Wow... long time, no write.
Hard to believe it's been since January since I've written anything. Lots has happened since then.
First off, I was REALLY sick in January. I ended up going to an urgent care clinic a couple of days after I last posted, and I barely escaped from being admitted to the hospital. Apparently, I had a raging infection, and was as close to pneumonia as you can get without actually having it. My lung x-rays were "fluffy" as the doc put it, meaning LOTS of inflammation. She gave me a shot in the rump of Rocephin (which hurt for weeks!) and then put me on a mega dose oral antibiotic. As I was at the pharmacy filling my new script, I got a call from the clinic on my cell. My blood work had finally come back and my white blood cell count was huge. She wanted me to go to the hospital and be admitted, but I convinced her to let the meds she had given me have a chance to work. Thankfully, I did get better this time. It took another couple of weeks, but I was feeling pretty much back to normal by mid-febuary.
I passed that semester's classes with straight A's, and finished off the last of the pre-requisites for my nursing class. In April, I was accepted into the nursing school at Southwestern Michigan college, and I started the Paramedic to RN transition class in May. Just after my birthday, in May, I threw myself a party with a pig roast. It was also the regular monthly meeting of my SCA group, and we had a great time. Apparently, my pig roasts are becoming legendary, and the Baron and Baroness are actually a bit jelous of our group. I'm going to make sure that I give them a personal invite, next year. Especially since I'll also be celebrating my graduation from Nursing school. The neighbors across and down the road a bit from me held a party, too. They decided to light a HUGE bonfire. It was so big, it was catching trees on fire, and we ended up calling the fire department out. The fire chief came out, and called off the rest of the department saying it was a "controlled burn". Yeah, a true controlled burn can be extinguished easily should the need arise... there was NO putting this monstrosity out without a LOT more water than you get from a garden hose. One of the guys in my group does photography, and took some pictures that he put up on his website... check out http://www.rowangrove.us/mayfire.html if you want to see them.
Anyway, a few days later, I was cleaning out the pig roaster, so that I could return it to the place I got it (it comes free for a week when you buy the pig through this local, organic farm) from and I had a bit of a mishap. I KNEW I should not have propped up the tray, I TOLD myself it was a bad idea... and then I did it anyway. One of these days I really will learn to listen to that little voice in my head... The tray is REALLY heavy, and it was going to be hard to muscle it out of the roaster and then back IN to the roaster by myself, since it weighs about 100 lbs. So, I propped it up with the charcoal scraper, basically a piece of rebar with a square of metal attached to it, to move around the hot coals while I'm roasting the pig. I then leaned in and was carefully shoveling out the ashes, when I went to move the grate the coals sit on, and dropped it, knocking out the prop holding up the tray. The tray came crashing down, and I managed to get my head and right hand out of the roaster, but my left hand took the full brunt of the tray landing back in it's holder slots. Yeah, ouch. I finished yanking my hand out of the way, from underneath the tray, and could see that I'd broken at least one finger. I inventoried all the curse words I know, then went into the house for an ice pack, and my car keys. I drove myself in to the emergency clinic and had my hand x-rayed. I should have known to be a little worried when they never bothered to do a nursing assessment on me, just sent me back to a room after I got back from x-ray, and had the PA come right in. She talked to me for a minute, took a look at my left hand, then went out to look at the x-ray and sent in a nurse to splint my left ring finger that was quite swollen and slightly deformed looking. She came back in shortly and said she didn't see any sign of a fracture (HUH?!?!?!) and I should just see my own doc in a week. She wrote me off from work for 2 days (I was scheduled to work the next 3), but work said since it wasn't broke, that I should still be able to work.
Where have I heard that before.... oh yeah, when I walked on a broken leg for a month!
Anyway, while I was working, we went back to the hospital where I'd had the x-rays done, and I decided to get a copy of the radiology report while I was waiting for a patient. Guess what... yeah.... it was OBVIOUSLY broken. The PA had looked at the wrong set of x-rays. She looked at a set from my RIGHT hand, from a year earlier. Nice. I didn't hear anything from the clinic for over a week, when they finally called me, they were in a bit of a panic, and got me in to my hand surgeon right away. Unfortunately, the bone was broken into pieces that were too tiny for the doc to surgically fix. So, he put it into a splint, and I've spent the last few months letting it heal. The finger is probably going to be permanently stiff, and it looks a little funny. It was not fun doing my nursing clinicals while it was broken, and work had to give me an extra EMT to do the lifting until it healed.
Nursing classes were intense these last few months. The Paramedic to RN transition group covers the entire first YEAR of nursing school, in just 10 weeks. That's a lot of material to cover, and I'm actually looking forward to a bit of a slower pace. I passed that section with flying colors, and took my final for that on July 30th.
This spring, I'd also been undergoing allergy testing, and seeing an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. I've found out that I'm VERY allergic to Dust mites and Maple trees... great, I live in Michigan, most of the woods around here ARE maple trees! There are quite a few other things, Box Elder and Cottonwood trees, ragweed, cockroaches, and several types of molds that had milder reactions. On August 8th, I had surgery on my nose and sinuses. I had a cyst removed from my left maxillary sinus, and they had to "fix" my deviated septum to get to it. I also had my very much enlarged nasal turbinates (folds of tissue in my nose that warms and humdifies the air I breathe in) cauterized down to a more normal size. I've been fighting high blood sugars this last month, and not feeling so great, and I ended up spiking a fever the day after surgery. Thankfully, they had sent me home with an antibiotic, so it soon kicked in and knocked down the infection. I got sick again Monday, and saw a doc again last night. He gave me another round of antibiotics to take, and I'm feeling TONS better, almost completely back to normal. I can BREATHE through my nose again, and it's SUCH a relief!
I also found out last month that I've been awarded a full ride scholarship for school. It covers all required fees, tuition, and my books. It's such a huge relief to not have to worry about how I'm going to pay for my schooling next year! Now, I just have to get my job to cooperate with my school schedule, and I'll be all set. If I have problems, I'm just going to have to find another job. I am sure that I can come up with something that will keep me able to pay my medical insurance, so that I don't lose that. I really hate to give up my ambulance job, but right now, NOTHING can interfere with school.
That's about all I've been up to... mostly just watching the olympics on TV the last couple of weeks. I really wish they'd cover the equestrian events better. I totally missed all the 3 day eventing stuff before I found out that the Oxygen channel airs them from 6 to 7:30pm. Grrrr.... that's what I wanted to see the most, and I've got crappy dial-up, so I can't download anything from the internet. So, that's what I'm up to... school starts again on Sept 8th, so you probably won't see much of me until winter break around December. I do pop in occasionally and read everyone's posts. It's nice to hear how my friends are doing. So, what have YOU been up to?
First off, I was REALLY sick in January. I ended up going to an urgent care clinic a couple of days after I last posted, and I barely escaped from being admitted to the hospital. Apparently, I had a raging infection, and was as close to pneumonia as you can get without actually having it. My lung x-rays were "fluffy" as the doc put it, meaning LOTS of inflammation. She gave me a shot in the rump of Rocephin (which hurt for weeks!) and then put me on a mega dose oral antibiotic. As I was at the pharmacy filling my new script, I got a call from the clinic on my cell. My blood work had finally come back and my white blood cell count was huge. She wanted me to go to the hospital and be admitted, but I convinced her to let the meds she had given me have a chance to work. Thankfully, I did get better this time. It took another couple of weeks, but I was feeling pretty much back to normal by mid-febuary.
I passed that semester's classes with straight A's, and finished off the last of the pre-requisites for my nursing class. In April, I was accepted into the nursing school at Southwestern Michigan college, and I started the Paramedic to RN transition class in May. Just after my birthday, in May, I threw myself a party with a pig roast. It was also the regular monthly meeting of my SCA group, and we had a great time. Apparently, my pig roasts are becoming legendary, and the Baron and Baroness are actually a bit jelous of our group. I'm going to make sure that I give them a personal invite, next year. Especially since I'll also be celebrating my graduation from Nursing school. The neighbors across and down the road a bit from me held a party, too. They decided to light a HUGE bonfire. It was so big, it was catching trees on fire, and we ended up calling the fire department out. The fire chief came out, and called off the rest of the department saying it was a "controlled burn". Yeah, a true controlled burn can be extinguished easily should the need arise... there was NO putting this monstrosity out without a LOT more water than you get from a garden hose. One of the guys in my group does photography, and took some pictures that he put up on his website... check out http://www.rowangrove.us/mayfire.html if you want to see them.
Anyway, a few days later, I was cleaning out the pig roaster, so that I could return it to the place I got it (it comes free for a week when you buy the pig through this local, organic farm) from and I had a bit of a mishap. I KNEW I should not have propped up the tray, I TOLD myself it was a bad idea... and then I did it anyway. One of these days I really will learn to listen to that little voice in my head... The tray is REALLY heavy, and it was going to be hard to muscle it out of the roaster and then back IN to the roaster by myself, since it weighs about 100 lbs. So, I propped it up with the charcoal scraper, basically a piece of rebar with a square of metal attached to it, to move around the hot coals while I'm roasting the pig. I then leaned in and was carefully shoveling out the ashes, when I went to move the grate the coals sit on, and dropped it, knocking out the prop holding up the tray. The tray came crashing down, and I managed to get my head and right hand out of the roaster, but my left hand took the full brunt of the tray landing back in it's holder slots. Yeah, ouch. I finished yanking my hand out of the way, from underneath the tray, and could see that I'd broken at least one finger. I inventoried all the curse words I know, then went into the house for an ice pack, and my car keys. I drove myself in to the emergency clinic and had my hand x-rayed. I should have known to be a little worried when they never bothered to do a nursing assessment on me, just sent me back to a room after I got back from x-ray, and had the PA come right in. She talked to me for a minute, took a look at my left hand, then went out to look at the x-ray and sent in a nurse to splint my left ring finger that was quite swollen and slightly deformed looking. She came back in shortly and said she didn't see any sign of a fracture (HUH?!?!?!) and I should just see my own doc in a week. She wrote me off from work for 2 days (I was scheduled to work the next 3), but work said since it wasn't broke, that I should still be able to work.
Where have I heard that before.... oh yeah, when I walked on a broken leg for a month!
Anyway, while I was working, we went back to the hospital where I'd had the x-rays done, and I decided to get a copy of the radiology report while I was waiting for a patient. Guess what... yeah.... it was OBVIOUSLY broken. The PA had looked at the wrong set of x-rays. She looked at a set from my RIGHT hand, from a year earlier. Nice. I didn't hear anything from the clinic for over a week, when they finally called me, they were in a bit of a panic, and got me in to my hand surgeon right away. Unfortunately, the bone was broken into pieces that were too tiny for the doc to surgically fix. So, he put it into a splint, and I've spent the last few months letting it heal. The finger is probably going to be permanently stiff, and it looks a little funny. It was not fun doing my nursing clinicals while it was broken, and work had to give me an extra EMT to do the lifting until it healed.
Nursing classes were intense these last few months. The Paramedic to RN transition group covers the entire first YEAR of nursing school, in just 10 weeks. That's a lot of material to cover, and I'm actually looking forward to a bit of a slower pace. I passed that section with flying colors, and took my final for that on July 30th.
This spring, I'd also been undergoing allergy testing, and seeing an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. I've found out that I'm VERY allergic to Dust mites and Maple trees... great, I live in Michigan, most of the woods around here ARE maple trees! There are quite a few other things, Box Elder and Cottonwood trees, ragweed, cockroaches, and several types of molds that had milder reactions. On August 8th, I had surgery on my nose and sinuses. I had a cyst removed from my left maxillary sinus, and they had to "fix" my deviated septum to get to it. I also had my very much enlarged nasal turbinates (folds of tissue in my nose that warms and humdifies the air I breathe in) cauterized down to a more normal size. I've been fighting high blood sugars this last month, and not feeling so great, and I ended up spiking a fever the day after surgery. Thankfully, they had sent me home with an antibiotic, so it soon kicked in and knocked down the infection. I got sick again Monday, and saw a doc again last night. He gave me another round of antibiotics to take, and I'm feeling TONS better, almost completely back to normal. I can BREATHE through my nose again, and it's SUCH a relief!
I also found out last month that I've been awarded a full ride scholarship for school. It covers all required fees, tuition, and my books. It's such a huge relief to not have to worry about how I'm going to pay for my schooling next year! Now, I just have to get my job to cooperate with my school schedule, and I'll be all set. If I have problems, I'm just going to have to find another job. I am sure that I can come up with something that will keep me able to pay my medical insurance, so that I don't lose that. I really hate to give up my ambulance job, but right now, NOTHING can interfere with school.
That's about all I've been up to... mostly just watching the olympics on TV the last couple of weeks. I really wish they'd cover the equestrian events better. I totally missed all the 3 day eventing stuff before I found out that the Oxygen channel airs them from 6 to 7:30pm. Grrrr.... that's what I wanted to see the most, and I've got crappy dial-up, so I can't download anything from the internet. So, that's what I'm up to... school starts again on Sept 8th, so you probably won't see much of me until winter break around December. I do pop in occasionally and read everyone's posts. It's nice to hear how my friends are doing. So, what have YOU been up to?