Category Archives: work

March 29, 2013 · 5:24 AM

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Hiya,

Hello everyone. Is there anybody out there? I still have a blog. I still love to write. I am just really neglectful. I apologize.

I moved to SLC, almost 2 months ago. I live in a cool part of town. I work at a hospital here. I am working in oncology still, just a different kind then I was working with at home in TX. I am working on a Bone Marrow Transplant unit, with people who have different kinds of leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood cancers. It’s pretty intense.

So I long for the day when I can work with mom’s and babies. It’s my one true dream.

Anyway, it’s Easter on Sunday and I am going to play the cello at church. I am so excited. I haven’t been seriously playing my cello for years. I did the university orchestra my first 2 semesters of college, but then I stopped, and haven’t really played since then. Not like I am reaching my full potential as a cellist, but I am playing and it makes me really happy.

Also I am doing my capstone so I can graduate at the end of June with my masters’ in nursing informatics. I am so looking forward to graduating and for taking my first break from school since kindergarten!!! But Lizzy and I have been talking about doing the fashion design program at Salt Lake Community College, and that would be a dream!

My time is extremely occupied. Monday and Tuesday I have my capstone, with assignments and homework throughout the week. Then I work every Wednesday – Friday nights at my nursing job. It’s pretty wild. But just till June, so I only have two more months of school and my capstone starting in April.

I am the least crafty person right now, and I haven’t sewn anything in forever. But I will start being creative once I graduate. I promise.

RIGHT LADIES!?!?! I hope all is well for anybody out there.

TTYL

LOVE,
Melyss.

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Filed under grown up stuff, work

April 24, 2012 · 8:02 PM

night shifts and tooth aches-life lessonz.

I have been working a ton lately. I finished my 2nd semester of grad school!!! HOORAY. Have had the worst tooth ache, and got an expensive diagnosis from a really unprofessional dentist, “wow, this is really bad”. “for you this procedure would be like $3,000+, I mean but for me, I can just get one of my friends to do it and they will give me a really good deal, but for you really expensive”. “this doesn’t look good for you”.

So I have learned a lot in the past 2 weeks.

Here are my new top 10 life lessonz.

1. In cases of medical negligence and malpractice, just go ahead and sue. It’s better for both parties in the long run. Better for the victim because they will have ultimate closure and appropriate compensation for damages. Better for the practitioner because that door is legitimately closed after they have been negligent, and maybe they will be able to sleep at night. I don’t know.

2. Seriously just sue.

3. Even if you have PTSD when it comes to the dentist, you should still go how ever often they recommend. So that when you do finally go there isn’t a lot already wrong.

4. If the nursing aide puts a fever in the computer for vital signs, recheck it before you call the doctor on call. ROOKIE MISTAKE!

5. Working 3 shifts in a row is hard, but also kind of a dream….just plan accordingly.

6. Don’t work overtime when your homework isn’t done, or you will get in big trouble with mom.

7. IPHONEs are RADICAL!

8. Pinecone and Minkee can get along. WHO KNEW!?!?!!?

9. Simon Baker circa 2001-2003 in the legal drama, “The Guardian”….so dreamy. His “American” accent isn’t fooling anyone, and he is so Australian looking…let’s be real. But he is a dream nonetheless and the show isn’t awful. SO All in all two thumbs way UP!

10. REALLY floss, and REALLY brush your teeth, everyday, twice a day. It will make life much easier, and less expensive. You are investing in your health. AMEN!

BONUS LESSON!
11. When people find out you are a nurse and they also do something in the medical industry, they may just assume that you can talk to each other like you work together, and that all professional boundaries are not necessary, or like they are not your health care provider…which is a false assumption. Let it be known.

Those are the lessons. Sorry for being heavy on the dental references. IDK, it’s just what is going on for me right now.

Love you,
Timmy the Tooth.

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Filed under life lessonz, work

April 14, 2011 · 4:12 AM

what the what.

i feel like i have no control over….anything in my liz-ife.
i don’t know what to do except keep going and try to get things manageable?

i will keep trying, i guess that’s all that i can do.

suit up and show up. am i right ladies?!?!?!

i don’t know if anyone else has this problem that isn’t a member of my family, i think people that don’t know me think that i am quiet and reserved or something, and then a rap song will come on or a mariah carey jam. and of course i will know all the words and i will start being zany and then it’s curtains for anyone ever taking me seriously again, or being received as anything but the court jester of the group.

dance monkey dance.

but i keep it going because, i guess i would rather be thought of as the clown of the group instead of not being thought of at all?

right?

i don’t know what i am supposed to do.

it’s like when i worked at that camp and i would dance with the 7 year old girls, and they loved me, and i loved them, and then the head girls counselor told me that i wasn’t allowed to dance anymore because the girls were getting too excited to dance with me that they wouldn’t really eat their meals and then they were too excited afterwards.

could i just dance with them where they could want to finish their meals and then be calm later? not possible. i only have extremes and nothing in between. so i decided i wouldn’t dance anymore, and then the cha cha slide comes on and all is supposed to be forgiven? i don’t think so. you can’t tell me that i can’t dance, and then that rule doesn’t apply when the cha cha slide is on. alright.

i think that is why i have such a hard time being “social” because i am too extreme.

but baby i was born this way.

please keep my family in your prayers right now. we are in troubled waters and we will take all the prayers and positive thoughts we can get.

my preceptor keeps telling me i am meant to be a pediatric nurse.
i never knew.

i thought labor and delivery was where it was at for me….but i guess i just can’t get enough of those babes.

who knew?

it’s okay. hopefully i will just be able to get A job and then get picky about where i want to be after i have experience because at this point i really have no say in the matter.

i keep getting spanish patients and i couldn’t be more thrilled, and not like i can even speak spanish or anything…but i am learning and it is really great, and i love them so much and every chance i get to speak with a spanish patient i leave knowing more than i did coming in, and for that i am SO GRATEFUL!

i go into the patient’s room with like 1 kajillion different books, and i carry around the heaviest backpack just in case i might have the chance to have a spanish patient so i will have all the necessary resources to communicate with them. yo soy loca.

and even though my ability to speak spanish is very limited in our nursing notes it says that i am a bilingual resource. i got so excited!!!! maybe one day i can really be one….a girl can dream. right ladies?!?!?!

someone asked me if i ever wore makeup. which was pretty embarrassing for me, how can you make someone that thinks they look like a trash can all the time feel like they look even more like a trash can? ask them if they ever wear makeup, and then ask them if they are a tomboy when they are in their 20s, because they don’t wear jewelry. just in case you are wondering, that is how. oh and also if they decide to wear makeup for once because they are tired of associating themselves with a trash can, and you ask them, “oh you are wearing makeup today. is today a special occasion or something?” it still promotes a self identity of a likeness to a trash can.

love,
trash can

6 Comments

Filed under Clinical, nursing, school, work

April 4, 2011 · 4:26 PM

tales from the script.

Last night at work I had to wear my emergency scrub top. The ill fitting pink one with ugly flowers that my mom got for me from Walmart. Perfect. You know it is really bad when I am wearing that one, because I only ever wear it as a last resort. Meaning that all my other scrub tops are dirty and I really need to do my laundry. Also my hair was in a bad excuse for a pony tail and I probably looked 15, tops.

When I got to work someone asked me if I had made my scrub top. I was proud to say that I hadn’t and embarrassed for someone to think that I had.

Not embarrassed enough not to wear it, just for someone to think that I had made it myself.

No offense, Mom.

There was a minor emergency on the floor last night, no one coded or anything, but they were worried enough to call the rapid response team. There was about 15 people in the room where that patient was. I was still on the floor with my patients, taking my time, getting vital signs and measuring urine output. Glamourous life. OBVZ.

But in the midst of those 15 people in the room was the one dream doc that I have a crush on. <3.

They had to rush the patient to one of the ICUs. (He ended up being fine, no worries).

And then dream doc came back to the floor. Be still my heart. But I was too much of a ragamuffin to even say one word to him.

I am so lame I even looked up where my ancestors are from in his native country so I would have something to discuss with him incase we spoke.

Embarrassing.

I had two naggidy ann patients last night.

I feel bad when they call for me on the intercom and they don't tell the receptionist what they want, so they send me into the room, and all they want is pain medicine and I can do nothing for them.

I feel like a broken record, "Okay, then we have to call your nurse, who is __________ and she can see if you are due for pain medicine. Is there anything that I can get for you in the meantime?, a water, or ginger ale? Hawaiian punch maybe? An Italian ice? chicken broth? graham crackers???"

That's pretty much always how it goes.
Those are just all the things that we have in our pantry.

Someday I will pass the NCLEX and be an RN (which stands for Real Nurse) and then I will be able to bring my patients all the pain medicine that the doctors have ordered for them, and I will have a reason to talk to dream docs about our mutual patients plan of care. Now that will be a glam life 4 shore.

Look how ridiculous I am after work yesterday. Yes my bed is unmade. Sorry. All I do is work and sleep, and when I am working my bed is unmade so I can climb in after work.

Minkee was thrilled when I got home. She is actually purring and having the best time in this pic even if her face says otherwise.

TTYL,
Love,
Melissa.

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Filed under nursing, work

April 3, 2011 · 6:17 PM

freaking weekend.

all i find myself being able to do when I am not doing 12 hour clinical shifts or working at my job is to sleep and watch foreign films, or bad medical dramas on hulu. i can’t help it.

BUT i did some serious cleaning in my apt this weekend so i can start sewing…

i am going to make a jumper and i am so excited.

i got a new backpack and i look like a 9th grader. i think i will continue to look like a 9th grader when i have this new jumper.

so the other day i did one of the most grown up things i have ever done….which is to order my graduation cap and gown and my college grad invitations (it was a package deal, saweet saweet…but freaking expensive and i am muy pobre….i am really poor).

and i was talking to my mom and i asked her if it was customary to put a picture in your graduation invitation for college, and we weren’t sure. i have come to the conclusion that in my case i should send pictures because what good is an invitation without a picture as a keepsake? right ladies?!?!?!?!

but my mom thought it would be hilarious for me to put my same senior picture that i sent in my high school graduation invitations to send in my college grad invitations. because i pretty much look just the same, and could anyone really tell the difference?

my style has gotten better, i hope, and my ability to do my own eye makeup. but who knows?

it probably hasn’t.

but i think i will have my picture taken and be legit with a recent pic with my fancy velum hopkins seal invites. omgeee.

i should just have a picture in my cap and mini gown next to a big number ’11. perf.
this is the closest i found to what i am looking for, even if it is a little dated.

or something like this.

yeah seniors ’11

also i found my doppleganger model in vogue knitting.
or better yet, i wish she was my doppleganger model.

this would be my life if i was 2 inches taller and 15 pounds lighter and a model for vogue international and i was probably foreign or something. dream life!!!!

nbd.

well i have to go spend money i don’t have for a cab to work!

not to say poor me or something.

i mean poor me, because i don’t have money and i am poor.
but not poor me, like, poor nana poor poor nana.
like don’t have pity on me or something.

is it wrong that i am hoping that one particular nagitha christy patient has been discharged in the past week? and if they haven’t that i am not assigned to their half of the unit?

idk idk.

g2g.

love,
melissa.

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March 31, 2011 · 12:49 AM

playing dress-up.

I am two weeks into my transition clinical at JHH. I feel like everyday I am pretending to be a nurse, playing dress up. Like I am a nurse for Halloween, and Halloween is everyday. I don’t think that any nurses read my blog….but if they did I would ask them how long into their nursing careers did they stop feeling like they were pretending, and that they were actually nurses?

Hopefully there is a learning curve, and I am going to hit the upward side sometime soon.

Please bless that I am not doing the worst job.

I am on post partum this week. I love the new born nursery. But so far of the two things I have experienced, L and D, and post partum – I vote L and D. But we will see when I have more time back on L and D…….

Yesterday I was standing at the bus stop waiting to come to clinical, and I hear two men speaking Italian. I walk up to them and say, “Excuse me, are you speaking Italian?” One of them answered, “Yes we are.” “Oh, what part of the country are you from?” “I am from Sicily.” “That’s great. My family is from Piemonte”. Then he responded to that by saying, “Oh….the north…..well our bus is here so….gotta go” What made things even more awkward was when I said, “This is my bus too”. But they had another foreign friend on the bus that they could make fun of Americans with so everything worked out great.

But he reacted so weird. It was like he would contract a disease if he continued a conversation with my because my family was from…..the north……

But here is thing about me and the north, I’ve been associated with it in the past, and it’s never been positive.

For example, the sub division where we live in tx.
This is a sample dialouge that I used to have quite frequently.

“Oh hey, can I have a ride home from school?”
“Yea, where do you live?”
“In the north.”
“Um…..The North…..oh I just remembered that I can’t take you home because……I…..um……gotta go!!!!!

and that is the story of my life.
Who want’s to give me my first nursing job?!?!?!?!

One day only, everything must go, all final liquidation sale. SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY.

(by that i mean i really need a job PLEASE! the bargain slander is just an example of my desperation is all.)

These are the things that I need to start doing on my days off from transition clinical and work.
– shower minkee (meaning….)
– with love/ bathe her, because she could really use it, let’s be
real.
– start sewing something
– start knitting again…
– practice espanol
– make meals at home for the rest of the week.
– update my resume/reference list
– apply for 1 million jobz

I think that is about it.

I love the babes. I love love love them, I can’t help it I gotta tell ya.
Katz’s never kloses.

love,
melissa.

1 Comment

Filed under Clinical, nursing, work

March 20, 2011 · 2:37 PM

a day in the life.

I have tried my hand at song writing again. I used to be able to write songs….but maybe nursing school has drained the creativity from my brain, and turned me into a wannabe scientist. But that probably isn’t true. I got half way through writing a song. I will just make myself finish it. I need to start performing again or something. You wouldn’t know it by my career choice but playing instruments and making music is so a part of me, and I don’t know where it went. I need to start playing my cello again. It was the coolest thing about me, and now the only thing about me is cake for breakfast…

I worked a 12 hour shift yesterday. It wasn’t so bad. I had this one patient that was extremely difficult and I was trying so hard to be patient and understanding, but I felt that I was still coming across as indignent, frustrated, or annoyed, or something. I asked if she wanted to bathe that day and she said she needed me to wash her back. I gave her a back rub when I washed her back and then her heart was softened and she was 1 billion times nicer and easier to work with, and accomodate.

case and point, when it doubt….rub it out.

TMI….sorry, i am going to be a nurse.

I just felt like I needed to share that life lesson. Patients will love you if you give them a back rub. I think that all most people really need is a back rub.

Don’t go trying this out on strangers or anything, but just be more willing to give a back rub and everyone will be really happy. TRUE STORY.

I went to bed at 10pm last night, and I slept 12 hours. I slept through church. I really didn’t mean to. :(

I love working, and I am so excited about graduating nursing school, and starting my transition into professional nursing practice tomorrow on L and D…but truthfully I feel like a lost lil lamb. I don’t know what is next, and that is the absolute worst thing for someone like me who is constantly trying to plan the future. I don’t have a job here. I don’t want to stay in Baltimore. But I have no money and my lease ends in July and I have no plans. The girls want me to move to SLC, and I want to be with the girls. But I can’t even fathom a move right now with no money and no job leads. I would be willing to move home and try to get work downtown at the medical center. But everyone knows that if you move back home you get pregnant and then you get a job at Target, and that is the last thing I want.

Mo’ money, mo’ problems? I think not. All of my current problems would be solved by money, and nothing else….so….?

Needless to say I am overwhelmed with thoughts of the future and what is going to happen. Many of my peers already have jobs. and i am saying, “BUT HOW?”

Can’t I just figure out how to be creative again and do that for a living?

I need to start working on my dance moves, because I am destined to be a video honey…I would rather do that then work at Target.

Love,
Melissa.

4 Comments

Filed under baltimore, Clinical, dancing, life lessonz, nursing, work

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March 14, 2011 · 10:28 AM

i made it through the wilderness.

somehow i made it through-ough. i am not going to start singing madonna, like a virgin. that isn’t about to happen. BUT i am so excited about being done with all my classes. so let’s give a shout out to the classics. alright.

madonna, ya look great! i want this look.

all of my spring break plans fell to the wayside. but i don’t even mind because i finished all my classes!!!! but all i can say now…is what now?

i worked a 12 hour shift yesterday because i am here so might as well be making ca$h money. RIGHT LADIES?!?!?!?! RIGHT!

except the really sad thing about working a 12 is that you go into work before the sun comes up and you finish after it has already gone down again. so sad!

NBD.

i am going to see a clinician today about my dyslexia. horray for new discoveries!

Anyway…..i slept from 9pm to 9am and homegirl is still tired. 4realz.
and there is no candy or cake in my house and i am pissed.

if i don’t get to work a kajillion extra shifts this week, I am just going to sew. it will be great because i have all this fabric, and all these skills, and now i have some time so it is a perfect combination.

DREAM!

i think all the cab drivers in baltimore over slept yesterday, because i went to hail a cab at 6:40 yesterday morning, and normally at that time I would have to wait a few minutes but I could still find one, no problem. but because of day light savings it took me over 25 minutes to get my cab. that was after i used the text a cab that didn’t work, and calling the cab dispatch and waiting another ten minutes. I was late to work and as I was standing there waiting for my cab, I thought to myself, “this wouldn’t happen if I had a car”. I wish I had a wealthy chinese grandma to buy me a car for christmas. but i don’t…so it will be a long time before i get one. no offense to my own grandma…i just wish i had another rich grandma that loved giving cars for christmas.

these are the facts:
ally mcbeal is a great show.
minkee is still freaking cute.
tooth soap is way better than tooth paste.
i wish there was dessert in my house.
having a not sprained wrist is tonz better than a sprained one.
minkee and i want to say, we love you.

love,
melissa.

3 Comments

Filed under baltimore, entertainment, work

January 23, 2011 · 7:33 PM

first day of school….more like first day of drool……

just kidding don’t cry.
i start my first day of school tomorrow of my last semester of nursing school.

this week has been very educational for me…..so here are the top ten facts of this past week. they are golden…

1. you function better when you have an adequate night of sleep.
2. when you feel the urge to freak do the jitterbug…just kidding but really when you have the feeling that you need to write an old friend or give someone that you love a call out of the blue…just do it because they probably need it just as much as you. geez.
3. don’t put off stuff to do when you are capable of doing it right now. or something like that.
4. don’t wear pig tails at work if you ever want to be taken seriously.
5. don’t wear pig tails at work if you ever want to be considered attractive by the dreamy swiss doctor you are infatuated with.
6. check your balance before you go across town to pick up your check when you signed up for direct deposit, on the off chance that it worked.
7. practice saying, “i’m learning spanish” in spanish before you try to say it out loud to someone that is native to a spanish speaking country. other wise you will relate to david sedaris in “me talk pretty one day”.
8. be mindful of the words you use as a girl nurse to your male patients, otherwise they will turn them into something inappropriate if you are not careful.
9. set an alarm for the next day after you work a 12 hour shift otherwise you will sleep way past the time you needed to wake up.
10. even if you have the automatic food dispenser set up for your cat, you should probably check it every couple days because that might be the reason why she has been crying at you for the past while.

are these ten too telling???

i don’t yall. i am so tired.

i love you.
love,
melissa.

3 Comments

Filed under nursing, school, top 10 of the week, work

January 18, 2011 · 12:05 PM

what to do?!?!?!

you guys,
i am having the hardest time knowing what to do and what my next step is. to know what is next would be awesome, but i truly have NO IDEA!!!!!

here are some of the different options that i am muling over….

- get a car?
- go on a mission?
- go to fashion school?
- go to med school?
- go visit lizzy’s friend marisa in LA and take classes at the groundlings and get funny, and get funny exposure?
- go to mid-wife school?
- move to slc with the girls and work?
- be doctor house md?

i don’t know yall. i have seriously no idea what is next. well i do know a bit for right now, i know that i have no money to my name except for the paypal money my mom sent…thank you mom. i have work at 7 o clock tonight and i start my last semester of nursing school on monday at jhmi. which is a pretty big deal, and i should just celebrate that for a min. minkee is a doll baby and i really need to clean my apt. which is what i was supposed to do during the past day and a half but all i did was sleep. whoopz.

would any of my readers like to participate in a minkee likeness drawing contest?!?!?! any takers. there will be a prize to the best one. promise.

love,
melissa.

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