Week Four - A Week of Firsts

Got my first parking ticket here and I feel justified in fighting it based on what the sign said when I parked...but I know I won't. Twenty bucks just ain't worth the hassle of going to parking court. I bet the city knows that and banks on it. Grrr.

Today was the first day I walked outside and started shivering like it must be fall. Could it be?!!! I don't dare to hope. I've been looking forward to cold weather since I hear it means that "Cockroach Season" is officially over.

But the most important first was meeting my Very First Patient!

Yes it was our first clinical week in the hospital, and I will admit I was nervous. This surprises me since not much does. We awoke in the wee hours in the morning and made our way as a class to the hospital cafeteria to breakfast and have a meeting with our clinical instructor. This is the teacher who leads a small group of students throughout the quarter through the clinical (hospital and hands on care) experience. Of all the professors here -- and I really like them all -- I feel lucky to have gotten who I did. She's the best!

So we arrived on our floor in our small group and were oriented. Given a tour. The codes to all the locked rooms. Passwords to the computer system. (Basically the keys to the kingdom.) Then we were assigned our patient and I got a little bubble of nerves when I passed her room for the first time knowing I would shortly have to knock on her door like I belonged there and begin forming the Therapeutic Relationship. I'm amused at how skittish I was to do this -- actually making several "fly-bys" past her door, unable to make myself knock until I finally gathered up the gumption to just do it.

I was only there to complete a partial healthcare assessment on her, so I didn't have to make any physical contact or practice my limited "skills" on her just yet. Once I did go in, thankfully things flowed naturally through the questionnaire. She was kind, warm and amiable. I wonder what she thought of me? I know what I would have thought sitting in that bed:

"She looks like a doctor" -- in my lab coat I felt like a fraud. I really only know basic hand washing, vital signs and how to put someone in restraints...yet here I was like someone from Grey's Anatomy.

"A student?! --Oh brother, just let me sleep." -- the woman had just had surgery the day before and now she was having to sit there and answer questions like: what do you like best about yourself? PUH-LEEZE.

Still -- even if she thought those things, she hid it well. I have to say I feel blessed I didn't get an unhappy and uncooperative patient for my first time at bat. I thoroughly enjoyed my day on the floor, even though I was worried about getting in the way of the hospital staff -- the nurses and doctors who "belonged there." When I brought that up I loved my teacher's response. She said it was her belief that the nursing students had every right to be in that patient's room as the staff did. Makes sense, since that's how new nurses are made, and every professional there started at the bottom like I did yesterday.

It's fun and daunting starting something new. I like it.

Week 3 - The Ups...The Downs

Every other Friday is test day here in nursing school, so of course I started out the week full of the promise of a regimented and rigorous daily study schedule. I always start test weeks out that way. Then I chuck that plan and wing it. Of course I would never advise anyone else to do that. Stick To Your Plan. But me? I guess I don't like boundaries...even self-imposed ones.

This week, however, I was sidelined a little bit because of the dreaded insomnia thing. It hit hard Tuesday night and I actually hit a record of No Sleep Whatsoever that night. That put me into a fog and made studying terribly difficult. Luckily the test went well, I think. Will get grades back soon and then we'll know for sure. I'm taking steps to figure out the sleeplessness in the meantime.

Everyone keeps asking about the dorms. Last week I described the periods of wildness from the denizens here, and it can be wild. Though my room is now a cute little haven, one can't ignore the sounds from the hall unless one wants the fan to be set on "jet engine" in order to drown it out. However, I'm adjusting...and the price is right!  :)

Plus I've confirmed something I've always thought about me; I love living in small spaces. LOVE it. I have been mocked for setting my sites on one day living in an Airstream trailer. Some may consider my 600 square foot cabin small...but I have always thought I'd like to try even smaller. Even just temporarily—a trailer...a boat. And now I am putting it to the test in this 9' x 11' dorm room.

Why? I love the simplicity of it. Perhaps I'm still traumatized by the weeks of sifting through all of my personal belongings down at the beach in order to prep my cabin for the renters and get my things into storage. There were hundreds of items I had forgotten I had, or hadn't touched in many years. Now I have all that I need, organized into this little space. And there is little room for clutter, so I can keep it pruned back. I have always said all I need is a comfy place to sleep, a relaxing place to sit, and some place to cook. I have that here and its really all I want. And my rule when moving in was, nothing comes in unless it is beautiful AND functional. (Preferably multi-functional.) What a good rule. I have one bowl for my oatmeal, a pretty one from Anthropologie. One mug for my tea -- the same one I've used at home for years. One travel mug. One place setting of cutlery. It is really quite freeing.

Down with clutter and excessive, useless STUFF!

The other thing I have learned from this move is this: As much as I have had a wanderlust over the last decade, now I know that the beach will always be home base. I don't think I could go for good. I will take time outs to have adventures, but I will need to return to the place (and the people) that feed my soul. I guess I had to leave to know that.

This is the quote I have posted on my FB page. It fits.

"I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family, and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give." - Thomas Jefferson