Exhaustion

Conference was great! I drove separately from the team because I am the manager... therefore I got lost in Athens, GA. But I eventually found the hotel where we stayed and met up with the team. Most people on the team had a great meet! It would be nearly impossible for 45 swimmers to ALL have personnal best swims every race.. so there were a few swimmers that did not perform like they wanted to. I was really proud of several sophomore girls to be exact! Three of my good friends (who always train hard) performed excellent!! There were times when all of us, including the coaches, were jumping up and down next to the pool because we were so excited about their races. The girls ended up getting 4th overall and the boys got 3rd. The meet
was a success and now the swimmers can relax!!! They deserve this much needed break.

INDIA IS IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. I am super excited, I can barely explain. I am going home this weekend to spend some time with my family before I leave, so I am excited about that too! This week should be pretty good- I do have to make up a nursing test that I missed while I was gone, but it won't be too bad.

Peace,Love,&Jesus,
Bryanna

Clinical Craziness

Today I had a clinical, and man I am tired! Normally we get breaks as student nurses, but my patient was especially needy today. Don't get me wrong- I loved it!! But I'm just not used to it yet. I did not get to perform any new skills that I have learned on my patient today, but I did spend a lot of time with him. He was a few days post-op (after surgery) so our main goal was to get him out of bed and walking around in the hallways.

So far clinicals have been good, but my day observing in the Operating Room has been the most fun.

Swim team conference is later this week! I can't believe we leave tomorrow for Athens, GA!

Peace,Love,&Jesus,
Bryanna

Another Lazy Day

Today is Wednesday and it is a little bit gloomy outside, especially compared to the weather we have had the past few days. The past 4 or so days have been soooooo beautiful! Sunny, 60s and 70s- so perfect!! Yesterday I had my OR day at clinicals. (Where you spend the whole day in the Operating Room) It was great! I was super nervous beforehand because I didn't know what to expect, so I slept terribly.

When I got there I was put with a super nice OR nurse and I pretty much followed her around all day. I got to see 5 surgeries, YES 5! Thats so crazy. I thought I would see like 2 or maybe 3.
The first one I saw was a hysterectomy. For non-medical people- That is the removal of a woman's uterus! I also saw a mastectomy- removal of a breast. I saw an abdominal repair on a woman who had an internal infection from a previous surgery. The other two surgeries were kind of confusing to me because they were dealing with fistulas. Fistulas are
ports for dialysis for people who have kidney failure.

Anyways- it was a great day! I wore the typical sea foam green scrubs, shoe covers, a hair guard, mask, everything! On one procedure I had to wear "lead".. the protective draping from the X-Ray machine because one of the fistulas was done under the live X-Ray machine.

Peace, Love,& Jesus,
Bryanna

Senior Meet

Today is the last home swim meet of the year! This means that it is senior day. It is weird to think about, but there are only 3 seniors on the team. There was a small ceremony at the beginning of the meet and then the meet got underway. This meet was also special because it was the "Half-Double" Invitational. This means that all the events were either half of their normal distance or DOUBLE their normal distance. I really think this is a favorite meet among the swimmers because they never get to swim these events.

I can officially give IVs now in clinical!! I passed my IV checkoff! We had the hardest test ever in nursing lecture though on Friday. Ugh.

Peace,Love,& Jesus,
Bryanna

Charleston

Today we are in Charleston, SC for a swim meet against College of
Charleston. The meet has been stretched out between Friday night and Saturday morning. So far the team has done great! I'm not sure of the score, but the important thing is practicing races for conference in a few weeks. This morning we went to a little diner for breakfast and we literally filled the ENTIRE restaurant. (see pic) It was great. We got to drive through Charleston a little bit and man, it sure is pretty! I would really like to go back and visit there sometime. There are tons of houses with little gardens and stone gates, and all that fun stuff. This week is going to be a hard one! Government project/paper due Wednesday, Stat test Friday, Nursing Test Friday... my brain is going
to be fried..

Peace,Love&Jesus,
Bryanna

Needle Sticks!

Hey Y'all!

Today I learned how to start an IV in my nursing lab. It was really exciting to learn this skill, although it does make me nervous. We did not practice on each other (Yet) but instead we practiced on some mannequin arms. They seem pretty realistic. They have "skin" and "veins" and when you stick the needle in you even get a blood flashback. There is obviously not real blood inside of them, but there is some red water!! We did practice putting tourniquets on each other to watch the veins rise and fill up with blood. I'm glad I did not have to practice starting an IV on my partner though because her veins appeared to be very hard to stick.

After class I helped out with the University Fellows procedures, gave a few quick tours and helped answer some questions. I had a student who is coming here next year spend the night with me and then I took her to my nursing class on Friday morning. I think she was really excited because before class we stopped at the nursing lab and I showed her all of the IV stuff I had learned!

Peace,Love,&Jesus,
Bry