Edie RIP

Had to put my oldest cat down yesterday. We've had Edie (See last pics below)since 1997 when she followed me home from our apt's laundry room. She was an adult cat and so sweet. It was January and I couldn't bear to leave her out in the cold, so we took her in. Her favorite thing to do was to chase around balled up paper. If you balled any paper to throw away she would come running. She also used to bug me when I was trying to sleep. She slept next to me and would head-butt my hand until I scratched her head. Mike used to call that Edie-scratchins.
The past week she was throwing up non-stop, even water. I also noticed her hind legs seemed painful to her and she favored them. Cathy was cool enough to take her in for me, I couldn't do it. Cathy told me later the doc found multiple tumors in her intestines. So it seems she probably had intestinal Cancer. She was around 16 years old, according to DR estimates. Mom's going to bury her out on her land.
Mom was going to be taking Ari off my hands today but it appears Ari has developed Strep throat. Her buddy Brandon had it last Tues, so it's very likely. We are about to leave for the MD here in a few and then it's non-stop studying for me for the rest of the weekend. Final on Monday....Maybe I should ask the MD for a preventive Rx for me. Wish me luck!

Last pic of poor Edie 

Last pictures of Edie 

Dillo RIP

I forgot to mention earlier I received word that Dillo, the ginormus pill bug (Pictured below) has passed away. It appears that even an animal expert like Cathy and her boyfriend Michael were unable to care for it like it needed to be. They apparently eat weird, hard to find things and it starved to death in captivity. Poor Dillo.

On the plus side, Ari did end up getting 3 baby goldfish for her birthday. Cathy dipped a small cup in the fishy nursery and pulled her out a small, med, and large sized Goldfish. So perfect for the little girl OBSESSED with having a mommy, daddy, and baby of everything now has just that with her Goldfish. She has named them Marlin, Dory, and Nemo. I'm happy to report they are doing well and I'm quite amazed at just how quickly they are growing.

End of semester

YAY!!!! Clinicals are officially over for this semester! It's not like I hated clinicals, it's just all the paperwork- homework and the free labor the hospitals get out of us that I'm not going to miss. Next week, I have 2 lectures, a community project day, and 2 tests in community nursing. The following Monday, the 2 nd I have my big final. My last clinical week went well, with 3 patients and that went smoothly. I really feel like I can really do this for real for the first time. Not to mention, The days flew by so fast since I was so busy. I understand now how nurse's can work a 12 hour shift without noticing or getting bored.
So I really need to buckle down on studying. I made a 76 :( on my last test which means I need to make an 80 on the final to keep the B.
I'm not sure what happened on the last test. The wording of the questions confused me, and I did challenge one question, I could've challenged 3-4 questions but I thought that would be overkill.
I'm just so happy this semester's almost over and I just have a year left. I start my mental health clinicals on May 23rd. It runs until the last week in June. This'll make my 3rd semester in the fall a lot easier. With 3 days a week in school for 10 weeks, and 2 days a week for 5 weeks. I'll probably be able to work more in the fall and maybe bring in a little extra money.
Speaking of money, I've had some trouble with that lately. I can't seem to stop living paycheck to paycheck and if anything extra comes up, ie. Birthdays, car trouble, tuition, etc. I go into the red. It'll be nice when I graduate and start making a lot more money.
My mission this summer when I'm out of a school for 2 months is to work as much as possible to catch up.

Movie update: Go see Finding Neverland. It was really good and Johnny Depp was astounding. Don't bother seeing The Ring two, dissappointing and not as good as the first.
Next on my list to see in the theater is : Sin City and the amityville horror.
The Phanton of the opera is out on May 3rd on DVD, I'll be buying that one.

Happy Birthday Ari !!!!!

Four years ago today, at 5:43 pm, I gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl in the world. I'm so proud of my little girl, I can't believe she's 4! I do hope Mike's watching her grow and seeing what she's become.
Happy Birthday to Ariana!!!!!!!!

Clinicals

I had a weird week at clinicals last week. We had this "Management" thing with the 4th level(seniors) students. Basically they were allowed to hover over us for 2 days and "manage" us. For most of my group this was a good expierience. They had an extra set of hands, got some good tips. For 4 of us including myself we got a big fat powertrip. I know part of it was miscommunication and the other students had forgotten how much independance we level 2 students have. My "manager" in particular was nice but had reported to our instructors that I was "too confident." I'm not really sure that's a bad thing but, whatever. She also made comments about the patient's lifestyles causing their ailments, ie. smoking and drinking. Normally I wouldn't care but when you point blame like that and do it outside the room in the hall...it's just offensive. The last patient I had was in because of a lifelong history of drinking. I really felt for this patient and family and it was really a sad situation. I read the local Obits and today I discovered this patient died Sunday, 2 days after I was there.
I know as a nurse I'm going to see a lot of ailments and diseases that could have been prevented. I cannot pass judgement on anyone, whether it be cigarrettes, alcohol, or heroin. I've never lived their life so I have no idea how I would've dealt with it.
I just needed to get that one off my chest.

I just wanted to start some movies I've seen recently that I thought were pretty funny.
I'm going to start with Harold and Kumar go to white castle This movie is so silly but was the first to really crack me up in awhile. I saw Without a paddle last night. It was cute, but again the studios ruined much of the funny parts by showing them in the preview.

Changing gears now, School's going really well. I can't believe I have only 4 weeks left! I had some interesting cases this week and my instructor has pretty much left me alone, without too much supervision. That's a good thing, that she no longer feels she needs to be there for every little thing. I completed my last cultural project with classmates Jon and Ricky yesterday. John brought his 3 year old son Adam over to play with Ari while we worked. It's really nice not being the only parent in class. In fact MOST of us are parents, some married, some single. Ari and Adam played well together, they both have the same level of energy.

Ari's birthday party is in 2 weeks and I have no idea what to get her. She's at that age now when every toy commercial elicits a "I want that!" So I can't narrow it down! I know one of her presents will be a fish tank, since she's getting 2 of Cathy's baby goldfish. (yes they were goldfish, not frogs, to our disappointment)
Only once they are big enough to move out of they're fishy nursery.