Boston Marathon

Marathon Monday was on April 18, Patriot's day here in Massachusetts (a holiday - no orientation for me or school for Brian). So, we headed down to Coolidge Corner to watch the marathon with some friends. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and there were a ton of people all over the streets - lots of support for the runners!! We had a lot of fun and witnessed the two best marathon times ever! So neat! Here is a slideshow of pictures:

4 jobs?!

We've been so busy - Brian's working on papers for the end of the semester and I have been working a lot. I started orientation at Whidden Hospital in Everett on April 4. The first week consisted of classroom style nursing orientation to learn the computer systems, policies and procedures, etc. After that week, I began orientation on the unit and have worked 4 days there. I am orienting to the unit with a nurse named Dawne and she is a really great, fun nurse.

There are some similarities to the Arbour Hospital, but also a lot of differences. From what I have seen the Whidden population seems a little bit less acute than what I see at Arbour, but I am sure that varies. The nurses at Whidden get about 8 patients and we have about 13 at Arbour. So far the commute to Everett hasn't been too bad either.

I've only worked 1 day at Arbour in the past couple weeks because I have been busy with orientation at Whidden, and I am working shifts at Bay Cove here and there when I can.

On April 5 I interviewed for a summer full time paid externship at the VA Hospital and I got it! I didn't prepare at all for the interview, which probably was helpful actually because I was way more relaxed. So, my externship starts May 9 and will be on a surgical floor (in neuro I think) - I am really looking forward to it (especially for the hands-on experience)! They hired 15 new graduates and there is a possibility of being hired at the end of the externship (maybe per diem or part time, depends on what's available).

So, things are good and I am very grateful for these job opportunities! I am going to try my best to keep the 3 per diems while doing the externship, hoping to work maybe a couple per diem shifts a month just so I don't forget everything I just learned in my orientations - haha. We will see how it all works out. I continue to put this all in God's hands!

I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed on Monday after my first day orienting on the unit at Whidden. I had thoughts of letting that job go since I had just started, but I really like that it is part of a hospital and I can move to other units later on as an internal employee. I also really like the staff I work with, which is huge. So, I am going to stick with it, but while I was on my way home, feeling overwhelmed, I decided to pull out my Lenten prayer book and do my afternoon prayer, which was this:

"Living God, I don't know why it keeps surprising me
that I can always endure more than I thought possible. ...
God, my friend, let me understand that - to live -
I must break myself up, or be broken, to share the pieces."
from More Daily Prayers for Busy People by William O'Malley

I felt it was so perfect for me that day and it reminded me that God has me right where I am supposed to be. And even though I have been wanting to have just 1 full time job for ease and convenience, God has provided me with 4 jobs to allow me to share myself with them all. :)

Work life and other updates

Wandering around downtown near Frog Pond

We are doing well over here on the East Coast! I've been really busy with work which is very exciting! I've pretty much been working full time between Bay Cove clinic, Arbour hospital, and babysitting still. Since I haven't written in a while, I should let you know that I didn't get the job at MGH, but that's okay. Of course I was bummed about that, but I know God has a plan for me. I have been enjoying my jobs at Arbour and Bay Cove, and I will be starting orientation at CHA Whidden soon for their psych unit. Hopefully I can keep track of all my jobs! haha. I also just submitted an application for a summer paid externship through the VA, so we'll see!

Arbour life - I have worked 5 shifts on my own now, on 4 of the 5 units. The last two shifts were on the less acute unit and I was looking forward to a slighter easier day, but that definitely didn't happen. My first day I stayed 2 hours late and the 2nd day was 1.5 hrs, but the past couple shifts I left in less than an hour after the end of the shift. Not bad ~ I'm improving! However, when I work the evening shift (3-11:30pm), Brian likes to meet me there so we can take the buses home together. But since it is a locked facility and way past visiting hours, he has to wait outside in the cold...and the waiting lately has been about 45 minutes or so until I finish all my documentation. Another bummer about the evening shift is that buses don't run as frequently at that hour and the last ones are around 12:45am. Last Fri night, I got out at 12:30am and we took a cab home instead of waiting in the cold. I am working 4 evening shifts this week and it is my goal to be out by 11:45 or 12 at the latest! I am definitely learning time management skills...

Just a couple stories for you:

• My first day I was on one of the acute units, had 2 discharges (the first being one of the most impatient people I've seen yet!), and 1 patient who fell 4 times throughout the day requiring wound care the last time which ended up getting him a visit to the ER at another hospital (which means paperwork!). I finally discovered that he was falling on purpose (he wanted to go to the hospital). Note: some of his falls were on/against toilets - ouch!
• On the other acute unit, there was one patient who called me every other name but Theresa - at least he tried I guess. He kept saying he was going to sue us for $85million because that's what his sister has, but then later he asked me (I wasn't even his nurse that day) to get him his 85million clozaril tablets. Hmmm...I think he likes that number.
• I have heard 3 code blues called in the past couple weeks, but I thought I heard someone mention that there were only 2 code blues in all of 2010. Interesting. (Code blues are much less common at this hospital than one might see/hear in a normal hospital.) Although, the first code blue I heard and responded to was a drill. It was so awesome to see how fast everyone got to where they needed to be and how seriously everyone took it even with a fake torso on the ground.

Us with our friends Deb & Kevin near the North End

Other Updates:

• Spring is around the corner! We are looking forward to more sunshine and warmer weather. And the birds are back!! I didn't even realize just how much I missed them until now. Love listening to them :)
• Brian is no longer dog walking Baxter and Millie. I guess they were still going to the bathroom in the house even after their walks, so it wasn't really beneficial anymore.
• We did, however, take on a new housesitting gig not too far from BC. We watched 2 new Beagles, Lily and Molly, for a night (Brian and I had to share an extremely loud and squeaky twin bed with the two Beagles - let's just say it was a very tight fit). Their house was really close to a lake and also had some of the neatest chandeliers - take a look:

• My nursing school friend, Eula Mei, was just here with her boyfriend JP for a graduation. We met them for breakfast at Metropolis - It was SO great to see and catch up with her.

• Also, about a month ago, my cousin Ian was here visiting his girlfriend who is at BU. We went out for a nice dinner and then they came over for dessert another night. It was so fun to spend time with family here. :)

• We went to our first BC Hockey game - they played Northeastern (a local school), so it was pretty crowded. It was a lot of fun and ended up being a tie game 7-7!

• Lastly, we went ice skating at the end of February. After having just been to the hockey game I was amazed at how easy hockey players make ice skating look. I can hardly skate forward, but they can skate in every direction, carrying a giant stick, chasing a puck and ramming into walls. I was impressed!

I think that's just about all the updates for now. I know this was a long post, but thanks for reading!!

I'm Published!!!

I was so happy last Friday when I came home from orientation and saw that my thesis manuscript has been published!! The last version was submitted around the end of August and I knew it was going to take some time, but it is done! :) Such a cool feeling!! Here is what comes up from a google scholar search: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03501.x/full
Let me know if you are interested in reading the full article. :)

Sitting Jobs

About a month ago I started babysitting 2 days a week for 9.5 hrs a day for a family close by (about an 8 minute walk away). The mom works from home, but I keep Jake happy and quiet. :) They like to leave classical music on during the day, but one day she left to go into the office and I put some Toddler Tunes on for a bit (bad me!) - but he loved it! This is me dancing and making a fool of myself to keep him smiling (he's teething) and he was pretty fascinated with the blinking timer light on the camera. I should also add that I was given a W4 on my first day of babysitting here...that was a first for me in my 15 years of babysitting!

Jake is 9 months old now and in the 100th percentile for head circumference. His mom said he is very "top heavy" and thus doesn't like to be on his tummy much. Therefore, he might end up walking instead of crawling first. He loves to stand and can balance for about 2-3 seconds at times by himself. It was fun helping him build these muscles and work with him on this. :) I had to take a few weeks off from babysitting him because of orientation, but my friend Stephanie (a child Occupational Therapist) is free on Thursdays, so she has been helping occasionally.

I haven't babysat for the other family in a while - the kids kept having snow days and I had interviews, so it wasn't really working out. There were a couple times that I got a text from the mom canceling while I was waiting in the cold for the bus - that was pretty frustrating, but I was just glad both times that happened I hadn't gotten on the bus yet.

Brian has been doing the dog walking for me still and plans to continue that for a little longer. We housesat for them a couple weekends ago, which went pretty well. Only 1 thing of ours was destroyed by chewing (Brian's insole - I think she was going for his snow sneaker but discovered the insole was more interesting!). They didn't bark much and were actually more well behaved while we housesat than when we walk them! They are the cutest beagles!! This is Millie, the younger more crazy one, on the left, and Baxter with the bone on the right.

That's all the updates in the sitting job world.

Job Updates

Bay Cove

I oriented at Bay Cove Treatment Center (a methadone clinic for heroin addicts) for about 2 weeks and then worked my first shift on my own on Valentine's evening. It went well! I am scheduled to work 2 more shifts this coming week too. I really like it there. All the nurses are per diem and work other jobs in addition to this one. They want the nurses to work 5-6 shifts per month (which is about 20 hrs a month), so it was really nice when I got paid for 33 hours of orientation.

Arbour

Valentine's day was also my first day of orientation at Arbour Hospital, where I will be working as a per diem psychiatric nurse. Note: Arbour is a free-standing psychiatric facility with 5 units - they have to send patients to nearby hospitals for any medical issues. They let me leave early Valentine's day so I could work at Bay Cove, but I had to commit to 2 full weeks of orientation (so I had to cancel a shift at Bay Cove). Yesterday was the end of the 2 weeks, but they are asking us to orient for one more week so that we can see each unit twice. I have already signed up for 2 shifts at Bay Cove next week, so one day I will leave early and the other day I will work an evening shift at Arbour. Thankfully they are flexible and willing to work with my schedule.

Anyway, Arbour orientation has been going extremely well! I really like it there and everyone is so nice, including the manager who hired me, Nancy. She is always saying how happy she is to have me there. :) With me in orientation are 2 other RNs - one for full time and another for per diem - and also 1 mental health associate (MHA). The 2 nurses are in a program like mine and just got their RN licenses recently and will be getting their Masters as Nurse Practitioners (in Psych) from Northeastern University here in Boston. Therefore, it is great being around other new grads/nurses and I am happy that the manager is so excited to have us there! Although, Arbour doesn't know what is coming - the 3 of us have so many great ideas and plans (i.e., smoking cessation classes, new grad program, Arbour jackets/polos for casual Friday, renewal crisis prevention courses - just a few of the things we've talked about lately - haha).

This week: Tuesday was computer training all day; Wednesday I oriented on the adolescent unit, which was a fun unit and brought me back to my Youth Ministry days; Thursday I oriented on the acute adult inpatient unit (the really "crazy" people). Not too many stories to share at this time, but there was one patient who was swearing and saying mean/hurtful things to some staff the other day - something that happens often that I am going to have to get used to and of course not take personally. There was a patient who told me "God has truly blessed you", to which I said "thanks" and went back to work. There was one patient who only spoke Spanish and I was so proud of myself when I told her to do something in Spanish (using one word- haha). And Friday was our safety/restraint class - crisis prevention, where we learned various techniques for deescalating a patient, holding them (a "physical hold" restraint), and, if necessary, how to take them down to the ground (and probably put them in "mechanical restraints", such as tying to the bed).

The medication administration is completely different than what I am used to. It is very old-school, but I actually like it and am glad that I am able to see how it was done before computers. Overall, Arbour has been a great experience and I am so happy that everyone is so supportive - it makes such a difference! Yesterday the nursing supervisor gave us our schedules for next week and said that it would be totally fine to have a few extra days of orientation if needed, which is wonderful. I love that they are so flexible and low-key. I'm excited to get started there!!

Massachusetts General

Saturday, Feb 12 I had an interview at MGH for an oncology new graduate program - it is EXACTLY what I've wanted! It starts March 7 and runs through August, where I would be full time Mon-Fri going to classes and orienting to the hospital/unit. There were over 100 candidates interviewing that day and there are about 20-30 positions available (which is actually a lot more than I thought!). They said that they would get back to us withing 2 weeks (which would be today), so I was expecting the call by yesterday. I haven't heard from them though. :( I guess that gives me permission to call them now - so maybe on Monday I will do that. They really aren't giving us a whole lot of time, since the program starts a week from Monday!! MGH is an impressive hospital and I would LOVE to work there. I know this program would be an exceptional experience, but I continue to put the situation in God's hands. If I did get this job, I still plan to work at Arbour (probably on weekends that are available, and Bay Cove when possible [it would be hard to work there since I would only be able to work on weekends, but Bay Cove weekends are taken by certain people]). (Side note: MGH and Bay Cove are about an 8 minute walk away from each other). So for now I am just waiting to see what happens.

Whidden

On Monday I got the call from Whidden HR (my first interview) extending an offer for employment (for a per diem position in the hospital's psychiatric unit). I asked the HR rep if I could have a few days to think about it and she told me to let her know by Wed am since she has another candidate waiting. I was REALLY hoping to hear from MGH before having to call Whidden back, but of course that didn't happen. So, I called Whidden on Wed am leaving a message accepting the offer (for job security in case MGH doesn't work out). The next step for Whidden is setting up a pre-employment physical and will be trying to squeeze that in sometime soon. I haven't signed anything yet with Whidden, so if I do end up getting the job at MGH I can let go of Whidden (which is the job farthest away and with the highest starting wage).

Summary

It has been very stressful this week for me not knowing what is happening with MGH. Everything is up-in-the-air because of it and I hate that feeling. As I mentioned, MGH would be an amazing experience and I would love to be part of a new grad program where they really ease me into nursing (and I would get chemo certified). (Oh, and of course I love that it would be full-time + benefits!). However, I have really been enjoying my psychiatric experience and would be happy doing the 3 per diem jobs for now too. I am just so incredibly thankful that these opportunities have come along and can't thank you all enough for your prayers & support during my unemployment period and frustrations of job searching. Stay tuned as I wait to see what God has planned...

Icicles!

I have been on the hunt for awesome icicles! Of course there are times I find some and I don't have my camera, but here are some that I have found so far:

Job News

Back in December I saw an ad in the Massachusetts Nursing newsletter for a new program they are starting called Career Connections. I signed up to get a nurse mentor and I was paired with the Nurse Executive at the VA. Brian and I went to meet her - her name is Ceci and she is incredibly nice!! She gave me lots of great ideas and knows a lot of people in the nursing field, which is just what I need. Her soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Luz, is a psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and she also started getting my name out there. Well, not long after did I get 2 phone calls for interviews from referrals by Luz. One was at a hospital a little over an hour away for the inpatient psych unit and the other was for a clinic downtown, both per diem (as needed) jobs. I also had another interview the following week for another hospital psych inpatient per diem position about 45 min away. Of course it snowed on each of these days (but not any of the other days during that week), so it was quite interesting getting around without my boots on and my hair was hardly curled by the time I got to the interview, but it makes for fun memories.

Today was my first day of orientation at the clinic and I am going to start observing the nurses this week to see what I will need to do. It seems like a really neat place to work, with a lot of great perks for benefited employees (not me). I haven't heard yet from the other two jobs, but it is possible that I might get them both as well, which would be great. We'll see what happens! If not, I definitely can keep babysitting and dog walking in the meantime.

It's been TOO long (thus a long post)

I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged! We've been pretty busy, which is good. During Christmas, we were watching a cat in Cambridge. His name is Loki (left) and he is very sweet. He needed medication in his ear twice a day, so we basically just stayed at their nice apartment or in the area until heading back home. The day after Christmas was the first big snow (blizzard) that we experienced - but nothing stopped us! We were out walking 2 miles through the blizzard and having a blast in the fresh snow. Of course a snow angel was totally necessary!! When Loki's parents came home, they referred us to a family in Belmont who was leaving for New Years weekend. So, we stayed at their beautiful 4 story house in Belmont watching Casper - he was probably one of the best dogs I have ever taken care of!! He was a lot of fun and pretty easy. We walked him to a nearby pond that was frozen over and saw a beautiful sunset! Of course it was better the day before, but we didn't have our camera, so we went back the next day, but it was a little cloudier - still made for a great picture though!

As we left housesitting in Belmont, we walked over to Cambridge (about 25 min walk) and met another lady for dog sitting. She lives in a brand new super nice apartment complex - she said only like 10 people live there right now. She just moved here from Chicago and has two 12 yr old dogs that needed medications with every meal. One of them, Cassi, has seizures so we also had to keep the house no warmer than 67 degrees since any higher can trigger a seizure. Cassi was a little stressful at times for us - we would just be sitting on the couch and she would bark at us for 15 min straight. We still aren't quite sure what it was (she didn't want to go outside, she didn't want to play, she may have been trying to get food), but we just tried to ignore her. Also, one morning while I was emailing their owner (who was in Switzerland for work) I heard Cassi rummaging through our suitcases, and in about 3 minutes, she chewed the strap off of one of my bras! I was a little upset, but just threw it in the trash and let it go. Then, another morning I heard her in there again and I knew what she was capable of doing, so I ran in there within less than a minute and she had been digging through the trash. I noticed that the bra was missing (no longer in the trash) and I never found it after searching the whole house. So, I am not sure if she hid it or ate it, but whatever she did with it, she did it VERY fast! Callie, the other dog (in the picture with me), was just sooo sweet and loveable! While we were housesitting here there was another blizzard! Luckily we didn't have anything to do that day and could just stay home all day. These are a couple pictures of the snow from the back door/porch. It was absolutely so beautiful out! I wish I could have taken more pictures, but I didn't feel like putting on all the layers to go out in it. The day after the blizzard was the day we headed home, which was quite an adventure in the snow! We had 2 suitcases, 2 backpacks, and another large bag (with a space heater we bought for our apt). We were definitely exhausted and excited to be home.

We have still be dog walking a couple times a week (when the weather cooperates). Here is a picture of me with Baxter and Millie on our first day of walking, which was in December. There have been a few days where I have been babysitting, so Brian has had to walk them by himself, and now with all the ice on the ground Brian walks them anyway and I follow behind (I'm the pooper scooper). The dogs are definitely crazy and difficult to walk, but we are going to continue doing it as long as we can.

Other things we've been up to:
Since Angel and Dan hosted game night last month, we decided to host it for January with a taco bar (pic on left). I bought a new game that we tried out: Anomia. I definitely was the worst at it, but it was still fun. We also played Bang again and Cranium twice - this time the girls won!!

Daryn and Nichole bought us tickets to a BC basketball game, so they picked us up and we grabbed dinner beforehand at an awesome Thai place near campus. BC played Virginia and won - it was a very close game, which made it even more fun.

That's most of what's been going on here. We've seen a lot of snow and it looks like more is coming our way, but we are still enjoying it!! It dropped into the negatives recently and that was something new for us - we've never been in weather that cold. There's also lots of great stuff happening in my job search, so I will write that update right now in another post.

Thanks be to God

These are the beautiful lyrics to a Lonestar song called "Hey God" that I have always loved - such a wonderful prayer and reminder.

"You have your ways, you have your plan Sometimes mysterious and hard to understand. I am humbled by your grace and everything you do. Hey God, Hey God - I just want to thank you! Sometimes I forget to stop and bow my head, and remember that I have been blessed..."

So, I just wanted to take this time to Thank God for a wonderful year and blessing our lives in so many incredible ways!!

Also, Fr. Peter (at St. Clement's Shrine) recently wrote this "I think God's unpredictability can sometimes unnerve us. But, if we follow him, it will be an adventure. I can tell you this - you will never miss out on the best things in life."