The Frat (minus a wang)

Ten years ago I was starting my freshman year down at U of I.  My roommate Allison, a friend from highschool, begged me to rush with her.  I figured why not, if I don't like any houses I don't have to join.  Ironically enough, I end up joining a house and she drops out half way through the rush process.  I made a handful of great girlfriends over those four years.  I lived with Harp for three out of four years in Champaign and Kate for two.  Our room in the house soph/junior year was nicknamed "The Frat" because it was so atypical sorority and that's what I loved about my house.  

Cheesecake Factory.  Silly place to take a pic, but
how often do we all see each other these days?!

While I don't see those girls much anymore, I wholeheartedly cherish the little time we get to catch up.  Its interesting to see how we're all in very different places in our lives right now.  I've come to terms with the fact that not everyone has to follow the same timeline with careers, marriage and babies.  What's important is that everyone is happy with where they are and have little regrets.  We met at the Cheesecake Factory in Oakbrook which was a central location, yet inconvenient for everyone.  I loved hearing Harp talk about Avery and probably talked about my patients much like a mother would her child.  Kate is still the same ole fun loving, free spirit Katie I grew to love in college.  It was a great lunch and I hope everyone can get together sooner than it took the last time.  I wish Sasha, our fourth frat member, could have been in town too.  It's just hard with everyone living hours and hours away from each other and in different states.

     

North Ave. Beach post v-ball game

Kate decided to stay in Chicago a few extra days so I was able to have a partner in crime for a while.  We attempted to go to a Cubs game, but it poured so we decided to be porch monkeys instead and enjoy a few cocktails.  Then we headed to North Ave beach to sub on one of my friend's volleyball teams.  He'd been asking me every week to come and this was the first time I was free.  I love that Kate is always open to whatever and can fly by the seat of her pants so I dragged her along.  Turns out we're pretty awesome at volleyball and this was the first game the team won... either that or the other team was just that much worse.

And while were on sorority shout outs, I've got to throw in Mary.  While we didn't really stay in touch after college, we were magically reconnected by both going to Rush without knowing each other were applying.  I was in Chicago and she in New York.  While the days of "Jowski" were entertaining, I LOVE the today Mary.  She is so thoughtful and will make a great nurse.  She is always baking something or sending inspirational messages on test days.  For our first med surg test she gave me a card with a pack of gum.  How sweet!  I'm glad we've been able to rekindle our friendship.  Here is what the card said, inspired by this adorable YouTube Video which inspired us during our first quarter in nursing school .

Life is like riding a bicycle.  

To keep your balance you must keep moving.

-  Albert Einstein       

A "Shitshow"

For my psych clinical I am assigned to Haymarket Center, a drug and rehab facility, once a week to run a group on a woman's residential unit.  I was excited at first but after the first two weeks I think I'd much prefer a hospital unit with diagnosed psych issues as opposed to a bunch of addicts.  We spoke with the women the first week and our group topics will revolve around empowerment and techniques to stay clean upon discharge.  I got really into getting in touch with my teacher roots and creating this great lesson plan on stress management.  The ladies would blow up a balloon and write stressors on it.  I'd explain the pathophysiology of stress and it's effect on the body. We'd discuss how they dealt with stress in the past and introduce healthy techniques for stress management.  Then at the end of the meeting the ladies will express a goal for stress management and pop their stressor balloon.  It was all okay-ed by the unit director and my partner and I were excited to give the ladies more than just another boring lecture.

Unfortunately that is NOT how the group went what so ever.  As we were discussing how we dealt with stress.  One of the women called out everyone saying they did nothing but smoke dope and got high to relieve their stress and that they should "keep it real."  That just spiraled out of control and we had women yelling at each other, women having side conversations, women checked out and just hugging their balloons and women crying.  A counselor eventually came in and yelled at the women to just worry about you and mind your business.  By the time things calmed down, I knew no one was going to be receptive to the healthy stress management techniques, the meat and potatoes of the group.  Then someone popped a ballon and one of the ladies threw her notebook on the ground and stormed out of the room shouting profanity.  Apparently she doesn't do well with loud noises.  The counselor yelled at us say we need to be sensitive about people's issues which kinda frustrated me because we DID okay this with the unit director and no one told me about this ladies "issues" with loud noises.  When leaving one of the ladies said, "the is was the most stressful stress management groups I've ever had."  Funny now, but ridiculous in the moment.    

I was able to talk to one of the crying women in the bathroom, non-hostile environment, where she did not feel like she was being judged or attacked for what she was saying. We were able to discuss for a brief moment before lunch where the real root of her tears were coming from and it was not the stress of the group. We talked about her kids at home and her plans after she finishes the program. I think I was able to reinforce that she was there for herself and to get her family in a good place and that what the other women on the unit do or think should not affect her recovery. She told me she felt better after talking to me and I hope that was honest. I look forward to following up with her next week.

At post conference other students talked about how they couldn't get their group to participate and how they tried to get the residents interested, to which I just chuckled.  When our instructor asked me how our group went I responded, "I don't know how to describe it other than it was a complete shitshow."  We reflected on what happened in the group and my instructor had very positive remarks:  what a great experience,  you did absolutely everything right, I can really see you're heart is in the right place, following up with the crying woman was huge etc.  I loved that the word "shitshow" was used at least 20 times by everyone in post conference, my instructor included.

While I am timid about following up with the group this week I will still give it all I got.  We will not ignore what happened last week, but rather reflect and then move on to our next topic:  Empowerment.  I anticipate this week going a lot smoother.....  

Saving Lives... Even at Cubs Games

Who doesn't love a sunny summer cubs game on a beautiful Saturday afternoon?!  My roommate Tyler had wanted to go to a game for a while so last weekend we decided fairly last minute to try to scalp tickets.  After several attempts and one guy trying to sell us fake tickets we accepted our defeat and went to Goose Island for some brews and grub.  I love their seasonal Cubby Blueberry!  It is light and refreshing with a hint of blueberry and it's only offered at the restaurant in Wrigley.  The day was off to a great start and we hopped from bar to bar bumping into people we knew along the way.  Im always amazed on how often you see people randomly in this huge city.    

All was fine and dandy until we met... the veterinary students from U of I, Duncan and Hillary.  We hit it off well and they decided to come with us to Merkle's, our last bar stop of the night.  We had a table and everyone was enjoying themselves, some more than others.  The evening went south when Hillary and I went to the bathroom.  She was taking longer than usual so I called out to her and got no response.  Banged on the stall door, nothing still so I looked under the stall and she was sitting on the toilet holding the tank.  After trying to get her up and crawled under the stall and got her alert and oriented.  We washed up at the sink and then went back to our table so her and her friend to go home only to find a group of guys sitting at the table we were at.  We had taken so long in the bathroom and everyone else had too much ETOH in their system that they left thinking we already left or were kicked out, but that's another story.  My purse was at the table and now gone so I assumed Tyler must have taken it thinking I forgot it.  With no phone, no money and no keys I took this girl and sat her on the curb outside while I tried to get a hold of people on her phone.

I asked her if she had a credit card, to which her near lifeless body said yes so I hailed a cab.  No joke, three blocks down clark street and she starts puking in the cab.  The cab driver obviously pulls over and insists we pay him a clean up fee.  Apparently this girl would only respond to my command so I was like Hillary give him your credit card.  Oh wait, her "credit card"  was only her driver's licence.  Hillary, how much cash do you have?  Oh just a crumpled 10 dollar bill, great!  Being fairly sober I was able to reason with the cab driver in his threat to call the police.  So he took the 10 dollars and off he drove, but now I knew a cell phone was our only lifeline and we were stuck on foot.

I was able to reach the friend she was staying with, but he was at a wedding.  He gave me the address and intersection of where he lived and how to get into his house.  He gave me a back up number in case his phone died and he called a few times to just check on our progress.  The first phone call he was like I owe you a drink, second call....I owe you dinner.  After walking 2 miles and reaching only one of the streets of this guys intersection I gave in and called my mom to get uncle tom's phone number.  By now battery was low so I hoped he'd pick up.  Luckily he did and while he doesn't work weekends anymore, he was able to get a hold of some buddies on duty to pick us up and drop us off.  I dropped her off and then crossed my fingers that Tyler would be home so I could get in.  While he didn't wake up when I knocked, the back door was open so I was able to get in.  What a night is an understatement.

Turns out Tyler didn't take my purse and it was behind the bar so I picked that up the next day.  Tyler took me out to brunch for the hassle I went through, Hillary has since sent me a lovely card thanking me for saving her life at least three times with a $50 visa gift card and the guy who was at the wedding met up with me and bought me a drink.  Dinner is pending.  I'm thinking I should make business cards and counter some of these student loans by saving drunk people at cubs games.  Should I have just left her there?  Maybe, but that isn't my character. When people are in need, stranger or not, I have a tendency to want to help.  I think that is a major reason why I want to be a nurse and why I'm good at it too.

Did You Say Bed Bugs?!

Rush is constantly giving students opportunities to volunteer and get involved with the community.  I like to sign up with them every once in a while to practice my health assessment techniques and get exposed to new things.  A few weeks ago I went to Haymarket Center, which is a drug addiction center, and did a few health assessments in their urgent care clinic.  Nothing too crazy as far as health issues, but interesting to hear some of the patients' stories.  

This past week I went to the Franciscan House which is a few minutes west of Rush on Harrison St, aka a pretty ghetto area. They are a 250 bed facility that provides food and shelter for the homeless. It is a first come first serve system with a few regular guests. When I got there at 7:30 there was already a line of people sitting outside the building with hopes to get a bed for the night. I was told by a fellow student that once you become a regular, you have some chores you have to do and you have to sleep there every night otherwise you lose your bed and there is a long waiting list to be a regular. Before coming I bumped into a friend who volunteered a few weeks ago. She didn't give me much scoop on what to expect, besides that it was interesting and to be careful of the bed bugs. After the initial shock, I took it with a grain of salt. Meh, bed bugs. She's probably yankin my chain and they're gone by now. When I got there to help set up it wasn't until the doctor spear heading this program warned us about the bed bug issue that I started to get a little grossed out. What can I do, Im already here. Thank goodness I was just in my nursing scrubs rather than a nice business casual outfit.

The nurses were in charge of triage and admissions while handing out OTC meds to whoever wanted them.  We were giving out benedryl, tylenol, asprin and cough drops tonight.  Everything in the clinic has either been donated or purchased with grant money, but with recent budget cuts, it was slim pickins.  We did the women's section first, they about 35 beds.  We would stand in the room where they slept and they would just come up and ask for the drugs we had available or ask to see the doctor.  Most just took the drugs but some wanted to see the doctor about a rash or for a prenatal checkup.  We'd get as much info as possible and wait until the med students could see them.

Then we went to the men's ward which has about 200 beds and was a little more hectic.  Some of the men were very polite.  "Good evening ma'am", "thank you for your work,"  "God bless you,"  "I really appreciate you taking the time to do thin" etc.  And some not so much... one guy was getting angry because the man in front of him had asked me a question and was taking to long.  When it was his turn I said thank you for being patient to which he ranted off he wasn't patient and that guy was pissing him off for taking his precious time yada, yada, yada.  I didn't humor him, gave him one of everything and said here, now you can go to bed.  Another guy was trying to gypsy me out of another packet of Benedryl.  "Come on no one will know.  No one cares.  Im more sick than half these guys"  I tried to explain to him that we needed to make sure we had enough for everyone and if we bend the rules for one the system eventually spirals down and breaks.  After a short banter he then told me he deserved an extra packet because he wasn't black, to which I replied, You are entitled to your opinion, now good night.  What I really wanted to say was, you are no better than the  man sleeping next to you asshole!

After we took chief complaints for appointments, we were able to help the med students see the patients in the back.  By then it was lights out so I would have to use a flash light walking down the aisle of the beds to get the next man to see a doctor.  Modern day Florence Nightingale!  One guy had an abscess on his upper gum for over a month.  Someone had stolen his bag with his last set of antibiotics so it had gone untreated and the pain was traveling up his face.  The guy was high as hell and could barely keep his eyes open yet asked me if it was that obvious when we called him out on it.  I get he probably wanted something to help sleep, but come on, you can't wait until after you're seen by the doctor.

The other patient I saw in the exam room had a boil that he popped and get infected, I mean really infected.  He went to the library to research it and was trying what he could with Neosporin and band-aids.  A lovely gentleman.  Then he proceeded to tell me the pussy discharge was very viscous, like a mucus consistency,  and that he even tried to use the back end of his swiss army knife to get it out.  What a perfect opportunity for patient teaching and how infection spreads.  We set him up with some antibiotics and supplies and told him to see us in two weeks.  

When I got home is was about 11:30 at night and I had to be back at Rush, on the floor at 6:45, for clinical the next morning.  However, I was not going to take a risk with bed bugs so I threw my clothes in the wash and took a nice long shower.  It was an interesting evening and I'd totally do it again.  I thrive on new experiences and exposure to worlds so far from my own.       

Haymarket Urgent Care Clinic

Tuesday I volunteered to do health assessments at Haymarket's urgent care clinic.  Haymarket Center is a drug and alcohol abuse treatment facility with programs ranging from detox and intervention to mental health.  Rush has a program with volunteers every other Tuesday to assess patients with urgent care needs.  A med student and nursing student team up, go assess a patient, give report to the supervising doctor and then treat the patient's symptoms.

I felt like we were just thrown into a room with our first patient and she was a treat, let me tell you.  She was complaining of a yeast infection mixed with "something else."  Turns out the "something else"  she was referring to was chlamydia or gonorrhea.  As we continued questioning it turns out she is at the center for alcohol and cocaine addiction, was incarcerated six months ago, has/is prostituting, doesn't always make her partners wear protection and is two months past due on her birth control.  As much as I didn't want to judge her and ask where did things go wrong, I also could empathize for these patients.  They are at the lowest low, have little direction and no money.  They live with a do-what-I-have-to-to-see-tomorrow kinda mentality.

I had another patient who has been off and on heroin and cocaine for twenty years and is finally getting professional treatment and going through detox at the center.  She came in because her hypertension was out of control and by out of control I mean 186/94.  She openly admitted that when she's using that's all she cared about and didn't take her medications.  The fact that these patients have now reached out to get professional help for their addictions, I hope they can stay clean.  I made sure to commend them all for their days sober even if it's only been a couple of weeks.  It was nice to see the pride on their face when they answered how many days sober they were.

I look forward to my psych clinicals at Haymarket.  It was nice to get a sneak peak of the kinds of patients I will be working with.

God Bless America

My mom decided to throw a party for the forth of July and I had invited my roommates to come along.  Matt spent the night on Tuesday and we went out to Hawthorn's with Chelsey, Trevor and my dad.  It was a great time and the beers were going down nice and easy because it was still so hot, even at night.     Matt was a sweet heart and brought my mom flowers and a bottle of wine.  Unfortunately, he got a red which my mom won't drink so we drank it ourselves when we got home from the bar.

I saw this flag cake online and was determined to make one for the party.  I think it turned out pretty great!  The blue had pureed blueberries and the red had strawberries.  The frosting was a homemade cream cheese flavor.  The cake wasn't that hard to make, it just took some time to put it all together.  It was a big hit though and super moist inside.  

The next day people started piling in.  Tyler and his friend Christopher came in on the Metra and the party got started.  There was quite a spread of food and drinks were flowing. It was so hot that the party stayed inside for most of the day.  That is until the slip and slide was set up.  Two slides down and I was done.  Carla and Lee stopped by for a while after going to her parents house.  Of course no summer party would be complete without a few rounds of Taps too!  I am happy to report that I still haven't lost my touch.  The night was complete with another great fireworks display from Trevor.  It was a great party and filled with tears of laughter.

Double your Trouble

While she said this was by no means a "day off" but rather a time to catch up on all the other assignments we have, it's hard to not get a little R & R in so I decided it would be okay to head to the lake.  My goal was to read my book for my psych assignment so I'd be all ready to write the paper on monday... buuuut when I found out Bobby and the girls were coming down for the weekend too, I knew that wouldn't happen.  On our way down we got a phone call that a really big storm hit.  Storms at Bass Lake are the best!  They come out of nowhere, hit hard and then clear up fast.  By the time we got there the storm was gone and all that remained was the destructive trail it left behind.  Trees were down, piers were tossed around and boats were flipped.  Power was out in several towns.  Aunt Neici and Uncle Bob got off pretty easy with just a piece of flashing destroyed on the front of the house.  You can see in the picture that Aunt Gam and Uncle Al on the other hand, had quite the clean up.  Winds were so strong that it lipped their shore station with the boat inside it.

You can see the boat flipped on the left side of the picture.
It flew from the pier on the right side.

We didn't have power for 22 hours, but were able to "rough it" for the night and have an enjoyable rest of the weekend.  On Sunday we headed home and I was going to spend the night at my moms.  Then she called and said there was a huge storm happening back in West Chicago.  We anticipated driving into a storm, but had nothing more than a few drops of rain for maybe 10 minutes.  When we got off the highway we realized the power was out on North Ave from 355 all the way to West Chicago and beyond.  I have never seen a storm do so much damage in my life!  Reed Kepler Park was in shambles.  Tree after beautiful tree was blown down to the stump.  Hundreds of years of growth down in under a day.   The devastation was simply deplorable.  Our power was out until 3am and my grandparents power is still out over 24 hours later.  That's why I picked them up and brought them to my mom's house where we have ac.  Two crazy storms and both I just missed 

This tree fell right in front of my mom's house.

A whole new respect

I've had some really powerful lectures this quarter and it's only week 3.  One of the main proctors for my Med/Surg class is Judy Frei.  She was a guest lecturer in pharm and taught us the heart drugs and it was by far the best lecture we had in that class so I was elated to hear she was our Med/Surg teacher.  She is frank, quirky, and is passionate about actually teaching us, not just telling us the information.  Time and time again she'd say don't write this down, just listen and process for a minute.  


Last week we had a lecture on Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and Dementia.  She had briefly mentioned in the past that her father had Parkinson's and lived with her.  Until  this lecture I had no idea what she goes through on a daily basis.  Her family fell victim of the assumption that the older and sicker would die first.  Yet on the contrary, her father's wife, who was 10 years younger and the primary care giver, passed away first leaving the ultimate question.... What do we do with dad?  She decided that he would live with her for the time being.  Well three years later he's still at her home and has progressed to Stage V Parkinson's, the final stage.  Her father, a brilliant mind, and retired doctor is now wheelchair bound, needs round-the-clock assistance and cannot independently accomplish the tasks associated with meeting the most basic needs.   


I appreciated how she opened up and told us her personal stories.  Like the time her dad at a seashell thinking it was a calcium pill or the time he had a seizure in the bathroom and she sat there rubbing his head for 20 minutes until he was ready to get up.  The most fascinating story though, was when her father was having delusions in the middle of the night that the house was burning.  She spent hours calming him down and trying to convince him that there was no fire and they were not in danger.  When he finally came out of his episode he told her very seriously, "My delirium is more real than your reality."  Powerful right?!  It literally gave me chills during lecture.  


Next we talked about Dementia which I was very engaged on since it touched so close to home with me.  It is a frustrating disease because it has an insidious onset and there is nothing you can do to stop it.  You just have to slowly watch nature take away the brain.  It is also difficult to study, no one really knows what a person suffering from dementia is going through because they often have impaired judgement and thinking as well as a gradual decline in mental status.  Then we observed paintings from american artist, William Utermohlin.  The artist was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and wanted to document his decent with self portraits.  The pictures below are all from William.  It's hard to believe this came from the same artist, but when the disease takes over, is it really the same person anymore?     

My instructor also posted an great article from NYTimes, Giving Alzheimer's Patients Their Way.  It's an interesting read and a great perspective on dementia so go ahead and click on the link.  I commend all my family members who go the extra mile to take care of all my grandparents and my grandparents who take care of one another.  It is not an easy job, especially when you don't understand the illnesses and ailments.  I love you all very much and do not take for grated each day I have all four of my grandparents.  

Six day weekend, what!! what!!!

Fourth of July is inconveniently falling on a Wednesday this year.  I was mentally preparing myself for class monday and med/surg clinical tuesday and then psych clinical thursday.  To much of my surprise, my teacher announced that she was going to cancel class monday which then it didn't make sense to have clinical tuesday and my psych clinical instructor sent out an email saying we weren't going to start until the 12th!  Just a friendly reminder that our teachers are human too and probably wanted to take advantage of an excuse to have some time off as well.  Now that's something to celebrate.

A Very Wilbur Weekend

Im just a week off on the blog.  Not too shabby for me.....
Im not going to lie, it takes some time to get back into the swing of things after having a week off.  Luckily I had the pleasant distraction of family festivities so I didn't feel so guilty not hitting the books as hard as I probably should.  Friday I was pooped.  Although I have class only til noon, I stayed at school to study some of the most frequently used drugs since "I am the nurse" this quarter in clinical.  I probably should know what drugs my patients are on and why.  Then I cleaned up a bit since my dad was coming to stay over on Saturday.

Saturday we had my Uncle Charles 50th Birthday party.  My aunt had quite the spread.  There were probably five main dished and at least ten sides to choose from.  A dish for every palate and everything was delish!  Im not going to lie I was pretty impressed with their party throwing abilities.  Booze was flowing, food was a plenty and there were a ton of people.  I dont think know I don't know that many people, let alone that many that would come to a birthday party of mine.  It was a great time but then my dad and I headed back to the city to meet up with Uncle Matt, Aunt Denise and some of their friends at Crossing.  They frequent in the same type of bar atmosphere I like to be in so I'm surprised I haven't randomly bumped into them ever.... Oh wait, nursing school has totally cramped my social life, I rarely go to bars these days.

I offered my place to my dad since it would have been silly to drive to Park Ridge, drive home, and then come back to Chicago for Henry's graduation party.  We had a great time catching up until 3 in the morning.  We eased into the morning and headed just a few blocks from my place to Henry's graduation party.  He is going to UC Boulder this fall.  I'm so jealous, undergrad college was the best.  Trying not to schedule it during a cubs game, my aunt happened to unknowingly plan the party the week of pride.  There was a lot of rainbow walking down the street, but hardly a representation of the craziness that ensues at the parade.  All in all it was a fun weekend.  Now I need to actually start getting serious about this quarter.  Im hoping working hard during the week will give me a little liberty to enjoy some of this beautiful Chicago summer on the weekends.