This last week has been CRAZY.
Sunday: I felt like crap. I cancelled my plans and did NOTHING.
Monday: I felt the wrath of not doing any prep for the week on Monday. I had “lab day” with my final semester students which means they spend the morning practicing their nursing skills like placing and removing a catheter, starting an IV, giving an IV med, central line dressing change, placing and managing an NG tube, etc. It’s actually a really fun day. We had supper at my mom’s house – she made shrimp gumbo YUM! Watch for that recipe upcoming on her blog. Everyone else stayed and played cards but by 7:30 I was at home and in bed with Gannon. After all I had to get up at 0350 the next morning and I still wasn’t 100% from my Sunday flu bug 🙁
Tuesday: Up by 0350, on the road by 0430. One of the sites I teach clinicals at is about an hour away. I’ve learned (brace yourself, this is life changing) that if you go to bed early, waking up early isn’t so hard! CRAZY I KNOW! I met my students at 0600 and we had orientation to the facility which includes computer training, tours, a scavenger hunt, going over expectations and clinical guidelines etc. After clinicals I got a text from mom: NEED FORMULA AND DIAPERS. To WalMart. I picked up some groceries and headed home. I picked up the boys who thankfully hadn’t napped yet. I was WHOOPED. We lounged around and all napped for the afternoon. Thank goodness I made this delicious casserole ahead of time because we woke up around 5:30 pm to Craig coming home. Supper was ready! It was great! If you haven’t seen the recipe yet, here’s the link:
Tuesday (continued): I went to bed closer to 8:30. Carver helped me order a night light for his room. Right now he sleeps with his light on and we are trying to get him away from that.
Wednesday: 0350 AGAIN. Up and on the road. Clinicals start right at 0600 and last until 1 pm or so. Then we all meet for post conference to talk about our day and experiences we had with each of our patients. I always ask students: What was a positive experience you had today and what was something that confused you or something that you saw that wasn’t “by the book.” This is a way to clarify some actions they have seen and help us as a group decide how we want to shape our own nursing practice. Of course there is the way that is “textbook” and then the way things happen in the real nursing world. Sometimes its a huge shock for new grads when they realize everything isn’t straight out of the textbook. After clinicals I stayed until 4 – finished all of their feedback/paperwork for the week so it was all fresh in my mind – and then picked up the boys. I. Crashed. Hard. I laid on the couch with the boys. I was so exhausted. Thankfully Craig came home and made steak and potatoes. I was off to bed and sleeping by 7:30 pm to get ready for Thursday….(continued…)
Thursday: I GET TO SLEEP IN! (until 0550) Off to work in the ER for a few hours. I found someone to come in and cover the rest of the shift so I can orient my SECOND group of clinical students to their clinical rotation. ER from 0700 – 1000 and then I turn into nursing instructor. The second group of students are LPN students (first year RN students) and they have clinicals on the medical surgical floor at the same hospital I work in the ER. They are a FUN group and they are SO EXCITED about learning and medical things. It’s so fun because I remember, I too was once as excited about just being in the medical setting. Orientation again goes over computer training, a tour, a scavenger hunt and they were all assigned patients to go in and meet them. I put together a patient interview for them to get to know their patient and develop therapeutic communication. They get to look up the medications they will be giving the next morning as well. I get home and cook supper while rocking out to LIZZO in the kitchen. I’m on a huge Lizzo kick right now. She. Is. AWESOME.
Friday: 0450. Again. Clinicals start at 0600 – the same LPN students I oriented on Thursday. I get a text from my mom who had the stomach flu. Thankfully, we’ve got backup! Thanks Jess for taking the boys such short notice. I also have to call the clinic – both the boys are suspicious for an ear infection. We had an EXCELLENT first day at clinicals. They really are such a fun group and excited to learn. More than that, I’m excited to TEACH! After clinicals wrap up, I drive the full 35 minutes home, drop off some Powerade for mom, pick up the boys and then all the way back to the same town I just came from to take the boys to the doctor. UGH. Carver was wild during his appointment. Carver’s tube fell out of one ear so he’s got an ear infection. Gannon is all clear. Off to the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics, then home. I’m in a bit of a panic on the way home. I haven’t napped AT ALL and it’s almost 4 pm. I have to work overnight tonight. UGH. I keep Carver awake and occupied on the way home so he doesn’t sleep so maybe I’ll have a prayer of squeezing a nap in. But Gannon? There’s no way he’s going to nap for me. I get a hold of our faithful babysitter (more like an aunt to the boys!) to come over and watch them while I sneak in a power nap before work. I wake up, Craig is home already, and I’m out the door off to work to work from 7 pm to 7 am.
Saturday: Craig works until noon. I didn’t have a babysitter lined up so I will suffer through a few hours of staying awake with the boys while Craig puts in a few hours at the farm. Then it is off to nap with the boys. We had a lazy day and by lazy I mean I laid on the couch and felt so guilty for not doing anything. But I was so tired.
Sunday: I vowed to be more productive. I got laundry done, meal prep for the week, laid out the boy’s clothes, washed all of our sheets, read lots of books with the boys, and I scheduled blog posts for the week. Craig and I cleaned the house so our amazing wonderful housekeeper can come and wave her magic wand to turn our crazy messy house into a magical spotless designer home for about 2 minutes until the boys get home. We were gifted some tickets to a delicious pancake breakfast! We LOVE going to pancake breakfasts and this particular one marked the first of the pancake breakfast season!
It’s only crazy like this for about 2 more weeks before things settle back into a routine. I picked up an extra set of clinicals – just 6 hour shifts twice a week for three weeks – so by Valentines day we will have a little extra cash and things will settle back down again to only working 2 extra days/week.
I really enjoy teaching clinicals but I’m not able to reduce my hours at my full time job so things are really busy in the Spring and Fall but it brings me great joy to teach. So much so, my sister and I are considering going back for our masters degree in nursing!
I’ll see you all tomorrow morning! 0530 sharp!
You are killing yourself, girl. But I get the crazy schedule. My son is an ER doc, as is his wife, and they have 2 little boys. They wave at each other on the highway :). I will think of you tomorrow at 5:30; I will be up with my old doggie. Thanks for all your posts. I got a good laugh at the beginning; you know which part.
WHOA! you exhausted me!
Your schedule is the kind that makes your body break down and you get really sick. I know you are young, but your schedule is insane. Not a doc or a nurse, just a mom who tried to do the same thing before the crash and burn. If you don’t take care of you, you can’t take care of Craig, the boys, your students or your patients. They all need you, you just need to make the schedule less insane so you have time for you to refresh and fill up that well you keep going to, before the well runs dry and everyone pays the price. You need to put yourself on that list of people you need to care for, and not at the bottom!!