Saturday Confession

.....i cancelled my 7am-1pm shift today at work. i did it from my friends preston and brock's house where me bea and tori spent the afternoon sledding in the wicked cold and then ended up staying for dinner, desert, speed scrabble and lounging upstairs listening to good music and talking till midnight.


Yesterday was my very first clinical!!!! I was SOOO nervous and almost barfed on the drive over (i talked Tori into driving me because i had to be there at 6:50am and taking the bus would have got me there 30 minutes early). I had no need to be nervous though but I'm naturally (actually probably not naturally, more like self programmed) a worrier and so i slept about 2 hours fitfully the night before and got up just barely hanging on.

side note----my new sweet friend Preston came over at 11:30 thursday night with a bag of something he's brought back from his 5 months in Australia and said "you gotta try this" and made me a tim tam slam! Best THING EVER. i will go to australia just for to get another one of those and so i ended up going to bed at 1am.

Ok so i get to my facility and I head up to the nursing station and get my assignment for the day.....and it's tub rom. The tub room is where all the 42 residents on our floor get bathed every week. They have morning tubs (or showers) and evening tubs so from 7am to 9:30 am i was supposed to be observing a PSW do them all morning. Well...my trainer and I hit it off and she was a great time! She said "ok amy! you're gonna get right in there because i believe thats the best way for you to learn! YOu watch me bath this lady here, I'll walk you through what i'm doing, and then you'll do the rest for the morning."

It was awesome. I knew i wouldn't be grossed out by naked people or embarrassed like some new students are considering i'd seen my fair share of naked already (think a good amount of time in other hospital settings) and so i got right in there! My trainer was very pleased and said i was doing awesome. So i learned how to work the lift, work the giant tub, wash em' up all nice and good, take them out, dry them off, lotion all over, dress them, and then take them (if they were ladies) to the spa area where we blow dry their hair and curl it if they want. So cute! All the residents loved me!

I think i impressed my clinical instructor by remembering and being able to accurately answer her questions on the kind of charting they do there (focus charting) and by not just hanging out in the hall looking lost like some of the other students did (i probably would have too if i'd never been in that environment before since its intimidating) But instead of doing that, i chatted with some lovely old folks, got complimented on my teeth, was given my very first gift (a lovely card), hung out with my assigned resident while she made crafts, and then went around and asked all the staff if they needed help with anything (that won me brownie points!)

It was a great first clinical and I"m glad i made a good impression. The nurses asked if i'd done this kind of thing before and I said "not in long term care but in other settings" and they asked what kind and so i got to tell them about working in the OR at the U of A hospital, working at my cities little hospital and of course.....UGANDA- which they thought was fabulous! "my you're a motivated girl, having done so much at your age!"

The staff are all really great and i'm going to learn so much! I'm really excited.

.........................
I got a letter in the mail yesterday from this orthodontist I saw over Christmas and in it was his report of all my xrays and his treatment plan for me. I've got a really annoying hate/hate relationship with my chin and its the thing i'm most self conscious about. I'm very very aware of it and (was) willing to do anything to change it. welll...anything that wouldn't cost 15,000 dollars.
My diagnosis- class 2 malocclusion with mandibular advancement surgery the best option for me. This means they'd take my jaw, break it, insert metal plates to bring my lower jaw forward, and then i'd have braces for 2 years to correct my bite.

Lately every time i think about having done after i'm a nurse and could potentially have an extra 15 grand i think of the verse i wrote fairly large on my desk so i can remember it. "beauty should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."- 1 peter 3:4

I read that and think.....new chin, improved jaw line and side profile (i'm pretty sure thats redundant) 15,000 or......happy with how God made me, learn to love my profile or at least learn to be neutral to it, and spend 15,000 on a flight to UG and then spending it where it really needs to be spent.

What do YOU think??? (keep in mind the good 20 pound difference between the first photo and the second...post- africa blues had me the poster child for emotional eating....I'm going to try Brandi's wonderful idea though!



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