The Magic of an Ordinary Day

Teaching an old dog new tricks

I picked up orientation materials from Med Flight last week, and have been studying to learn my new job.  There are a bunch of FAA videos to watch about air safety, decompression complications, altitude, hypoxia, survival, etc.  There is also a new patient population to learn.  Although I've been working CCU/open heart recovery for nearly 10 years, I've discovered I know a lot about a little.  I need to know a little about a lot.  Or hopefully more than a little.  Trauma, neuro, high-risk obstetrics, peds... I'll be taking care of all kinds of patients and I'll be the only nurse with them during the flight.  Scary?  Hell, yes. 

I am excited, though, to go on this new adventure, to coax my tired brain out of auto-pilot and be challenged again.  PACU is fun, quick-moving but not as challenging.  And half the time, we have a patient overnight because there's no room in the hospital, so I'm back to what I was doing before: one (or two) patients, me and a dark room for 12 hours.  Exactly what I was trying to get away from when I left CCU.

Speaking of CCU, I've decided to go back for 2 shifts a month.  I need to stay current with my critical care skills, and I need to be able to fill in shifts if I don't fly. The PACU manager is really chapping my hide (not transferring me to his department even though I've been working there for almost six months) but that's okay...I'll take my critical care trained, night shift working ass somewhere else (hard shift to fill?  have a vent overnight?  Too bad).   On good terms, of course.  Because I may want to work there later (when he's gone!), or fill in when it suits me.   

So that's my plan for the new year.  I feel energized and hopeful.  It's a pretty good feeling.

A quick breather

...in between holidays.  Whew!!  Even when you say things are going to be "low key" it's still a lot of constant stuff to do.  I love it, but I'm always glad to sneak in a little quiet time to wind down.

I think things were more active this year because I decided, the week before Christmas, that I just need to get out of the hospital!  So I applied to three different places (two air ambulance companies and an internal transfer to Presbyterian Home Health Care), went on two interviews, accepted one job (with Med Flight Air Ambulance) and was called last night by the other air ambulance company and have an interview with them on January 2nd.  They are all PRN jobs so maybe I will work two of them and maybe do two shifts at the hospital each month to stay "in the system"...who knows.  I'll have to see how much flying I am doing, because you don't get paid (much) if you're not in the air...

Besides all that stuff--it was Christmas!!  It was Hannah's first year of really "getting" the Santa thing.  We had a lot of fun with it.

She baked cookies for santa with her Grandma Sandy...

Then her and Papa tracked Santa on the Norad site.

...and Santa came to our house!!!  Her brought the Pet Shop she's been wanting...

 

Then we opened stockings and trashed the house!! 

A wonderful morning turned into a great day when we were joined by our friends Don, Candi, Phillip and Mary for Christmas dinner.  It was just a great time to be thankful for friends and family and to be grateful for all the blessings we have had this year.

The Sunday update

Hmmm, what did I do this week?

Jean was here until Wednesday, and she spoiled Jake rotten.

My Christmas cactus is blooming (hi Grandma!)

It's been snowy and cold here.

So we made lattes and decorated the tree (sorry about the yellow tint on that one).

My cousin graduated from nursing school yesterday.  Congratulations, Aaron!!

Our paperwork was sent to Vietnam this week.  Woooot!!

That's about it for now.  I'm sure there will be another exciting week to come.

Vietnam or bust

Our dossier documents have made their way around the country and will be sent to Vietnam tomorrow.

We got our Christmas present early this year.

Wooot!!

BNW

Brand New Woobie is here.  Thank God. 

He finally came in the mail, and we had prepped Hannah with what we thought was a reasonable story (There's a lady who thinks she found Woobie, but he was really dirty and she had to change his clothes.  She's going to send him to us.) 

He got her today and she is beyond thrilled.  He "grew up" a little bit, but the rattle is the same and she totally accepts him as her own. 

Bless her little heart, she asked me if we should "sign the adoption papers for him right away."  Because, of course, in our house that is how you build your family.  I got a piece of paper for her and she marked on it and said "now I'm going to be his Mommy for ever and ever."  I just about burst out crying.  All over this silly stuffed lamb.

So here she is with BNW.  It's a happy, snowy day here in at Casa Frijole.

the 3 year old rituals

i don't know if every 3 year old is like this but Hannah is very particular in how she does things.  Very particular. 

Giving the dogs snacks, for example.  She does not like to go in the fenced yard (probably because they are gentle but big dogs) so she goes to the gate.  But, before she goes to the gate she has to put the treats in a special cup, transfer the treats to a side pocket on her Jeep stroller, roll the stroller out there, park it next to the dogs then dole out the treats one at a time, calling each dog by name.  And she gets very upset if that routine isn't followed exactly, or if one dog is hogging the gate (usually Kirby) or if they aren't coming when she calls them by name.  I can say that my kid is weird, right?  Good thing she's cute!

More randomness

More randomness floating around...

• It's great to be home.  I missed my home and my dogs.
• The thought of Christmas shopping gives me hives.  I like to be an online shopper as much as I can.
• My friend Krista's breast cancer surgery went well.  Her lymph nodes were negative and her margins were clean.  Cancer 0, Good guys 1.
• Dwayne's Grandmother went in the hospital last week.  Surgery discovered a large invasive cancerous mass in her abdomen.  They were unable to remove it surgically, and it's just a matter of time for Grandmother.  Cancer 1, Good guys 0.
• Winter has definitely arrived here.  Like the rest of the country we have been having wind storms but the snow has stayed away.  It's been raining instead.
• The rain has made the small leak in our sun porch roof declare itself.  It's now a fairly large leak. 
• I hate my migraines.  Sometimes I have good spells and forget how much I really hate them.  The disruption they cause.  The loss of productivity.  The bad moods. 
• I'm going to spend today and tomorrow cooking some meals for my friend Krista.  I'm just going to make double batches of a bunch of stuff.  It will be nice to have some stuff socked away in our freezer, too.
• Our friend Jean is coming to visit on Thursday, to stay for a week.  Dwayne is taking advantage of her being here (to stay with Hannah on Saturday while I work) to visit his Grandmother in Tucson.  Oh, and Jean if you're reading this?  You're babysitting on Saturday.