peace out swedish.

Wow, after working for nearly 10 years

almost 8 at Swedish...

I quit.

It was something I thought I would never do.

At first it was just a thought/dream.

Then it became a reality.

And the closer it came to my last day, 

the more I wanted it.

A lot of things came into play.

But my number one role in life is to be a mommy and wife.

I feel that being home (as I write this it's been 2 months) has changed me.

I feel like I am more engaged with Hazel and Cameron.

And I actually get to see cameron!

We get the whole entire weekend as a family.

it's been so nice.

Don't get me wrong, I miss working, as in,

getting paid to do what I love. I miss patients, I miss changing lives.

I miss saving lives, I miss helping people pass.

I even miss the crazy parts.

I miss my co-workers especially, and I miss a lot of the doctors.

I miss the camaraderie and the teamwork.

Swedish was my family for nearly 8 years.

(how is it possible that I have been a nurse for 10 years?)

I learned so much.

I definitely left a changed woman.

But I will be back.

Someday.

You can't stay away from ICU. 

me leaving work on my last day.

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 then move forward a few hours to my going away party.

so many people i love showed up.

it was awesome!

PS: i had laryngitis at this point and barely had a voice...

karma?

 kerri

 nicole & victor

 add in mandy

me and lo

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i don't know how people stay up late and hang out..

i was pooped by 8 (well I had been up since 2am).

Thank you to all who came to wish me well. 

swedish

that's my hospital. and yes, I DO know stroke.

coloring & work visit

i unrolled some paper (from ikea)

and let hazel go to town

she loved it!

 the day I was leaving (with H) for KS/OK

cameron took H to the zoo, then was bringing me lunch up at work.

but he kinda left the bag of food on top of the car, then drove off...

needless to say, my panini was on colorado blvd smooshed.

but i got to see my babe!

hazel and i were going to scare someone :)

hazel at work

i'm pretty sure it was my bday in this pic!?!?!

work christmas party, at the bar :)

we had our work Christmas party

at Governor's Park

on 7th & Logan

(it's a tradition, not christmas, but at Gov's)

one of our charge nurses has the hookup there

we got free wings

my hubub

see that shirt i am wearing?

he picked it out for my bday

all by himself

at anthro!

what a good man!

most of us had worked all day

jacob looks drugged

and emily... well, i don't know.

far left, bruce, is totally australian

deb, in the glasses, is totally crazy but awesome!


yes, that is liz doing the boob grab...
deb and i have a thing ;)

some of the greats

i love these people

people that don't even work with us anymore come

to our christmas party, b/c it's fun, they're fun, we're fun!

aaron and lauren

this would be a typical christmas photo for them.

they like to hunt :)

aren't my friends so pretty?

it was the second day of hannukah

so tovah and i made up a drink

called the: Hannukah Bomb

clementine vodka, soda water, orange

pretty tastey!
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great party!

CCRN

I passed my test!
I am glad to be done studying.
It seemed like a forever long process.
Now I have more letters after my name,
and more time to do nothing :)

Dr. Bolton

at work today it was crazy, and i was calm, which was great.
until...
dr bolton (no relation to michael, although they look like the could be).
he is RUDE.
he called me arrogant,
and said i did not have the capacity to understand how to manage a patient.
i say to him "NI"(monty python).
take your bad day out on someone else poopface.

wes is home!

Wes is home from the hospital!!!
Praise the Lord!!!
I got a report from Allison
(his sister who normally lives in OKC, but pretty much moved her life here to take care of wes)
and she said he was eatng a lot, and had a better attitude.
A few days ago he was requesting all seasons of some show, and that is a HUGE improvement.
Anyways, I think I was stop by Garfield Street and visit him Thursday.
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On a sad note, friday was a tough day at work for me.
I haven't really really had one of my patients die in a Code situation, they are usually DNR's.
And when I was on my last day of orientation in CCU (in october) I had my first,
but i didn't really count it b/c I was on orientation.
Friday I had my first (she was a limited DNR, but the only thing she didn't want was
chest compressions).
Anyway, it was super sucky. Boo.
It made me think like my dear friend Susanne, I may open my own coffee shop
instead of being a nurse.
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On another note again.
Someone put a note on our car that said she was trying to move a rock out of the way of our tire so it wouldn't pop, and she threw it and crazked our sideview mirror. what in the heck. how does that happen? how fraeking hard do you throw a rock out of that way. anyways, long story short, she wrote that she has no money, but will do what she can. oh dear.
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GREEN DAY (not the band).
I will list things like Lo, b/c I too like lists.
Things I do to stay Green:
~bring reusable bags to all stores/don't take a bag if not needed (king soopers and whole foods
gives you money back for each bag)
~recycle EVERYTHING, even take it out of other people's trash to recycle
~drive old ghetto cars to get good gas-milage
~ride our bikes when possible
~bring reusable cups/mugs/bottles everywhere i can
~buy local
~buy organic
~buy fresh
~buy bamboo (renewable resource)
~never use heat/cool unless i am about to die
~def don't shower everyday... who does that?
~live close to work/school for less commuting
~grow own herbs/veggies
~shut off water when brushing teeth
~cam doesn't shave so we save water that way
~use hardle any lights b/c our apt just doesn't have them (one in kitchen and one in bathroom)
~ un-plug stuff that is not in use (toaster/stereo/fans/computer...)
~someday will use cloth diapers (when i have a kid)
~re-use glasses at home (and not wash them til they are gross)
~re-use as much paper as possible before recycling it
okay just face it I AM GREEN
and it's my fav color
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pray for cameron, not only are the next 4 weeks gonna be terror,
but he just found out that the next 2 will be the worst of his 2 years at denver seminary.
Just getting things finished and turned in and studied for and researched.
it sucks, on top of having ADHD and being super sleep deprived and not ever hearing his 3 alarms to wake up. Just pray for his sanity (and mine :)).
I asked him what I could do for him, and I said OH I KNOW
Liz:"i will stop taking to you for the next 2 weeks"
Cam "Or i will just get a hotel for the next 2 weeks and just shoot you an email every few days to catch up with you"
Liz :that just might work :)"
Plus it's like 70 degrees here and all he wants to do is MTB.
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PS:::::::: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO THE DAVID CANNON FAMILY:they got cam a new computer and a lot of other awesome things!! The comp will be here tomorrow!!!!!!!

3 more days until my birthday da na na na na na

Long time no blog, sorry!!! I don't really have that many excuses. So... we'll start with last week. Hmmm, last week I don't really know what I did. But, i will talk about this week instead. The pics below will describe the weekend.

Sunday I called in sick to work, which I hated to do b/c I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new job so much. Then Sunday night we had people over for Fellowship Group, and they all finally left at 9:30, but I had to be up for work at 1:52am... and I ended up laying in bed the whole time til I woke up, no sleep at all. That happens every ONCE in awhile, and I usually end up falling asleep, but nope... not this time.... so let's just say I was pretty much a zombie at work, but my patient care was NOT compromised.

Monday night i fell asleep on the couch at 5pm and moved to bed at 6:30pm, so i ended up getting 9 hours of sleep!!! yippee!!

Then tuesday was great at work, and I finally got to see cameron on tuesday night (we miss each other getting home and leaving, and when i work on the days he counsels... we never see each other). I watched HOUSE (oh crap i just remembered I need to watch The Hills online STAT!). Then i went to sleep.

Yesterday I forgot to say that cameron got up and was about to head to school when he got to the Honda and the tire was flat, so he changed it and got out of the apt complex, then the spare went flat. BOO! So he rode his bike to the gas station and got a fix-a-flat, then missed his quiz and then had to drive 30 min to internship. SO needless to say, we were going to anyway, but we got new tires this morning! They were $$, but i guess getting 4 tires are $$ anyway, so the guy felt bad for us and gave us a discount, he was so nice! Totally get tires at Discount Tires!!! While we were waiting (only 45 min) we ate b/f at IHOP!!!!!! YUM! then i ran errands.... I went to walmart for normal stuff, then i had to get organic milk at a diff store... well i decided to smell the shampoos (the nice ones... some KIWI brand or something) and it SHOT into my eye, and it hurt so bad, worse than anything ever in my eye, even a bug once.... and it was so bad, i was trying to get my contact out without a mirror while my eye was forcing itself shut, and i was also trying to dig in my overstuffed purse for my eyedrops....and tears and snot were opuring down my face and people were probably walking by thinking what is wrong with this girl... but i didnt care, i almost went to the pharmacy and got somekinda emergency eye wash it was so bad.... and i had to stand in this corner for like 5 minutes, just enough to where i could semi-open my eye.... still holding my contact, and the basket with milk and spinich in it... walking to the check out... then i self checked out... outa the store... thank goodness. so my eye is freaking killing me... and i think maybe i have some eyelash in there... which wouldnt matter at this point, an eyelash could never hurt compared to what just happened....

ONLY TO SEE, some lazy middleaged woman sitting in her car, watching me shuffle to my car, stalking her parking spot prey... i think "you old hag, you're stupid for waiting for me, my eye just got shot out by a bottle of $15 shampoo, YOU ARE NOT getting my spot..." so i dramatize the whole I can't see thing... and try to make it apparent that i am getting my eye gtts out and putting them in my eye... looking at my eye in the mirror and what not... then someone honks at her to go....so i try to put my contact back in... OH NO... hurt too bad, take it out and just think i will tough it out the .75 miles to my house with one eye. so i start to back up and what do ya know.... old lazy bones circled around to get my spot... she oculd have already been in the store shopping by now.

Anyway, my eye still hurts like crap, and i am wearing my glasses. boo. when will it stop hurting. Reminds me of a time when my friend genesis got blood in her eye at work (i don't remember how) (ps: the pt's blood was clean) but we had to run a liter of fluid into her eye, and she was just screaming out in pain b/c it hurt so bad, and i thought, GEN, you gotta get that crap outa your eye quit complaining... but now i know.... sorry genesis!

THEN, i get home, take the melting ice creams and chicken breasts and what not up stairs. And long story short maybe... out neighbor matt is borrowing his parent's car while they are overseas, so his ghetto run down purple car is in the lot, but he was taking up a semi-good spot, and one say i give him a hard time and ask him to move it... so him and cam get silly and move it to THE BEST SPOT in front of the apt. So while my eyeball was still falling out, i shaving creamed his car: MOVE YOU CAR YOU GIRLY COUNSELOR! and threw away the evidence! and still had to carry 4 pumpkins up 3 flights of stairs.

anyway that is my story. 3 more days til mom and david come! 5 more days til sus and chris's 1 year anniv! 3 more seconds til Lo pops a baby out!!!! And that's all! Oh yeah, and the Rockies are going to the WORLD SERIES!

just some pic we took!
We went to the bar for my bday with my friends... taking a chocolate cake shot (vodka and hazelnut etoh then a sugary lemon) really tastes like choc cake!!!
Jen, Me, Sarah

I got the JONES chugging power!

laughing at Jen for taking so dang slow

Sarah (but look at my face in the background)

We're cute! Then Jen and I played Odette and Julie in shuffleboard and kicked their butts!

Joy, Andy, Wes

Whitney, Katie, Spankries

Steve and Hunter (who looks like a midget but is just far away)

Steve, Julie, Me, Cam

Then back to the house for games.

This is sara - brian and odette's babe

guesstures and cam

schnoozeberry

brian diving

brian, not acting, but posing for the camera

stephen airplane

cam, don't know?

andy.... hmm????

odette and liz

cam and i hiked the next day

old mining stuff

it wasn't that cold, but super windy, my eardrums

were falling off so i put this hat on that makes me look bald

i just deleted the pic of me, but cam's is the same... look at the snow!

snow on way to church sunday.... cool pic huh?

only had been snowing like 2 hours, and it melted that afternoon... booo

First Day of ICU

So today I got up at 01:45am, yes folks you read that right. 01:45am AM!!!!!

I had to be at work at 3:00 and go until 3pm.

It kinda of sucked to get up that early, but I loved it!

The first cool thing happened at about 7am. I was with my preceptor and she was on the Code Team (meaning she goes and runs all the codes anywhere in the hospital).

There was a code called in A pob of CCU (we have 5 pods A-E with a total of 42 beds... crazy huh??). It was some trauma pt who was pretty much bleeding out into his belly. And they had to cut open his belly in the room and stop the bleeding. Crazy!! anyway, they had to wait until he was a little more stable to take him to surgery. but the crazy thing was they worked on him for 2 hours, and 1 hour was cpr, meds, and shocking.... and the dude lived!

The second thing was we intubated my patient for a bronch (ot as cool as #1).

Third cool thing... I got to hold a chick's head still while the Dr. drilled a hole in her freaking skull (to place a drain... see pic above). so cool!!!!!!

I love ICU, but it will be hard, and take awhile til i call myself good.

Shout out to all my peeps in Okla at Deaconess 3North and ICU!

good jorrrrrrbbbb!

Intensive Care Medicine or critical care medicine is a branch of medicine concerned with the provision of life support or organ support systems in patients who are critically ill and who usually require intensive monitoring.

Well folks, less than a week ago I made the final call for MTU at Swedish Medical Center. I came to my breaking point. I decided no more MTU for me... I am moving on to bigger and better things at Swedish. So Friday, I called the CCU (Critical Care Unit) and spoke to the Manager and got an interview for today.

I interviewed at 2pm, and by 2:45pm I had myself a job on CCU!!!

I will probably start mid-July, just to give MTU a chance to fill up a few more empty nursing spots. But I am pumped. My friend Michelle was really my inspiration. She will also be going to CCU in July (but she has about 5 years of CCU experience prior to coming here). Anyway, I am pumped.

I know it will be tough, but I also know I will love my job, and be more excited to go to work.

The only downfall is that it is a weird schedule. 3-3. So I will be working 3pm-3am. Nights, but better than getting up at 2am to go to work. I will at least be able to go to sleep when it's dark out, and wake up when it's light (prob around noon!).

Yeah!

I will post more about the job when I start!