instructor and Andrew especially since he is in her last. She has always been so encouraging and supportive of Andrew and I (I think we kind of stick out because we are the first couple to be in nursing school together ever). She has seen first hand our journey through school from Andrew not being well and me not knowing where to take him to now she says he needs an accelerated program just for him! Obviously I know he is amazing, but its so meaningful to hear someone you look up to reinforce that. I let her know Andrew and I won't be shy to visit her in the OC :) I have been planting little seeds in Andrews mind for a while now about us moving there. Since my first trip to Newport when I was little little I said one day I will be a nurse, work at Hoag, and live in this cute blue house right on the water. 2/3 would  be okay too :)

Anyyyyway, it was really nice to have a good time after the most wretched exam of my life. We won't talk about that though... 

On to FINALS! 

Games

A while back during one of our SNA meetings someone mentioned the idea of participating in the schools "Olympics". A little background: I have ALWAYS wanted to be in a pie eating contest. So when I heard that would be one of the games this year I instantly volunteered myself (& Andrew). Before you get excited, there won't be any photos of me with the Gold medal for eating a pie the fastest, because there wasn't a contest. However, we did place in the "pin the tail on the donkey" game... 

If anything we got some pretty great photos out of it :)

Family Time

Besides water entertainment, the weekend was full of dads famous cooking and family time. Andrew was so excited Scarlett was his friend. Next time we see her she will be turning ONE -cant even believe it. She is one happy baby, if you don't believe me just look at that big smile she gives her mommy and daddy all the time. 

Water

Last weekend the Brunner trio came to town and we had a sweet little visit. One important thing about this post: my niece is a doll! My mom bought baby S a blow up pool to keep cool but it turned out the grown ups liked it too. 

Pedes

I got to spend another day in Pedes this week and hopefully tomorrow will make it two. I got to administer an IV piggyback through a syringe and hold a cute baby. As you can see I kind of like it there a lot. This photo was taken in the multifunctional "break room/storage room/treatment room". 

Nursing School Update

Sadly, I don't have any awesome photos to post about school. Andrew spent last weeks clinical in the OR. I told him to take a photo in his scrubs (because they are cool surgical scrubs) but he didn't get the message in time. He assured me he looked hot though. The experience definitely made him more excited to pursue CRNA. Fun fact: His surgeon is married to the daughter of the Pixis creator (a machine that dispenses all the patients medications). Isn't that cool? He also mentioned the team was pretty vulgar. I guess when you are a female student they refrain a lot. I was going to tell you about the conversation we had about the smell of cauterizing flesh but I think I won't. I'll just tell you he really loved the experience and did not pass out.

In other news, I checked off on tracheostomy suctioning. Which means when my instructor comes up to a group of students and asks which one of us can go suction a patient, guess who has to go. When she handed me the goggles I was not a happy camper. The real icing on the cake was seconds before I was about to suction another student had the ventilator tube in her hand and calmly stated

"the trache tube is out"

For .3 seconds the room was SILENT, then instantly the instructor yells "CALL RESPIRATORY, CALL FOR HELP!". Everyone in the room was frantically searching for the phone or running to the nurses station or frozen with panic. I was definitely 100% confused as to what was going on. Looking at the patient I couldn't tell if they weren't breathing because they couldn't talk anyway, I just knew that was what everyone assumed was happening. The real kicker: 5 seconds later, as the room is about to fill with nurses, my instructor says "wait the patient is fine, cancel the call, the trache tube is not out, it was just the inner canula that fell out" (as in not the outer cannula which would cause the patient to stop breathing) and proceeds to laugh nervously and hysterically. Immediately she looks at me and says "okay, lets suction". All I could think about was HOLY SMOKES can I get a second to regain composure!?! But of course I know theres no weakness in nursing, so I suctioned.

I am definitely filing this under traumatic experiences in nursing school.

I am still concerned about that laugh of hers... very odd.

So tomorrow I have an exam, my birthday is Saturday, I am going to a birthday breakfast with my parents, then a "stop childhood obesity" walk for this semesters community service project, the rest of Saturday will include making flash cards for Andrew while he is in isolation studying, Sunday will continue with this weekends theme of studying, and then we will only have 4 weeks left of school!

Then Andrew will be in 2nd semester, I'll be in 3rd semester, and we will get to do this all over again!

Hope this provided some kind of thrill in your life and that your week is just fab :)