Time Is (Not) On My Side
1. The Nursing Assistant class is going well. We had our first test yesterday. We had get no less than 76% (50 questions, I got 6 wrong). I got 88%. One question I answered wrong was a really stupid idiotic mistake: When leaving a resident's room, at what position is the bed left? The answer was D: the lowest point. Which I totally knew. My brain said "D, mark D on the scantron". Once my hand got the pencil to the correct place, it marked C (Semi-Fowler Position) *headdesk*
A couple other questions, the entire class got wrong. Because we were all just plain wrong.
The important thing is that I passed and can continue to take the class. One woman thought for sure she had failed and was ready to gather her things and leave. But then she thought maybe she would stay and learn everything for the next time. She ended up passing.
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And my textbook just arrived so I will totally get 100% on the other 2 tests!
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2. Some of the things we learned in class so far: how to assist a person having a seizure; how to transfer a person from a bed to a wheelchair and back again; how to reposition a person slipping forward in a wheelchair; assisting a person while walking with a gait belt, with a cane and a walker and what to do if they begin to fall; how to roll, logroll, position and reposition a person in bed; how to transfer them from a bed to a gurney/stretcher and back; how to do range of motion exercises for people who are immobile; how to make the bed with the person still lying in it; how to apply and remove waist restraints and how to restrain them in a wheelchair (only if necessary!!). Most importantly we learned how to wash our hands. I have a bad habit of flinging the water off my hands. I have to learn to squeeze the water off.
3. The whole bus thing isn't quite working out at the most convenient levels. The WAVE bus doesn't seem to be showing up. I'm guessing I have to call them to arrange to be picked up when I need to. I'll call tomorrow afternoon and leave a message and see how it goes. Yesterday, I drove to the park & ride at Maple & Dexter, hoping to hop on the 7:25 AM bus. Except I got there at 7:30, so, yeah, not so successful. I was going to wait for the next one but a very helpful woman told me I could take the 609 to fifth ave. She had to get off there anyway so she pointed me in the direction of the 2 blocks to the bus terminal. Just as I got to where the #3 bus was sitting, it pulled off. Because I was coming from behind, I decided to just wait for the next one. There was still plenty of time & my transfer would cover it (they're only good for, like, 1/2 hour). I ended up getting to school 15 minutes early so it was all good. The buses pick-up and drop-off steps away from the building where my NA class is.
For the trip back, I went to pick-up, drop-off and started looking at a bus route sign. There was another woman standing there who told me they don't put all the routes on the sign. Just as well, I told her I knew I needed bus 3. She told me bus 3 was heading to Ypsilanti which was the next bus scheduled to arrive. I told her there was another one headed back to Ann Arbor. There was a man with a bike who had just walked up and said that was the one he needed. Just then a bus came along. Bus 3, but it was the one headed for Ypsi. By that time the man with the bike had left his bike, but he had disappeared. A few minutes later the other bus 3 showed up, except he was running 3 minutes behind. I requested a transfer and tried feeding my dollar into the machine, but it wouldn't go. The driver printed up my transfer, grabbed the dollar & told me I was all set. Then he drove off. Without the guy who said he needed to get to Ann Arbor. He still hadn't reappeared. It was just as well the driver rushed off because according to my calculations, if he hadn't made up time, and the #9 bus I needed to get back to Dexter/Maple wasn't late, not only would I have missed it, but my transfer wouldn't have covered the next one. *whew*.
4. I had a dream last night that I went back over to my friends' (M & T's) house. A guy who was also a friend (and who I very briefly dated a long time ago) was also there. We had all gone out somewhere for a few minutes. We got back to the house and the other friend, D, was about to leave and go to his house which was just a couple houses down the street. He looked out the window and saw his wife in their yard. It turned out he had lied to her about where he had gone. He waited for her to go inside the house, but she wouldn't.
D. was hiding in the basement. His wife was doing something or other in the back yard when suddenly a small book flipped over the fence that separated the properties.D. said it was supposed to be a recipe book. I snuck out and grabbed the book. I was about to tell her she had dropped it when it flipped open and I saw it was a journal. I read something about something that looked like she was not who she told D. she was. I was about to tell them both that they were lying to each other when I also thought that maybe I just shouldn't say anything, not interfere when I woke up.
A couple other questions, the entire class got wrong. Because we were all just plain wrong.
The important thing is that I passed and can continue to take the class. One woman thought for sure she had failed and was ready to gather her things and leave. But then she thought maybe she would stay and learn everything for the next time. She ended up passing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And my textbook just arrived so I will totally get 100% on the other 2 tests!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Some of the things we learned in class so far: how to assist a person having a seizure; how to transfer a person from a bed to a wheelchair and back again; how to reposition a person slipping forward in a wheelchair; assisting a person while walking with a gait belt, with a cane and a walker and what to do if they begin to fall; how to roll, logroll, position and reposition a person in bed; how to transfer them from a bed to a gurney/stretcher and back; how to do range of motion exercises for people who are immobile; how to make the bed with the person still lying in it; how to apply and remove waist restraints and how to restrain them in a wheelchair (only if necessary!!). Most importantly we learned how to wash our hands. I have a bad habit of flinging the water off my hands. I have to learn to squeeze the water off.
3. The whole bus thing isn't quite working out at the most convenient levels. The WAVE bus doesn't seem to be showing up. I'm guessing I have to call them to arrange to be picked up when I need to. I'll call tomorrow afternoon and leave a message and see how it goes. Yesterday, I drove to the park & ride at Maple & Dexter, hoping to hop on the 7:25 AM bus. Except I got there at 7:30, so, yeah, not so successful. I was going to wait for the next one but a very helpful woman told me I could take the 609 to fifth ave. She had to get off there anyway so she pointed me in the direction of the 2 blocks to the bus terminal. Just as I got to where the #3 bus was sitting, it pulled off. Because I was coming from behind, I decided to just wait for the next one. There was still plenty of time & my transfer would cover it (they're only good for, like, 1/2 hour). I ended up getting to school 15 minutes early so it was all good. The buses pick-up and drop-off steps away from the building where my NA class is.
For the trip back, I went to pick-up, drop-off and started looking at a bus route sign. There was another woman standing there who told me they don't put all the routes on the sign. Just as well, I told her I knew I needed bus 3. She told me bus 3 was heading to Ypsilanti which was the next bus scheduled to arrive. I told her there was another one headed back to Ann Arbor. There was a man with a bike who had just walked up and said that was the one he needed. Just then a bus came along. Bus 3, but it was the one headed for Ypsi. By that time the man with the bike had left his bike, but he had disappeared. A few minutes later the other bus 3 showed up, except he was running 3 minutes behind. I requested a transfer and tried feeding my dollar into the machine, but it wouldn't go. The driver printed up my transfer, grabbed the dollar & told me I was all set. Then he drove off. Without the guy who said he needed to get to Ann Arbor. He still hadn't reappeared. It was just as well the driver rushed off because according to my calculations, if he hadn't made up time, and the #9 bus I needed to get back to Dexter/Maple wasn't late, not only would I have missed it, but my transfer wouldn't have covered the next one. *whew*.
4. I had a dream last night that I went back over to my friends' (M & T's) house. A guy who was also a friend (and who I very briefly dated a long time ago) was also there. We had all gone out somewhere for a few minutes. We got back to the house and the other friend, D, was about to leave and go to his house which was just a couple houses down the street. He looked out the window and saw his wife in their yard. It turned out he had lied to her about where he had gone. He waited for her to go inside the house, but she wouldn't.
D. was hiding in the basement. His wife was doing something or other in the back yard when suddenly a small book flipped over the fence that separated the properties.D. said it was supposed to be a recipe book. I snuck out and grabbed the book. I was about to tell her she had dropped it when it flipped open and I saw it was a journal. I read something about something that looked like she was not who she told D. she was. I was about to tell them both that they were lying to each other when I also thought that maybe I just shouldn't say anything, not interfere when I woke up.