Tuesday, April 30, 2013

My first week as a floor nurse.

I worked my first "three in a row" (three 12 hour days in the nursing world) this weekend-Monday on the unit.  It was pretty exciting to finally have patients after a few weeks of orientation things that were hands on but we weren't with patients until this week.  I had some of the cutest kiddo's and I think I'm adjusting well to the change in environment.  We actually do several sterile procedures so I feel more in my element doing those things but I'm getting the swing of things.  We had some of the "easier" patients on the unit and it was still pretty busy and they were complex.  It only gets more complicated from here!  These kids are so resilient and inspirational you can't help but root for them.  Even the sickest of them can pull through and we have a lot of success stories.  There are, of course, the sad stories but I feel like from what I've seen we do a pretty good job at taking care of these kids and the outcomes show that.  I appreciate the real team effort I see and the communication between the docs and nurse practitioners to make things run smoothly and the involvement of everyone in rounds is a great way to set clear goals for our patients for the day and address any concerns.  I know for sure I made the right choice in this career move and I am happy to be at Children's.  Don't worry B North friends - I have a few stretches of days off and I'll be showing my face in the near future!

I'm now in week 6 of training and I'm feeling good.  My ankle is cooperating and so is the weather for the most part.  I'm pretty proud of myself for getting all my runs in even before work if I have to or doing some 2-a-days to keep myself on track.  The rainy days had me worried about my phone since I use it for tracking my distance on an app.  I know there are going to be days where I run in the rain but I have to know my distance without worry so I invested in a Garmin Forerunner 10 and an iPod nano that I can put easily in a zip-lock bag just for the sake of music.  Adding more things to my fitness expenditures.  *sigh*  It'll be worth it when I'm crossing that finish line and I still have a working phone in the process!  My phone is always dying or close to it so that's just one less thing I have to worry about.

While I was running and profusely sweating on a 9AM run I realized it was only going to get hotter from here and maybe a spring marathon would have been a better choice.  Running in the colder weather is better for me but I also can't imagine trying to run on snow and ice covered sidewalks all winter to train.  I've been told it's totally doable but I don't know.  We'll see if after this I ever decide to do this again and maybe we'll see.

My weight has still not changed but I'm sort of okay with that since I'd rather stay at a plateau than gain.  I'm making a few dietary adjustments and we'll see in the next week or two if that does any good.  Of course I'll report my progress.  With tomorrow being May 1st that starts 5 months of no pop and this lifestyle change.  Time is flying by and I can't believe only 5 more months until the marathon!  Time to turn things up!  My long runs are getting longer and my mid week runs are getting faster.  The girl who was running 14-15 minute/miles is now running as fast as 11:57 average pace miles.  I'm thrilled with my endurance and progress to this point.  5 more months of preparation for awesomeness!

No comments:

Post a Comment