New job!

Just a quick note to about a new job!  So happy to announce I am working in telemetry, medical, surgical once again!  The staff has been so wonderfully welcoming!  I am in the process of orientation to the hospital and begin my orientation to the floor next week!

2 years as an RN

Wow!  I truly can not believe it has been 2 years since graduating from RN school.  I have had many ups and downs in this career choice and yet many more ups than downs.  I doubted myself in the beginning much more than I should have.  I have decided it is time to return to school for my BSN.  It will be even more difficult this time around working full time and attending classes.  However;  I am determined!  Here is to the next chapter!

For the ones always looking for bad things to happen

(I worked on this last summer and early fall not able to share it at the time)
This is for those of you that come here to read all the bad things that happen in my life.  Over the last few years I've tried so very hard to stay positive, to thank God daily and try to remember that things will get better soon.  Over the last 2 weeks this has been so very hard.  Bob and I had planned a beautiful, fun vacation for our family in Myrtle Beach.  We worked very hard to put together a vacation with a condo on the ocean front, days of fun filled activities for a week long vacation we have not had in many years.

Everything was coming together so smoothly we just knew this was going to be the best vacation we had ever had.  Our drive down was peaceful with a stop at South of the Border.  We had tons of fun trying on hats.  

We continued our drive to our MB condo, unpacked and enjoyed a nice evening walk along the beach with Brandon. The following morning was Brandon's birthday.  We had him pick a restaurant for the breakfast of his choice.  He picked an awesome pancake house where he had a huge stack of banana pancakes  ( just had to add Jack Johnson in on that topic) at the

 Golden Griddle Pancake house.

We returned to our condo to open up Brandon's birthday gifts, a Wii with a boat load of new games.

Bob and I left for Barefoot Landing to find Bob some sunglasses.  We had just found a pair when I received a phone call from Linda that she thinks she broke Nickie's left leg.  Now I'm thinking to myself this can't be, she couldn't have done that, there has to be a mistake.  Bob and I drive back to the condo and I take a look at Nickie's leg and though it looked bad I kept praying it was not broken.  We drove the 13 miles to the Grand Strand Hospital (this took nearly 40 minutes).  Fortunately we were seen quickly, unfortunately the x-rays showed a left femur fracture.  This required surgery that this hospital could not perform.  It was suggested we transport Nickie to the Medical University of South Carolina, a level one trauma unit, 90 miles away.  Nickie was transported via ambulance with Linda as a passenger.  Bob, Brandon and I had to return to the condo to pack up, it was late when we were done and with the suggestion from one of the hospital staff that we should wait till morning to make the 2.5 hour drive because some of the areas were questionable during daylight hours it was not advisable to drive at night.

After Nickie's arrival, Linda called to say her surgery would take place the following morning.  Her surgery was postponed for several days and to my surprise the reason was due to having 90 percent of the surgical staff away at a conference.  Had this information been shared with us prior to transport we would have chosen to transport Nickie back to Richmond where her orthopedist could perform the much needed surgery.  After several talks with the chief of orthopedic surgery we were finally able to have the surgery performed on Wed.  The very special hardware that was necessary for this surgical repair had to be shipped from Colorado.  Nickie was able to be discharged to home on Friday.  It was a very long 9 hour drive home due to the need to stop frequently to provide pain management, position changes, etc.  We finally made it home and in a couple of days Nickie runs a temp of 102 degrees.  We had her assessed and found out she had an infection in the incision.  It was determined that she would have to have another surgery to remove the infection.  All I could think was Nickie has gone through so much why was this happening?  She spends several days at the PICU at St. Mary's Hospital and has a PICC line inserted to battle the infection.  She is discharged and goes home with the PICC line for many doses of IV antibiotics for several weeks.  My baby girl suffers tremendously trying to fight this infection.  Weeks turn into months before the infection is cleared and the Picc line removed.  She has made a full recovery and praise God has returned to her old self!  I must admit I lost my way and began to doubt in God during this time. Thanks to some wonderful friends with encouraging words I found my way back.

It has been beautiful here in God's country!  We had a mild winter that I can only describe as an extremely early spring!  

Happy April Fools Day!

It has been a wonderfully exciting start to spring here these last couple of weeks! Jackie set her wedding day in October of this year.  Last week I went shopping with Jackie, her best friend Amanda and my mom.  The mission was to find a beautiful wedding dress for Jackie, as well as a mother of the bride dress for myself and a dress for my Mom.  I found not one but two beautiful dresses at Ross.  One for the rehearsal dinner and one for the wedding.  Mom was not so lucky but we will find one on our next shopping trip.  Jackie found a beautiful dress and unbelievably her favorite dress was marked at a remarkably affordable price!  Jackie has found the perfect location for the wedding, Celebrations.  I can not be more proud of my beautiful girl!  She has found a smart, loving young man that treats my girl with respect and equality.

It's been 5 months since my last post

OK, that title just made me flash back to my Catholic Church upbringing and confessions.... but that is another story for another day.  It is true what they say, that the years go faster the older we get.  It is now officially more than one year in dialysis and it has indeed been a roller coaster ride!  I must say I love, love, love working 3 days, off 6 or 7 days and work 3 days, have 1 or 2 days off and work 3 days and the cycle repeats.  I now have so much quality time to spend with my family! 
I can't believe we are once again nearing the holiday season.  I am flirting with having Thanksgiving at my house this year.  If my schedule works as I've planned, I will do it.  It has been a couple of years since I hosted last and it was so great to have the WHOLE family here.  Bob and I are the only ones from his side of the family without grandchildren. I love seeing all the in-laws with their grand babies and catching up with the family I rarely get to see.  I have recently been thinking that though I'm not in a rush to become a grandmother, I no longer fear becoming one. This thought got me to thinking just what I want my future grandchildren to call me.  My mother is Abuelita or Ita for short, Bob's mother is Grandma and I don't think either fits me.  So when the time comes I will have to pick up this book.  I am kind of curious what name I will think fits me best.  Anyway, what I was trying to get around to saying here is I can't believe how fast time is flying and that it is once again time to focus on Christmas.  Last year was such a blur what with the new job and so little time off, with that said even though I have more time off this year I know the time will fly even faster and it is likely it will be months before I will return for an update. 

8 months

     I have officially passed the 8 month mark working in dialysis.  Just 4 months ago I didn't think I would make it here.  I also thought I would never like, much less begin to love this job.  It is a stressful specialty as I've said before but I have found my comfort zone.  It is wonderful the connections I have made with many of my patients.
     Just a few weeks ago one of my patient's (she is like the grandmother I never had) son passed from a long illness.  She told me it would mean so much to her if I would go to the viewing.  She went on to tell me how she has loved me since very shortly after I began working there.  When Bob and I went to the viewing her family made a fuss over me and explained how, (let's call her Grandma B) she spoke of me often.  It was so nice to know that what I do makes such a difference to my patients.  Six months has made all the difference!  Grandma B., said she saw my potential from the beginning.  It is the little things that mean so much.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

     As father's day approaches I have of course been thinking of my Dad.  Truly I think about him often, but today it has hit me really hard how much I miss him. More than anything I'm sorry that Brandon never had the opportunity to know him.   I realize that the woman I am today is in great part due to my Dad.  I am strong because he always told me I could do or be anything I wanted.  I didn't believe him then.  I didn't believe in myself.  Today I know he was right.  Today I also realize the difficulties he and my mother both had leaving everything they knew to leave communist Cuba to make a better life for themselves.  They believed in the American dream and they found it here in Virginia.
    
     Dad worked very hard in a factory as did Mom to start their family.  After 4 years of living in Virginia and working very hard I came to be.  As a child and young teen I didn't understand just how hard they worked to provide me with a sound middle class up bringing.  It's true I didn't have designer clothing, or live in an upscale neighborhood.  What I did have was food on the table, clothes, records, stereo, my own room in a very nice brick rancher in a middle class neighborhood.  I never wanted for anything that I didn't get. 

     Dad always had great expectations of me.  Sadly I don't think I met those expectations before Dad died.  He never said that of course but I never felt I lived up to what he thought I should become.  Maybe a doctor or lawyer or something like that.  I do think he would be proud to know I did finally become an RN.  I only wish I'd done it sooner so he could have been there at my graduation.  I do feel that even after his death he is still with me.  Dad and his words are still with me, "You have to do, what you have to do."  Simple words that are so very true.

     I know in my heart that Dad is looking down and smiling on me and my family.  I know one day I will be reunited with him and that gives me a great deal of comfort.  Right now, I just miss him.   I wish he were here for me to say these words to, though reality is I probably would not say them to him.  It is much easier to tell this to strangers on the world wide web that it would have been to ever say them to Dad.  Why is that?  So Dad it is here in black and white that I type these words and I pray you can read them or know that I think them.  Happy Father's Day Daddy, I love you and I miss you!

UPDATE on van funding

I was pleasantly surprised this week to find a check for $1,000 for the repairs on Nickie's van.  The donor asked to remain anonymous even though I would love to shout the name from the roof tops, I will honor the request.  We now have $1,300.00 from donors, towards the $5000.00 we need to add to our own $1,000.00 to have all the repairs on the van.  I want to thank all our donors and a special thanks to our anonymous donor!  God bless you all!

Change in funding goal!

Goal to fund repairs to our accessible van.  I was able to find a mechanic that can replace the transmission, as well as a company to repair the lift hydraulics, regular maintenance to the lift and the leaking lift entry door seal for a total of $7,800  which is a much more reasonable goal than a new accessible mini-van or the original quotes I received of $15,500 to $18,950.  We have $2,800 as our own personal goal to add to the GoFundMe goal we have of $5,000.  We currently have saved $1,000 towards our personal goal.  Please share the information on your blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. We can't do this without your help!  Thanks