its me the crab

this is marks and krystinas crab
i live in the apartment with them
since theyre so busy i though id let you know what was going on in their world
krystinas been working at the hospital alot lately
she comes home late on the days she works and i miss her
mark works the usual but hes been doing some weird stuff
like making dinner
anyways i want to let you know that they havent forgotten about you their just working
it was krystinas day off today
she slept late but then she got this terrible idea to clean
she almost made me and the snake help but we got distracted with all the cool stuff we found on the floor
so we didnt help
my favorite part of the day is when mark decides to throw me
and oh boy does he throw
the snake just hides
which is why i cant find him to take a picture of him
i overheard krystina talking to her mom about visiting them in march
i think the 14th and 15th but i cant remember
well time for me to go nap again
all this typing has made my legs tired

All in a Day's Work

I was wondering...today at work...why did I go to school to be a nurse?!? And today was supposedly a *slow* day. Beginning at 8am, I worked by butt off until 5; I didn't even realize it was 1230, until I remembered that Mark was coming to eat with me, so I looked at the clock, and it was 1230! It just kinda sneaked, snucked, snacked, unnoticeably came upon me. But it wasn't until 115 that I got away. I enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch with my husband at Subway. Back to the floor at 145 and I was on the run again. And people wonder why I'm so thin...so back to the beginning...

I recall it all starting about 800. Lab calls to tell me that my patient has a 'critical lab value,' meaning that it's waaaay out of normal range. So it's my job to call the doctor to let him know. This is not just any doctor. It's Dr. Green. Even the old seasoned nurses cringe when they hear that Dr. Green is on call or covering that patient. Of course, they told me not to be nervous or let him intimidate me...them saying that was enough to make me quake in my socks. So I call Dr. Green, tell him the lab values, he goes "WHAT?!" All I can say is "......yes sir." So he gives me some orders for one electrolyte and has me recheck the level of the other one. He showed up a few minutes later, after deciding it sounded serious enough to come check out. My other patient, although, decided to have her heart change rhythms from a beautiful sinus, regular, normal rhythm to a freaky, nervous-making atrial fibrillation. I did my dutiful EKG, wrote the order for it, and realized I was supposed to tell the doctor. HE HAD JUST LEFT! So I paged him, told him the problem, and he decided to tell me that Dr. Ridley was on-call for him. Then why was Dr. Green even there?!?! Who was I to comprehend what goes on in the minds of doctors? I told Dr. Ridley, and *he* told me that Dr. Green had just told him. Why couldn't Dr. Green have told me, "Thanks for letting me know. Dr. Ridley is here, I'll pass it onto him." But no, I, the newbie, got to make the most doctor calls that morning.
By this time, it's about 1000. In between talking to doctors and answering all those phone calls that were concerning my patient, I passed meds, got some people up to potty, helped them sit up and wake up for breakfast, normal nursing things. In the midst of all this calamity, a third doctor came by, Dr. Siu (like sue) came and wrote a bazillion orders, in addition to the many the Dr. Green and Dr. Ridley wrote when they decided it was important enough to stop by and see my patients. My first patient, for HIPPA sake's I'll call her X, had enough IV fluids ordered to float a small boat. Not only that, they all decided to call them 'stat/now' orders, only one IV fluid per IV site, please. PLUS X got 20 more meds (before she only had an aspirin daily). While all that was going on, my second patient, L for HIPPA sake's, had all sorts of changes made to her orders as well. I was informed that this makes for a crappy day at work. No kidding!
By this time it's about 1130, and X has about 9 or 10 blood tests ordered. Does X have good veins? No. Were we able to utilize both arms for the best vein selection? No. Did I attempt to draw blood? Yes. Did I get it? No. Oh, I didn't tell you that she had blood drawn at 700, and at 900, already. That poor lady's arm was bruised like nobody's business. But the blood does get drawn; most of her IV fluids get hung, and it's 1230.
I didn't get off for lunch until 115. But I'm still on orientation so I can have flexible lunch times.
After lunch...this is where my memory gets fuzzy. I'm really tired, and I'll leave the rest of the day up to your imagination. But it goes pretty much as busy and as running-like-a-chicken-with-my-head-cut-off as anything. But I'll let you in on some things I learned.

1. Constant vomiting (flu like symptoms) could be because your stomach is full of fluid that's not passing through your intestines.
2. Pamidranate (or something like that) is for cancer related hypercalcemia (high levels of blood calcium), and brings the calcium levels down.
3. The cardiac enzymes that they use to detect heart attacks can be elevated because other electrolyte levels are out of whack.
4. Old people like it super hot in their rooms.
5. Always have a bottle of water handy when you're working 12-hour shifts
6. I can't do it all by myself!

Free Pancakes at IHOP

I like cheesecake, who doesn't? I was craving it the other day, a good fruit-drenched cheesecake. So I went out and tried to buy one. All they had was pre-mixed, no-bake ones. I didn't have a list of ingredients for a homemade one, so I took the easy way out. I bought a no-bake out-of-the box cherry cheesecake. It turned out pretty good. I even had it ready by the time Mark came home from work! Here's the catch, if I had made it in one pan, like a 9-inch pie pan, it would have been gone by the time he left after lunch. So, I put it into 4 little bowl things, one of the many sets of pyrex we received as a wedding present. Viola! I have cheesecake that will last me until at least tomorrow.



I've also been busy, on my days off, working on my scrapbook. I can't put pictures up, cause I haven't patented the designs yet, and I don't want them copied. Their that good! Well, a few of them are pretty good. The others...look like a 2 year old cut out the pictures. I started all before I had my nifty little cutting tool and templates. I took over the couch, and a dining room chair, and a few boxes as my working space.

I'm headed to eat my free pancakes at IHOP. Go get yours!

Therapy, anyone?

Not even married for two months, and we've already been to couple's therapy. We had to go all the way to Virginia Beach, spend the night in a 4-star hotel right on the beach, eat breakfast in the "Ocean Club," and go to 3 sessions with the Jones from Bob Jones University. They made us watch some funny videos to start interacting with our other half. They made us participate in an auction, during which we bought, for 11 'love bucks' that they gave us, Mark's Valentine's Day present.

It was with our church, so you know they forced us to enjoy it and have fun. It was fun. Afterwards, we stopped at Best Buy in Virginia Beach and I got Mark his real Valentine's Day present, an iPod touch. It was on sale, because it had been returned, and it was also missing the earbuds. So, we got it on sale.

Aerobics, Fastbreaks, Brownies

We joined a gym. Don't laugh, we've gone a few times. I even went this morning, on my day off! I wanted to go swimming, so I showed up for this water aerobics class. I was all excited to be doing something fun, in the water, the way I like. I finally came to senses this morning as I pulled into the parking lot. My thoughts were..."9am on a Monday morning. *WATER* aerobics...great, it's going to full of old, gray haired women." It was. There was about 5 of them. I was the only one under 60. If you don't count the head honcho lady, I was the only one under 50. It took a while, but I finally started feeling "the burn." We used these little foam dumbbells; my thoughts were this is so old ladyish. But now I will admit, keeping them underwater *and* moving them took some stamina. I only wish I had someone my age to fool around with. I mean, when we're doing jogging in the water, and the old ladies are huffing and puffing, I just need someone to look at and know that it's such a breeze for her too. Know what I mean?

What's your favorite candy bar? Just think of it. Do they still sell it? Well, almost no one sells my favorite candy bar any more. It's the....uh...oh yeah, Reese's Fastbreak. I had a tiny brain fart there. Don't mind it. I found them once, in a Walgreens. Guess where? Sevierville, Tennessee. I miss them. They were so yummy and fat laden. Now, all they have are those Whips, "low-fat!" What schmucks!

I sent my old roommates some brownies today. Ro and BB. The three of us were roommates at BJU last year, along with the Redneck. Somehow, through some freak of nature, through some loop hole in the BJU planning, Ro and BB ended up being roommates again this year. I promised BB that I would send her brownies on National Chocolate Cake Day. But I had to send them to Ro, cause I didn't have BB's box number at school.

K, time to go.

Look what I made!

I made us a good dinner last night. I ventured forth from the complete meals in a box on to make your own food, and season the chicken yourself. I made chicken on my George Forman grill, chicken rice, corn, and biscuits. The following pictures will give you better insight to my cooking skills. But don't judge me only by this. I made amazing desserts, cookies, cakes, pies, brownies. Alas, if I made only those, we'd both be 300-400 pounds. So I try my hand at healthy different food.

I blame it completely on the oven. I know it's possessed! The racks are funny intervals, one is two low, but the next one up, sits too high. Plus, the temperature is about 25 degrees hotter than the dial says, AND the back heats hotter than the front. By the way, that's the corn in the back right-ish corner.

This is my wonderful George Forman grill. We got it with the bazillion of gift cards to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for wedding presents. It has interchangeable plates, so we cook waffles and stuff on it too. It cooked the chicken in like 5 minutes, seriously! I had to turn it down to warm while everything else was finishing up cooking.

Drum roll, please. The finished product, minus the biscuits. They were having problems playing in the oven. Oh, on a funny note, I always mess up rice, because it expands so much, kinda like spaghetti does. I noticed how small the bag of rice was and that there was only 2.5 servings in the thing. I concurred that they probably figured a little teaspoon scoop per person. So, what do you think I did? I made two bags. I took a picture of it, but my phone decided to be funny and not show it on the computer. Let me play around...

*15 minutes later*

I got the pot picture. That's alot of rice. Good thing I like leftovers, huh?

Even after all the mishaps, Mark still eats my dinner. I have to admit, it was really yummy. Maybe I'll make it again, when the leftovers are finished!

We're working on taxes now. I have to work tomorrow. I'm going to bed as soon as the movies over. Thought you'd like to know.