NURSING SCHOOL!!!

So as you will see upon reading this, it is around 1:00 am...and it's a school night! My first school night of the year 2010-2011 to be exact. And why am I still up? Because I've been doing homework. Yep. I have homework due on the first day of school. I suppose this is one of the first indications of what the year is going to be like, but I am excited for it all! I just finished so I'll be heading to bed after this (thank goodness!), but I just wanted to let you know that my new journey that I have been anticipating for almost my whole life is beginning and I will try to keep you in the loop as best I can. There will be many things I cannot tell you about (confidentiality and all that), but I will do my best to allow you to go on this journey with me. I also want to take the opportunity to say thank you to my family and friends for encouraging, strengthening, and challenging me to go for this dream. I would probably not be where I am today if it weren't for you! Just one more thing then I'm off to bed...I want to pray for this year and thank God for this opportunity:

"Heavenly Father, thank you so much for making me one of your children and for giving me a burden to love on other people. It is my prayer that as I am able to help others, I can shine Your light in the lives of those I come into contact with. If this is Your will, I pray for endurance, for patience, and for an ever increasing love for hurting people. Lord, I am nervous and excited; I have no idea how I will handle all the stress that has been guaranteed as a part of nursing school, but I pray that with Your help I can use my time wisely and still make time for family and friends. I pray that I would make time to spend with You every day and that I won't forget why I want to be a nurse: to lovingly care for people in Jesus' name. I pray that I would also have an opportunity to represent You to my peers. Make me bold for You. Give me courage to not give up. Help me to learn all I can so that I will be able to effectively care for the people You enable me to treat. I pray in Your name,

Amen."

Consider it all joy

I am currently doing a study on Philippians and am reading a book on it by David L. Hockling titled "How to Be Happy in Difficult Situation." The title doesn't draw me in, but listen to this passage and this portion of the introduction to his book:

Acts 16:6-10 [this gives the background for why Paul went to Philippi (the leading city of the district of Macedonia" according to Acts 16:12)]:

"And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: A certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to them, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." 


"What a fascination account of God's direction in a person's life! All of us need the kind of responsive heart that is revealed in these verses. Often, the Lord will simply close the door on our plans and the places we had decided to go. Too many times we become bitter, discouraged, and defeated over "closed doors" when it is simply the loving hand of a God who wants the very best for us and has a specific plan to work in our lives. It is difficult to say how the Spirit of God was impressing Paul's heart in these verses. Perhaps it was through circumstances. Maybe the roads into Bithynia were closed due to bad weather! Who knows? The obvious fact is that they were led by the Spirit of God."


I know I often feel discouraged when my plans don't go through. This excerpt is such an encouragement to me; to think that a "no" from God is actually leading me some place better than I ever could have planned! I hope that I can learn to depend on the Holy Spirit for every decision, and that I will "consider it all joy when I encounter various trials; knowing that the testing of my faith produces endurance" James 1: 2-3 (revised).

No More Wisdom...

On Thursday I got my wisdom teeth out. Yay! Hurrah, it was finally done!! My appointment was made for July, but then it was discovered that I had mono...so I had to wait. I was then told to make my new appointment for 4 to 6 weeks later. And so we did - which brings us to Thursday. My mom took me to my Oral Surgeon (who was wonderful!) and when we arrived, I couldn't help but think that they might turn me away to wait again. But they didn't! They whisked me right in and I couldn't help but be slightly nervous and excited. Nervous because I had never done this before but excited because I am a nerd that way. :)

Side note: I had originally wanted to write this post on Thursday to prove that I was capable of doing something the day of, but I got to sleeping and forgot about it. Ha!

K, back to the story: Going into the procedure I wasn't sure how I would do or how I would respond because I had never had surgery before of any kind. It was going to be my first experience with general anesthesia... Here is my reasoning for wanting to be totally out: 1) I didn't want to get cold - because I am always cold and I knew that I would be in their air conditioned rooms - and 2) I didn't want to get bored. I was told the actual surgery would take about 20 minutes but that I would have to lie there for a total of about an hour, and I didn't want to get bored without being able to move around. I'm sure you didn't need that explanation, but just in case you were wondering, or in case you ever get the option to choose local or general anesthesia, you will now have one person's very weird point of view on the matter.

Anyways, I was taken to a room with a dentist chair in it, laid down, hooked up to various monitors, given an i.v...and then I was out. No laughing gas, no being asked to count to 10...I just fell asleep with people working over my head to get things ready. It was very peaceful. The next thing I remember was slowly waking up and being told everything went just fine and that I had to lie there for a little bit longer. I had been expecting to laugh hysterically or start crying or feel weird (I was expecting this from all of the stories I had heard), but I was perfectly alert and everything made sense to me. I was, however, shaking very badly. This, apparently, was my only reaction to the drugs. It stopped after a little while and they gave me a blanket to get warm. Then for the next 20 minutes I lied there and was asked various questions of which I tried to answer through my swollen/gauzed-filled mouth. And then I was given an ice pack to go around my head and wheeled out to the car.

I arrived home, took some meds and went straight to bed for a while. Although I didn't get around to writing this post then, I did get some homework done! Success!!

So I may have lost all my wisdom through this experience, but I am still able to do homework and sleep which is what my life will consist of for the next two years (besides a few other key events hopefully) so I guess I'll turn out ok.

:)

Uniforms, Background Checks, Mingling, and Books

Today was the first day that all of us who got accepted to Chemeketa's Nursing Program had to congregate at school to do various things before orientation tomorrow. The first thing upon arrival was getting sized for the scrubs that I will have to wear every lab day and at every clinical (when we go to hospitals and work with patients). I don't have a picture of them yet because we just ordered them today and will receive them later, but once I have them I'll take a picture for you to see. After our fitting, we purchased blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes and then we all piled into a classroom to sign forms for our background check. Then we had some free time, so a friend of mine and I went to the Lancaster Mall to buy our lab coats at "Life Uniform." After that I picked up 4 of the books I had pre-ordered from the bookstore and then bought my parking permit for the year.

After that there was a gathering for all 1st year nursing students to meet one another, meet some of the instructors, and talk with 2nd year students. When we signed in, we were told there was a raffle going to happen at the end. The entry tickets were bandaids that we wrote our names on and the container they were put into was a bedpan (haha). After signing in, everyone went through the food line which included sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and then M&Ms and Jelly Beans in medicine cups like you drink cough syrup out of...apparently the nursing jokes have begun! I thought it was cute :) I didn't win any of the raffle prizes but the lady next to me won a gift certificate for the bookstore.

So then I drove home and waiting for me on the front table in the living room 3 of my nursing books I bought on Amazon. yay!! So as of now, I have 8 out of my 9 required texts...this is good because I already have homework that I have to do before the first day of actual class. So... if you are looking for me over the next two weeks, I will most likely have my head in a book. It's a good thing I like school! 

Like I said, tomorrow is orientation all day, so I'll be off to bed soon. 

Good night!

I love you, Lord

I don't know if many of you know or remember this song. I learned it years ago when I was itty bitty, but it popped into my head just now...every once in a while a song like that will just appear in my head and I am always encouraged by it. I feel as if God specially picks these songs for me for those moments and I feel closer to our awesome and eternal God. 


This is my prayer this morning:


I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice
To worship you, Oh my soul rejoice!
Take joy, my King, in what you hear
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear

I love you, Lord, and I lift my hands
To worship you as my soul demands
Take joy, my King, in what you see
May I be a sweet, sweet child on your knee


"Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation." Psalm 35:9