What happened to keep me away is that school started back again. I'm coming up on the end of the third week. Tomorrow is the first exam of the semester, and by all rights I should be studying for it right now, since my twenty minute break ended fifteen minutes ago.
This week started our first hospital clinical experience, too. We spent Monday and Tuesday in the hospital, assigned an actual, real, live patient who needed actual nursing care that we were expected to give. Can you say "stressful"? More than stressful, actually. It was completely nerve wracking and draining in a way that I've never experienced before.
The hospital I'm at is over two hours away from where I live, so on Sunday night I drove to a classmate's apartment mid-way between here and the hospital. So not only am I going into a new situation, I'm not even coming home to decompress between clinical days. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a real problem, and I feel grateful that a classmate is putting not only me but another one of us up for two days a week during the entire twelve week experience. No one slept well on Sunday night, and we had to get up in time to leave at 5:30 am. By Tuesday afternoon, during our debriefing, we were all so emotionally and physically drained that conversation was minimal.
When I got home on Tuesday evening--at 6 pm, almost fourteen hours after I started my day--I was so tired that all I could do for dinner was open a jar of pasta sauce and boil some spaghetti. I didn't even add garlic to the pasta sauce. Nothing. I couldn't fathom chopping and onion and sauteing garlic. Plain old Ragu served over noodles. Like I was twenty again and didn't know how to cook. To top it off, Tuesday was our anniversary. Happy Anniversary, honey!
In other news, Frosty's stitches are out and he is feeling much better. Of course, resting on a pile of three foofy blankets probably helps a bit.
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| That's my little F-er. All smiles. |
Oof. I remember those feelings of exhaustion and beyond-the-ability-to-care during afternoon debriefs on my first clinical rotation. I swear it gets easier. Once everything is less "new", it gets much easier. Until then, I'm sending you strong nursing thoughts!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your words of encouragement, Amy! We had our third day today, and it was much easier. I've learned so much already, but I know that I have so much left to learn.
DeleteThanks for the good vibes, too. I will need them!