Recombobulation

Anybody Out There?

2010-08-06T00:40:00.000-07:00

Place: Wheat Ridge, CO
Weather: Not sure... it's pretty dark out, but not raining
Music: Blind Pilot
Mood: Trying to stay awake

So... it's been a while, huh? I'm on night shift at work now, so I'm currently trying to stay up as late as I can in order to switch back to a "night" schedule. A few updates to bring people up to speed (I'd bet people know some of these already, but here it goes):

1. My dad had open heart surgery to replace his aortic valve and double leg surgery to get rid of a nasty clot that had lodged there. He's well on the road to recovery and doing much much better. However, he now has a new friend named coumadin to deal with.

2. Jamie got a job! She just started, last week, in a unit at the same hospital as me! She's on the "Intermediate Neurological Care Area" that specializes in patients strokes and other neurological conditions (like meningitis). She really likes it so far!

3. We moved! Jamie and I were living with Jamie's Aunt and Uncle in Arvada, CO. Now we've moved in with a couple friends of ours (Sonja and Mike, married, both nurses) in an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO that is only 2.5 miles from work! So Jamie and I have been biking to and from the hospital... which is awesome.

4. It is Sonja and Mike's goal to move onto a sailboat someday, and they've recently taken sailing lessons. Now they get to take some small 22 foot boats out on their own on a few local reservoirs... and Jamie and I get to go along and learn too! So we've gotten the sailing bug a little too and we're slowly getting to learn the terminology and technique. It's really really fun, and it'd be awesome to get out on Lake Superior sometime (or maybe the Bahamas...).

5. Not a lot of progress on wedding planning... more to come later in that department.

That's all for now, more to come soon now that things have settled down a bit!

-Reed

Relaxing in beautiful Crested Butte, CO

Having an interesting afternoon on Lake Dillon up in the mountains. (From left to right is our friend Lindsey, roommate Mike, and Jamie)

Jamie taking it easy when the winds were light.

The not-so-nice-looking-vortex-of-death that began forming over our boat as we tried to push ourselves off of a sandbar (oops). Got back just before things got ugly.

Home

2010-05-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Place: Golden, CO
Weather: Storm’s a-brewin
Music: Radiohead- In Rainbows
Mood: Contemplative

The concept of “home” is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Growing up, I had a very different idea of what “home” was compared to many of my friends. Lauren and I were constantly moving between the homes of our mother, father, and grandparents. Such an arrangement was necessary in light of our family circumstances, and I felt “at home” in each of those places. The moving got easier as Lauren and I adjusted to packing our things, but the routine also grew tiresome and I became envious of my friends who, generally, had lived in the same place their entire lives and could truly call that one place their home.

Looking back, I feel like I’ve always kind of been on the move, particularly in the past few years. In Ripon, I lived in 4 different rooms/apartments on campus. In the summers I lived out of a suitcase in the basement of city hall, and house-sat on and off for no less than five different people. Not to mention packing up for Alaska, Switzerland, the Raspberry Island Lighthouse, and then moving out to Colorado. In many ways, my transient qualities have been my own doing and I’ve been very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. But part of me does miss the feeling that I’m rooted down somewhere, to a place that I know and can call (in some way) my own. I’ve talked to people that have lived in the same small town their entire lives, and have not even ventured out of their home state. I’ve also talked to people that are constantly travelling and never stay in one place for more than a year or two. I think that both are missing out, and I hope I can find a good balance between the two someday.

My twin sister got married this month and is starting a new chapter in her life in a new home with a new husband and I am so excited for her. It is a huge step and I look forward to hearing from her what married life is like. In some ways it is strange to know that she has her own place now, her own life. During our childhood we spent so much time together, and it was really only after college that we have really been apart. Even though we have been living in different places for a couple years, I feel like our paths diverged long before. Lauren and I will always be family, and our twin connection will always be a very special thing, but our connection has definitely changed as a result of being in different places and choosing very different lives. We still talk, still support each other, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Maybe part of this is just the “growing up” process that everyone goes through. I guess time will tell, but I hope our paths can converge again before too long.

Not only was my sister married, but my dad (hopefully this won’t come as a surprise to anyone) got admitted to the Mayo Clinic a few days before the wedding and had to miss it. I can’t imagine many more heartbreaking things than to find out your health is failing and, in addition, you have to miss walking your daughter down the aisle as a result. I was honored to take his place, but it should have been him. His final diagnoses include a bicuspid aortic heart valve (most people have a tri-cuspid valve), endocarditis, bacteremia, and anemia and kidney failure as a result of the infections. I’ll be going in for my own diagnostics sometime this summer (I hope) to see of my aortic valve is missing a flap too. It’s pretty scary to know that my dad had such a, relatively, serious issue happen at such a young age, but it’s good they discovered it when they did. His time in the hospital was not easy, and when you strip away all of the comforts of home, a person’s morale takes and even bigger hit. The stay was necessary, no doubt, but I’m glad he’s able to continue the rest of his treatments at home now. I think that because I work in a hospital, it is easy to forget that just setting foot in one is a traumatic experience for many people. I’ve never really had the experience to actually be a patient, but I bet it would make me a better nurse if I had that first-hand experience.

Finally, the most recent musing about “home” came this week at work. It was about 9:00pm when a woman walked up to our front desk holding some towels. Wrapped in those towels was a baby, less than a week old. I’ve heard conflicting reports about what happened next. I’ve heard she found the baby on the curb outside the hospital and, crying, brought the baby in after nobody would claim it as their own. I’ve heard that she came in crying, set the baby down on the counter, said she “couldn’t do it anymore” and was enacting Colorado’s safe-haven law. Whatever the situation, I walked up to the front to find a cute little baby with a full head of hair and part of the umbilical cord still attached being passed around to all the nurses. The baby eventually went upstairs to the nursery, and I wondered that night what events had led up to the mother handing him/her over. I wondered about the baby’s future and the different directions their life could take. How long would they stay in the hospital? Would they end up in a foster home? Would the mother regret her decision and decide to take the baby back? A couple days later, I learned that the baby had already been adopted by a family that had been waiting years for a child. I hope that home will be better, and everything turns out for the best for that little one.

-Reed

Spring

2010-04-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

Place: Golden, CO
Weather: Windy
Music: Gabe Dixon Band
Mood: Content

Hey Everyone! Just a quick update tonight. Jamie and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science this past Monday and saw Body Worlds. It was my first time going, Jamie’s second, and it was pretty amazing… and weird. I don’t think that is what I want for my body after I die, but it was pretty impressive and eye-opening to see some of that stuff. The dissections were extremely well done and, besides participating in a cadaver lab, there aren’t many better ways to get a close-up look of the internal human anatomy. We’ll be going back there to see some Imax shows, I’m sure!

Work has been going well… lots of ups and downs. I’m definitely having good days and bad days, which is certainly to be expected. On the bad days, I’ve been overwhelmed with sick patients and stretching my current knowledge and time-management capabilities. I’ve made mistakes and kicked myself because I knew better, and I’ve made mistakes because I’m just plain new at a lot of this. No harm done to patients though, thank God. On the good days, I feel in control and I stay on top of everything. I feel fairly efficient and able to handle most patients that come through. It is when the patients start heading south that I am still scrambling and not sure exactly what to do. As an EMT, you had your one patient and, even if they were critical, you focused completely on that patient. Now as a nurse, I have 3-5 patients and if one or more of them are critical, the other ones tend to get shoved to the backburner for a while. The 12-hour shifts are long, but I’m thankful for the 11a-11p shifts that I’m doing now… they match my schedule much better than a 7a-7p or, of course, night shift.

This weekend was pretty fun! Spring has arrived here, but it hasn’t been quite as warm as in the Midwest! Lots of wind here recently, like, shake-the-house-and-keep-you-up-at-night-wind. Things are greening up a little though and we should have our first thunderstorm next week! On Saturday Jamie and I went on a short hike with some friends of ours, Sonja and Mike. They just got married a couple weeks ago so, after the hike, we celebrated with them by taking them out to the restaurant where they met in Boulder. After some food, drink, and merriment, we went back to Jamie’s aunt and uncle’s to play some Settlers of Catan (can’t wait to play with all of the island folks again!). We tried our hand at Thai food tonight and it turned out pretty good… Coconut Chicken soup (Tom Kha Gai) and Thai Chicken Pasta. Hope everyone had a good Easter!

-Reed

Plunge

2010-03-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

Place: Golden, CO
Weather: Springish
Music: Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons
Mood: Elated

There have been lots of big changes and events going on around here lately… graduating school, new jobs, starting careers, etc… but this is a big one, folks. Jamie and I are officially engaged to be married! Here’s how it all went down:

Last week, I was fortunate enough to have four days in a row off from work (I could get used to this nursing schedule). It just happened to be that Jamie’s family was in town last week on a ski vacation, and Jamie and I headed up to the mountains to hang out with them on Tuesday, March 23rd. When we arrived, everybody was out skiing so we went for a walk in the woods by Steve and Jill’s (Jamie’s aunt and uncle) condo. It was a snowy hike to Lily Pad Lake, at about 9,900 feet. When we got there, we decided to take some pictures. First, I took a picture of Jamie, then one of both of us. Then I handed her the camera to take a picture of me, and she turned to walk away, getting in position to take the picture. While her back was turned, I got the ring out and took a knee. So, when she turned around, she saw me on my knee holding the ring. I say a few words, ask the big question, she says yes, put the ring on, big hug, kiss, and then we stand there and slowly come to the realization that now, officially, we are to be married.

After a while, we walked back to dry off and meet the rest of Jamie’s family for dinner. The first person we told was Jamie’s nephew, Jaiden. Since he is only 3 months old, we weren’t too worried that he would spill the beans. When we got to the condo where Jamie’s parents were staying, everybody was relaxing after a long day of skiing, and Jamie’s dad was in the shower so we couldn’t tell everyone right away. So, we sat down on the couch, Jamie with her hands concealed in her sweatshirt pocket, and waited. Finally, after 20 minutes, Jamie’s parents were finally in the same room and she pulled her hand out to show everyone. Screams. Hugs. Smiles. We hadn’t realized that Jamie’s sister had hopped in the shower and missed the whole thing (sorry, Julie!) and we had some explaining to do. After that, it was lots of phone calls and emails, repeated stories and congratulations.

Already there have been discussions about dates and locations and guest lists and all of those other things that come along with such an announcement. I knew we would be bombarded with questions, but we definitely don’t have any answers yet! With so many things in transition and up in the air right now, we need to get some other stuff figured out before we start making decisions on the wedding.

The rest of the week was great. Powder day at Vail on Wednesday with Andrew and Steve, day off in Frisco and Breckenridge on Thursday, impromptu meeting and engagement toast with John, Julie, Josh, and Johanna Mathews, and a nice dinner back at Steve and Jill’s on Friday.

For now it is back to work for me, and back to the job search for Jamie. She has an interview coming up this week… here’s hoping for the best! Thanks for all of the kind words and encouragement, everyone!

-Reed

Bacons

2010-03-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

Place: Golden, CO
Weather: Clear, 10” new snow!
Music: Nickel Creek
Mood: Cozy

I got my first paycheck in over a year on Friday and, as my friend Min would say, I’m finally bringing home the bacons. It feels good to have some income, no doubt, but it is hardly my only motivation for getting up in the morning. As with my previous EMT work, I can again say that I am passionate enough about what I do to say that I would do it for free (if I didn’t have so many bills to pay). I wish more people could say that about their jobs, and I feel very lucky to enjoy my work so much. In the last post, I promised I would write a little about nursing… so count this post as the first of many.
I just got a new book, “Emergency Nursing: Principles and Practice,” which defines emergency nursing as “the care of individuals of all ages with perceived or actual physical or emotional alterations of health that are undiagnosed or require further interventions.” During my nursing education, I was fortunate to be placed in many different clinical settings… I worked with sick newborns, kids, adults, and the elderly. I worked in medical, surgical, mental health, OB/GYN, community, and intensive care settings. To me, emergency nursing combines all of these areas into one. You see patients for (usually) very short amounts of time (30 minutes – 5 hours) when they are often very acutely ill or injured. Just to give you an example of the patients I might see coming through the ED in a shift: A 56 year old having a heart attack, a 43 year old schizophrenic patient hearing voices telling him to hurt himself and others, a 23 year old female having severe abdominal pain, a 12 year old who was hit by a car, a 69 year old having a stroke, a 6-week old who stopped breathing, a 36 year old having an anxiety attack, a 85 year old in septic shock, and a 27 year old going through alcohol withdrawal. Then, there are also the sore throats, coughs, and urinary tract infections that should really be getting their healthcare outside of the ED, but that is another story. As a nurse, it is my job to assess, collaborate with physicians and other professionals, plan, intervene to correct whatever ailments our patients arrive with, and evaluate what we have done and how it has affected the patient.
The hospital I’m working at now is a Level III Trauma Center in suburban Denver. Level III (three) means that we are don’t have the specialists in the hospital to treat patients with severe (and I mean SEVERE) traumatic injuries, but we can easily handle minor/stable trauma patient. In contrast, a Level I Trauma Center is ready, 24/7 to immediately handle even the most severe trauma patients, often with very very rapid surgical intervention. Since we are only a Level III, we get the basic stuff… trip and falls, broken hips, broken arms, lacerations, etc. Occasionally a car will drive up and drop a really severely injured person at our door, but all of the ambulances in the city will divert their critical trauma patients to the Level I centers in Denver. With that said, the ED I work in is still the very large (we have 52 beds, compared to 7 in Ripon!) and second-busiest in the state, as far as number of patients seen. And even though we don’t get a lot of trauma, we do see a lot of critically ill people coming in with heart attacks, strokes, and sepsis… along with a lot of people with mental health and substance abuse issues and a fair number of really sick kids.
It has been a huge change of pace and very challenging for me so far, but I’m learning a ton. I have a 5-month long orientation where I will be working directly with another nurse, slowly gaining more and more autonomy. I’ll be working 12-hour shifts with him, usually 11am-11pm (which means I get there at 10:30am and get home by midnight or 12:30am). On top of that, I’ll be getting certified in trauma nursing, advanced cardiac life support, pediatric advanced life support, and another pediatric cert. It’s going to be a rough year, with a lot of growing, some bad days, and some really good ones. I can’t wait to be really comfortable in my new role and not feel like I’m drowning anymore, but I already know that it is not just about the bacons that keep me coming back, I truly love what I do.

-Reed

HIPAA (rules my life)

2010-03-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

Place: Golden, CO
Weather: Clear, Starry
Music: Jack Johnson, All at Once
Mood: Spacing out

I say “spacing out” because I’ve been, somewhat numbly, looking at a computer screen… or power point presentation, or TV, or iPhone, or some other variety of glowing rectangle for unusually long durations during the past couple of weeks. Actually, now that I think about it, I spend way way way too much of my time looking at glowing rectangles of various shapes and sizes, and I have been for years. Now I’m home and, after watching House and 24, I’m sitting here typing on my laptop… the word “enslaved” comes to mind. But I guess it sort of comes with the territory. It is pretty much unavoidable at work, with computer charting and all of the education requirements. However, I know I could definitely cut a little TV out of my life. My freshman year of college, I watched a total of, maybe, 10 hours of TV… and it was great. That is a whole other project though (maybe someday).

That was a bit of a tangent, but it also ties in to my next topic (a little about current technology in the medical field and out society). Pretty soon, I will begin posting about nursing. About my experience in school, hospitals, with patients, families, and overall perceptions to give people a little better idea about what nurses do and what, in particular, I will be doing. For now, though, I need to explain some legal stuff that heavily influence the way this information is delivered to you.

In 1996, congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA, and it now dictates my behavior each and every day. This law not only regulates insurance policy, but heavily influences “personal health information”… who can see it, who they can reveal it to, and where they can store it. So, if you come into a hospital, get picked up by an ambulance, or visit a clinic, they take proactive steps to keep your private medical information private. So, in the interest of keeping patient privacy in mind, medical professionals have to be extremely careful about what information is communicated to others… and a blog is a unique challenge. When I talk about my experiences to others, it is pretty easy to hide identities and not expose anything I shouldn’t. The internet is a whole different story and, because I never really know who COULD be reading this, I have to be particularly careful.

For example, I could write, “Today I saw something terrible. A 23 year old female presented to our department after falling down the stairs. She had cuts and bruises to her arms and complained of abdominal pain. After some tests we determined that she was 18 weeks pregnant, and after some talking she admitted that her boyfriend had actually punched and kicked her before throwing her to the ground”. Now, I didn’t reveal any names, locations, or any other specific details that you could use to identify the patient… but I have severely violated this (fictional, but not unrealistic) patient’s right to privacy. If my manager were to come on here and see a story like that, there is no doubt she would know who I am talking about. Lastly, I’ll say this… this profession gives us the curse and the privilege to be with people at their absolute worst moments. If I had to endure something so terrible, I would not want every caregiver I encountered to go write about it on the internet. With that in mind, I’m going to be very cautious about what I put here. There is no doubt I’ll be posting stories, but very vague versions of them and probably some time after they actually occurred. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to write about, no worries there.

Ok, this post is beginning to bore me… just had to put it out there though.

-Reed

Resuscitation

2010-03-13T22:35:00.000-08:00

Place: Golden, CO
Weather: Cloudy, Foggy
Music: Corelli: Adagio, From Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8 in G Minor
Mood: Sleepy

I sit here now in my dark little room, resuming an endeavor I abandoned over one year ago. My decision to resurrect this little journal is two-fold. First, I feel like I’m starting a new chapter in my life and I feel some deep, almost visceral, need to document it. If for no other reason than to allow myself to vent, reflect, and someday revisit what it has meant for me to do the things I have done and the profession I have chosen. Second, recent decisions have left me a thousand miles away from most of the people I care about most in this world. I do not take the implications of this lightly, and I hope this will prove a conscious, if somewhat passive, effort to keep in touch. I hope to use this as a tool to communicate, and I hope that it can be a two-way conversation… whatever form that may take in this medium. So, as the days drift along, I will sit down and write my activities, ponderings, frustrations, questions, stories, and whatever else seems to fit the bill. I whole-heartedly invite you to come along with me, participate, converse, and communicate in whatever way you feel moved to do.

For now, I’ll just give a brief update to bring everyone up to speed. Hopefully I’ll be able to fill in some of the details as we go. I’m currently sitting is my bedroom… but the house is not my own. On December 27th, 2008, I arrived in Colorado with my girlfriend, Jamie. Since that day, we have stayed with her Aunt and Uncle here in Golden. Over the past year, Jamie and I have attended (and now graduated from) nursing school here in Denver. After passing my national boards in January 2010, I have recently been hired by a local hospital to work in their Emergency Department (ED) as an RN. My first day was March first, and my first official day in the ED was March 7th. There is a lot to talk about there, and I’ll come back to that in the next post to explain in much more detail. Jamie’s still job hunting, and the market in Denver right now is quite poor… even for nurses, believe it or not. Hospitals are reluctant to hire new-graduate nurses because they require additional resources to train and orient to their new profession. Long story short, it is much cheaper for them to utilize part-time staff, float nurses, and nurses coming out of retirement than put in all of that effort (read money) to properly train the next generation of nurses. So, a significant portion of my classmates are currently highly qualified and unemployed, which is a shame when, truly, hospitals could use a few extra extremely capable hands.

I think this will be it for tonight… more to come soon. I’m excited to be at this again, and I hope you’ll hold me accountable to keep this updated regularly. That accountability is best in the form of encouragement and participation, and I hope to hear from you all soon.

-Reed

Long Overdue

2009-03-03T16:25:00.000-08:00

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

3 weeks down... 45 to go?

2009-01-30T21:22:00.001-08:00

Well, it is the end of week three of the nursing program and it has been quite a ride already. I’m taking three courses right now; Foundations of Nursing, Pharmacology, and Professional Nursing Role Development. The schedule is very confusing. Classes can be either 5, 8, 10, or 15 weeks long and are rotating constantly. On top of that, we will be doing clinical rotations in hospitals and health care facilities around the Denver area, which will also be switching frequently. Staying on top of where I’m supposed to be and what is due when for which class/clinical is taking up far too much of my time. I’ve heard now from multiple people that the first 15 weeks of the program are the worst, so it is comforting thing will only get better, but exhausting that we really have to hit the ground sprinting. All of the students in the program are stressed already, chronically behind with no hope of catching up. We’re all just keeping our heads above water enough to get done whatever assignments are due the next day, not even attempting to work ahead or complete all of the assigned reading. I start my first clinical rotation on Thursday at a nursing home in Boulder. Of all the clinicals, I am looking least forward to the nursing home rotation, but I know I will learn a lot there and I’m trying to stay open minded. In the past I’ve visited nursing homes on ambulance calls and have pretty much only seen the worst of the worst. As a part of one of my classes I’ve been volunteering at a local nursing home (in all my spare time) and have gotten to actually sit and talk with some of the residents and see a whole other side of nursing homes. Doing that has made me a little more excited to do this clinical, even though I know it is not the area I would like to work it. Plus, since the nursing home is in Boulder, I’ll get to spend some time in an awesome town and maybe even do some hiking before my afternoon shifts start.

I’m definitely taking things one day at a time here, and free time is sparse. However, I have been able to do a few fun things since school started. Most recently, Jamie and I went out for sushi with Steve and Jill and had a FEAST! I’ve never had so much sushi, and it was delicious. There are a bunch of sushi spots around town, and Jamie and I are always on the lookout for a place to match our old favorite, Koreana, in Appleton. I’ve really liked Denver so far. It is great to be able to see the mountains every day, even though they tempt me to abandon my studies to go skiing or exploring. People seem so active here, I’m hoping that (after this year) I’ll be able to adopt that kind of lifestyle. I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. It is Friday night and I will, unfortunately, be spending much of it studying…. and tomorrow… and Sunday… ug.

An Open Letter

2009-01-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

Dear Denver Motorists,
I may be new to the area, but I am acutely aware of the fact that we live near an alpine climate. Sure, the weather has been pleasantly mild as of late, but we all knew deep down in our hearts that it is January in Colorado and snow must be coming soon. Sure, the storm this morning snuck up on all of us. Usually a 10% or 20% chance of snow automatically translates to 0% in our brains and I did the same thing when I checked the forecast last night, and I was equally surprised to wake up to 3 inches this morning at 6:30. However, I did not find it appropriate to go gridlock the entire metro area because of such a minuscule amount of snow. In Minnesota or Wisconsin, that is a light day and commutes generally go as usual with a backup here or there. This morning was ridiculous. How, motorists, did my 15 minute drive turn into 70 minutes? Even midwesterners have to remember how to drive in snow the first time or two each season... but seriously, this morning you were in a league of your own. Yes, caution is called for in such conditions, but 10mph and taking up both lanes is a little excessive. And sir(s) with the pickup trucks, I know you have four wheel drive and excellent clearance, but you must obey traffic laws like everyone else, no matter how superior your vehicle is in these conditions. I don't think I have ever seen so many illegal maneuvers in such poor conditions, way to make a manageable problem a mess. Thank you for making me 40 minutes late to my first day of class, and I look forward to commuting with you in the future.

-Reed Nygren

PS: The first day of class went fine. 7 hours of lecture and I now I shall go bury my head in books to prepare myself to save that gentleman's life who spun out into the opposite lane this morning, only to resume his speeding after he regained control. See you in the ER.

Deep Breath before the Plunge

2009-01-11T21:19:00.001-08:00

Well, it is the night before classes start and I am definitely ready to start, but I’m quite nervous. Before I get into all of that though, I’ll write a little bit about what I’ve been up to since the last time I updated.

Just after Jamie and I got settled in here, we packed up a bunch of stuff again and headed into the mountains. Steve and Jill own a condo in Silverthorne, CO that they use occasionally, but primarily rent out to other people. There happened to be a gap in the schedule right after New Years, and Steve and Jill offered it to Jamie and me. Of course, we jumped at the chance to get some skiing in before classes start. We are still getting used to driving in the mountains. The highways in metro Denver are easy enough and people have been generally sensible with the few usual exceptions who want to drive 15 over all the time. In the mountain passes it is a different story. Jamie and I were comfortable going the speed limit at the most around the sharp turns and steep grades, but it seems like all of the locals fly around corners and gun it down icy descents. Maybe it is because most of them had 4-wheel drive and we didn’t, but it the way they drive seems insane and dangerous. The EMTs in us came out as we realized just how difficult it would be to stage a rescue in a narrow canyon like that, and quickly determined that if someone was seriously injured in an accident, they didn’t have much of a chance. With that said, we reserved ourselves to driving quite cautiously, no matter how long the line of cars behind us.

Silverthorne is in Summit County, which is pretty centrally located around a number of ski resorts. We arrived at the condo on the 3rd, cleaned up after the previous visitors, and went for a nice walk in the woods. It seems like you never have to travel very far from Denver to find yourself in a national forest around here, and we had to walk about a half mile from the condo to find ourselves in another one. The weather was, of course, significantly different in the mountains. While we sit at around 5,500 feet in Denver, the condo is around 10,000. With the elevation gain came a ton of snow, and it finally felt like winter again. The path we were on was a foot-wide ribbon of packed snow, and if we ventured an inch to either side we found ourselves knee deep in loose powder.

The next day we headed fifteen minutes Southwest to Copper Mountain for a day of skiing. It was my first time at that resort, and my first mountain skiing of the season (Afton Alps just doesn’t cut it now), so I took it pretty easy and stuck to the blue/blue-black runs. It was a nice day and the views from copper are pretty spectacular wherever you are. Plus, we got discounted tickets from Jamie’s cousin, Jason. Snow conditions weren’t great, pretty close to Midwest skiing actually… which was quite unfortunate. Maybe next time I’ll stray a bit more from the easier runs in hopes of finding some decent snow. Jamie and I shared a nice sandwich lunch on the outdoor deck of the T-Rex Grill and it was a very nice day despite sub-par snow.
It should be noted that we were so exhausted after whatever activity we happened to be doing during the day that we pretty much would eat and crash at the condo afterwards, without motivation to do much more than watch a movie or some HOUSE on tv. One thing that we DID do is get completely addicted to a stupid online game called “Off-Road Velociraptor Safari”. Unless you are looking to spend hours on a ridiculous, yet somehow completely enthralling, game… do NOT go to their website: www.raptorsafari.com.

Monday was our non-skiing day and we took it easy in the morning. Just before noon we headed out to hike as far as we could up Buffalo Mountain. The trailhead is conveniently located just up the road from the condo, and we were the only ones on the trail without skis for some reason. Buffalo Mountain is a 12,777 foot easily recognizable domed peak and a strenuous day hike in the summer. In the winter the trails at the base are well worn, but the higher you climb the less used they get. I found it interesting that my usually temperamental knees held up the entire trip without a single ache, while my usually manageable asthma was seriously hampering my hiking efforts. I attributed my gasping to a combination of being out of shape, the altitude, and the cold air. I think that it will get better in time, but I’ll still probably need to get an inhaler (we’ll see) if I’m going to be doing some really strenuous stuff. Anyway, we climbed high enough on the mountain for the trail in front of us to end and the views of the valley to open up. The vista was spectacular, as well as the wind. We sat down in the snow, put on every layer we had with us, and ate our pasta salad while gusts of wind and snow battered us. Before we were done, the noodles were frozen and the dish was full of snow, but we still managed to get some good pictures! Since the trail had ended, we decided to retreat back down since we didn’t have the proper equipment to continue on safely for a winter ascent. Uncle Jeff, one of these day’s I’ll have the crampons, rope, ice axes, and skills to get some proper peaks done!

Tuesday was the day I had been waiting for… Vail! I had been there once before and it was a perfect powder day. The mountain didn’t disappoint this time either. Jamie and I met up with my friend Karla. I met her when I was a lighthouse keeper for the National Park Service and she worked on the tour boat that came to the island every day. Now she works at Vail and she was able to get us a great discount on lift tickets. It snowed all day and we spent all of our time on the back side of the mountain and blue sky basin, where Jamie convinced me to do a run called Lover’s Leap. I saw the run from the chair lift as we were going up, and I felt as if I were looking at my death. Lover’s Leap begins on a wind-whipped ridge. Wind comes up from a valley, scraping snow from the hillside and then dropping it on the opposite side of the mountain. This opposite side is Lover’s Leap and, because of this behavior of the wind and snow, it is known for having large amounts of powder. It is also because of the wind that there is a large cornice (look it up) of snow right where the run starts. It is pretty much a 10 foot cliff, followed by a steep descent into a forest. It is on this run that a skier got buried in an avalanche earlier this year (he was fine, don’t worry). Snow conditions weren’t as heavy the day we were there, so we weren’t in any avalanche danger. I did the run twice and I fell in love with it and I can’t wait to go back and take some better pictures and video. I had the best day of skiing I have ever had, and Vail has won top honors from me so far. After skiing the three of us went out to dinner and then Jamie and I had to head back to Denver the following morning. It was the perfect mini-vacation before we start this nursing program.

Now back to the reason we’re in Colorado in the first place! We had orientation the day after returning from the mountains and we got a whole bunch of information thrown at us and it was very overwhelming. We have 11 chapters to read and two other assignments before classes even start. I spent $700 on books and there are countless other details that need to be taken care of in order to make this all work, many of which I’m still trying to accomplish. But, the program sounds great. Hard, but great. The faculty all seem very knowledgeable and experienced and excited to teach, and the students are all extremely motivated. We learned some interesting things about the program already, like that the local hospitals consider Regis to have the best nursing program in the state and offer them great clinical options as a result. And that students are generally so competitive that in order to be in the top 35%, you need to get a 3.8 gpa or higher. And that the first 15 weeks is considered to be the hardest, and that people who don’t usually get stressed or cry end up wanting to quit the program and spontaneously burst into tears (an anecdote from a student who had already graduated… not a formal part of orientation). And that we are all offered free counseling and therapy throughout the year. So, things should get interesting here, but I think it is going to go by extremely fast and that I am going to be completely exhausted… but that the program is going to get me ready to excel in a field that I need to be the best at in order to achieve my goal. Classes start in 10 hours… here we go!

As you may have noticed, I didn’t post any pictures this time. I decided to open a Photobucket account, and all of my pictures from Colorado so far can be found there. There are two videos on there now, so don’t forget to watch those too. Here’s a link! http://s549.photobucket.com/albums/ii395/nygrenreed/Colorado/

Colorado!

2009-01-01T15:11:00.001-08:00

Steve and Jill's House (Jamie's Uncle and Aunt)
My window is on the 2nd floor, farthest right.

My room! Jamie and I share a desk in here, and her room is across he hall.

Our first hike: Roosevelt National Forest, Sourdough Trail at just over 10,000 feet.

The view from my window. I can see the foothills!

Well, Jamie and I made it to Colorado! Jamie and her parents came to Woodbury and we left the day after Christmas and drove through pea-soup fog the entire way to Des Moines. We stayed there overnight and woke up the next morning to ice storm warnings for most of Iowa. Looking out the window, things didn't appear to be too bad and we expected to leave before the worst of the storm hit. We packed up and headed out the door only to find that, though it wasn't sleeting at the moment, everything (EVERYTHING) had a quarter-inch of ice on it. We had to chip our ways into the cars, and then things got easier once the cars started getting warm... but it was a bit dicey there for a bit. The roads were pretty bad until Nebraska, but from then on it was smooth sailing. We arrived at Steve and Jill's house around 9:30 that night and we didn't get to see the mountains until the next morning. Their house is beatiful and I am so happy to be staying here (at least for a little while!). We are in the city of Arvada, between Golden and Denver, and we have great views of the foothills and downtown Denver from the house. We spent the first few days unpacking and settling in, taking a day to go to Boulder for some shopping and sight seeing, and a few trips to the grocery store and back. Jamie's parents just couldn't leave us without making sure we would be well fed for the first week or so!

A lot of time has also been spent getting ready to start the nursing program. Jamie and I took a brief trip to campus and it looks really nice, quite similar to Ripon actually! Jamie got her iPhone and we both got the software we need for our clinicals. Jamie and I have both been relying heavily on our iPhones since we don't know where anything is here! We are adjusting quickly and learning our way around thanks to that handy maps feature!

New Years Eve marked three years that Jamie and I have been dating, and we are both very excited to be able to celebrate in this new place together. We spent most of the day hiking in the Roosevelt National Forest on the Sourdough trail (which took some finding after a long, winding drive through the mountains). But it was fun and it felt so good to be outside and back in the mountains. Then we went to dinner at this Thai place we heard was good, and I made the mistake of ordering a "medium" for spice level and ended up with a nuclear war going on in my mouth. The food was delicious, but I think it will take some time for us to replace our old favorite (Koreana) in Wisconsin. We also got to watch the downtown Denver fireworks from the house at midnight, which was fun even though they were quite small from our vantage point.

Well, we have orientation at Regis on January 8th, and then classes start on the 12th! Between now and then, I will be finalizing things with the school and making sure everything is in order. Jamie and I are also going to take advantage of the last days of freedom that we will have in 2009 by taking a trip to Steve and Jill's condo near Breckenridge/Keystone/Copper for a few days to get some skiing and hiking in before burying ourselves in books for a year. Lots more pictures to come, and I'll try and set up an account with snapfish or some other photo-sharing site too.

That's all for now! Thank you to everyone who has helped out Jamie and me throughout this whole process! We both truly appreciate it and we wouldn't be able to be here without your love and support!

The end of this chapter...

2008-12-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

Last day on call with Ripon Ambulance. Jamie and me with our primary ambulance, 147.

This is what the inside of the ambulance looks like.

Me in the ER, Trauma rooms I and II behind.

Well, the past two weeks have been difficult. Ending this chapter of my life has been harder than I thought it would be. After being in Ripon for 4 1/2 years, I've developed a connection with this place and the people here that I did not anticipate. When I first got to Ripon, there was a period where I thought, "oh man, what did I get myself into by going to college in this middle-of-nowhere small town?" When I realized that everything in town closes at six (including the coffee shop), that the typical form of entertainment involves going to the bar or partying on campus, and that diverse culture that was so easily accessible in the Twin Cities was non-existent, I had a period of questioning whether or not I had made the right decision on where I went to school. Now I see that I have had opportunities here that I wouldn't have had a chance at in Madison. I cannot overemphasize how valuable my time at the ambulance was. While in college, I always worked at least two jobs, but if I had gone to Madison or any other large school, I would not have had the option of working as an EMT. Similarly, my job with the ambulance allowed me to get the position in the Emergency Room, and what hospital in Madison would have allowed some 22 year old to work there? In my weekend shift at the ER, I was on with one doctor and one nurse, allowing me to assist in things that I wouldn't have been allowed to do at larger hospitals with large staffs. The crew on the ambulance and the people in the ER have become a second (third, fourth?) family for me. No less than five people (including professors and staff at the college too) have taken me in and allowed me to live in their homes (all for free), and all have made Jamie and I feel so welcome in the community, an experience that most students at the college do not get. The sense of camaraderie that you feel when you spend your time with them helping and saving other people is stronger than I can describe. Jamie and I would go out for lunch or dinner with some of the EMTs, especially our friend Lisa. We had a tradition of going over to Lisa's house where epic tournaments of the game Sequence would ensue, with the men (me and Lisa's husband, Darrel) almost always winning... I think we were something like 17/20 at the end. I'm going to miss being a regular at the coffee shop and my favorite lunch spot (Fat Bruce's) where they would know what I wanted before I did. Before I left, Jamie and I were going out to dinner with Lisa and Darrel. On the way to the restaurant, Lisa got a phone call from one of the other EMTs who wanted to say goodbye to us. We stopped by her house before dinner and said goodbye, and then noticed that they had a table FULL of food in their dining room. "Wow, you guys are feasting tonight!" I said. Then I noticed another EMT was in the living room, and another... and then it finally clicked. They threw a surprise going-away party for Jamie and me, and it was so so nice of them. Jamie and I were completely clueless. This past weekend was our last on call, and it was bittersweet all around. We had an interesting weekend to say the least, with 4 calls total. On Sunday we had our last call and said goodbye to everyone at the hospital... hugs all around and everyone wished us good luck. Every single person said how much they would miss us and that they knew we would do great in Colorado and that we are going to be great great nurses. When I got back to Diane's house, there was a card waiting for me from everyone in the ER. They had all signed it, and they all chipped in and raised $100 to send with me. I am truly blessed. Then we went out to dinner with some friends from the college one last time at our sushi spot, Koreana, and played some Mario Kart (on old school N64, if you're interested). Then it was time to go, and we packed the car and handed in our EMT stuff. It really hit us when we walked out of the ambulance garage that we were really done... we didn't have keys to city hall or our pagers any more, there was no going back. That was hard for both of us... not knowing when we'll be in an ambulance again (hopefully not as a patient). So, now I'm in West Bend this week spending time with Jamie and helping out with her Grandma. Classes are done on Monday and I'll be cramming to the extreme all week (I've been up until at least 3 for the past 4 nights doing homework). Then home on the 9th. Oh yeah... Thanksgiving was great too. I headed to Milwaukee and stopped by to see the Jasinski family, which was great even though I could only stay for a half hour, then it was off to John's sister Carrie's house for dinner and games. Good times all around, and it was nice to be with family again. That's all for now. It has been an emotional rollercoaster lately, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Ebb and Flow

2008-11-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

Above: Ripon Ambulance EMTs with Theda Star Helicopter

Above: Jamie (green sweatshirt) below the spinning rotors of the Flight for Life Helicopter

Above: Me and a couple of my coworkers. Connie (middle) baked me a giant "Good Luck, Reed" cookie and ordered us all pizza because last night was our last shift together!

Aunt Nancy is right, it is time for a new post! The last couple weeks have been a exhausting and confusing combination of excitement and stagnation in terms of work. The ER has been quite slow (when I've been working there on weekends) and the daily numbers have been in a bit of a "slump" lately. I've been told that patient surges and slumps come in cycles, and we're just in the middle of a slump right now. Just when things were looking predictable...

After working the weekend shift, I stayed up until the early morning hours of Oct. 27 to write a paper. After two hours of sleep I woke up to my pager going off. It was for an "unknown", one of those calls where the dispatchers just can't get a lot of information about what is going on. We were told that a husband had called for his wife, that she was "moaning" in the background and needed to be seen at the hospital. When we have very little information like that, we usually assume the worst and respond with lights and sirens. We arrived at their home to find his wife laying in bed, complaining of flu-like symptoms and not feeling quite right. She was very weak, but perfectly coherent and talking to us. We helped her to the cot and got her out to the ambulance and I hopped into the driver's seat for a quick 5 minute drive to the hospital. One of the EMTs called in a report to the hospital from the back, and the patient was laughing and joking. Suddenly she stiffened up, gasped for air, and went unconscious. The EMTs in back tried to get her to respond, but she was completely out. We were less than a mile from the hospital when I flipped on the lights and sirens and called the hospital to inform them of the change in our patient and "upgraded" response. By the time we reached the hospital, she had stopped breathing and as I pulled into the ambulance garage her heart had stopped. I jumped out of the ambulance and ran to the ER doors, yelling "PNB!" inside (PNB means pulseless and not breathing). We got her into the trauma room immediatly and started CPR. A "code" like this is one of the few times that the little Ripon ER is like the TV show. It is a blur of activity, but there is calm and control in every action. The ER doctor intubated her and their was a surgeon there to start a central line. I looked for a peripheral IV and rotated in and out of doing chest compressions. We worked for a half hour, trying different rounds of medications and all the while doing CPR, shocking her three times with the defibrillator. I was doing compressions when the doc told me to stop so he could see if she had regained a pulse. Amazingly, she had! Her heart was beating again on it's own and she had a good blood pressure for the first time after being dead for thirty minutes. She ended up being transferred to another hospital later in the morning but, sadly, died on November 4th. I never heard if she had regained consciousness (I suspect she didn't, but who knows) but at least her family got a chance to say goodbye.

After we had finished out paperwork that Monday we just kept getting calls until I was done at 6pm. The next day was even more busy, with a total of 6 calls. I started at 7am and didn't get done until 7pm. I had time in between calls to get home and let the dog out or take a quick shower. I went to my favorite place in town for lung, and just after I had ordered, paid, and sat down the pager went off again. Thankfully I'm a "regular" at this spot and they put my meal in the fridge for me until I was able to come back (I finally had my first meal of the day at 3pm during a 15 minute lull). At 7 I finally got home and took the dog out for a walk, not having to worry about getting paged out again. I was about halfway through the walk when I got a phone call from a "restricted" number... never a good sign. It was the hospital asking me if I could be on call overnight just in case they needed somebody to come in and help out. I didn't have any pressing plans besides homework, and I need the money, so I agreed, hoping that they wouldn't be as busy as they had been earlier in the day. Five minutes after I hung up the phone they called me in to work... ug. I finished the walk, took another quick shower, grabbed some food, and hopped on my bike (I always bike to work, rain or shine). I ended up working from 8 until 2:30 in the morning and stayed busy the whole time, including a patient that came in after being burned when their furnace exploded when they tried to light it. I don't think I've ever slept so well after those two days!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, as was the weekend. I wasn't on call at all this past week, and tried to get some homework done. On Wednesday I headed down to West Bend to visit Jamie and help out with her Grandma, who is living at home after a series of falls. Jamie stays with her during the week, making sure she gets her medications and making meals, etc, and I'm trying to help a bit too before we leave. So I was there for two days and then had to head back on Friday to work the ER again. On my drive back to Ripon, there was a gross combination of snow and rain coming down. It is an hour long drive and I have to take a major highway called Highway 41. I was only 15 minutes into the drive when I saw cars slowing down in front of me. There is construction, but it isn't usually backed up that far. Then I saw about four cars pulled over and a car in the ditch that had rolled over. I pulled onto the shoulder, and hopped out of the car and into the sleet wishing that I had brought my raincoat. I opened the trunk and grabbed the jump-kit of EMT stuff that I always have in the car. It was a single vehicle rollover with one patient, and I had gotten there only a minute after it happened. Luckily, there was a first responder there who had pulled over too and we started assessing the 18 year old driver. She was wearing her seatbelt and was able to get out of the car and was walking around when I got there. Then she started getting cold and dizzy and had to sit down. I ran back to the car and grabbed a blanket that I had in my trunk and covered her up a bit. She said that she didn't really remember the accident, and the other first responder held her head in place while I put a cervical collar on to immobilize her head and neck. She was bleeding from her ear, and then started to complain of pain around her ribs/liver on her right side and said she was getting sleepy (not a good sign). Luckily the fire trucks, police, and ambulance were all starting to show up on scene. By the time the ambulance got there, we had her fully assessed, on oxygen, a collar on her neck, and all of her info gathered so they were able to put her on a backboard and have her on the way to the hospital within 5 minutes. So, I was able to use my jump kit (thanks for the patches, Carol) on somebody besides a drunk college student finally!

I think that will do for now... I'm working on getting final arrangements made for the move to Colorado, and I'll hopefully be able to post again soon.

Welcome to my Blog!

2008-10-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! Since I am notoriously bad at keeping in touch with everyone, I decided to try blogging and see if that is a good solution. I'll try and update this weekly or whenever something new or interesting happens! For starters, Jamie and I just got back from ten days up on the Island. It was a great break from the usual routine and stress of life back in Ripon. The weather was mediocre, but the fall colors were perfect and we got outside every day to hike, bike, read, and even swim! We jumped in the lake three times, and estimated the water to be in the low 50's or upper 40's... but somehow it didn't feel as chilly as we thought it would. We were also lucky to be able to meet up with Uncle Jack, Jim, Liz, and Laura to play some "sets and runs" and, of course, SETTLERS OF CATAN!

Now I'm back in Ripon and the stress is back, full force. My days seem to get so booked, and having to constantly adjust my sleep schedule aggravates the whole process. Here is my typical week: Monday - Thursday I work for Ripon Guardian Ambulance from 6am-6pm. In Ripon, we have two ambulances that are staffed 24.7, and we all carry pagers around with us when we are on call. When a page goes out, we have 5 minutes to get to the ambulance garage... so we pretty much have to be ready all the time to drop anything at a moments notice. This gives me the flexibility to do homework during the weekday, and also to try and figure out the logistics of moving out to Colorado to start the nursing program in January. I'm currently living at a house in Ripon, courtesy of a woman named Diane Light. Diane is a nurse in the ER in Ripon and was, until recently, my boss! She stepped down as director of the ER and is now taking classes in St. Paul two days a week to become a Pastor... quite a career change! Anyway, she has 3 cats and a dog that need taking care of when she is away, so I watch the house and make sure the pets stay watered, fed, and walked... along with the usual housekeeping stuff. I don't have to pay a dime to stay with her, and I am eternally grateful! Back to the schedule... on weekends, I work in the Emergency Room at Ripon Medical Center. My hours are 9pm-7am Friday and Saturday nights... pretty brutal and it does a number on the body to try and catch up on sleep constantly. I'll be trying to avoid night shift at all cost when I start my nursing career... but that is nearly impossible in Emergency Medicine. So, between 3 (online) classes, 2 jobs, house-sitting, and trying to move to Colorado, I have a pretty full plate and not much time for fun stuff. Welcome to the real world, I guess (I'm not even there yet, and I'm already feeling overwhelmed!).

A few words about the nursing program I'll be doing:
I have been accepted into Regis University's Accelerated Bachelors of Science in Nursing program starting January 12, 2009. It is a 12 month program in Denver, CO in which I will earn my second bachelor's degree and (hopefully) my RN. From there I'll get a job in an ER or ICU somewhere and start getting some experience. My ultimate career goal is to be a flight nurse on a helicopter, but because of all of the crashes lately (11 so far this year, 6 of them fatal) I've been a little discouraged. Hopefully there will be an overhaul on the safety measures and for air medical services... helicopters are changing the way we do medicine and allowing people in rural areas to access top-notch medical care when they need it most. I'd hate to see such an important innovation in medical care falter because of something fixable. Anyway, the nursing program is designed specifically for people who already have a bachelors degree in something besides nursing (ideally Biology or another science). Jamie is in the same program and we'll be doing a combination of intensive classroom and clinical work in the Denver area. Why Denver, you ask?

#1. I was looking for an accelerated program that had pre-requisites that I already have. Even though Regis was one of the best in this regard, I still have to take 3 courses this fall to qualify.
#2. It is a short, intense program. This equals less money, but more work. I'm okay with that.
#3. According to people I've talked to in the Denver area, Regis has the best nursing program in Colorado.
#4. Denver is in Colorado, Colorado has mountains, and Reed LOVES mountains.
#5. Jamie got into the same program... that's pretty sweet! Despite the fact that we might not be on the same schedule for classes or clinicals, it'll be fun to do the program with her.

So, that is a pretty good update of what is going on in my life right now! Now that I have the basics out of the way, I can focus more on the day-to-day stuff more. I won't be able to talk about work a whole lot because of patient confidentiality, but I'll probably throw in a story here or there. PLEASE comment on the blog or email me! I'd love to hear back and find out what is new with YOU!

-Reed