Day 6 Tuesday Nicaragua morning

Today is Tuesday and we are off to two different regions of Granada again today.

This picture was taken on the walk from our hotel to the mission where we have breakfast and load up our van for the day.

The picture shows all the kids walking to school or what just happened to be across from the mission.

We encountered these beautiful flowers along the way…

This is a photo of the kids going into school in the morning. The man at the door makes each of them Use hand sanitizer and put a mask on prior to entering the school. The amazing thing to us is these people do not have washing machines and most live in homes with tin or concrete walls and dirt floors but they all have sparkling clean, white uniforms on. They take extreme pride in their appearance. One of the mission translators said they believe no matter how you live or how poor you are you should always present yourself in the best way possible.

These are pictures of us loading the van to go to our first location in the morning.  Today we will be going to the Tisma area of Nicaragua in the morning from 9 to 12 noon.

The woman in the jeans and blue backpack is Blanca.  She was one of our translators and she is just such an amazing person!

Here’s a local dog that came to visit us at our church location… He was definitely a stray as he was so thin and had fleas everywhere! It was just heartbreaking…

Here is what the set up look like in this church. All the people in the back of the picture are people waiting to attend our clinic. The table at the front left is Dennis my professor and Angel our male translator. The table on the front right is where Jeremy and Shawn got patient vitals prior to sending people to consult with Dennis.

Another shot…

Here’s the name of the church for today…Iglesia Sinai. As you can see our pharmacy was set up on the stage of the church. This was my Mom and my station.

A photo of the front area of the church… Two more stray dogs

One of the dogs stopped in to visit Dennis at the clinic… Lol

The lady in the pink Steelers shirt below came to the clinic. She was a patient. She walked in and we saw her Steelers shirt which represents the town we are from… Pittsburgh PA. We here in Pittsburgh PA love our Football team called the Steelers. We were blown away! We asked her where she got her shirt and she did not even know what the Steelers were. But what a coincidence that she had a shirt on that was from our hometown. All of us that went on this trip together are from Pittsburgh. Crazy coincidence and small world! We had to get a picture with her before we left! (Left to right - I’m in the pink, patient, Shawn, Jeremy, and Dennis my professor) My mom did not want to be in the picture… Lol!

I will follow this post up with a part two that will include the location and pictures from the afternoon session.

I hope everyone is doing well and I’m sending so many hugs to you all!

Schools Out For Summer!!

Hi everyone! I’m crawling my way out of a bit of a blogging funk. I try so hard to only post positive things and it was a pretty crazy, stressful, sad beginning to 2022. 

It was a pretty stressful semester in nursing school and my last post here in blog land was when I had to put my precious Nermal to sleep. I have to say both have been pretty rough. I think of Nermal daily and miss him daily. He was that cat that was on top of me snuggling every waking hour I was home. But I know he’s in a better place now and I definitely did the right thing for him.  Now no cat snuggles me… my remaining cats are more standoffish …I keep hoping that one day one of them is going to step up and start snuggling me… Ha ha! Fingers crossed!! Below is my sweet Nermie…

My clinical group the past semester was awesome! I had a great instructor and the best clinical classmates ever!!!! Here they are leaving our final clinical of the semester … me in the front, teacher in the fuzzy white jacket, Mable and Katie students like me!!! 

Missing from the Picture above is Caitlyn. She was my clinical bestie!!!  She found out she was pregnant prior to the start of the semester and went into labor two weeks before the end of the semester. Talk about a crazy semester of nursing school. Needless to say, she missed the final clinical week and has to finish up in the summer but here’s a picture of her, her husband and her new baby boy Maverick!!! Yay!!! 

As you can see below I finished with a 3.6 GPA for this semester so I will be on the Dean’s list! Yippee! I was hoping for straight A’s but I’m also very happy with my 3.6! If you look at my grades below; at least I’m trending upwards… Ha ha!

So the great news is I’m off school for summer! My final semester will be fall 2022 and then I will officially graduate from nursing school with my degree. Next step after that is to pass the NCLEX and get a real job again!

I will be working as a CNA at a local hospital in my area for the summer in the Med-Surg area. I am planning to work a few days a week and have my weekends off for lake visits with my parents.

One really awesome bit of news is that I will be heading to Nicaragua in the next few days. My mother and I will be going with my professor and a few other students on a nursing trip. We will be staying in Granada Nicaragua and traveling to remote villages each day to distribute medical supplies and to perform  standard first aid for the villagers. I am so excited as we’ve been planning this for so many months… It’s truly going to be a life experience. This made me realize I need to get back into blogging again! I’ve got to share this amazing experience with as many people as possible.

If you’re on my Instagram, then you know that I set up Venmo for people to donate. If you are looking for a great cause you can donate using my Venmo below and we will use ALL the monies to go directly toward medicine and medical supplies for the villagers. I will be blogging everything that we purchase so that you will be able to see everything that your donation went toward.  Apparently they are in dire need for prenatal vitamins and basic medicinal supplies.

So, that’s my update! I will be posting every night, if possible, from the hotel. I would love it if you follow my journey!! 

Sending so much love and so many hugs to everyone out there!!

Again, sorry for the long blogging break I think I am finally ready to come out of my shell again. It won’t be long and you will be begging me to take another break!!! Haha!!!

Have a spectacular day!!!

Hugs to everyone!!!

First OB Clinical

Happy happy Friday everyone! I think it’s gonna be a very interesting semester this year in nursing school

I was scheduled to have my first OB clinical yesterday. We were going to a Pittsburgh hospital from 2 PM until midnight. Around noon we got an email from our instructor that we were doing zoom from home. Apparently the school did not get the papers filled out in time so we were unable to be on the floor at Clinical.  Because the hospital is so far away from me (about 1 1/2 hours) I was already in the car on the way to a fellow students home to drive from there. So I was all dressed with my gear when she texted me and told me it was canceled in person and we would be zooming at 2 PM.

Needless to say it was a very long day being on a zoom clinical from 2 PM until midnight. The instructor let us go around 1130 but that was still a very long day.

Hopefully we will have better luck next Thursday!!!

in the meantime I will leave you with a picture of all my clinical gear that I systematically took off after I heard in person Clinical was canceled.

Our cute navy scrub tops and pants… and yes I am working on the weight loss… UGG I hate seeing that size on my scrub top but you can not change that which you do not acknowledge, right?!?! (I blacked out the school because we’re not allowed to put any kind of school names on any kind of social media.)

My awesome stethoscope… It was a gift for my parents the Christmas before I started nursing school! Love it!


My awesome bandage scissors… We have to have these with us for every Clinical. Mine are from Amazon!


Just like the scissors… We have to have our medical pen light with us for every clinical. I got mine from Amazon I think!


I got this adorable lanyard for my badge from my nieces and nephews.  It was a Christmas gift right before I started nursing school. They found it at Bath and Body Works…it’s has sanitizer built right in!!!

I also use these awesome pens I found on Amazon. I saw another nurse with them at my first Clinical and they are so helpful. They hang right from your badge holder so they are always ready and available when you need them! They’re perfect for writing vitals or labs and initialing IV tubes and the sharpie comes in handy when you have to label bandages.  I found them on Amazon and it was the best investment for nursing school!

I always have a little cash on hand… The instructor told us the cafeteria would be closed except for grab and go but they have vending machines. Usually these hospitals have vending machines for Panera soup. That’s what I was hoping for at least. I also packed a dinner of protein bars almonds and dried mangoes just in case the vending machines only had candy. Lol!

I always keep this little baggie in my zipper pocket of my scrub pants. I have Bayer baby aspirin to chew in case I start to get migraine lights ( if you get migraines you’ll understand.) and it also has some cough drops and some ibuprofen. You just never know when you’re going to need that. We can’t have any items on the floor with us so this is the easiest way to be prepared if you yourself have an emergency.

This is my best friend! I got it at a local health store and it is like a natural version of a Vicks inhaler! One thing I have learned is that nursing doesn’t always smell pretty. This is perfect you sniff it up both nostrils before you take care of some not so pleasantly scented issues. It has made Clinical life much better.

This is my nursing watch. It has a secondhand and the plastic repels germs. It’s fully waterproof too! This was a gift from my parents for Christmas before I started nursing school also.

I found this little gem on Amazon. Another girl in my clinical was using one and I loved it. It’s a metal folding clipboard. You can put all of your patient files and important information in this clip… Then you can fold it in half and it fits right in your scrub pocket. It is fantastic because it also gives you a hard surface to write on!


As you can see on the outside of it there’s a little cheat sheets for different lab values, needle gauges, eye millimeter sizes and shot locations, etc. 

This is one other thing I always make sure I take to clinical. Nurses are not able to hydrate throughout the day. You’re so busy that before you know it it’s been four hours. So it’s super important to stay hydrated however you can… especially when nurses work 10 and 12 hour shifts. This stuff has been a godsend! The swell bottle was a gift from one of my very best friends Donna. I fill it with water and then add 1 1/2 of the liquid IVs. They taste amazing and it keeps you hydrated and feeling good all day!


So that’s it! Just a little view of what prep is like for Clinical… And then just like that it was canceled. Ha ha! I guess if nothing else you have to be flexible in nursing school!

And as you can also tell nursing school isexpensive! Once I graduate and get established I’m going to figure out how to do a grant for new nurses. When I started I had no clue how expensive it was going to be. I knew how much school cost but you really don’t have a clue as books and testing software are more expensive than school each semester! I had no idea about that. Also all of the gear that you need for nursing school is unbelievably expensive! Between the equipment and the special embroidered scrubs it ends up costing a whole ton of money. 

I would love to help someone else once I graduate and get established!

That’s all for me! As you can tell, I think now that school has started up I’m going to try my best to at least post once a week. That should be doable. Monday is dosage Calc and I will definitely post after that to let you know how it turns out.

Have you ever thought about starting a scholarship for someone less fortunate? have you paid it forward lately ? How do you pay it forward? 

Thanks for all the well wishes and support! You guys are amazing! Hugs and stay safe out there!!!

Stress-free Weekend

Hi everyone! Happy happy Monday! I hope everyone is as blessed as me on this holiday and was able to stay home and just watch the snowfall. If you had to go somewhere during Snowmageddon… I hope you made it there and arrived home safely. I personally stayed home for the whole day today… soaked in the tub… and did a little studying.

So let me share with you a little about my weekend! I go on a retreat three times a year. It has been canceled for the past two years due to Covid. They started it back up again this year. So I just attended the spring Jacksons Mill round up. It’s held at the Jacksons Mill 4H camp in West Virginia. The camp is now owned by West Virginia University.

It was an amazing weekend filled with speakers, fellowship, spirituality and love. 

When there’s downtime from speakers and activities we go on little shopping trips in the West Virginia area. We have different little local stores we got to and buy jams and jellies, canned beets and tonics, sometimes we even get knickknacks and homemade pickles.

We always go to this store below… They have all kinds of really fun country knickknacks and gifts for people. When we stopped this time we heard that the owner is closing the store for good. I guess they’ve lost a lot of money due to Covid. They have this giant Sasquatch out in front of the store. The store owner said he was purchased and he will be moved to his new location in March. So this will be our final visit to the store and no more pictures of Sasquatch… Here’s our final couple pictures …

These two people are my absolute heart and soul! They are the most amazing friends on the planet and I feel so blessed to have them in my life. We normally all see each other every time we go to the mill. In case you don’t know I’m the one in the Steelers jacket.


Another thing we do every time we’re at the mill is go to the Jane Lew truckstop. They have a restaurant there that has this painting on the wall. The painting is of the Civil War. You can see the blue side and the gray side. The meaning of signed by what we think is a local artist Charlotte Gerstack. We eat here every time we’re here and we get a picture in front of Jesus. As you can see in the picture below Laura is pointing to Jesus. Right in the middle of the fighting there is a man in all white with sandals. He’s holding a gun and fighting right along with both the blue and gray man. Has to be Jesus right? This is a bone of contention for everyone except me… I know it is Jesus. I just don’t know why he is holding a gun.


And here’s a close-up… Jesus, right?


I received a few check-in‘s from my cat sitter. She came twice a day to take care of the food and shots for Nermal. He did so great for her - here’s a screen capture of some of her texting… 

So she texted me each time she came and said he was great with the shots every time. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful cat sitter! She definitely loves my cats (and my home) like they’re her own.

They have lots and lots of photo albums from all the years gone by at the Mill. One of the committee members is always in charge of walking around and getting pictures of most of the people in attendance. We have been attending 3x a year for about 24 years now. I found these great old pictures. This one is from about 20 years ago. I am using these to inspire my diet… Lol! I was so thin and young!



I really love this old picture below… It was the three of us that I told you hang out together plus a gentleman named Vaughn. Vaughn passed away last year and he is so missed! The guy smiling in the back row is another guy we see all the time at the mill. Vaughn brought everyone so much laughter and joy. Love you Vaughn!


After that weekend of so much relaxation… I came home hearing about a snowstorm that was on the way to Pittsburgh. We made it home before any snow fell and I hunkered down to get ready to watch my Steelers beat the Chiefs. As you all know that did not happen… The Steelers are out of the playoffs. We lost to the Chiefs… Actually they killed us! But it seems like we might have a shot because of this guy… TJ Watt! He was amazing! The rest of the team just sucked- ha!


And here’s the snow when I woke up. I think we may be got 6 inches? Like I said I’m super blessed because I didn’t have to go anywhere and I hope everyone else stayed safe as well!


The absolute best decision we’ve made in this condo building is the assigned parking spaces. Soon as it finished snowing I went out and shoveled my space and shoveled the hump that the snow plow makes behind the cars. I have a nice, clean, reserved spot just for me! Yay! Every year before this I would shovel a spot, leave and someone would take my spot. Finally, last winter I ended up shoveling the whole freaking parking lot. But I’m happy to report… I only have to shovel my spot now.


I also made a big pot of homemade chili. It was wonderful to watch the snowfall and eat chili. I had it for dinner last night and lunch today. I’m now heating a bowl for dinner today. I think I’m going to freeze the rest of it because how many days in a row and how many meals in a row can you eat chili? Ha ha


And finally… I’m going to spend the rest of my evening prepping for my first class tomorrow. On Tuesdays I have Nur210 -Nursing Leadership and Management principles. We have some videos to watch and some reading to do. Then later in the week on Thursday I will have my first clinical for maternity. We will be working on Thursday from 2 PM to midnight at a hospital in the Pittsburgh area. I’m super excited for this first maternity clinical- I will let you know how it goes!!!


I hope everyone had A great weekend and has an even better week!

Update: thanks again for all your supportive and encouraging comments on my dosage calculation test. The retest is on Monday January 24th and I will let you know how it goes immediately after. Thanks again for all the love and support!!!

Do you get sick of food you cook and have to freeze it before you can finish it? How much snow did you get? We’re you off work or school today?

Hugs everyone -stay safe out there!!!!

Good Cry Anyone?

Well not gonna lie…

Today is not what I would call the best day ever.

First thing this morning I realized that both my dermatologist and my medicine are not covered under my new insurance plan. So that’s lovely. I see a dermatologist yearly because I have psoriatic arthritis. The psoriasis piece has been really controlled with Stelara. Needless to say, Stelara and my doctor are both not covered under my new plan. So I need to research and find a new doctor, have all of my patient records sent to them and then find a new med for my psoriasis. 

Then I took the med dosage Calc test. You have to get a 92% to pass (you can miss two). It didn’t go well at all. Thank goodness they give us one more try to re-take the test. I messed up the simplest thing. The wording threw me off. The question was asking for a flow rate on an electronic pump and for some reason I labeled them gtt/min instead of ml/hr and there were three in a row. You can only miss two and I missed all three of those.  Pretty much spent the afternoon crying about that one. Now I’m over it and I’m ready to retake it because I know what I did wrong and as frustrating as it is it was, it was my own stupid mistake.

In the afternoon it started pouring down rain here in Pittsburgh. It was super dark outside and everything was just super gloomy all day here.

Around dinner time I took Nermal (my cat) in for his two week vet check for his diabetes. His numbers went down from close to 800 to around 420. The vet said that was great but he’s only gained an ounce. So we’re bumping him up to two units in the morning and three units at night. We will do that for a week and if I still notice he’s peeing a lot I’m supposed to bump it up to three units in the morning and three units at night.

Here’s the little cutie sleeping in his cat tree cube…

When I see it written here it doesn’t seem like it should have been such a great catastrophe but it certainly felt like one today. I was just super sad and super overwhelmed in waves. I don’t know if anyone else has had a day like this but it’s almost like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I just wanted to check in because you’ve all been so super supportive about my nursing decision and although I really tried and studied hard I missed three stupid questions. I realize now it’s all good and I’ll do better on my next retake.

I need to go to bed now and hopefully I will have a better restart tomorrow. I am going to a conference tomorrow that I’m super excited about so I will send a whole bunch of pictures this weekend.  Thank us I have an amazing responsible cat sitter that I trust with my cats lives. She loves my cats as much as I do. She’s coming to take care of all my babies and Nermal’s shots over the weekend. It’s a lot of work so she is definitely a saint. So that’s a bright spot! 

Hugs to each and everyone of you… Thanks for being there when I need to talk these things out. You guys are another bright spot!! Hugs!

Ever have one of those days when things one after the other just keep going wrong? Ever have a day where you just feel overwhelmed? Ever have a day where the smallest thing goes wrong and it feels huge? Ever have a day when you just needed to have a good cry?

Stay safe out there!

Dosage Calculation Rocks

Soooo….this happened! Lol! We have a really hard water in my Condo so the cartridges for water Fossetts go bad really quickly it seems. Thank goodness I watched my dad the first time he changed one so I don’t have to call him any more for it. I know how to do them myself. This time I was unable to get the tub to shut off. When you have to push really hard to shut your faucet off, you need a new cartridge. So I ran to Home Depot bought a cartridge and switched it out. The whole process now only takes me about 20 minutes since I do it so often. Ha ha! Most important thing is to remember to turn off your water. From there it’s super easy. One of these times I will document the entire process but I know I mentioned it in this blog post …

HERE

yesterday was fun getting ready for our dosage Calc test. We have to take this every semester in nursing school. Here is the prep work they send us to work through to practice the problems we will get on our test. You have to pass your dosage Calc test with at least a 95% or you cannot even complete the semester. I’m in my third semester and if you don’t get a 95% on this test then your classes are cancelled and you have to wait until next semester to take these classes again. It makes total sense considering a nurse has a patient’s life in their hands with medication dosages.


Here’s my scribble paper… Lol! My scratch paper is definitely scratchy!!


Here’s a sample question… The doctor orders propofol 350 mcg/min. The dose you have on hand is propofol 50 mg in 100 mL of D5W.  How many mL/hr does the nurse administer the propofol? Fun question right?!?!?

Last semester I got 100%. I’m seriously hoping I can re-create that test score!

I’ve been feeling super sniffling congested. I’ve been taking Mucinex and bear aspirin I went to buy soup at the store yesterday. I’m super happy to report I ran into this! My mother used to buy this when we were kids! Has anyone else tried this? I remember when I was little it had this little clear egg in it that had oil and bullion. We used all fight over who got to put the egg in the pan. I’m sad to say there is no clear egg anymore it’s just a packet of powder. I bought some anyway because I need a little comfort feeling!


Have you ever tried this soup before? Do you remember the egg? What did you get for the answer to the question above? 

I’m now off to read your blogs and see how everyone’s doing before I study some more.

Hugs and stay safe out there!!!!

Summer School

Hi everyone!!! I have missed blogging so much but nursing school is sooo intense and I have no had time to do ANYTHING but study!!!

I finished my first of four semesters with all As and Bs!!! Yay!!!!

I am now in summer school to finish Anatomy and Physiology I and II and Microbiology.

It’s a lot too but I decided that I need to blog - no matter what-so I can remember what this experience was like once I am a legit nurse!!!!

So, here we go ladies and gentlemen!

Also, I have been following so many of you, even without blogging, through your instagrams and Facebook and that has been wonderful!!!! I hope you are all well and I cannot wait to being posting and sharing again!!!

This week I am learning everything there is to know about the CNS and the brain itself!

Have a great Friday everyone!!!!

Happy Monday and Clarifications

Happy Monday everyone!

I’ve gotten a few questions after my post regarding interviews. I figured I should take this post to clear things up.

So basically I’ve lost my job. They gave us a two month notice during which time we are being paid. So my current job officially ends on December 30. At that time I will no longer be an employee of Bayer. We are receiving severance for all of our direct employee years so that will definitely help.

My plan moving forward is to get out of IT and six sigma and become a nurse. I just want to do some thing that makes a difference in this world. Sadly I can’t go to nursing school for two years and not work… I just can’t afford it. So the plan is to work and go to nursing school on nights and weekends.

I have been working with the nursing director at CCAC which is where I plan to attend nursing school. She is trying to get me a spot in the spring class of 2021. They only except 200 students and I am too late to be considered for enrollment but she is thinking a few students may decide not to go which will free up a spot for me.

In order to be considered for the program by the nursing director; I had to take the TEAS test. It tests your current level of math, science, English and reading comprehension.  I bought the book and studied really hard (Nermal  studied with me- so much that he got highlighted) ha!

I scored a 79 overall. I didn’t think it was that great but from what they are telling me at the nursing college it is. So I am super proud of myself! Fingers crossed it is enough to get me into nursing college in the spring. If a position does not open up in Spring 2021, then they will put me in the Fall 2021 class.

But all of this just explains why I am currently looking for employment - I wish I were able to just stay home and do school but my current situation does not allow for that. I guess this would be one of those times in life that would be easier if I had a spouse! Ha ha!

If you have any others questions, pleases do not hesitate to ask. If I have an answer I will tell you it. This is new territory for me to navigate! 

I will leave you with this...I have some friends that are saying they will not wear a mask because they think it will make you sick somehow...

I personally think “Mask it or Casket”. I have tried to educate myself on this subject and I pray that everyone I love wears a mask! I can not make anyone do it but I have already lost three friends here in PA and had many others hospitalized for weeks!!! 

I pray you all stay safe and happy and let’s get through this Covid thing once and for all!!!!! Ugh!!

This picture came up on my Facebook memories last night. My aunt posted it of a family trip we took to Washington DC.

For left to right...my Aunt Marti (it’s her birthday today), grandma Wells (she is in Heaven), and my Mom in the black shirt. None of those people on the right were with us. Also, my older sister is in the striped dress and I am in the yellow jumper in front of my Mom. 

I assume my Dad was taking the picture standing in the middle of the road! Ha! Also, where are my sisters pants?!?!! Ha ha!

I hope you all have a fantastic week!!! Sending so many hugs to you all!!

Stay safe and happy everyone!!!! Hugs!