diseased

Just a casual stress rash irritated by the bra strap right?? or at least that's what I believed all weekend, mostly because my friend Daron had broken out with a stress rash all over his torso a few weeks ago, so seemed legit enough for me to believe I would have the same problem. Wrong.

Showed this picture to my professor after class today and he diagnosed me with Shingles (A condition where the chicken pox virus in your nerve endings). SHINGLES!!!!! that was my first reaction, followed by an immediate reaction of tearing up. Of course I asked him if this was some sick April Fools joke, but unfortunately I was one day too early, he responded by telling me to get to the InstaCare and get it checked out. After sharing my new disease with the remaining of my class in the room I went out to my car only to have a panic/emotional breakdown to my mom on the way to the instacare. I just couldn't have shingles, that was the last thing I needed right now!!

Anyways, turns out my professor is great at his job because he was dead on! I have shingles, and turns out I was right along with it being a stress rash, just a different kind of stress rash. I got some medications for it: Prednisone to help with the inflammation and insane itching, Ibuprofen 800 for the pain, and an anti-fungal which normally kills the virus but since I was stubborn to admit something was wrong with me I was outside the preferable 48 hours of taking it after shingles develops so we're trying it anyways to hopefully help do something.

So cheers: to Nursing School really being as stressful as I complain about all the time, to being the stubborn patient, to feeling like everyone is staring at my disease everywhere I go now even though it's on my back, to not getting to hold or play with my niece until healed, to paranoia, to lots and lots of hand washing the next couple weeks, and to a long painful, itchy and irritable recovery!!

(PS. I just hope that I don't have to be totally stress free for this to go away cause if so I'll be stuck with it until Summer)

first time for everything

once upon a time, upon one week ago, my dear friends Jessica and Melissa and I decided to leave class and get some pizza from good ol' little ceasers. Turns out we didn't really want to go back and finish out the rest of our 4 hour lecture so instead of going straight back we took a little detour to my apartment to get my camera for a photoshoot while we thought of many excuses as to why we could explain to our professor our situation in being late... which is exactly what we got.



My car died...for the first time (for real, unlike last years scare) my battery died and we had to pull out my jumper cables and get Brook's jeep to jump it as well as some assistance from DJ to remember just what we were doing.
Guess that's what we get for sluffing class to get cheap pizza and breadsticks.



The story continues....
Car started. Went back to class. Still couldn't focus. Car still didn't run right. Got rides to class the next two days. Friday came, finally took the car in. Man said couldn't see it until Wednesday 8am. Appointment made. Go back out to car, car dead. Embarrassed walking back in, asking for help. Man looks at car, touches battery cable. Car starts. Problem: loose battery cable. Solution: " Oh I'll just tighten that up for ya real quick". CAR FIXED!!!!

hallelujah! I hated walking back into the mechanic after it died in front of their garage but turns out to be the best thing that could have happened cause now the car runs like a Champ!!

Promise me

one of my favorites by John Allred songs aka Allred, and I love his music! first saw him and met him two years ago and have been in love with his music ever since. He came to SUU last weekend so naturally we had to go, however did something different this time, for the first time he performed with an actual band (you'd have to know Allred and his music to know how unusual this is), but watched it, loved it, and bought it after the show. As well as got an updated picture with him and then with the other band members who I swear Mason looks like Edward Cullen but that could just be my inner obsession coming out.

Love these girls!!


Love you Allred. thanks for yet another splendid concert that reminds me once again why guys with a guitar is a weakness...

insomnia

I've never been much of a snoozer, in fact I've always seen sleep as a waste of time. There's so much to do in a day why would I want to use 8 or more of my precious hours just sleeping? I've never understood it. My hate for sleep though has been a benefit for me though, for example I can stay up late and play/study/bum around and wake up early the next morning and still be fully functional(of course that was pre-nursing school and pre-constant exhaustion).

My whole point in this comes from an AH Ha moment I had Monday-I remembered when I started hating sleep. It began clear back when I was a little girl when I swear I forgot how to sleep, in fact I used to watch my siblings sleep just to see if I could remember how to do it and would practice closing my eyes all the time thinking to myself what I could possibly be doing wrong. I even tried Channy's advice one time to relax every muscle one by one, didn't work. I remember many nights lying awake, alone, and thinking of all the things I could be doing instead. Then literally jumping out of the bed the minute my dad's alarm would go off in the morning just to get up and have someone to finally talk to! I discovered back then how much sleep was a waste of time but that was also when I developed my love of hospitals.

Watching E.R with my mom, late night drives by hospitals, only to see people buzzing 24/7 and the lights on constantly with someone else always around. I fell in love with the idea and began to think about it a lot, the idea of being in a place where it's normal if you don't sleep at night. I guess that's part of the reason I knew I wanted to work as a nurse in a hospital one day because the thought of never being alone at night was appealing, but even more so of being the one for the others like me to talk to when they couldn't sleep.

I realized on Monday, my first day at DRMC, as I was standing on the third floor of the hospital catching a glimpse of the sunrise through a patients window that I'm getting closer, I'm almost there. I'm almost that nurse in a 24/7 facility that I first thought about years ago, and after a brief panic moment wondering if I will really be ready for this when I graduate in a year, I smiled! Finally all the hard work, and bad days feel like their paying off.

I love hospitals, I love people and I love nursing. However I still hate our bodies need for sleep and I always will : )

nursing school

It's already tough and hard enough to go at it alone. You're gonna need some friends to get through it...even if they are your competition.
-Grey's Anatomy

you make me smile...

.spring.break.

I can feel it in my bones because Spring Break is 4 days away!!! Ahhh....I can't wait for Friday afternoon to take 10 days off!! And even though I got totally ditched and screwed over on my original spring break plans to California (yeah they suck and I don't wanna talk about it) I'll be going home now with an over night exception going to Idaho with Jeni. Sounds lame and boring to spend spring break in Provo?? I beg to differ. I get to play with my niece everyday, stay and party with Ash, hang out with the coolest family ever, catch up with my best friends, get home cooked meals everyday, relax, and many yet unknown adventures.

So I hereby declare spring break officially a homework free break. Bring it on : )

politically correct

Dear Lord,

In the past year you have taken away my favorite actor (Patrick Swayze), my favorite actress (Farah Fawcett), my favorite musician (Michael Jackson) and my favorite salesperson (Billy Mays). Just wanted to let you know my favorite president is Barack Obama...

love Me.

for a reason

My nursing class is full of quite the characters, 20 people, we range from all different ages 20-45, 17 females, 3 males, and many multiple personality types (with the most common type A). Four of us actually all worked at emerald pointe together for almost 2 years before getting accepted into the program. All 20 come from different backgrounds, towns, and reasons for wanting to be a nurse, however I know that we were all put together for a reason. I couldn't imagine being stuck with any other people in such a close setting for 2 years. We're a competitive class, our professors have had to quit classroom games because we get so out of hand, but in the end we're all in it together and have each others backs through it all....well most of us anyways : )

There are some people in this class that I wouldn't survive without:

Daddy Daron-one of my buddies from the beginning and has taken on the father figure role of lookin out for me whether it be protecting me in the behavioral med unit down to making sure I get all the papers that are passed out in class. Not only that but he keeps me entertained by cracking inappropriate jokes at just the needed moment to keep my awake.

Julia-I met Julia my first year at SUU when we sat by each other in Chemistry, she ended up dropping the class but when we had to pick clinical partners last semester we knew that we would get along great and we sure did. I must admit not being her partner this semester makes me miss her go get attitude in the hospital setting. She has taught me so much not only about nursing but about life and is so fun to be around and talk to!
Cyndi Loo Who-My second mother...well kinda. Cyndi is the oldest in our class but with her spunky personality I never would have guessed. She has set such a great example to me of how to be a strong women and how to fight for what you deserve and for what you want. Plus, her sense of humor gets along just great with mine.
Cy-where do I start!! Cy and I met 3 years ago when I was assigned to follow her and train with her my first shift at emerald pointe and we've been friends ever since. She's awesome!! Plus she's also helped me out in times like when I'm stranded home alone on holidays and she lets me stay at her house with her and her family : ) She's become an older sister to me, who can make me laugh and not to mention she has a story for everything! love ya Cy!
James James James-The tease. The good kind of older brother keep you on your toes kinda tease. However, it's hilarious that he thinks I'm easily offended because he is always so quick to apologize. He's great though, and his allergies to everything comes in handy to break the tension in the room or helps ease the stress by sneezing in the middle.
My single sisters forever Melissa and Jessica- I love these two!! I always get uncontrollable laughter around them, because they have a way with finding humor in everything about life even the bad things. and when everyone else in our class is complaining about marriages and babies and children and all those other adult responsibilities we're not ready for we have each other to go to and celebrate our singleness and the enjoyment we have in it only having to worry about number 1 : )
Basically, the 20 of us are stuck together for 2 years and pretty much everyday and every hour of those two years, seeing each other at their stressed out pissed off worst, but yet knowing each other so well by now that we know just how to cheer each other up. Thank you guys for being there and for being understanding of what I'm going through, especially this semester. And to quote high school musical again..."we're all this together!!"

this is happiness...

I love love love coke! It makes my day and keeps me headache free : ) however I'm sad to say that I'm in the process of switching to diet. Inspired by Ash making the switch and the idea that I'll still have my own real teeth in my mouth in 5 years. It's actually not too bad if you pimp it out with cherry, lemons, or limes. But as for now I'm weaning off slowly...