Back to school...

Today my going back to school adventure begins.  I want more than anything to have my RN.  It means better pay, more choice in jobs and just better environment in which to nurse.

However, I am a terrible student.  I am lazy and I hate being in class trying to learn things that I don't feel will ever be useful.  But I am biting the bullet and hoping that this time will be the time I can make it through.

I am starting out slow.  I had signed up for 2 classes that I need to get into the LVN to RN bridge program but after making them move my schedule around at work they changed the time one of the class meets so I will have to push it next semester.  That may be for the best.  Perhaps just taking one class as a way to ease myself in is the way to go.

So I am taking intro to Sociology.  Not because I want to but because it is a pre-req for the nursing program.  Luckily it does not seem so bad.  Its an online course (which does open up the problem of making it easier to ignore the course!) that has 4 tests (1 gets dropped) and 8 short answer assignments.

People at work know that I am starting classes for my RN.  So I am hoping that will help keep me going.  Especially since over the summer when I have to take anatomy and physiology it is just going to get more hectic.

Being a nurse

I became a nurse because I like to help people.  And I know that I do on a daily basis even if like 98% of the time no one acknowledges it and more than half the time they aren't even aware of it.  However with the type of patients I currently take care of a lot of the time I feel much more like I work for a maid service.  No rant about that today... instead a post to remind myself how good it feels when I really get to be a nurse.

Last night I had 2 patients with problems.  One GI related and one urinary.  They weren't emergencies but were causing the patients discomfort and if not taken care of would have become emergencies.  Happily the doctor for both patients is one who trusts his nurses so pretty much just lets us do what we know needs to be done in most situations.  I was also working with a charge nurse who knows me enough to know I am good at my job so when I told her what the problem was and what I wanted to do about it she just let me.  By the end of the shift both problems were fixed and the patients stable and happy and able to avoid more serious or invasive interventions.

The shift was long and exhausting.  But a great reminder of why I really do love what I do.

Baby steps...

Back in 2009 I started dieting.  I do not do well on fad diets of any kind.  I am a picky eater so anything very restrictive I usually don't like half of and grow tired of quickly.  So I decided to just count calories.  I found an iphone app called Lose it! that I just loved.  It calculates how much you should eat based on weight and how fast you want to lose (up to 2 a week of course) and then has millions of food listings for your to chart what you eat.  And then as you update your weight it changes how much you can eat.  I espeically like it becasue it lowers what you eat gradually over time instead of just going from crazy overeating to trying to only eat 1200 calories a day.

I lost a total of about 40lbs before falling of the bandwagon.  I half heartedly started again a few times last year.  I have now gained back 20 of what I lost.  Really I am just so thankful I didn't gain it all back.  But spured on by losing 5lbs on a decadent European vacation I am ready to do this again.

I have updated my information on the app and am ready to start logging all my food again.  I am also trying to as a way to make sure I get some even light exercise every day starting to walk my dog for a half hour as soon as I get home from work in the morning.  Becasue I know that if I sit down I won't get back up to do more than walk to bed.  And since he needs to go out and pee when I get hom anyway I might as well get him and myself some exercise.  Then no matter how the rest of the day goes I have accomplished something.

I have another vacation planned for mid May and my goal is to be down 30lbs from where I am now which will put me about 10 under my lowest point in my adult life.

Jumping on board...

Inspired by some others I decided to try my hand at blogging again.  I had a wordpress blog but it wont let me back in it.  I must have changed the password and the email it is connected to is one I got rid of becasue it kept getting hacked.  So I decided to just make a new one.  Instead of just being a ranting place for work I am hoping it will be a place where I can let off steam, motivate myself as I embark on returning to school, and chart my progress (fingers crossed, knock on wood) as I begin for the millionth time to adopt a healtier lifestyle and lose weight.

I am going to set a goal for myself of updating on one of those 3 aspects at least once a week.