what a week.

what a week. it started out terrible, as you know from my last post. and it hasn't gotten much better. but HALLELUJAH it's the weekend. i'm still sick, but at least i can stay at home. i went from sore throat & runny nose --> achy limbs --> fever --> sinuses plugged with thick green stuff --> no voice. and not only have i lost my voice, but R is now stuffed up too. i missed one class this week, as i felt sleep was more important and apparently it was the most boring class and all the notes are posted on the internet anyway.

i did not want to go to clinical this week. but i thought i'd lose marks if i didn't (they are allowed to take off half a letter grade for each day we miss!), but now i wonder if i should have anyways. yesterday was going fine. but then it took a turn for the worst. i guess last week my instructor had really emphasized what our priorities should be in the a.m. and yesterday, i thought that i had covered everything except one thing (giving my fresh post-op patient a bath), which she clearly told me to wait with, since the patient had a visitor. but then that was postponed due to other things, and then physio was in so i had to wait till they were done. etc. etc. and i had 2 other patients i was caring for too. so she confronted me in the hall and told me that this was unacceptable and i got really upset because i thought she told me to wait and she said that i should have done it earlier anyways (okay, i'm still slow in the mornings. i can't wait till i'm a nurse and have health care aids to help out- as students, we do all the health care aid crap too. there is enough to do in the morning as it is). about this time, my drugs start wearing out and my nose is starting its waterfall of mucus where i need to blow it for a full 3 minutes to clear it. so i'm standing there, being told that i don't know how to organize my day, people walking past, looking at me, my nose is bright red and ready to burst, and you know that feeling where it makes your eyes start to burn and then water, so then she says, "this isn't something to cry about." oh gee. thanks. this makes me even more angry, and perhaps that made my eyes a little more wet. i should have just walked away at that point. i was also running on 6 hours of sleep. [okay that sounds like enough to you, but my body is exhausted and i've been sleeping 10-14 hours/day this week and i still feel wasted]. what a day. what a terrible day.
and i can't just say, "oh well. that's over with." because i KNOW that this will come up on my final evaluation. at the midterm, there was another example of where i was 'unorganized' (whatever), and it came up in 3 or 4 places in my evaluation. oh great, i can hardly wait....

but then the day got better. in fact, this is probably was the highlight of my week. but i was feeling too crappy to get too excited. i started an IV on my patient - the first IV i've ever done! and.... i got it on my first try!!! so exciting!! it wasn't very hard at all. but i've been told so many times that it really depends on the patient's veins and that you can start 10 IVs really easily and then with your next patient, you can't get it at all (so don't blame the nurse if she's digging around in your arm! ha!). ya, so now i feel like a pro. i guess i should celebrate.