Week In Review

Monday I taught Sally's pharmacology class because she was attending her brother's funeral.  I was happy to help and luckily it was a topic I had already taught so preparation wasn't bad.  I taught about medications used to treat protozoal and helminthic infestations (parasites and worms).  It gross to think about parasites and worms and of course I made it worse by showing lots of pictures and videos.  We watched a surgery of a 3-year old boy in a third-world country where they removed hundred and hundreds of live, squiggly wormS from his intestine.  It was DISGUSTING!  But the students loved it - that's how we nurses are.

Tuesday I started with this semester's clinical rotation.  I get to be with the students at Pineview Rehab which is a wonderful facility.  I'm very impressed with the staff there and feel fortunate that my students have an opportunity to be there.  I will spend every Tuesday and Thursday for the next 6 weeks at Pineview.

This is the library, my little corner during the 12-hour shifts

My students, Andrea, Aimee, Erica, and Emily with nurses Cami and Brittney

The clinical days are long but also very rewarding when you get to see the students learn to do things for the first time on "real" people and also see their minds spinning as they begin to process the nursing concepts that we have been learning in class.

Thursday afternoon Kim took his mother to the hospital with pneumonia.  She was coughing up blood and her O2 sats were in the 70's.  They gave her a breathing treatment and got her oxygen up and then her blood pressure tanked so they admitted her into Intermediate Care at the hospital (a step-down from ICU). 

We visited her for a good while on Thursday evening.  She is such as sweet lady.  She is very ill yet she kept her hand on my knee and stated that she was worried about me because I looked so tired.  She is one of the kindest ladies in the world and I am so very grateful that I get to call her my mother-in-law.  

Later that night, around midnight, Kim's sleep was disturbed when his sister, Jody, called asking for help.  Apparently Craig was having problems and she needed help getting him to the hospital.  Kim immediately left to help.  Craig has had serious complications from diabetes for quite awhile and recently has had a series of strokes that have not left him with any paralysis but has progressively made him weaker and weaker.  Kim has been helping him bathe twice a week for the last year because he is just too weak to do it himself.  The illness is taking away his sight.    I am so sad for Craig and his family.  His health has been going downhill for a long time and the entire family has suffered great pains, countless hours of worry, and numerous hospital visits.  It's so hard to watch Craig's quality of life diminish day by day.

Craig and girls, Mickel and Kristiann

Friday afternoon we visited with Kim's mom in the hospital then came back to check on my dad, do some laundry and do his pills.  He seems to be doing pretty good with keeping his tools out of his walkway, although the bikes are out again.  

Saturday we stopped by dad's again to take out his stitches and then we drove down to the University of Utah Hospital to visit Kim's brother, Dave.  He is doing very well with the liver transplant but last week he had a hemorrhagic stroke.  The doctor's feel that there is no correlation between the transplant and the stroke, it was just coincidence.  He is so fatigued since the stroke that he didn't even wake up at all during the time we were there, about 2 hours.  Alicia said that was normal.  They are performing about 6 sessions of therapy daily and it just wears him out.  Hopefully he will recover soon.  It is so hard to just see him lay there.  One interesting piece of information is that the researchers discovered the cause of his liver problems.  Apparently he has an Alpha 1 Antitrypsin deficiency.  This deficiency is genetic and can cause either lung or liver problems.  According to web articles I researched, many people with this deficiency are mistakenly diagnosed with asthma.  Kim's mother has suffered from asthma most of her life.  Since this is genetic I'll bet she passed it on to him.  Apparently there is no cure of this deficiency so family members are trying to decide if they each want to be tested for the deficiency.

To be brutally honest - I'm pretty sick of hospitals and serious illnesses right now.  My heart aches so badly for everyone who is dealing with health issues!  I'm mentally and emotionally fatigued!  And it isn't even me who has to directly deal with it.

We ended the evening by going out with the Parrishes, one of our favorite things to do.  We just went to Peach City where they ate dinner and Kim and I shared a hot fudge and caramel Sundae since we ate at Crown Burger on our way home from Salt Lake.  The Parrishes are such good friends!  Actually they feel more like family than friends.  We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

THIS WEEK I AM GRATEFUL FOR:
A husband who is ready, willing, and able to help when anyone needs him.  He will forego sleep and food if someone calls with a need.  He is so attentive, kind, and helpful to me, especially when I struggle with my February depression.  He is conscious of my moods and makes me feel so loved.