2 Articles on How to Care for the Postpartum Mom

Recently, I have read some alarming articles on how America is the most dangerous place to give birth in the world for developed countries. This is likely due to the risk of hemorrhaging or having a stroke, and not to the actual act of giving birth. Based on my own experiences as a nurse who works on a postpartum unit, I find some of the articles I've read to be extremely shocking and scary, but I've also seen the truth in them as well. I've seen and taken care of the hemorrhaging mom. I've called a code on moms with extremely high blood pressures, as well as moms with scarily low blood pressures. I've noticed the changes in my patients as they've developed magnesium toxicity, or how their vitals and symptoms indicated a possible pulmonary embolism.

What scares me most is I've seen and taken care of the patients mentioned in the following articles. I've called the doctor and told them I don't feel like their patient should be discharged. I have had to give my assessment and nursing judgment on critical patients by phone, only to have the doctor take hours to come visit the patient I'm very concerned about. I've had patients that I felt shouldn't be able to go home due to my fear of them stroking out due to such high blood pressures - like some of the women in these articles - but the doctor discharged them anyway.

One thing I always do before sending my moms home is go over when to call the doctor - high blood pressures; pain, heat and swelling of the calves; mood swings and uncontrollable crying; severe abdominal cramps; clots larger than a ping pong ball; etc. Since so many new changes are occurring to these women's bodies, I want them to know exactly what to look for, and when exactly to call the doctor or go to the emergency room without hesitation.

I can only hope that when the time comes for me to become a mom, I have nurses and doctors that are advocating for me and my health as much as I do for my patients now.

Must Reads:

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/hospitals-know-how-to-protect-mothers-they-just-arent-doing-it/507-577603291

https://wtop.com/local/2018/07/dangers-of-childbirth-us-sees-many-deaths-even-after-baby-arrives/

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What Nursing Is Not

As a nurse, I have often been asked "so, what do you do all day?" and to be quite honest, that question irks me.

What don't I do?

As a nurse, I am a psychologist, waiter, cheerleader, confidant, and advocate to name a few.

I feel like some people have an opinion of nurses that are way off base. SO I'm here to clear up the air a tiny bit.

Nursing is not sexy.

We do not take care of patients while wearing mini dresses with our cleavage all in the patient's face. Our hair is not in pigtails as we saunter to pass meds in our stilettos.

Nursing is not a way to meet doctors.

I just recently started working day shift, but previously I worked night shift. I hardly even knew what the attending looked like, let alone if it was a man or a woman. Yes, some people meet their future spouses on this job. That is the exception, not the rule.

Nursing school is not easy.

Nursing school is HARD, ask anyone who went through it. "I have to study" takes on a whole new life of its own when you're going into the medical field.

Nursing is not "have it your way" service.

Do I want you to be comfortable and cared for and well attended to? Yes. Do I also want all of my patients to make it through my shift and into the next one? Yes. That being said, if I have to prioritize fluffing your pillow and grabbing juice OR taking my newly confused patient down to get head scans, I will be choosing the latter. Sorry, not sorry.

Night shift is not easy and boring.

I'll say this one time and ONE TIME ONLY - night shift (on many units) do a lot. We have to be quick on our toes because there's no one else looking at that patient but us, the nurse tech and the family (if they're not sleeping). Oftentimes, the gag is that patients sleep all night so what do nurses have to do? Well, a few months ago I worked a shift where I clocked in at 7pm, and at 8pm we had a code met (meaning the patient was unstable and possibly needed to be transferred to the ICU). At 11pm that same night, we had 2 different patients who needed to go to the ICU because one of them was projectile vomiting and the other had an elevated sodium of 160. At the same time, we were informed we would be receiving a patient who was confused, combative and had an elevated sodium of 155. Needless to say, that night was insanely busy. Nurses, both day and night, have a lot of responsibility and each shift has it's busy and stressful moments. 

Nursing is a career, and a calling, of passion. Depending on the unit in which you work, it takes a lot out of you physically, mentally and emotionally. It's not for everyone, but for those who do it - it is rewarding. 

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Five on Friday

Thanks to Darci, Natasha, April and Christina for bringing us Five on Friday every week!

Last week was one of the most hectic weeks I've had in a while, so let's go ahead and jump right in, shall we?

[one]

Tuesday, June 9th

I took the NCLEX. After 75 questions, it was over and feeling completely defeated and numb, I made my way back to my parents' house repeating the same thing to anyone who asked, "WHAT did I just take and did I even go to nursing school?!"

[two]

     

Wednesday, June 10th

I found out that I was officially a registered nurse. HOW?! I'm honestly still in shock and numb to that fact that I have RN behind my name, but I am so so blessed by God's plan. 

[three]

From Zazzle

I DO BBQ

Mom threw an I DO BBQ rehearsal dinner for the wedding Friday, June 12 and it was perfect! My sister and her groom-to-be were surrounded by very close friends and family and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves immensely! I was such a bad blogger that night, I didn't take any pictures... But the picture above is what the invitation was similar to.

[four]

My sister's wedding was this past Saturday.

Y'all... absolutely beautiful. It was an intimate wedding of about 30 people, no bridal party, but my niece was the flower girl and her brothers were the ring bearers. She got married at our local church where my grandma was very well known and loved by our favorite monsignor.

Her reception was done so beautifully as well - we all laughed and danced and drank to our hearts content. My father made a speech for the ages, as did my sister's husband, and I don't think it could have been any more perfect. But then again, maybe I'm biased.

[five]

Now that the most hectic part of my summer is over, time to go apartment hunting...

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Rant & Rave

Oh hey.

It's only been a little over a month *jaw drops*

Y'all may or may not remember that I'm in nursing school, so of course between class, studying and clinical, blogging has had to take a backseat. 

I've missed it SO MUCH and while I still hop on blogger to see what's going on with all my bloggy friends, I haven't really been able to sit down and write a post. That and I haven't had anything really worthy of talking about. 

Well I finally have something to talk complain about.

As a nursing student, I really only need three things to work at all times: my car, my computer and my shower.

Guess which one of those three decided to stop working properly a few weeks back?

Right, my computer (so that also kinda explains my absence).

Now when I say my computer wasn't working, I mean it didn't want to act right. Every time I opened Microsoft Word, I would get the Rainbow Wheel of Death for about 5 minutes before the app would close itself. PowerPoint would take 15 minutes to open, only to freeze the computer once it did open. Safari took 6 minutes to load a new webpage IF I was so lucky. Sometimes while typing notes in the middle of class, let me re-say that IN.THE.MIDDLE.OF.CLASS, Word would maybe let me type 2 sentences, freeze and shut down without recovery saving my work.

I cannot tell you how many times I threatened to throw this thing off my balcony, into a pool or over a cliff.

Last Friday, I endured this lovely screen before I finally decided to call Apple and whine about my life computer.

Do you see that I have nothing open? Do you see that I have no application memory? Do you see me banging my head against the wall? No? Oh... 

Given help from a man named Nick, I was informed that my computer's memory was over half way full and that until I brought it back down, I would continue to get this message even if no application was open and running.

He suggested I buy an external hard drive, move all of my pictures & my iPhoto library over to the drive and go from there. 

So I did. 

And it didn't clear up that much space. So I sought out Google's help for clearing even more memory space. 

Top 3 things suggested to me: 

Empty the trash/cache of every application that has a trashcan (iPhoto, Mail, the computer's trash, and Safari history and cache)

Move pictures and music to an external hard drive

Delete your mail downloads.

Yes, that is my mail downloads folder above. 51.1 MB of what may you ask?

Well, did you know that every time you open an attachment by double clicking, quick look at an attachment, or edit & save a mail attachment without renaming the document, a BRAND NEW file is created within mail downloads. Thus the 51.1 MB of nothingness I had on my computer.

Delete.

Now that my baby is back to (semi)normal, I hope to be posting a little bit more.

Oh how I've missed y'all!

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A Much Needed Escape

As most of you know, I've been studying my life away for the past 8 months. I've had weeks where I felt like jumping off a bridge 6 times over (don't worry, I would never) and many mornings where I contemplated not getting out of bed and just dropping out of school.

Though I always know that God's plan is SO much better and greater than anything I could plan for myself, it's moments like those above that I am fervently praying to Him to please keep reminding me of this. To be honest, I'm also crazily praying for a moment to myself where I don't have to study and can enjoy one of these beautiful, sunny days (which has been quite rare here in Athens). And of course, He always delivers. 

Not only did I get a weekend where I didn't have a quiz or test to study for, I also got TWO sunny days!

Praise Him.

So, Thursday I went running since it was beautiful out and then straightened my hair. That night I went out with my old college roommate to celebrate her birthday and catch up since we hadn't seen each other in a few months.

Friday, my friend Brittany got us great tickets to go to the Hawks v. Pelicans game and we decided to maximize our time out by going to the mall and Atlantic Station prior, and out to get drinks/dance afterward. 

Then Saturday and Sunday I spent with my family and dogs.

Not one book was opened.

Not one grade was looked at.

Not one paragraph of my research paper was typed (oops...)

'Twas bliss.

Just for kicks, here is how many steps I took IN HEELS on Friday...

Let's just say, that these lil piggies hurt BAD.

 Ah well, it's the price I decided to pay.

I hope y'all had a wonderfully blessed and relaxing weekend!

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Friday is the Best Day

Kudos to these link ups ladies: Darci, Christina, Natasha and April

It's a bit of a mash up of things I loved about this week and things I'm looking forward to in the next few days.

Donuts

If you read yesterday's post, you already know how thankful I was for my donuts this week. Aside from the 30 lbs I probably gained from eating them, they made this girl happy (and that's all that really matters anyway).

A Chance to Relax

After the most scressful stressful two weeks, I have emerged alive and breathing. No one ever really knows what other people are going through these days, so when I tried explaining how drained I felt to anyone, I ended up getting frustrated at them for not getting it even though it wasn't their fault. Well Wednesday and Thursday I "had off," which in all honesty means I just have to do work from home instead of at the hospital or at school, but I decided to make Thursday "No Nursing Day." And aside from finishing up my research paper and getting a new car tire, it was a blissfully empty day.

Much needed.

Much deserved if I do say so myself.

Dad's surprise
Y'all. My dad is doing the sweetest thing ever for my momma for her birthday! I really wish I could tell y'all what it is, but Momma reads this blog from time to time, so shhhh….

I'll tell y'all on next week's 5 on Friday.

Seeing my friends
After these past few crazy hectic, stress-filled weeks, I am SO happy for a chance to see a few of my friends. Like, truly beyond happy. I still have to do a lot of school work this weekend, which tuh never changes BUT I will be able to spend less time working and more time catching up and enjoying the beautiful weather*. And Lord knows I'll take that anyway.

God's grace
I told y'all briefly yesterday that I really feel like I've been going through it these past couple of weeks, but I had a conversation with one of my friend's last night and he said to me, "Allison, do you know what you need?" I responded with "Jesus," to which he said "Yes, you need grace."
So right then and there on the phone, I asked for God's grace. We prayed and decided that what I really needed to do was ask for God's help in every aspect that I felt I was losing myself/my mind in - so physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

I still feel like I have a lot on my mind and it's definitely affecting me (helloooo daily headaches) but I've decided to 1) pray so much more than I currently do, 2) trust that God's plan is, and always will be better than my own plan, 3) start changing my life to help improve how I feel.

Today, I'm going to workout *insert shocked face* (mental and physical - check). I booked a trip to Mexico this summer with one of my girlfriends (future mental - check). I'm going to spend time with my friends this weekend (mental and emotional - check). And I'll be watching my TD Jakes sermons and continuing to follow the Known journey in my Bible this weekend (spiritual - check).

Have a great weekend y'all!

* - Georgia weather is known for being ALL over the place

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In the Midst...

In the midst of a snowy, windy, icy day here in Georgia (that's being threatened with a large chance of power outages), I've managed to get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. This morning, I awoke with four things on my list of things to do before any chance of the power going out: take pictures in/of the snow/ice, retake my pharmacology quiz, watch TD Jakes, and make some food. Well, as I was getting on the internet to take my quiz, my most visited sites popped up before I could type in the site I need to go to. What was number 1 you may ask? Why, Facebook of course. So of course, being that early in the morning (it was 9:30), I decided why not peruse the site a little before I don't have the chance to. Besides a bunch of nothingness on my timeline, I stumbled across two wonderful, beautifully written blog posts about engagement and marriage, one over on Wordpress and another over on Mo Isom's blog. that I stumbled upon over on Wordpress. These posts were truly something that made me smile like no other and I feel like it'll make many of y'all smile as well.

After reading those posts, I changed my morning list. Instead of immediately jumping back online to retake my pharmacology quiz (which I got a 76% on the first time…), I decided to actually read the chapters the quiz covers instead of skimming them. So far, 3 chapters down, 3 to go. I did yoga to both wake my body up and take my mind off of the pressure of life and school. I started dinner, and yes, it's 12:40, but if I have no power, at least I'll have real food tonight and not cookies and cold, canned soup.

Next on my list for the day?
Pray.
Spend time with my Creator and just thank Him for all that He has done for me.
Practice more yoga.
Get into the Word by watching some of TD Jakes' sermons.
Finish reading and take my quiz.

Class may have been cancelled and work at the hospital may have been called off for me, but that doesn't mean I should be unproductive.
And hey, if I get a little more "me" time that I thought I would, I'll sneak in an episode of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix ;)

Share your thoughts! Did you enjoy reading the article? Why or why not?

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It Seems Like Forever Ago...

Y'all. I know. 

I can only say I'm sorry for not posting as often so many times but I realllyyyyy am sorry I have been MIA. Just to give you a glimpse into my life, I have class on Monday, Thursday and Friday. Monday from 8-4. Thursday from 2-5 and Friday from 8-1:30 (well, 11:30, but I have to be in tutoring til 1:30). I have clinical on Wednesday from 8-4/5. I have lab on Thursday either from 8-10:30 or 10:30 to 1. I have tests EVERY Monday and just starting this month, tests on Friday. 

These aren't BS tests either, they're serious stuff. 

DO NOT get me wrong, I am eternally grateful to have gotten into nursing school and I thank God everyday that He placed me into a school with such great people and into a profession that I admire and love learning more about. And also, DO NOT get me wrong, I love my program.

It's just hard.

And no one will ever know how hard nursing school is unless they are in it. Or are a med student. 

I literally study every.single.day. And that's honestly not enough. There aren't enough hours in the day.

Each day, I feel like I am barely above water. 

Additionally, my grandma hadn't been doing well and she recently passed. I'm here, but I'm not here if you understand what I'm saying. 

I hope this explains a bit why I haven't been posting, but I'm thankful for each and every one of you. 

God bless y'all.

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Sunday Funday

Hey y'all!

It's been a while, I know, but I can explain!

I started nursing school! 

That's right, my life has been consumed with studying like NO other.

But enough about all the studying I've been doing.

Today, I'm making my favorite childhood dish and I am soooooo excited to share it with you all.

Chicken Casserole

2 (6 oz.) pkg Uncle Ben's long grain and wild rice (original, not the 10 minute kind)

2 cans each: cream of mushroom, celery and chicken

1 c. milk

1 c. Holland House White Cooking Wine

6 boneless chicken breast

Parmesan Cheese

Do not make the same mistake I did by making the rice first! I had to go out and buy more rice since I messed it up.

1. Butter 9x13 pan and set oven to 275 degrees.

2. Combine rice, milk, wine, and cream of 'x' into a large mixing bowl. Set aside the seasoning packets in the rice boxes for later.

3. Pour half of the rice mixture into the 9x13 and level it out. 

4. Place the the chicken on top of the rice.

5. Pour the rest of the rice mixture on top of the chicken.

6. Sprinkle both seasoning packets and parmesan cheese over the top of the casserole.

7. Place uncovered in the oven for 3 hours.

Enjoy for days!!!

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