Nursing School Update

I've been checking my mailbox recently with a little extra spring in my step. I know the nursing school I applied to said that I'd hear by March "at the latest", and it is only December, but I don't know, I just hoped that I would hear something significant sooner.

About a week ago, after having sort of a crummy day at work, I got home, opened my mailbox and....there was an envelope inside with return address "Nursing Admissions" and the logo of the school I am applying to. I practically danced inside. I was so excited, and certain that the news would be wonderful, and was already planning when to share it with my family.

Inside, it read (roughly): Thank you for your application to blah-di-blah school of nursing. Your application is complete and your admission score was an 85. You will hear from us by March. Please do not call the nursing department for your admission results as we cannot give these out over the phone. Now is the time to start applying for financial aid and scholarships.... etc, etc.

So... not the big whooping news I was hoping for. But at least it's not a big denied stamp. I've already known what my admissions score was since I took the TEAS test, so that was no surprise.

There are all sorts of rumors that circulate around town about the nursing program I am applying to. During my phlebotomy externship, one girl told me that her friend who had an 85 admission score was 5th on the wait list to get in during her year (eep!). Another told me that she had a score "in the low 90s" which shot my confidence down a little further. Some say that you have to know someone in the administration in order to get in. I ran into my 5th grade teacher at Costco the other day, and when I told her I was trying to get into nursing, and about the admission process, she said "shouldn't teaching college biology count for something?!" I sure think so. She told me her sister in law is the assistant Dean (or something) of the program. I wonder if she'll put in a good word for me, and if it would matter if she did.

Someone told me recently that although the school I'm applying to doesn't put any time limit on how long ago you took your prerequisites, when you apply for your nursing license at graduation it matters. I took microbiology ten years ago. I hope that person was misinformed.

Another woman, someone I know well, told me that she was sure that nutrition class is required for getting your license. I looked at all of the state licensing web pages and school requirement pages I had the patience for, and didn't see anything about that. Not that it wouldn't be a good idea to take some nutrition.

So, I'm still waiting. And wishing. And Hoping.

Phlebotomy update

With my crazy schedule over the last couple of months I haven't written an update on my phlebotomy class recently.

So...it's done. I got the highest score in the class on the in-class written exam. I finished all the required clinical hours (40.5), and got about 105 successful draws (only 50 were required). I took the computer-administered, proctored, national exam a couple of weeks ago, and got a 91 on it, well above passing. I barely studied, because, again...way too much going on. Only one person in the class did better than me on it; she got a 92.

My friend and carpool buddy unfortunately didn't pass the national. She got a 68 (passing would have been 70). She had stayed out way too late the night before at a birthday celebration...like 2am late...and then the morning of the exam found out her father in the Phillipines was having some serious health issues. Plus, test taking is not her best skill; this was already her second time through the course. I'm sad for her.

Everyone else from my class section passed. I think most scored somewhere in the 80s, but there was at least one who only passed by a point or two.

We all went (except my carpool buddy, who was too distraught) out for late lunch and drinks afterward downtown. I had two good buddies in that class, my carpool partner and one other woman who lived in north county. I hope I can stay in touch with both. We were always a little separate from the rest of the class.

I have to wait, now, for my teacher to send me some forms, and then I can apply to the state for a phlebotomy license. I did really well in my externship, but I don't think that's a valid job opportunity for me, given my past history (see January '11 posts) with that lab. I didn't know really, that it was going to be set up such that there were 2 phlebotomy sections well connected with that lab, and one section connected to the local hospital. I was just grateful to get into the class, and have it work out with my crazy schedule this fall.

So it might not be as direct a job in as I had hoped for, but who knows, I may have a chance. Or, it may help me later on when I am a nurse.

...no consequences to work gutsiness.

(At least I tried)

I'm still at 19 hours per week at the retirement home and there wasn't any further discussion of full time or more hours or benefits. I haven't been reappointed at the university for Winter quarter (they use way less part-timers in Winter, and were able to cover all needs with graduate students). So here I am again, working half time, no benefits...closing out 2011 and the last few days of my COBRA insurance coverage.

But something better has got to be right around the corner.

Speaking of, I got about $620 worth of holiday bonus between the residents at the retirement home (the larger portion) and the company I work for (a measly portion). And, I should have another bonus coming to me just next week, for "recruiting" another employee and having them last 3 months. Doesn't change my current financial straits, but it will help at least.

Got a little gutsy at work.

I've been a bit irked about my job at the retirement home. It is a "receptionist" job, but when I describe what I do there to people, that isn't the title anyone would give it. There are some office duties, but there are also many, many more responsibilities, having to do with security, safety, responding to emergencies, apartment manager type duties, etc, etc, etc. A friend of mine who has been a receptionist her whole life recently joined our team there, and she is seriously struggling to keep up with it all and get with the routine.

They pay me 20% below the average *receptionist* wage for the county I live in. And they had me work 3 months of full time hours without ever switching my status over to full time, so I never got benefits. And, I am pretty sure that I heard my boss saying that she didn't see me making a fuss over it, because of my "sweet little voice". I didn't hear the whole conversation, and she could have been talking about someone else. But grrrrrr.

Last week, my more immediate supervisor asked me if I knew yet if I'd be teaching next quarter (no, I don't), and what kind of hours I wanted for December. I told her that unless they were going to raise me to full time status, that I didn't want to work any more than 20 or 25 hours per week anymore, that I was no longer willing to work 40 and not be given the same full time benefits that other employees get.

She went and had a discussion with our boss in the back after that. Later that day she also asked me if I would be willing to work christmas. It's on a weekend this year, and I am not currently scheduled to work weekends. I told her I would have to check with my family. It would be time and a half pay, but time and a half of almost nothing is still almost nothing, and family is just more important. Pooey on them. Someone has to do it though.

I think I won't hear anything more about the hours and full time status until we see if my friend stays or not. Even then they might stiff me. However...if she does stay a full 3 months, even if she quits the next day, they are supposed to give me significant monetary award for her recruitment.

I've been trying to pay down my debt in preparation for nursing school. Getting the second job teaching at a college has helped, but I still had to buy new tires for my car (tread was unsafe), pay for dental work without insurance, etc.

Things are going to move up soon, I think. Things seem to be getting better.

Sick day...

On Friday, I came into work feeling a little queasy; had thrown up several times that morning, but took a few tums. Was hoping I could come into work early, talk to my boss about my insurance situation (lack thereof) and have a mellow day.

My boss wasn't there... Friday is her day off right now, I guess I'd forgotten.

I started feeling worse and worse. My coworker left for her lunch break and I was at the desk alone. Tweny-five minutes into my shift, mid-interaction with a resident, I had to excuse myself quickly to go throw up in the bathroom. Repeatedly. And then, with the heaves of my stomach, the runs came out the backside too, without warning.

There I am, in the restroom, puking my guts out and trying to make my way to the toilet and finagle my soiled underpants off without soiling my office clothes as well, dripping various bodily fluids on the clean tile, still someone waiting to finish a transaction at the front desk....

People ask sometimes, "What has been your most humiliating moment so far?"

I want to say this is close to the top.

I had to send a runner up to the dining room to tell my coworker I needed help, have the bus driver cover the desk in the mean time, and attempt to clean myself up and wipe up the sh*t on the floor with paper towels.

I was clocked out about 10 minutes later, told my coworker to wipe *everything* down with disinfectant, and she called the housekeeping to sterilize the bathroom.

The rest of that day, I spent in bed, and well into today. I had a fever that made me so dizzy and week I felt like I couldn't even roll over in bed. Sometime in the night, my fever broke, and I started feeling a little better.

Today my throat is sore, I'm congested. I pooped my pants again, without warning. But no vomiting anymore. Ugh.

I was supposed to work the 7:30-4 shift today, which my coworker is now covering. I'm sure she's not happy about that, but I know the residents where I work don't need to catch this stuff. A friend of mine who used to work eldercare told me that under similar circumstances, her company made their caregivers come in anyway, and wear adult diapers. Yuck.

I feel like I really shouldn't go in tomorrow, either. I am going to wait and see how I feel in the morning.

Now that my fever has passed, I feel strong enough to get out of bed and get some low-key house chores done, so I've been doing laundry, washing dishes, watering plants. Cleaning the algae covered walls on my aquaria. Things I haven't had time for recently. I've only been up out of bed for 4 hours and I feel like it's probably time for a nap again. Whew.

Two more weeks until I get a day off

Next week I'm finishing my last two weeks of classroom training for phlebotomy, so I'll have two more class sessions and then be out at my externship site (still to be determined) possibly as soon as next Thursday. Boy that's scary. I've only done 2 live draws so far, and that's better than most of my classmates. Hopefully I'll be feeling more confident by the end of the week.

Teaching is going well, but I'm way behind on grading because I feel like I just don't have time. I have two assignments (x 50 students) that I'd like to turn back next week. Maybe at least one of them.

My coworker at the retirement home who's been off on maternity leave is coming back in about two weeks, so I'll have weekends off again, can stop trying to find subs for my hospital volunteer work, and will actually have my Sundays back again. Whew.

This week in lab they are giving presentations of their group research project ideas. I usually observe another teacher on Tuesday mornings, so hopefully I can go for the first hour of that and then use the rest of the time to grade instead of watching them all.

One of the friendly seniors at the retirement home who's always been very kind and polite to me woke up a couple days ago and couldn't walk. He's at the hospital having tests now. He was very private about it. He called his family (his son is a doctor) to come help him instead of calling or paging the front desk for help. I hope it turns out alright.

I'm at work right now (in a lull between handling an emergency and starting lock-up), and there's a guy from the power company in the lobby. I guess he's been trying to get through to one of our residents on the phone and she hasn't been taking his calls or returning them. He wants to buy some land she owns up north somewhere, to run a power line through. I've called the lady up in her apartment and she said she would come down but it's been a while and she isn't here yet. I hope she's with it enough to deal with this kind of thing on her own. It's independent living here, and all of our residents are supposed to fall under that category of self-care, but several of them really don't. I think I may have been a little bitchy to the power company guy. He was trying to be friendly and conversational, and I don't know, I am feeling protective of our residents.

The other day a 80-something lady that I don't know well yet came to the front desk and said that she and her husband had been gone for a few hours and that a purse with valuables in it had been stolen from a shelf in her closet. I was doubtful, but called the police for her like she asked. I figure it's better to be safe than sorry in that instance. But then I listened to her talking to the other residents in the living room, having trouble finding her words, talking very slowly...I was doubtful enough that I figured I'd better call her husband. He knew nothing of the purse and told me not to call the cops, that he'd come down and get her. I called the police back and canceled the request. Ugh. Tough judgement call. I wouldn't want to ignore her issue if it was by any chance real.

I am listening to the power guy talk with the resident now, and it sounds like she's sticking up for herself alright. She told him she's not interested in selling the property, and he's talking about getting some sort of "easement" instead to put the line in.

I feel like I just want to curl up in bed for the next week. Too much going on, too much to think about. I didn't have to be to work until noon today, and I thought I'd get up and get a bunch done (laundry, dishes, garden, etc) but I basically stayed in bed until I had to get up for work.

I think I'm going to find out where my phlebotomy externship is tomorrow night.

Worn out :(

I haven't had a day off in 6 weeks now...

I am tired all of the time.
The food is getting moldy in my refrigerator because I don't have the energy to cook.
My house is a mess. Cat hair tumbleweeds blow by, my dishes from days ago sit by the sink.
There are piles of leaves in front of my house, smothering the plants below. I don't have time or energy to rake.
I have canvases that I bought to paint for a show next month that are still sitting blank in their plastic wrapper.
Sometimes I am lecturing the class I teach and I lose my train of thought.
I am supposed to be finding subs all this month to cover my volunteer shift at the hospital (so I can work at my retirement home job) but I'm running out of willing volunteers.
A couple days ago, one of the residents at the retirement home made a nasty remark to me during lunch and I was in tears for half an hour and distracted all afternoon.

I'm burnt out.

Next month, my coworker at the retirement home is going to be back from maternity leave, and my hours there are being cut from 38 down to 20. I am so relieved. I'll be able to go back to hospital volunteering and still have an entire weekend day off.

85 year old woman takes diet pills

....causing ER visit for shortness of breath.

She at first described it as a "medication problem" she was having and then fessed up that she'd been taking some diet pills. Most of our residents are on heart medications among other things. This lady doesn't even fit into my definition of "fat". She's very tall, maybe 5'10", and if I had to guess, maybe 170 or 180 pounds.

I hope that's not me at that age, still fretting about the size of my body. I hope I have grandchildren and kitty cats and a full life to fret about instead.

Poor woman.

Rockin' score on my phlebotomy written final!

I had my written final for phlebotomy last week. I'll admit, I was a little nervous. I hadn't studied much in the week leading up to the test. But I figured, I'd been doing a good job of studying the material all along (rather than just finding the answers and moving on, I'd actually write out the questions as a statement).

I was the first person to finish in our class of ... I think we're 13 people now? I turned in my test and waited for the others to finish out in the lobby. It took quite a while. It was a 2 hour, 200 question test and I think I was done in less than 45 minutes. Most of the questions were ones I'd seen before on homework or quizzes at various points in the semester. I was unsure of about 12, but put down my best guess and didn't revisit them.

The last person to finish, a mid-twenties blondie type, was in tears when she left. She said she was sure she didn't pass, and didn't want to wait around for her score. She's had a lot going on this semester...working plus planning her upcoming wedding... but I don't have a lot of sympathy given my own current situation.

Our teacher said that in past years, she has called people individually into the back storage room to tell them their scores. This year, she just told us that "everyone in the room right now passed." Meaning that blondie type probably didn't. She passed out our tests one by one then. When she got to mine, she stood next to my desk, and said..."and you, Smarty Pants!". She was smiling, so I know she said it in a friendly way. I got a 98.5% ! Yay. My friend Stefania got somewhere in the 90s too, and my carpool buddy Cathy got 77%, which is passing, and she was very happy about. She's working full time, got a small child at home, and English is her second language, so multiple choice tests can be a struggle.

I've put in my availability for externship hours, and requested to: (a) if possible, get an externship in the town where I live, and (b) not be stationed at the lab where I worked for 2 weeks this January where I had such a bad experience. I think we're going to find out next week what our assignments are. I'm nervous.

I'm pretty sure that next week is the last week of classroom time, and we're going to use it for practicing, practicing, practicing. I hope it continues to go well.

First blood draw!

I drew blood from a classmate for phlebotomy practice for the first time recently. It's an amazing feeling, when you get it right.

The first time I tried, I didn't get the needle in the vein. I had palpated the vein with the tourniquet on, then swabbed the site with antiseptic, and turned away to assemble my equipment while the arm air-dried. And that was my mistake. I thought I had some physical landmarks to go on, and could remember where the vein was, for the few seconds it took to turn away and assemble my equipment (that's the way we've been practicing on the fake arms), but I wasn't 100% sure anymore when I looked back at my classmates arm. What I should have done at that point, was re-tie the tourniquet, re-palpate, re-cleanse, and try again. But I was nervous (it was my first time doing this after all) and I thought I could probably remember the right location, so I just went for it. Of course, it didn't work out.

My teacher wanted to make sure I had a successful experience before I left that night, so she called another person up for me to try on. This time I didn't take my eye off the site (it was pretty obvious, too) and I got it. As soon as I put the vacu-tube onto the needle holder, blood flowed in.

I had to let someone try on me afterward, but it wasn't bad. My carpool buddy and friend, who took the class last semester but didn't end up passing the written final so is taking it again, got to try on me. She's good at the skills part, and I trust her. It barely hurt at all when it went in, and she used pretty good technique throughout. The only criticism I'd have is that she didn't use the "push and pull" technique when putting the vacu-tube on, or taking it off, the needle holder. So it wiggled more than was necessary in my arm. Still, way better than many experiences I've had at professional labs.

Got in "trouble" at work for hands on help

The other day I had a note in my mailbox at work to please refrain from physically helping the residents as it puts both myself and the company in a position to be legally liable if something bad happens.

I understand the concern. It's just a tough spot to be in, when the paramedics have assessed the resident and said she's okay, the resident insists she's okay, and then when everyone's gone home, said resident still feels dizzy and needs help getting back to her apartment. I thought I was staying on the right side of the line (dividing okay help from the type of help that's not allowed); I walked backwards in front of her and let her hold my hands to steady herself. She wasn't putting a great deal of pressure on me physically, having the contact just helped her feel safe.

I guess according to corporate, what I'm supposed to do in that situation is call the family (from 60 miles away) to come help her back to her room. Or call 911 again. Or just walk along side her, and if she falls, she falls, and then I call 911 again. Ugh.

I didn't get written up formally or anything, and my supervisor said she knew "my heart was in the right place", but that I had to refrain in the future from physically helping a resident.

This is so much more than a "receptionist" position.

New Job (And further scrambling...)

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks because I've been so darn busy. I took on another job. And didn't quit any. Which means I lost my 1 day per week that I had "off" (except for class).

I'm not sure it was the best decision, but it was the one that felt most right to me at the time. I got a call on Friday before the college quarter started on Monday, from the biology department at my local state university. One of their part time instructors had to leave town quickly due to a family emergency, and could I fill in teaching some labs this quarter?

I had put my application in to the part time pool months earlier; before I got the job at the retirement community, before I started my phlebotomy class. Before everything. And I didn't hear anything until now.

It's the department & school I got my bachelor's degree in, and it pays better than my retirement home job. And I just feel better being able to say "yes, I work two jobs, one as a biology instructor at X university and the other as a receptionist at X retirement home." I feel like that's some how more comfortable to say as someone with a master's degree than just "I'm a receptionist." Also, my previous experiences in teaching have been pretty fun. And I figured even though it wasn't ideal timing, this would be a "foot in the door" so to speak, and I might get further appointments with them later.

So now I'm working 7 days per week, about 60 hours per week, and still don't have benefits. And I am no longer able to volunteer at the hospitals on Saturday (temporarily) because in order to get the week days off that I needed to teach, I had to take on an additional weekend day at the retirement home.

In November, one of my coworkers who's been off on maternity leave, will be coming back to work, and she usually takes the weekend hours, so I can get rid of Saturday then (and go back to the hospital volunteering).

It's just all really unfortunate timing. On top of everything, my volunteer buddy (we share the Saturday shift) at the hospital has just been diagnosed with stomach cancer. I went in last Saturday to volunteer expecting her to be at the front desk and she was in a patient bed instead. Poor lady. I brought her a potted plant and talked to her for half an hour or so.

So I need to find someone to cover Saturdays for the next 4 weeks now, which is close to impossible. We're hiring someone new at the retirement place, and she starts next week. She said she'd like more hours, so maybe once she's trained up I can give her Saturday day shift.

A guy walks into the hospital lobby....

No, I'm not about to tell a joke. He came in, limping, dripping blood, and he and his friend wanted to be pointed toward the ER. I ran for a wheelchair, which he didn't want to use, but I was glad I talked him into it. He was acting like he was going into shock, and with the limp, I knew we could get there faster with him in the chair.

He was biking on the road with no helmet, somehow fell, and skidded across a large swath of asphalt. Basically, ouch. He was all trembly and kept saying he felt "tingly all over", which the ER personnel told me was a result of hyperventilating (Oops, I had told him to take deep, slow breaths to help with the pain and calm down...guess he didn't hear the slow part or wasn't able to calm himself enough).

The nurse thanked me for bringing him --- and I stood there like an idiot -- do I stay? do I go? I want my wheelchair back! (in my head) -- but it turned out it was good I was there because she asked me to stay with him a little longer while she went for a gurney.

He looked young & healthy; I'm sure he'll be fine.

Holy cow, I aced it!

I took my official TEAS test yesterday. Coming up to the test, I felt like I really hadn't studied as much as I should have. I got in the 60's in science on my last practice test.

But somehow I pulled it together in the last days before the test. The night before, I did just the science sections in the two practice tests in the book, and made sure to review anything I'd written down that I didn't know how to do in math or science or that needed brushing up. For example, I know the roman numerals X and I but if you get into the letters M, C, D and L, well let's just say it's not a system I use very often. And it's been a long, long while since I've had intro chem, so I needed to review the structure of the periodic table of elements, and patterns within the table.

I slept in until about 9 on the day of the test. I had decided that if I didn't feel too panicky, I wanted to briefly go to a friend's daughter's birthday party, and I ended up going, from 11:30 to 12:30, then headed over to the test for a 1:15 check-in.

It was somewhat distracting that, being one of the first few to check in, I had to listen to the proctor go over start-up with each subsequent student that checked in. And once during the test, the proctor from next door came, put his hand on my shoulder and said "excuse me"...and wanted to look at what was on my screen. He didn't explain why. There was a question on the test in the reading section that I was *SURE* there was a problem with, and I told him about it. He didn't explain what he was doing there, and went away again. Huh?

I pretty much took the whole test straight through, except for one bathroom break. I think I was the first one to finish but I wasn't paying close attention.

I made myself go slowly on the reading section, was careful with my math, felt pretty good working through the science, and went probably more quickly than I should have through the English and English language usage. The testing site blocked everybody's scores until later on that day so that we wouldn't all be looking at what we got out in the lobby and making a big ruckus. I thought they'd be available when I got home but they weren't.

I put in a movie, and checked again after I was done watching, and lo and behold:

I scored in the 99th percentile!!!

My actual score was in the mid-nineties. So that won't be holding me back from acceptance to my program of choice. Whew!

Maybe I just wasn't as invested when I was doing the practice tests, or maybe I was better rested during the real deal. I know my last minute review helped considerably too, refreshing foggy bits of my memory.

Anyway, I'm relieved.

TEAS practice test 2....hrmph

So I'm 5 days out from the TEAS test now. I haven't studied nearly as much as I planned. I think one mistake I made was not focusing my studies more. I spent most of my time on English just because that was the first section I decided to work on and I never got to the rest sequentially; I should have started with science. Without further ado, here we go: a handy dandy comparison chart I made of my two practice tests:

And here's a breakdown of the sub-sections:

Sub-Scale Score	June %	September
TEAS: Reading - (42 Items)	90.5	88.1
Paragraph & Passage Comprehension	78.9	78.9
Informational Source Comprehension	100	95.7
TEAS: Mathematics - (30 Items)	93.3	96.7
Numbers and Operations	100	94.7
Algebraic Applications	100	100
Data Interpretation	100	100
Measurement	50	100
TEAS: Science - (48 Items)	83.3	68.8
Human Body Science	72.7	54.5
Life Science	93.3	80
Earth and Physical Science	78.6	71.4
Scientific Reasoning	87.5	62.5
TEAS: English and Language Usage - (30 Items)	76.7	90
Grammar and Word Meanings in Context	86.7	93.3
Spelling and Punctuation	66.7	88.9
Structure	66.7	83.3

So, in the little remaining time I've got, I'm going to learn from my mistakes and focus on the science, starting with human body science (!!) and then scientific reasoning, then physical science, then life science.

I can't believe I did so poorly on the human body section.

Although I was telling myself to take time, I was taking this test between 8-10 at night after a full work day...excuses, excuses...and I did rush on some.

For Reading...allowed 58 minutes...took 40.
For Math...allowed 51 minutes...took 31.
For Science...allowed 66 minutes...took 36.
For English...allowed 34 minutes...took 15.

Some specific things I noticed I need to review while taking the test are:

-picking the "main idea" of the passage; I got a lot of these wrong, WTH?
-Converting numbers written like CMXXIX to their Arabic equivalents
-embryonic germ layers and what they become
-brain parts and their functions, i.e. which part controls balance?
-bond types and melting points (ugh, chemistry!)
-"first ionization energy" whatever that is
-cell types that produce "soluble" antibodies
-nuclear reactions...I want to say there were like 3 of these on there
-their version of scientific reasoning and the terminology that goes with it
-the term "simple subject"

Carrying squicky things in buckets

When I'm volunteering at the hospital, I get many, many calls to transport specimens to the lab. Usually it is just blood in tubes, and occasionally a urine.

But this weekend, there were two things that I admit made my stomach turn just a tad:
a lumpy looking greenish stool sample (meconium maybe? it came from labor and delivery), and a big, round clear bucket with a placenta inside.

I'm not disgusted by placentas, per se, it's just that when I think of them, I think of what I've read / heard about, that some cultures *eat* the placenta for nutrition and or spiritual reasons. Yucka.

To each his own.

Why I need to beef up my Spanish

Last weekend I was volunteering at the hospital and a guy came to the front desk trying to explain something to me. I gathered that his recently pregnant wife was out in the car, that she needed help getting up to the NICU where her baby was, and that his two friends would bring the breast milk in a bit. I got mom in a wheelchair and took her up to the premie section. She only spoke Mixteco (I hope I spelled that right) so dad was speaking for her.

First, the embarrassment of the ward clerk... I have mom and dad there with me, I show her the cards that they have brought with them which have the baby's name on them. I explain the situation, that they want to see their baby and that someone's on the way with some breast milk (dad's holding a pump). And she panics.

She brought out this translater phone thing, and spent 20 minutes trying to get it to work. Mom and dad look exhausted, and are getting irritable. They just want to see their baby.

Then, this brilliant nurse comes in, says forget the translator, let's have them scrub in and come on back... but then she turns to them, mimes washing her hands and said "washo your handso!"

I was mortified on her behalf.

Getting to know the local paramedics...

Working with the elderly population in a "retirement living" setting, and often on the evening shift, I've been calling for emergency help a lot lately.

In the last few days, there was another lady. I don't know why they come to the front desk when they are feeling like they're having a medical emergency. It seems like it would make a lot more sense (and be much more safe) if they would stay put and either press their emergency call buttons or call me to come to them.

So anyway, this lady comes to the front desk, and says she is a "new" diabetic... that she went to the ER in JULY (almost 2 months ago) and was diagnosed, and hasn't been able to get in to see her physician yet. The ER doc gave her some pills which she'd been taking up until a week ago, but she stopped because her physician told her over the phone to stop taking them until he could do a blood test on her. In the mean time, she's been trying to manage her blood sugar by how she feels and taking sips of orange juice. Um, yeah.

Talking to her, she just seems overwhelmed and defeated by the whole thing. She's a very reserved lady, and obviously doesn't like asking for help, but she's also feeling very alone and depressed about the whole thing. Another resident where I work gave her a huge book of dietary information for diabetics but she doesn't feel up to reading it.

She was having some trouble breathing when she came to the front desk, and said she felt a bit foggy in the head. When the paramedics came, they measured her blood sugar and it was almost 300, so high, but not ridiculously out of control. That's good at least, that she is aware of the fluctuations in her body before they make her pass out.

I've been trying to give her some encouragement, but today I realized I might be coming across as a little bit of a Polyanna; that maybe my reassurances don't mean a lot to her and she just needs to come to terms with it on her own time. She has her doc appointment tomorrow. Hopefully getting some more information will make her feel empowered rather than further overwhelmed.