Been aWHILE since an update.....

I'm now in my junior year, still in nursing school and its quite a challenge (go figure). I'm actually avoiding studying for my cardio exam to type this post..hehe

I have realized this semester which depts. i DO NOT want to work in when i graduate and they include med surg, diabetic unit, transitional care, and oncology....ALL of which we are working on right now...yay...I've had patients ranging from boring (only in for knee surgery) to psychotic (today). But the class is still the hardest thing...I've never had such a hard time with any class before but im really learning what nursing is all about and the more i get used to the tests the better ill do i think. We'll see monday!

I'm still in physical therapy...my ankle is 99% to normal according to my therapist but my knee is still far from where it needs to be so we are trying some different treatments/exercises mostly to help the pain so that i can exercise with less and less pain and get my strength back in my right leg.

Chris and I have almost made it to 2 wonderful years as a couple (as of next month) and I can't wait to see what the next 2, 3, 4......years will bring us! He has been an incredible encouragement to me over the last 10 months and I've been truly blessed for that....and for his effortless ability to make me laugh and relax when I'm stressed out with school.

I feel like I've been spending more time with my mom lately too (maybe i havent but it feels like it)...we have had some really good conversation and I'm learning many things about life from a very wise woman :) I can't wait for our next coffee date!

I Made It!

10 looooong weeks but I did it! I couldn't have done it without several things though..
1) everyone's prayers
2) my encouraging parents and boyfriend
3) the incredible group of girls i was placed with

I have made so many friends this summer and had such a blast even while working very hard. The girls are closet nerds just like me that love to slip nursing/medical terms into everyday conversation...we have a blast just talking to each other!

I was very encouraged by my instructors' comments to me during my final evaluations...they had both talked about me during a meeting together and told me that they knew i was going to be a great nurse and would not be a floor nurse for very long (meaning that they think i will excel quickly to a more specialized area). It almost brought me to tears because there were several times during this summer that i just wasnt sure if nursing was for me...between the paperwork (which i know every job has) and the new ways i had to learn to apply information and the emotional pull that i felt to each of my patients when i had to leave them last week...i just wasn't sure. But hearing those things from my instructors made me realize that i can not only do it, but i can be great at what i do if i keep working hard.

i ended the semester with two B's, an A and an A- (believe it or not the A's were in my nursing classes!) I don't mean to brag but i AM proud of myself :) My goal was just to pass with C's but all it took was a little time management and a significant slice out of my social life! haha

Wednesday I will be moving home for awhile until fall semester starts. I have another surgery on August 3rd. Please pray for a quick recovery as I am a bit nervous about this one. Once they remove the 11cm plate from my ankle i will have 6 holes in my very small fibula all very close together...i guess my biggest fear is that all the recovery i have had over the last 3 months will feel wasted and that ill need to be back on my crutches for a bit...my ankle has felt so good the past few months and im just not looking forward to the pain returning.

Well today is my first monday without class in awhile so OF COURSE im going to the mall with one of my friends :)

5 Minute Update

Decided I was bored with writing my ed. psych. paper ...

The last month has whizzed by so quickly! I've been in classes for 4 weeks and let me tell you, it is so much harder and more time consuming than I thought it would be! I'm taking an educational psychology course that is 5 weeks long (usually 16, so we cram in all the info in 5!), a nutrition course (10 weeks long through USI), and two nursing courses that are normally 16 weeks crammed into 10 and include two 9-hour lab days each week and two 4-hour lectures each week. Not how I hoped my summer would be, but at least I have the chance to catch up...this IS after all what I had been working towards!

My ankle and knee are doing better every week...I'm a little sore today because i played volleyball for an hour last night (felt so good to play though!). My final surgery is going to be sometime in August, once I finally get around to calling my surgeon.

aaaaaand....now I should get back to doing homework so there is at least a possibility for some exercise and relaxation a little later!

My New Hizzity-Hang

As most of you know, I recently moved back to muncie and am living with 3 of my friends in a little house close to campus.  We are all finally completely moved in so I took some pictures to share with you all!

Coming Soon...

Once we get our internet set up at the house, i'll be posting some picture of it now that we are all settled in...right now we are mooching off our neighbor's internet and it cuts out every 1 to 2 minutes...not much time to get a whole blog post in!  So I promise soon I will have them up..as long as my roommate remembers to call about it today!

Thoughts before leaving home...

The last few days have been pretty emotional for me...though ive tried not to show it.  I've just been thinking about leaving home and all the things that I will be "leaving."  It just that over the last 4 months, I've relied on a lot of things and people to get me through the hard times.  Not that I haven't relied on God because there is no way I could have made it through all this without Him, but I DO get to "take" Him with me anywhere I go, but other things I cannot.  

First are my parents.  They sacrificed so much for me and served me in so many ways when I felt helpless.  My mom sat with me while I cried many times and always brought home little surprises to help cheer me up.. and my dad did everything he could to make things easier on me...from making my lunch everyday for weeks to building me a lap desk to do my homework in bed.

Next came Chris, the one who slept on the floor of my hospital room and only went home so he could take a nap and come back as soon as he could.  He came to see me almost everyday since i've been home and all it took was a hug from him to make all the bad parts of my day go away.  He has shown his love for me in so many ways and I hate the thought of being even just 50 miles away from him.

Then there's suki...I haven't been so attached to a pet since my cat, Sassy, that we got when I was maybe 6 or 7 years old.  Suki would nap all day with me, amuse me when i was bored, cock her little head when i talked to her as if she were really listening, and just sit on my lap and watch a movie with me so i didnt feel so alone.  I actually get very sad when i think about not having that adorable little puppy around all the time.

And every sunday, I loved going to church.  Seeing everyone so excited to see me and every step of my progress and hearing how many people had been praying for me..and still are...was such an encouragement.  I will definitely miss going to Grace every sunday.

But on the other hand...im so excited to be living with three wonderful ladies in our newly painted, beautiful little house, right across from two other friends whom i have known for years.  I'm also excited to continue with school and feel like I'm actually getting somewhere!

As if this wasn't hard already...

Ball State seems to enjoy making it as hard as possible for me to start their nursing program...thoughts of transferring...again...have definitely crossed my mind but right now I'm too far into the process to go back.  The first big obstacle was convincing the director that I could handle clinicals....she tried putting me in the fall nursing class several times and each time I firmly said NO...I could do it this summer.  Then I find out that I need two classes as prerequisites for the fall that I have not taken...they waited until NOW to tell me this?  So I frantically went looking for online programs at BSU so I could get them done (way more expensive, but at least they'd be done).  BSU doesn't even offer one of the classes that I need during the summer...not online...not on campus.  SO...with my FRESHMAN advisor (because my nursing advisor is never of any help) I searched schools all over Indiana and Ohio for an online nutrition course that would satisfy the requirements for the course at Ball State.  I found one.  Phoenix University.  $1600 for one class.  So I signed up..it was my last option.  Now I can't get my nursing advisor to approve the class in a decent frame of time and I am now falling behind in the class at Phoenix because of it, and my chances to get my money back if it will not transfer are slowly drifting away with each passing day.  

Physically, the worst is over....but all this is actually proving to be more of a challenge than dealing with the pain in my leg ever was.