This past year I went to the Bahama's for my birthday and on my first cruise - not gonna lie I kept thinking about the Poseidon Adventure the whole time; that was rather nerve wracking, combined with all the screaming kids it was an interesting trip - but I did get to swim with the dolphins and I learned how to snorkel and that was a lot of fun.
My urologist said that my stones will need to pass on their own - which sucks because they keep moving and hitting all my nerves, I have a follow up appointment in December - he doesn't want to expose me to more radiation than he needs too and apparently having repeated CT's and X-rays aren't good for you. In December when I went in for my follow up he couldn't actually see them on the X-ray - so either they're gone or playing possum - my bet is on possum, I had changed medications over the summer but I don't think it would have caused all twelve of them to disappear - hence the next follow up in December.
On the school front - I'll be starting in August with A&P 1 - I actually did A&P 1 before coming out here but they only transfer as a pair so I'm redoing it - I figure the review will be good. In January I'll be doing A&P 2 and the HESI and then applying to the program - hopefully I'll start that fall. In January during orientation they said that you had to have passed a state approved CNA course and that being from out of state and challenging the boards may not be "good enough" - my thought was I've been doing this for nine years in and out of hospices, hospitals, home healths and nursing homes, I'm not redoing the class. After talking to my advisor - she said all they wanted to know was whether or not I'd gone through an actual program and if I was on the state registry - on the job training would not be sufficient. They could have just said that during orientation - one thing I've learned about this program is that they make it ridiculously hard to get into and stay in because they have a lot of people wanting to go through their program and become nurses - they do turn out really good nurses though. One step closer to moving forward in my career - it would have been convenient if I'd known what I wanted to do when I was 18 but I believe there is a time and season to everything - sometimes it's just not the right time yet.
And speaking of time - my time with hospice is drawing to a close. This is both bitter and sweet. Sweet because I can finally move forward with my life and stop wondering what could've been, I can go back to school and get more involved with church - the first time around when I was in Utah, I didn't feel like I was done with hospice - that hospice yes, but not hospice in general, I felt like I'd be circling back around again - it always had me wondering what was in store. And it's bitter because I'll miss my friends and the work - hospice is where I fell in love with nursing and saw the potential of what nursing could be and when I decided to become a nurse. I'll miss being on night shift - ironically enough - everything is laid back, management and supervisors aren't micromanaging at night, visitors aren't as numerous and you're more reliant on each other to get things done - no one to pass the puck too. But in order to succeed at school I need to be on day shift - the biggest perk to day shift is that I'll be able to go the hospital, do my 12 hours and leave - can't do that at hospice, we're regularly working 14-16 hour shifts (damn you charting). Anyway - pros and cons to this move but ultimately I think it'll be a good thing - especially since this is why I came out here. My last day with hospice is July 1st - that'll give me just over a month to readjust to a day schedule.
