on the road to following my bliss

I had an awesome day with my close friend Scelda. We met up for lunch, had coffee, and dinner. It was a long day but it didn't feel long at all because we talked and talked about everything girls could possibly talk about. What I liked most was how we talked about our chosen profession-- NURSING. You see Scelda and I, one of the things we have in common (including the fact that we both probably have TEENY TINY BLADDERS!) is that we both have nursing in our hearts. Scelda started out as a freshman in UP Manila like me. We were blockmates until sophomore year. But Scelda, you see, knew from the very start that it was Nursing that she wanted to take up. So despite being in UP Manila already she transferred to another school to follow her heart. I did the same except that I finished my first course first and soul searched for more than a year before I finally settled that it was Nursing that my heart was in. I didn't want a desk job and the corporate world is not for me. So I turned down several callbacks for job interviews (one was for JP Morgan Chase as a risk analyst).

I guess you I can say that we are both alike that way-- how we defied all odds just to get to where we want to be. My UP professor once made fun of Nursing as the no.2 export commodity of the Philippines next to bananas. BANANAS! I used to laugh at this joke but now that I'm on the other side of the fence I realized that NOT ALL nursing students got into the profession just to find greener pastures. I won't be a hypocrite by saying that I WILL NEVER follow suit but it's just that it's not on top of my priorities right now. I want to work here first.

One thing's for sure, wherever I become a nurse, this is my passion and I'm glad to offer my life to God and mankind TO SERVE because a wise person once said that a life of service is a life well-lived.

Everyday one of the reasons why I am happy to wake up is the fact that I'm happy where I am. I know that one day I will be proud because I took that leap of faith. Everyday I am also inspired to be the best person I can be because this is a new adventure that includes so much learning and discovering of new things. It's going to be hard, yes but I have PASSION and I think if one is equipt with passion, you can go through anything.

I saw this quote from Facebook:

Follow your own path. Follow your own truth. Follow your own heart. Follow your own inner bliss, and allow each person to follow theirs, whatever it may be. Look for the good in everyone and everything, and let your love and joy radiate to the world every day. (The Secret Daily Teachings)

Got home an hour ago from the market, grocery shopping, and dinner with my sister and my mother. We left the house around 3PM. I already bought a lab coat for clinicals. Now I'm so sleepy because I'm tired. Traffic was also horrible along EDSA and because it was raining, the flow of cars on the road was sluggish. Weather is also being uncooperative lately-- it's raining because of the Low Pressure Area in the country. I hope tomorrow the weather will be better but according to the news, it's still going to rain especially around afternoon to evening. UGH.

Clinicals at the National Center for Mental Health starts tomorrow. I'm psyched! But this also means that I have to be in bed any time now because I have to wake up at 4am so I can leave the house at 5am. Again, weather..PLEASE BE GENTLE!

I'm actually really sleepy now but I'm still full from handpulled Chinese noodles. I think I'm going to frolick around the intarnets for a while before I hit the sack.

case study jitters

My case study groupmates and I finished our manuscript a little early and had it bound all twenty copies of them for submission tomorrow. I'm actually happy we finished it early because I am a firm believer of Murphy's Law-- just when you need everything to run smoothly, anything that could go wrong WILL GO WRONG. So I've stopped being the last minute girl (except occasionally haha) because when you need the printer to print, it will screw up the moment you need it the most.

So I'm psyched and SCARED at the same time because I haven't seen the finished product of our blood-and-sweat labor. I'm scared to flip over the pages, go through it, and realize that we made mistakes. We don't have the chance to revise the manuscript so whatever was written in there will be scrutinized come case presentation/defense. I'm so scared but in a good way because I'm pretty sure this horrible ordeal will fly by and I can celebrate for one or two weeks of summer until I go back for intensive lecture for the rest of the summer holiday. I could complain, ramble endlessly about how it just kills the fun of summer to be in class eight hours a day everyday with clinicals in between but I'm actually happy about it because I need to FEEL PRODUCTIVE.

Also, I'm trying to see if I can juggle freelance writing. We'll see!

Yesterday's high were
1. listening to fetal heartbeats
2. eating at Mr. Kabab after a very tiring first day clinical at the health center. You can never go wrong with sizzling keema with pita bread and a yogurt shake!
3. And free parking at the health center! HAHA!

I woke up yesterday at 3.30AM. My routine is always the same-- I wake up, eat breakfast (usually it's just cereal because it's fast to eat and it's filling plus a mug of coffee), and take a shower. I left the house before 5AM, met up with my groupmates at the nearest Shell station near my house, drove thru the nearest McDonald's for food, and then convoyed to the health center because they didn't know where it is. It was a rainy, chilly morning and it was bed weather but the morning's excitement kept me awake and a mug of coffee for breakfast too.

I thought I'd enjoy my rotation at the health center. I did enjoy it especially when we took care of pre-natal check up of pregnant women (I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT MUCH PREGNANT WOMEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!), specifically taking their info and listening for the fetal heartbeat. Leopold's Maneuver, that was what I did most of the day. If I can't hear the fetal heartbeat I ask help from my groupmates and that's what we do most of the time, we work together. Anyway, it would've been a better experience if the midwives in the area were cooperative enough to at least be nice to us. But NOOO they're not only rude to the patients (pregnant women!) but they're also rude to us. Good thing our clinical instructor is nice and he understands how we feel.

I thought I'd assist in giving birth but that didn't happen because in our entire duty there only two women gave birth. Both of which I didn't get the chance to scrub in because during the first delivery, I was in the prenatal check up room doing Leopold's Maneuver and on the second delivery, I was already in my duty uniform (white uniform, stockings, and white shoes) because we re already supposed to go home. So only the ones who were still in their scrubs got to assist. BOO! It's true when our instructor said that deliveries happen mostly in the early noon and not early in the morning or maybe yesterday was just a slow delivery day.

It was a great experience to listen to fetal heartbeats. There are rock hard tummies, really flubby tummies (you won't even believe they're pregnant!), and tummies where the fetus moves around a lot! It was a busy day yesterday because pregnant women just came pouring in! I'm hoping next week will be a better week.

clinicals round 2

I just had my first Hep B vaccine shot. Two more to go in the succeeding two months and a booster shot after that. I need to protect myself espcially when I'm doing my clinicals already. Speaking of clinicals, my second rotation starts tomorrow at a lying-in/health center. I'm excited! Except that I went to pick up my scrub suit today because I had it altered and the shop said it isn't finished yet. So I'll have to go back after grocery shopping tonight. Boo!

I went to scout the area last night to see how long it is to drive there. It's pretty far from where I live and driving along Commonwealth in the dark can be pretty scary with the buses and jeepneys ruling the highway. Here's to waking up at 3.30am in the morning again but it's okay, it's worth it.

first week down, many more to go

First week of clinicals down, many more to go!

I go for clinical duty on Thursdays and Fridays. This was my first week. Routine goes like this-- I wake up at 3:30AM, eat breakfast, shower, get ready, and then grab my things and leave the house. And congratulate me! I am no longer chickened out by Manila driving because I drive myself to the hospital before 5AM and then back at past 2PM. Parking isn't that bad at the hospital where I go for duty too.

My group's rotation is at the Female Surgical Ward. On our first day it was orientation, lecture, then orientation again. We practiced our basic nursing skills-- vital signs! And then our Clinical Instructor taught us how to chart our patient's vital signs. We were also given one patient each to take care of. My first patient was a sixty nine year old female with 4th Stage Breast Cancer. She was post-op for Modified Radical Mastectomy when I first met her but she already underwent surgery when I went back today. It was difficult to interview her for History of Present Illness because Nanay is deaf. She cannot totally hear that's why I interviewed her daughter instead. When I came back on friday, Nanay wasn't on her bed anymore because she was in the operating room already. I got assigned to a post-op appendectomy patient and gave her morning care, regulated her I.V., and took her vital signs. It all sounds easy but it isn't because we also have charting to care of and computations and.....THE LIST GOES ON.

I enjoyed my first two days of clinical duty although it's very tiring aside from the fact that I have to wake up at 3.30AM in the morning to get to the hospital by 5am so that we'll have time to read our patients' charts before 6AM endorsement.

I can't wait for next week!

i'm right where i belong

There is a certain kind of tiredness that I like-- the one that I'm feeling right now. I feel like I can just curl under my blanket and hibernate until tomorrow morning but I'm still fighting the urge because it's still too early. I might wake up in the wee ours of the morning and then stay awake until morning. I can't be late tomorrow...it's day 2 of our orientation before clinicals start next week!

I got my duty assignment already, it's at a Female Surgical Ward in a hospital in Quezon City. I'm pretty psyched but scared out of my wits because it's my first hospital exposure. But I can't help but feel really happy too because finally I've found something that I really see myself doing for the rest of my life and I just can't believe that after all these years I still fulfilled my dream of wanting to work in a hospital. I know it's no walk in the park and I'm going to have to slave away to work hard to take care of people but there's a certain peace in knowing that I'm right where I belong. We went to our first day of orientation and lecture today in full clinical uniform (all white). It felt awkward to wear white stockings and white shoes at first but I love it more than my black shoes for lecture days because the white shoes are hella comfortable to walk in!

I've also made good friends with my batchmates and we actually hang out a lot. There's a favorite past time in the group-- BADMINTON! And it's quite addictive especially when my friends from school play well. We're usually dog tired after two hours of playing but it makes me feel good to stay active including usual visits to the gym with Alej. I'm playing again tomorrow after a whole day of another orientation/lecture before the school sends us off to our first rotation, our very first exposure to the hospital scene. For my other batchmates, they're going to the community. I'm actually psyched that I got to be in a group that's going to be based in a hospital first because I love hospitals (lets see if the so-called "hardcore scenarios" will change that a couple of months from now). But I doubt that it will. I feel that I'm going to be in love with the profession more than I already am now!

My duty is from 6AM-2PM. I'll have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning that's why I have to practice parking in just one week because I won't have a choice but to take the car with me otherwise I take a cab at 5AM in the morning. NO THANK YOU. I have a week to do it and I'm actually determined that I will learn in one week. IT'S JUST PARKING, GAIL! Besides, the hospital is just near my place so lets hope that gas prices won't hurt my well-laid plan.

And I'm off! Someone's going to have a very good night's sleep tonight.