Well, I'm home sick from class today which affords me a rare moment to do something unrelated to class, homework, sleeping, eating, or panicking. I'm pretty much taking 7 classes, with absolutely mind-boggling amounts of homework and reading due for each one. I was feeling pretty cocky after getting a 100% on my first test, 98.5% on my second, then yesterday BAM! My first 81% test score of my entire life. I shake my fist at Health Assessment and Ms. Spain's arbitrary choosing of random and obscure test questions. On the bright side, I came home sick, disgruntled, and disgusted with myself and decided to take a nap. When I awoke, 7 of my nursing school friends had been writing me nonstop on Facebook telling me to wake up and look at my test grade because "the grades are rising like the flood waters downtown Charleston!" Her tests might be ridiculous but her grading technique is out of this world, seeing as how I ended up with a final grade of 89%. I'm not happy with it but I can live with myself.
So far I have to say I LOVE MUSC. It might very well be the death of me, but if I can make it 15 more months I'll be golden. I have already made some really great friends and Facebook has absolutely changed my life as far as providing a support network where we can vent and commiserate. I was just totally unprepared for how much work it would be... I don't even recognize this girl who studies and does homework literally ever spare moment of every day. Dustin and I occassionally catch each others eyes over the computer screen and think to ourselves, "Don't I know you?" I don't even read any more (gasp!!). Instead I read my textbooks before bed each night then dream of gaping black pressure ulcers sporting exposed vertebrae. Or palpating somebodys thyroid gland (horror!!).
The craziest part of all this school nonsense is that my lab group of 10 students learns a new skill on Fridays then does it to real people the next Wednesday at the hospital. There they break us down into groups of 5 per clinical instructor, who is literally at our beck and call every minute. Which is good, as it affords us bumbling idiots less opportunity to kill somebody. :) Last Wednesday she asked me if I wanted to learn how to flush and remove and IV, even though we haven't learned how to do that in class yet. She's all about exposing us to anything that comes along, even if it means asking the one student whos phobic about IV's and veins to do it. It actually turned out to be really easy and pretty awesome, too. I felt very nursey. This week we are learning how to give injections since my class will be giving all the flu shots to MUSC employees here in a couple of weeks. Our instructor keeps trying to ease our nerves by saying, "They even know you guys are students and are STILL letting you do it!" Not sure that helps, though.
As far as interesting things I've done so far, I'd say the bed-bath takes the cake. I have conquered the all-feared cleaning of a strange old man's penis and I doubt I will ever be the same. It really was not so bad, though, and by the end I actually felt like I had done a good thing leaving an invalid, delerious, unresponsive old man fresh as a daisy with clean sheets and Wheel of Fortune screaming at him from the corner. Last week I learned wound dressing, so God only knows what I'll get myself into this week at clinicals at the VA. I keep thinking that Jacqui would so appreciate the art of packing sterile wet gauze into all the nooks and crannies under somebody's shin bone with a 10" sterile Q-tip. Speaking of which, it has been eye-opening to immerse myself in fellow students who LOVE the gross/disturbing things in life. I'm so used to living with Dustin who unintentionally makes me feel like a living breathing necromaniac because I like this stuff. Now I'm in a class with 59 other people who when the instructor shows a picture of a 250 lb. man that flesh-eating bacteria has devoured most of his torso and thighs, leaving his exposed "bits" wrapped in gauze, there is a collective sigh of "Cooooooooooooooool!" I feel like I've come home. ;)
