Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Quick update

I've moved to WordPress . See you there!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Shoulders. Oh fuck.

So I had my first days back in the hospital post-H1N1 on Friday & Saturday. But let me briefly recap the last couple weeks in bullets. Forgive me.

  • Caught 4 babies with my Manwife preceptor. One natural mama in hands-knees. Very difficult to do your appropriate perineal support & hand maneuvers upside down. But a definite learning experience. One pre-termer who didn't breathe & had to get intubated at BS. We were so busy this day. Literally ran nonstop all day long. Had 15 mins of down time to inhale some food.
  • Caught 2 babies with awesome Midwife H. One first thing in the morning. I love that.
  • Went home for the weekend. My flight got delayed for 5+ hrs. I rented a car for super cheap. Saw B. Saw my family. Caught the crud (later identified as H1N1.)
Alright, you are thusly brought back up to speed. Friday I was with Midwife A. We weren't super busy which seems to always happen with her. Most significantly, I had my first shoulder dystocia. Super scary. It wasn't a bad one...resolved in 60 seconds, but still something I haven't seen enough of to feel comfortable managing. Midwife A stepped in as soon as the baby's head started turtling; we did McRoberts, suprapubic pressure, and Midwife A delivered the posterior arm which gave enough room for the rest of the baby to be delivered. And she was a tiny thing (7ish...) to be causing so much commotion. It turned out well but scared the shit out of me. Lesson to be learned: a shoulder dystocia can happen to anyone at anytime with any size baby. Duly noted universe, I got the message. So we only had that one delivery.

Yesterday I was with Midwife Ratched. I think that I'm growing on her because she actually seemed okay with me rather than exceptionally annoyed at my mere presence. So I'm taking that as a good thing. We were rather busy yesterday. We had a lot of people coming through triage, including people actually in labor. Woo. I will admit I got super excited when vertex/vertex twins came in contracting. Sigh. Not in labor though. Better luck next time. I gave up one of my deliveries to the dad. He wanted to catch the baby. So he did. It was cute. We did two other deliveries and neither were particularly easy or straight-forward. One had FHTs down in the 80s-90s...making me super uncomfortable. Mom was just not moving baby as quickly as needed. Midwife Ratched had to step in w/the modified (aka not-in-your-butt) Ritgen. It worked...baby was OP and had a double nuchal. Ahhhh it's all so clear now. Second delivery was also not super easy...it all turned out okay in the end; but I was still terrified there would be shoulders. There wasn't...phew.

So lets do the math 11+2+1+2= 16

I am starting to feel comfortable in my clinical setting. Less awkward and more take-charge. I feel like the midwives collectively have been giving me more and more responsibility. Charting, writing H&Ps, progress notes, delivery notes, orders, etc. is a lot easier than it had been. I don't have to write drafts of my notes or stare at prenatal records blankly cos I don't know where any of the information is. I also feel like I'm starting to be on the same page as my preceptors. And actually knowing the answers to their question of: What do you think we should do with this pt? And having my answer match theirs. Using my clinical acumen to work through a vague CC of abdominal pain.

As far as my personal life goes, a lot has been happening. As my life is more and more midwifery, I feel less like my personal life belongs here in this blog. Maybe I'll feel comfortable sharing soon.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog...

I have H1N1 despite getting vaccinated. Gr. I'm still trying to get better. I will be back in tip-top form in no time.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Making up for lost time

I am hurting today. Caught 4 babies, thusly bringing my total to 11 births so far. Caught a baby who didn't breathe...scary. I'll write more later but I'm super tired. In the office tomorrow.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Day 2 of the baby drought

I just got home from the hospital. Again...absolutely nothing going on. My only laboring pt was sectioned around noon (sigh.) No one else in labor. A couple of triage pts. Otherwise I spent my day practicing more hand ties, charting all of my pts, catching up with my clinical journal and watching Da V*nci Code in the on-call room. Midwife A wasn't feeling well, so she just curled up under a blanket and hung out. Better luck next time...

Friday, March 5, 2010

No babies today





So today was decidedly quiet. Not a whole lot going on. No one in labor...only a few triage patients. And let me say that I love it when what a pt says is going on is nowhere near what's actually going on. For example, we had a near-term pt who was breech who said she felt a bulge in her vagina. We all were on high alert (is it a BBOW? SROM? Toes?) when we found out she was coming in. There was absolutely nothing in her vagina/labia/perineum so we sent her on her way. Imaginary perineal bulges? Restless perineal syndrome? After absolutely nothing going on, Midwife H lets me go home. No sooner than I'm 10 minutes from my house, MH calls me back and tells me a multip has just come in 5cms. I make the decision to head back but she calls back in 10 more minutes saying she's complete & pushing. So no babies for me! But...I did scrub a CS where our doc pulled out an ovary the size of a tangerine -- covered in cysts, including a dermoid cyst with (what felt like) a tooth inside of it. Pretty interesting.

B came in last night for the evening. She's flying out West for the weekend and just flew thru. I loved seeing her but was sad it was only for less than 8 hours. We didn't get much sleep -- late night and an early morning. This long distance business is no joke. But I really love being with her -- so it doesn't bother me. She'll be back again for a layover on Monday, then I'm flying down -- err up...to her for the weekend on Friday. Next week is Spring Break and I'm not "breaking" too much. I'll be in the hospital Tues & Thursday; office on Wednesday. I'm flying to her, then we're driving to VA so I'll get to see my family. Yay!

Pictured above --- sutures & hand ties!! (They're expired of course.) I've also been practicing my hand ties because no one does instrument ties when suturing. I'm finally starting to get it. Thank goodness. It really seemed like a weak spot for me. So hopefully I'll get to try it out tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

4+3=7

I was trying to be a good nurse-midwifery student and put my pt encounters in this god-awful tracking program that they mandate we use. I hate the program. It's not user-friendly, has weird quirks, and is really annoying. Equally aggravating are the brand new sets of ICD9/CPT codes I've got to commit to memory because they're almost completely different for intrapartum than antepartum. The search function sucks so basically I have to keep a cheat-sheet of ICD9/CPT codes that I use. Using these codes helps also keep track of your pt encounters by type (ie. prenatal visit vs. intrapartum delivery.) So I had been trekking through all of my recent pt encounters and I notice that the program has set my default information incorrectly and there is no way to go back and mass-correct. So I have to go back case by case and update the correct information. Gr. *sigh* I digress.

I had a very productive two days in the hospital. Friday I worked with Midwife Ratched who happens to hate my guts. When we came on there was a pt about to deliver and she took my easy multip vaginal delivery first thing in the morning. The nerve! So I was slightly miffed about that. We did end up admitting another pt in pretty good labor later on. Midwife R was a little less possessive and let me manage this woman's labor, push with her, and catch the baby (baby #4 for me!) Unfortunately, both MR and the doc on call were there for the delivery, ordering me to cut an epis. Little autonomy and two-against-one, I did as told. But I don't feel really awesome and midwife-y about it. MR & I did the repair together and all was well. I do have to have at least one to graduate so I got that out of the way.

I ended up coming in on Saturday as well. Talked to MR in the morning (before she went home) to see if it was busy and we had two multips in active labor. Rock on. Midwife H came on who I really like. She's super chill, very friendly and very much hands on with me. She challenges me and really facilitates learning. I've worked with her in the office several times, so I knew she'd be fun on the weekend. Plus I was interested to see the different dynamic when a) the office is closed b) there are no inductions c) docs aren't in-house hovering over your shoulder. I got to postpartum round on the pts who delivered the day before which was pretty cool as well. In addition to our pts, we admitted a drop-in with no prenatal care, contracting @ 4-5cm with a questionable EGA. Then babies came from all directions -- I caught baby #5 at 11a, baby #6 at noon, and baby #7 at 245p. No episiotomies but a second-degree laceration that I repaired pretty darn well. Turns out questionable EGA baby Dubowitzed to post-dates IUGR. The other fun thing that happened was when I was doing a vaginal exam on a pt in labor...felt the cervix, then the baby's head, then ran my finger along the head trying to determine position/sutures when I felt fingernails. Baby had its hand by its head. After feeling the fingernails for a couple seconds, baby got annoyed and balled its hand into a fist and moved it away from me.

And then yesterday I was back in the office with none other than my fav Midwife R. Boo. It's not as exciting when I've had a pretty awesome time in the hospital. But...it has to be done. I still haven't seen any pt from the office in the hospital, but I might. Who knows. Anyway...I've got some case studies to work on for tomorrow's class.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

A pretty easy week

School has been relatively mellow compared to last semester. All of my classes (except for midwifery) have take-home exams and finals. Makes my life a little bit easier. The pharm class still isn't as useful as I'd like for it to be, but I'm making it work. I've got today off and clinical tomorrow. March will be a lot busier...with me in clinic at least 2-3x/week. I should probably continue that trend throughout the rest of my program. Currently, my practice doesn't want me to do 24hr on-call days so I'm stuck going twice a week for 12hr days. Ah well. I was hoping I could be in the hospital overnight without the docs-on-call to see how the midwives manage their patients on their own. Even though the midwives in my practice do most vaginal deliveries, the docs really have a say in how the labor management goes when they're there. So far, I've only seen one hands-off-let-the-midwives-do-it doc who really only provided guidance when we wanted to consult him.

Delivery-wise, I've caught 3 babies so far. I'm pretty much even with the other midwives in my class although one of my classmates has done 5. The sweet number is 40 to graduate, but I'm sure I'll have more than that by December when I finish. So far, my deliveries have been relatively straightforward, healthy and normal. My last catch was Thursday as soon as I got to the hospital. The off-going midwives (my manwife & the practice's new midwife-on-orientation) had saved her for me. :) She was C/C/+1 when me and Midwife A got into the room. Shortly thereafter, I caught baby #3. My first OP (aka sunny side up.) She was a teeny thing -- just under 6lbs but very cute. Mom was intact so no suturing. After that delivery, we had absolutely nothing else to do for the rest of the day save a couple (not in labor) triage pts. I have yet to see a pt in the hospital (laboring or triage) that I've seen in the office as well. I'm sure that will change soon, but I'm still having fun with it. Life is good.

As an aside...there has been a F*cebook explosion of pregnancies among my friends' list. Offhand I can think of at least 7 people who are pregnant. Two people announced pregnancies yesterday and one was announced the day before. It's insane! While I'm super happy for everyone, there is a tinge of jealousy. I wonder what is in the water these days :)

Me & B are doing well and still going strong. I'll get to see her in about a week as she breezes through here on her way out West. Spring Break is also fast-approaching and I'm planning on flying up to see her that weekend after being in clinical three days in a row. Things with the live-in ex gf are also okay. She was kind of mad at me about Vday weekend but soon got over it. I even suspect she's seeing someone (possibly a guy?) We really don't talk about who we're dating and I'd like to keep it that way. I think that could open a Pandora's box of drama that my quiet living situation doesn't need. Our biggest disagreement is about post-breakup-sock-ownership. Lol.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Perks of being a (student) midwife

You get to be the first one to know when someone is pregnant. I just found out a family friend who's been trying is about 8 weeks.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Finally getting somewhere


Alright...so on Friday, I caught my first baby -- a boy weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs. It was a first-time mom who was an induction for "post-dates." I was working with Midwife A who I worked with in the office. We came on in the middle of her induction around 4cm. She was complete around 1130a, but baby was still high so we labored her down. She pushed for maybe 15 minutes and we had a baby. I didn't drop him (thank goodness.) He had a nuchal cord x 2 that was easily reduced. She was intact and had just a couple little skid marks...nothing to suture. Placenta came out without difficulty and she had minimal bleeding. Overall...a great first delivery. Somewhere in my deer-in-headlights face, the family asked if this was my first delivery...I said no because -technically- I've been at other deliveries. Just not as the midwife.

This was the day when we had some freak snow storm outta nowhere. Check out what it looked like after just a couple hours (Is it just me or do I need to pay more attention to the weather..?) I left the hospital earlier than expected so I didn't get caught in it and have to spend the night there. We didn't have much going on -- only 3 pts: two who were C/S & the one we delivered.

Onto my fabulous weekend with B. She had to drive through the crappy freak snow storm on Friday while I was at the hospital. It took her a long time to finally get here, most of which was spent trucking through crazy snow and even crazier southern drivers who have no idea how to drive in snow. After a minor freak out moment, she made it here in one piece. We had dinner at a yummy sushi place with my friends from school, W & H who are dating. We stayed with H over the weekend per the breakup agreement of no overnight guests. Saturday we went to brunch with them, then to the aquarium (which was awesome), and Valentine's Day dinner. Sunday I made her my yummy french toast and then we went to see V*lentine's Day which was super cute. We spent the rest of the time just hanging out and she left yesterday.

I spent yesterday in the hospital with a different midwife who I hadn't met before. Midwife C (MC) as she shall be dubbed was interesting to say the least. She felt comfortable with me being hands-on and really seemed to like teaching. Her confidence was not the best ---- it's hard to make a student feel comfortable when you're not. When we came on shift there was no one laboring but that soon changed. We had a few pts in triage...a couple not in labor who were sent home. Then came a multip induction (4+ cm & labile BPs) and 35wk twins w/SROM. The twin momma wanted to go vag so we went for it. Doc on call with us was super freakin impatient the whole day. Very hands on...interventive and pushy. I did not like him hovering over my pts at all. 35wker went vag with both babies...delivered in the OR. I didn't catch them...waaaaayyyy too much pressure. MC was really nervous about that birth. I was glad when it was over. Our induction was chugging along -- wanted to go natural. By 1845, she was complete and wanted to push. So we did --- baby girl (delivery #2) came down nicely. Born around 1900...another 8+ pounder and intact with just a few skid marks. Minimal bleeding. Pushy doc came by while we were pushing and got all up in my space. Gr. He did leave soon thereafter.

Friday, February 12, 2010

It's about time!

So officially today at 1240p....I caught my first baby. It was a beautiful birth.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Gr.

So today was supposed to be my first official day in clinical. I got back into town last night, got all ready...woke up super early (circa 5am...wtf.) Traffic sucked royally this morning so it took like an hour-plus to get to the hospital. But I managed to get there on time. 4 accidents later. I walk onto the unit where my midwife-preceptor was getting report from the off-going midwife. I say good morning. That's when she says there's a problem. Apparently, the new midwife who is still orienting to the practice, made a last minute schedule change and would be working today. They didn't want us working at the same time. So all three of them (new midwife, off-going midwife and my preceptor) were like, "Sorry. You have to leave. We can't have you here today." I guess my disappointment was obvious and they tried to smooth it over with, "Don't be upset. You can come another day." But cue my tearful (not-so-graceful) exit.

I am prone to tearfulness when I am super frustrated and angry. And such was the situation this morning. I really was excited and prepared for my first day. I drove 20+ miles in shitty rush hour morning traffic to get there. And they (all of them) didn't care at all. There was no professional courtesy of a phone call at least. I'm certain they knew prior to my arrival of said scheduling conflict. But no one called. Didn't even apologize really. Because they really don't care how much it inconvenienced me. So...I had to get back into my car and drive another 1+ hour through even crappier traffic to get home. What a great freakin way to start my week.

On a happier note, my weekend away with B was awesome. We spent some quality time together...just hanging out. Saw Dear J*hn. It was a cute movie --- two people who have to spend most of their time apart -- a theme with which we can relate. But I didn't really like the ending. We had a fabulous brunch and meandered around an art museum. I have also come to some final decisions about Valentine's Day and I think she'll like what I've got planned. She'll be here on Friday night. We're having dinner with some of my good friends. Then I've got us dinner reservations for Saturday night. There will probably be some brunch somewhere in the mix, but she leaves Monday. I'm so happy to see her two weekends in a row.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

A new hospital...















I just returned from orienting at my new hospital with my manwife preceptor. I got my hospital ID badge, login info, and a general tour of my unit. There are several key differences from my old hospital (where I was in L&D as a nursing student and worked in postpartum for almost 2 yrs.) First of all, this hospital is a lot smaller which I like. All of their LDRs have jacuzzi tubs. My very first interaction with the nurses was a shoulder dystocia drill with Noelle.

Side note: Noelle is a computer simulator woman who can give birth, hemorrhage, etc. The baby can be manipulated in all sorts of ways too -- breech, etc. We have two at my university -- one in the med school and one in the nursing school. So I am pretty familiar with how Noelle works. She can talk...in one of our simulations she said "I don't feel very good" then she vomits (and there are sound effects for that too!) I mainly just observed.

Back to the story. So right from the beginning the nurses are talking to the patient about open-glottis pushing...telling her she can push whenever she feels ready. I literally had my jaw to the floor. Open glottis pushing? Evidence-based nursing care? Did I just enter the twilight zone? Well...since it was a shoulder dystocia drill, there was a shoulder dystocia. And my jaw hit the floor again when they flipped Noelle in hands-knees to deliver the baby. Nurses had no problem with it cos they see deliveries in hands-knees all the time (just in general, not necessarily shoulder dystocias all the time.) Also in this hospital, there are no "nurseries" like my old hospital. All healthy babies room in with their mothers. Also...no OBGYNs do circumcisions there. None of the midwives do it either. Wow...I'm impressed. I think I may like it. We also have an on-call room with a bed, computer for charting & W*tchChild, locker rooms with fairly decent accommodations and everyone was super friendly. My first 12hr day is on Monday with a midwife I've been working with frequently in the office. I'm looking forward to it.

In unrelated news, I'm going out of town for the weekend to spend it with Blondie (aka B.) We picked a destination halfway between us. It should be a lot of fun. A weird thing happened last night. So (as I think I've mentioned before) I dream a lot about being pg -- it's not unusual for me to be going about an everyday dream but 6 or 8 mos pg. Usually, I'm not giving birth and it's just a belly that I notice. I also rarely dream I'm pg with a partner. However last night, I had a very detailed and specific dream about giving birth. I'll try to describe it.

I was laboring on the couch. B was there with me. I went to the bathroom because I thought my bladder was a little full. I peed then got up, but felt the baby come down. I reached my hand down between my legs and felt the baby's hair. I called out to B who came into the bathroom. Just a couple of pushes and B catches this very cute baby girl. She was small -- 6 pounds or so. And I just held her...studying her. She had brown hair, big eyes, ten fingers, ten toes, my nose and was just bright-eyed and calm. B cut the cord. We were all still in the bathroom. Then came the placenta. I was looking at it...trying to make sure it was all there. But it wasn't a normal placenta --- it was shaped like an angel. It didn't bother me. I got cleaned up. And we moved from the bathroom to the bedroom and everyone got into bed for snuggling and breastfeeding. Everything still really calm. Then I woke up.

So when I woke up, I wanted to tell B about this dream. I called her and said I had had the strangest dream. I told her all about it and she was just kind of quiet. When I finished, she said "That is so weird because I had a dream about you giving birth last night too." In her dream, I was also at home, laboring in a pool -- she was with me, supporting me and climbed into the pool to sit behind me while I was giving birth. Her dream ended there. Isn't that so strange? We had very similar dreams at the same time. And we hadn't really spoken about being pg or birth or anything recently. So it's odd that we dreamt the same thing at the same time. I wonder what it all means...

School-wise we have our first midwifery exam of the semester on Tuesday. It covers first and second stage, and lab stuff (local & pudendal blocks, ISE/IUPCs, EBL, placental exam, etc.) We learned our hand maneuvers and the baby's rotation -- so that will be on there as well. I'm not super worried about the test, but I'm studying with one of the other CNM students tomorrow morning before I head out to my weekend with B. Anyway...I've got to get going on packing and homework.

Pictured above: Me snuggling the baby we caught about 30+ times on Tuesday. The midwives decided to name him Oscar.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Super exciting


This week went by pretty quickly. Monday was our suturing lab class. It was kind of informative but I don't feel comfortable at all with suturing yet. They said we could borrow the instruments (needle holder, forceps, scissors) to practice on our own time but we have to find and acquire sutures. I'm supposed to be in my hospital tomorrow with my preceptor so maybe he can give me a bag full. We will see. I got kind of annoyed bc there is a girl in my program who is always at least 30 minutes late to everything. She doesn't really participate and bond with the rest of the midwives. On lab day, it was no different --- she came in late after we all had to wait for her to arrive. She also came unprepared -- no chicken breasts. She asked if anyone had any extra and someone volunteered that I had an extra breast (which I did.) I said sure and she waltzed over and took my whole package. Didn't say thank you or act gracious or grateful that I had given her my chicken! She just acted entitled to it. I was so mad -- I wasn't the only one with extra but I was the only one who offered. So freakin rude!

We also had our first midwifery skills lab on Tuesday. We talked about determining fetal presentation, lie, and attitude. It's amazing to me at how much of what I do is based on touch and feel. V*rney's recommends feeling all sorts of circular things with our fingertips to estimate their size then measure to see if we're correct. Speaking of my measuring tape...I have no idea where mine ran off to. Hmmm.

My preceptor emailed me today to touch base with me about when I can do my 24-hr call shifts. He wants me to be on call with him first but I'm not available for the next two weekends (bummer.) So we'll have to work that out. I'm not worried about call hours or my delivery numbers. My practice is big enough to where I should be able to get 2-5 deliveries every time I'm on call. We're required to do 40 before we can graduate. Our call hours are continuous until December. The midwifery circle in this area is pretty close-knit and many of my instructors are very familiar with how our preceptors practice. I heard that my preceptor is one of the only midwives in the area who delivers breech/twins/etc. So I'm super excited I will learn that from him. He's been a midwife longer than I've been on the planet. I'm eager to see his practice-style. I haven't had much opportunity to work with him in the office due to our conflicting schedules.

It's so interesting to see how my fellow midwifery-students are developing their own preferences and thoughts about how they want to practice. I feel like I'm in the process of seeing how I want to do things with my patients...being the decision maker is very exciting. And my approach to how I will practice is shaping more and more every day. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to my life's dream and it's super exciting. Soon I will catch my very first baby. I can't wait.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Ow.

I have to get through this "Perineal Repair" tutorial before tomorrow's lab class on many things including suturing. While helpful in explaining many things, there really wasn't a whole lot of demonstration. Sure, video clips were attached but I couldn't see what was going on. So...I G*ogled it to see if there are any videos out there. Turns out there are but after watching a couple and wincing through the entire thing, I think I'm just going to call it a night. It just looks painful. Ouch.

Follow up: I'm not the only one with this type of reaction. It just takes some time getting used to the idea of suturing a vagina. And separating your work from yourself. Some of my fellow midwifery girls also mentioned the same reaction.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Homework...ugh

I am avoiding my homework like the plague. I have to read for my pharm quiz due on Tuesday, review the materials for our midwifery lab class on Monday and read for my health policy class too. Blah. My friend had her baby girl yesterday -- 9lb 11oz at home. Big smile. Super proud of her. It seems like a lot of people I know on FB are pg and due in August (my birth month) --- seeing so many of my friends pg only gears up my baby-making itch. I want to have my first by 30, so I've got 5 years or less. Tick tock.

Right now I'm working on my coffee and making steel cut oatmeal for breakfast. Yum. Last night's mixer was boring, but a lot of my friends showed up so it wasn't too bad. I just had one (free) drink and then came home. My best friend from nursing school also came by to hang out for a little while. We'll call her SuperICUnurse. I hardly ever get to see her because of her crazy work schedule and my equally crazy school schedule. Plus she lives really far away. But the stars aligned yesterday and we got some quality time in. We hung out at the house for awhile, just catching up and then went out for sushi. She's probably one of the best things I got out of nursing school. We're going to be friends for life. No matter what. I love her.

The school was sponsoring a version of B*ggest Loser for this semester. Some of my girls signed up so I figured why not. The grand prize was a W*i Fit! Unfortunately, not a lot of my classmates were as amped about it so they cancelled it for lack of participation. Oh well. I've been trying to be better -- working out more. I actually don't eat like crap...in fact, when I keep track of daily intake -- I'm never anywhere near the recommended daily caloric intake. I try to eat all organic, minimally processed foods from the farmer's market. So I've been considering going vegetarian. I really don't eat a lot of meat --- probably the last remaining meat item in my diet is sliced turkey for my sandwiches. So I'm gonna try to phase that out and see if I like being vegetarian. I can't go vegan for my love of all things dairy and eggs. But we'll see how it goes.

Monday is our first midwifery lab -- we're practicing suturing, pudendal blocks, placental examination among other things. I'm really excited to learn all of these fun skills. Next week I think I'm going to ride my bike into school with a classmate. I'm excited to get back on my bike --- I haven't really rode it in a long time. And I've never had the opportunity to ride with someone else. It should be interesting because she bikes all the time. I told her my route was about 5 miles one way and she's like "Oh...so it should take us 20 minutes?" Hahaha -- maybe for her, but I ride leisurely there so I'm not a big sweaty mess that has to sit in class for 8 hours.

Blondie just bought a bike and so when she comes to visit we might go riding together. There are a lot of bike-friendly paths here in the city that we could try out. She's coming down for Valentine's Day (sweet, I know) weekend. The long distance thing is pretty challenging but I don't think it's that bad. I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing/getting her for Valentine's Day....suggestions would be helpful. I've been stuck on it for a little while. She's not a flowers and chocolate kind of girl. At all. I could make her dinner, we could go out to dinner...but it has to be something more than just that. Alright...I better get on my homework even though I don't want to.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Back to reality

This first week back has been super easy. I was supposed to have class from 9a-4p on Tuesday but my 3-4p class was cancelled so I ended my first day back at 11a. Not too bad. Wednesday I endured my (yes, it is awful) Pharmacology class, followed by my super awesome Women & Health Policy class. I got out early on day two as well because my lovely carpooling partner was feeling nauseous and didn't want to puke in public. Understandable. I like the policy class already because it's kind of a Women's Studies course about women's health and policy and politics. Very cool. The instructor mentioned we'd be watching a film on the pill and its development. She asked when the pill was released...I replied "1960s...after we tested it on Puerto Rican women without their consent most of which died." She was impressed :) A lot of people don't know the background behind contraception in this country. Like how Margaret Sanger actually wanted contraception to control the population of the immigrants and lower classes --- eugenics-style. Gross.

Next week is a little bit more to handle. Our program director sprung a weekly lab on us Tuesdays 4-5p. I am super excited for this lab for us to practice lovely midwifery things. We're doing a huge lab on Monday from 9-12, including suturing. I need to email my preceptor and get days in the clinic for this month. We start our call shifts in Feb and catching babies should soon follow thereafter. Monday's lecture was on postpartum. I feel pretty comfortable with postpartum because I worked in it for almost 2 years. I knew the answers to most of the questions my instructor posed to the class. We got a new midwifery-convert -- yay; but her name is the same as mine, sad face. I like being the only one. Oh well.

I just bought a new external hard drive so I'm currently porting things from my mac. Hopefully it will lighten my computer up a little bit. Tonight is the grad school's welcome back mixer that I'm going to with a few of my friends. And a good friend of mine from high school is in labor with baby number two today at home. Makes me smile big for her. :)


Thursday, January 14, 2010

Catching you up to speed

So I really have been a bad blogger. In my defense, a lot has been going on with my personal life. (Haha -- a personal life!? Graduate nursing students can have one of those? *sarcasm*) Beloved and I ended our almost 5 year relationship shortly after my last post. It was a completely mutual and no-nonense break up. We still live together with our dogs but are working through the process of separating out 5 years together. I'm fine with it. She's a wonderful person but we just weren't happy together.

And with the end of that relationship, I am now dating a new person. Hmmm...I hadn't thought of a blog name for her --- Blondie works. I've known her for over 8 years and we just reconnected when I was home. She's from my hometown and currently lives in NC. I never thought I'd date someone who lived away from me but it works. We see each other as frequently as possible but my life here is so hectic that it doesn't seem too impossible to do. Also, I love my space and freedom to do what I want -- hang out with my friends, etc. I'm comfortable with my life here alone. My feelings for Blondie snuck up on me out of nowhere. I've never thought of her as someone I'd date. But I am happy and that's what's important.

School is still not in session. We have a very long winter break. I spent the majority of it between NC & VA with my family & Blondie. School starts next Tuesday after MLK day. I'm taking Nurse-midwifery II, Advanced Pharmacology, Women & Health Policy, and Embryology. Sounds like fun, right? This semester is when I will catch my first (and hopefully second/third/fourth/etc) baby. We'll start our call hours in February. For the rest of the program, we will do 24hr call shifts every week and two clinic days a month. I am so excited about it! We're having a skills lab when we first start back to learn episiotomies, nerve blocks, suturing, etc. Yay! I'm feeling more and more like a real midwife every day.

Of course it wouldn't be school without some drama. Here it is --- I'm betting my pharmacology class is going to be utterly and absolutely useless. I've heard a lot of negative stuff about this class. This new professor has been teaching the class for a year but she's not a pharmacist. She lacks clinical experience in advising patients, nurses, practitioners about drugs. She's a pharmacologist --- knows how the drugs work but can't apply it. Our last pharm instructor was a pharmacist who still worked in the clinical setting as well as a pharmacy. He provided a lot of invaluable information to us. I have *all* of his notes so I'm hoping that will make up for this other professor. Maybe I should go into it with an open mind. But I'm skeptical.

I will try to be more on top of the blog posts. I should be chronicling my most important firsts throughout this year. 2010 is the year I become a midwife. Exciting.