Sneak Peak...

Feast your eyes - but use your creative juices because the paint is all changing! I have big plans in mind! *Not pictured: 2 bedrooms, bathroom, and laundry room upstairs. Spare bedroom and powder bath downstairs. Cutie backyard with pavers. Garage with painted floor! SO PUMPED. This house is so perfect! Also, I do not know how to get formatting to work on my work computers so please excuse the terrible formatting! AND I had the CUTEST company for my signing of my contract and walk through! Love her :) Oh and her mommy...

The Pace of Life

I wish I was a better blogger. Really. Even if it was just to let my thoughts out. But bygones will be bygones :) Time to get over it or make it better eh? I can't stop thinking about how fast life moves. I thought that growing up through my teenage years whizzed by, but these past few weeks have been a total whirl. Deadlines I never expected, pressure to make life changing decisions in a matter of hours, and answers that I am experiencing seem to be molding me in to even more of a different person than I was a year ago. I am different than I was last year; that is an unalduterated truth. So when I found a house in a neighborhood that I had verbally semi-comitted to a new build in, I was more than ecstatic. This resale had everything I was looking for in my new build (minus white cabinets...but beggars shouldn't be choosers when buying their first home...) and it was considerably less than a new build. Perfect. Lesson #1: DON'T WAIT to move on a resale. Once you like a house enough MOVE. MOVE FAST. I waited until Monday night at 7:00 to call my realtor and tell her about my interest. At 7:20 she called me back and we both got online only to find out that the status had changed...from active to contigent accepted...in a matter of 20 minutes. I was crushed and had to mentally move on. Carolyn suggested we go see the house anyway just to see what I thought about it and get my feelers out for what is important in a house buying industry. When I walked in to the house, I found my coworker's face on the wall in wedding pictures! No way! She was a day nurse who worked on my floor PART time. What a coincidence! House shopping continued for the day and we came across another great buy! Lesson #2: Do your research: Time to get down to the nitty gritties and compare pros and cons. Detailed list after list and hours of analyzing were to follow. But first, I went to work that night only to find out that I would be receiving report from that very nurse. Out of all 15 nurses on for the day, it happened that I was assigned to receive report from. Coincidence? She was overly excited that I had gone to see her house and that I was interested. I asked her why, considering she had already accepted a contract. She said she just "didn't have a good feeling about the contract" she currently had and apologized for that feeling being "weird and unexplained". I didn't tell her, but I kept having a feeling about this house as well, despite it not being the better bang-for-your-buck deal in comparison to its competitor. She begged me to put an offer on it and went home. Lesson #3: Be prayerful in all you do. That night, I decided that as part of my prayerful approach I have tried to have in buying a house, I should talk to my mentor at work who I so admire and look up to. We spent nearly two hours throughout the night breaking down each house and coming to the decision that I should go with my gut instinct and the direction my "spirit" was leading me (as she called it) even if I wasn't accepted. My heart was screaming one house while my brain was screaming the better deal (second house). On my drive home, I turned off the music and prayed about which house I should put an offer on. I didn't ask for a decision to be made by my Father. I simply told him which one I felt better about and let the feelings come. I felt good. A bit of a tingle. Something I haven't felt for a while. I called Carolyn and we schedule a time for after I woke up to sign an offer before going back to work. I trusted my feeling, accepted that it was unreasonable considering I most likely won't be picked considering the buyer already accepted a contract, and moved forward. And it felt good! Now all I have to do is pray that the first offer backs out for some reason...which is highly unlikely. :) Good news is I have a backup house to my backup offer! :) Here's a shot of the outside...in case I end up getting lucky (or it's meant to be!)

Venturing from food blogging...

I know, my blog is supposed to be about food.  But, considering I can't eat it, I've decided I want it to be whatever I want it to be :) So we'll just go with that ok? Ok.

It's interesting the way experiences in your life seem such a waste of time but benefit you later on.  I started my career in the CVICU for four months before going through a long and painstaking process of less-than-kind mentors and a transfer to my current floor (which I LOVE).  This experience is not one I like to dwell on and was a time of LOTS of tears and anxiety.

So last night, we had an admit around 11:00 at night.  The patient wasn't assigned to me, but to a nurse that I am friends with and actually went to school with.  I was standing next to her when she was receiving report from the paramedic and overheard at the end him discussing with her an EKG strip he wanted her to have that he obtained while transporting to our facility.  He showed her a first degree heart block that was showing up and mentioned in passing that her abdominal pain worsened in accordance to when this happened.  He wasn't sure if they were related but wanted to let her know.  A red light went off in my head and much of my training and learning from the CVICU started flooding my thoughts.  1st degree heart block = nausea.  CLASSIC SYMPTOM!  I also was able to be at the desk while my friend was discussing the plan of care with the doctors and heard them dismiss the EKG a couple times telling my friend it wasn't a great concern due to a KUB (kidney, ureter, bladder scan) that came back showing fecal compaction. 

The problem with some care providers is that they are so anxious to find an answer and solve the problem that they don't think outside the box.  It is so important to think abstractly! 

So the doctors left saying they would be back soon and I immediately approached my friend.  I told her about my red light and what I knew from working in the CVICU. Not only that, the girl was looking like crap (as we call it so tenderly).  I suggested to her that she really advocate for the patient to transfer to a cardiac monitoring floor (since we don't have that capability on my floor) because she was most likely experiencing this heart dysrhythmia.  (see image below in case you want to know what it is). She went to our manager and called a few other doctors to obtain another EKG. 

Surprise surprise, she had 1st degree heart block.  Transfer to PICU = done!

I am so grateful for everything that I learn and all the knowledge I am able to obtain each day in my work environment.  The great thing about my career is that it is an never-ending learning process. I get to expand my mind every day!  And in turn, ensure the safety of the adorable kids I get to take care of.

  

There is one major component to 1st degree heart block.  The interval between the small wave before the large one is too long.  This often times is benign and nothing to worry about.  However, if there are signs and symptoms the patient is experiencing, then action needs to be taken! 

Sorry that was super intellectual and not entirely entertaining :)  BUT I was so grateful and so excited that I could use my knowledge that I wanted to share it with you!

Love you all!

Simple joys

As many of you know, I had surgery about 2.5 weeks ago and had my jaw broken, moved, and wired shut for healing.  I was excited and looking forward to this procedure, crossing each of my t's and dotting every i in my path to make sure it would be covered by my 2011 insurance policy...that is until I was hospitalized for a soft tissue infection of the face that spread from a severe ear infection.  (complication #1).  Apparently that's not what Heavenly Father wanted to have happen to me!  That postponed the surgery for about 3 weeks. 

Finally, it was surgery time! This has brought on many more challenges than I could have anticipated. However, beforehand I was positive, motivated, and excited to have this finally taken care of!  Until the anesthesiologist started explaining the logistics of the procedure in terms that I love and understand...but that frightened the heck out of me.  Arterial lines, central lines through an IJ, intubation through the nose, nipride, propofol, pressures of 70/30, and 16 gauge IVs.  As each of these terms kept spilling from the anesthesiologist's lips, I could feel my face begin to lose it's luster and started getting reeeaaall scared, suddenly feeling like I was WAY over my head sust in time to be wheeled back into the OR.  Afterall, these were things we did on our OPEN heart kids at PCH!  There were a few compications in the OR but nothing serious, only a bit more pain for recovery.  All in all, the surgery went fantastically and I was on the road to recovery!

Suddenly, the small struggles started building up as I began regaining strength and the ability to (somewhat) talk.  There are so many things that we as human beings depend on our voice and mouth for.  Things I didn't think of include:
moistening my lips (I have to put chapstick on every 4 hrs now or else I am a scaly lizard for lips!)
sticking my tongue out at people for sass :)
speaking clear enough for my voice activated walkie talkie to function at work
letting my jaw go slack in order to sleep comfortably,
yawning
sneezing
coughing (yikes)
drinking cold and hot beverages (it's a lot easier when you can move your teeth and not have sensitivity issues!)
and finally, EATING.

I am a lover of food.  More than the average person.  It has been like my own kind of personalized torture to suddenly be stripped of a culture I have built around food.  Varieties of foods!  Crunchy, tender, moist, refreshing, crisp, chewy, sticky, soft.  You name it, I miss it.  I have been doing some reading on the relationship between food and mood and you would be surprised what an effect eating can have on one's moods.  There have been studies done on patients that have had gastric bypass done and the resulting mental effect and depressive episodes they experience from merely missing out on the culture of eating. 
Of course, I'm a big believer of everything-in-moderation, but it's the EVERYTHING part that I am desperately missing.  This morning at 8:30 am marks my halfway point to being unwired and you better believe I have written out meal plans for what I will be indulging carefully in following the unwiring. 

So what have I learned so far? Always be grateful for the forgotten blessings in your life.  The human body is incredible and so multi-faceted that we forget how blessed we are to have each system and should be amazed at how it works and benefits the body.  I am so grateful for the ingeniusness of my Heavenly Father and His creation of my mouth.  I can't wait to have it back and never take it for granted again :)