Long Overdue

Hey Everyone,
Well, it has been over a month and I have way too much to write about. I’ll try and summarize the best I can. I keep up with a few other blogs that my friends have and, I must say, mine is the least insightful by far. I don’t really write my reflections on life or anything like that, perhaps because I don’t have all that much time to reflect! It seems it is all I can do to keep track of what I’ve been up to and what I have on my plate for the next day.

School is going well, but I have never been so busy or so stressed in my life. Many of the things that I normally do and care about are going by the wayside. I am not as organized as I usually am, nor clean. At Ripon, one of my standard procrastination activities was cleaning. Now I don’t even have much time for that… it crosses my mind but it is often not an option now like it once was. I feel like I’m in sort of a survival mode, just barely keeping my head above water. Every day I have to decide which homework assignments will get done and which ones will have to wait… and also which ones will not be accomplished at all. We are supposed to read chapters in the textbooks before class every day, and those usually end up on the chopping block since there is always a test, quiz, or other assignment due that is a higher priority since those are graded.

It is week 8 in the program. Since I last posted, I finished one class, started another, and we just completed a different class today. My first clinical rotation at the nursing home went well, but was not very challenging and I learned more what NOT to do than what a good nurse should do. In two weeks the two classes I am in right now will end and then it will be a whole different ball game. We were recently split up into A, B, and C groups according to health care experience and our performance in the program so far. I was placed in C, the group with the most health care experience and we will start a class on med/surg nursing in two weeks and start our first “real” clinical rotation. I have been assigned to work 3 days a week at St. Anthony Central hospital, a Level I trauma center in downtown Denver. St. Anthony had the first helicopter flight nursing program in the country, and they are also moving to a new facility next year… hopefully I’ll get some contacts there.

School has been taking up the vast majority of my time, but I’ve made a point to do something fun or relaxing for myself every day, even if that means just watching an hour of TV or going on a short walk in between classes and studying. Weekends have been great lately, and Friday night and all day Saturday have consisted of no school work whatsoever… but that means I pay for it on Sundays by studying all day (and I mean literally all day). I have been able to enjoy myself a bit though, and here is a brief recap of some of the fun things I’ve done on recent Saturdays:

Jamie and I went downtown to meet up with my friend, Sarah, from Woodbury who is in Denver doing a social work internship. We went out to this little Thai place and had some terrific Pad Thai, and then back to her apartment to catch up and swap crazy stories that our respective “professions” have given us.
On Valentine’s Day, Steve, Jill, Jamie, and I went indoor rock climbing at a local climbing gym and had a blast, even though our arms were about to fall off after a few hours. Then we went back to Steve and Jill’s house for sushi, homemade fried rice, and Jamie-made egg rolls. Delicious.

Then it was my birthday and Steve, Jill, Jamie, Jason (Jamie’s cousin) and I spent the weekend in the Mountains and went skiing at Copper. We all went out to dinner and met up with Karla, my friend who works at Vail, and had a grand ole time. Then back to reality on Sunday to study for a big Pharmacology test.

This past weekend I took a spontaneous trip back to the mountains. Two of my friends, who I met in Alaska when I went there for NOLS, were on vacation in Breckenridge. By a happy coincidence, a bunch of the nursing students in the program decided to go to Breckenridge too and stay at a house that one of their families owns right in town. So I decided to go along and meet up with my friends that I haven’t seen in two years and maybe get some more skiing in. Jamie decided to stay behind to save some money and watch the house (Steve and Jill were in WI for a few days). So I was driving to Breck and was only about 15 minutes away when I got off of the interstate at a town called Frisco. There is a roundabout at the top of the ramp and there was a line of cars backed up waiting to enter. I was at the back of the line, at a complete stop, when all of a sudden I was rear-ended by a vehicle that had not seen that I was, in fact, not moving. My head jerked back and I had no idea what had happened for a few seconds. Luckily, I didn’t hit the car in front of me, and I pulled over to the side of the ramp. The woman who hit me was very apologetic and took complete blame for the accident. We decided to move off of the ramp and to a nearby grocery store parking lot. I called the State Patrol to file an accident report, and they arrived an hour later. I was, unfortunately, in Jamie’s car because it has better tires and drives better in the mountains. So I found her insurance information and all of that and filed the report with the trooper, as did the woman who hit me. Fortunately, the car was not damaged very much and was still drivable (even all of the lights still worked in the back) and I decided to drive myself to the local hospital since I was having some neck pain. I got an xray and was diagnosed with a cervical strain, but no spinal damage. So I finally got to my destination 4 hours after the crash, and spent the night hanging out with some of the Regis students. I felt pretty good the next morning and decided to take some ibuprofen and try to go skiing (though cautiously). My neck felt fine until that night, and then the soreness finally kicked in. I met up with my NOLS friends for a couple hours, but then called it an early night and went back to the house to ice/heat my neck and get some sleep. I made it back to Denver the next day without any problems, but my neck has still hurt a bit over the past couple days. Hopefully it will go away soon.

So for now it is back to school and no more trips to the mountains for a while probably. Still working on keeping this thing up to date more often, but thanks for keeping tabs on me! I miss you all and can’t wait to be able to see you soon (whether that means you coming here or me going wherever you are!). Thank you all for the birthday wishes and gifts, it was great to get some mail!

-Reed