My first job as a NAC

Monday Morning, 9:30am

*RIIIIIIINNNGGGG* Whats going on? … *RIIIIIIINNNGGGG* Who’s calling me at this hour?!?!? “Hello?” “Hi, this is (receptionists name that currently escapes me) from Cascade Vista, we’ve reviewed your application and would like you to come down for an interview…”

So, being woken up at 9:30 wasn’t how life had been so far this summer, but compared to recently, 9:30 sounds dreamy =) I went in to my interview and was hired on the spot. It was pretty awesome. They seemed to like me, and they really liked my references… They hardly asked me any questions during the interview other than going over the ones already filled out on my application.

I filled out a ton of paperwork and was getting ready to go when Barbara came up to me and said “See you tomorrow at 6:00.”
“Alright!” I said.

6:00?!?!?!?!? Wow. I thought day-shift started at 7:00.
That Tuesday through Friday I dutifully showed up at 6:00am in the bloody morning. Or at least overcast morning. What an ugly week that was.

The first two days I was put on A-wing, and I did very little. Monique was my instructor, and she is fabulous. She’s been on the job 40 years and knows everything there is to know. A-wing is one of two long-term wings. Pretty much all of the patients on it are very old and have some form of dementia. I enjoyed my work, but wouldn’t say I had “fun.”

Thursday and Friday I was moved to D-wing, the Medicare wing. People come straight from the hospital to our facility for rehab, PT and all that jazz. In this wing things move much, much faster, but I actually have fun doing everything – getting to interact and hold conversations with the patients is something I love. It’s really great, and at the end of the day, I don’t really feel tired.

Oh yeah, I work as a NAC – Nurses Aide Certified. We help patients perform ADLs – activities of daily living. Such as getting out of bed and changed in the morning, brushing teeth, feeding, taking to the bathroom, taking people on walks etc. Its pretty cool. Not what I saw myself doing a few years ago, but a few years can change a lot.

Anyway, I covered what, 5 days in this post? That’s enough for now. More on the way tomorrow.

Probably =)

Please pray for my friends...

David and Seth McDowell... They will soon be entering the final stage of Special Forces training called SERE. Please click on that link and read about it. It sounds absolutely insane.

Inspired

I came back from school wanting to take voice lessons from Awilda – the one and only, world famous Awilda Verdejo (Google her, I dare you). So I’m going to e-mail her as soon as I can find her e-mail address and see if she will take me back! Hearing Ben in Les Mis made me want to sing even more… Let me tell you, that kid inspires me in all sorts of ways. Actually, let me leave you with that since its 3:21am. It ridiculous how late “kids” stay up these days. Goodness.

In other news, Jenica and I played guitar together tonight – that was fun. I’m teaching her a bit right now (she’ll catch up in no time – she learns so fast!) and then we have little worship sessions. Or will. We’ve only had one so far, but that will change.

Hopefully I’ll get some mad skills with both guitar and my voice so Ben will still want to record with me. That would be sweet. I think he wants to do some Beatles stuff, we’ll see.

So I’ve applied for work at two different places – Cascade Convalescent Center in Redmond and Spiritwood something or rather in Issaquah/Sammamish. The second one is a very new building (opening sometime next week). I think I would rather work at the first, because it is a rest home vs. Spiritwood being an “assisted living complex.” You don’t have to do nearly as much or as hard of work at an assisted living home… Am I crazy? Do I want to do more work? At this point, yes, yes I do. I want to ready myself for nursing in every way possible. Bring on the day shift!

And bring on my bed. Goodnight to you, my very faithful readers…

Black, the color of despair

- Which is what the mother must have been feeling when she left her literally newborn child in a plastic bag on a picnic table in a park... (see cnn.com for details). I cannot understand why someone would do that. I can think of reasons I suppose: peer pressure or preasure from the boyfriend to leave the child, not wanting to tell parents, mental illness or otherwise. Its just so incredibly sad what some people resort to doing. Thank God that young man found the infant and that it is ok.

In other news, Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there reading my blog (I can only think of one person who DOES read it lol). In other news, I am picking the guitar back up - my cousin Ben is keeping me accountable for this. I am also going to start working at a rest home - hopefully in the next week. Money is so necessary in life, and my wallet tends to be rather short of it during these college years.

On to guitar...

Red the blood of angry men...

I'm home now - or is it home? I spend 1/4 of the year here... Hmmmm. Anyway - school is over and summer is upon us - or at least those of us at whitworth. I pity my friends at western, but then again, they get 4 or 6 weeks off during the winter.

I am probably going to end up working at a rest home this summer, and volunteering at Evergreen Hospital - I don't think my chances of working at the hospital are very big, seeing as I have NO EXPERIENCE.

I just saw the final Les Miz performance today at BCS - it was awesome. I went last night as well - it was incredible. I knew that my cousin Ben had a great voice - I didn't know it was THAT good. I was more than impressed - I could hardly contain my excitement over it all. My little bro played a part in the HS play as well, even tho he's only in 5th grade. Gavrouche (sp? but I really don't care) was his name and acting came naturally to him. As did singing. I wasn't shocked, but I was very pleasantly surpised. I knew he had the potential to be excellent - I didn't know he was already there. He will have a big career in front of him in theatre if he wants to =) Jeff was also mind boggling.

Now for the ladies - first night Faith and Katy did very well in their roles, 2nd night Liz and Lindsey and Ellie blew everything away. I wish they had blown their mics away - they didn't need them and they made them sound bad... Lindsey is attending Boston Conservatory - that should say enough about her talent. But it doesn't. She is INCREDIBLE. I can't imagine what she'll become... Ellie is attending whitworth next year - I should join choir just so I can sing with her again...

Alas, it may be time to CS it up.

Peace.

Since my surgery...

Everything was pretty good - smooth operation and all, I went home, took drugs and slept all the time. But then my pain started increasing, so I doubled the vicadin doses, and then I had an allergic reaction - so of course I had to stop taking the vic (hyrdocodone?)... I tried just taking asprin and ibuprofen and tylenol, but that wasn't holding. On a scale of 1-10, I was at a 6 yesterday, and I needed more drugs, so my doctor told me to go to ER. My mom and I were there for 5 hours, and I got a new prescription for demerol... Today I had an appointment at 10:15am, they drained 50cc of fluid from my knee, and since then I have been in the worst pain ever. I say its an 8 on the scale...

WOW. Sometimes I just clamp my mouth shut and try to rip out hair... at moments like these when it doesn't hurt, it seems funny, but when it hurts its really not.

So I don't know if I'm going tback to school tomorrow or not, we'll see. more to come later.