Therapeutic Communication

I have been putting off writing a blog about my career for a long while, but I'm not sure I can wait any longer.  I had my first week out of orientation this week a boy what a week it has been. On top of the average crap that comes in the ER this week I had 2 patients try to die on me. The first was on tuesday, my second full shift out of orientation. This pt came to the ED via EMS and had been vomiting blood. once he arrived to the ED he vomited so much blood that he lost consciousness and aspirated some of the blood into his lungs. We then had to intubate and sedate the patient and then gave him 5 units of blood and 2 units of plasma. Of course ICU was out of beds so I then became and ICU nurse and took him one on one for the rest of the day.

The second patient was today. A coworker of mine needed today off because he couldn't find a baby sitter. One of our other coworker said they would be willing to split the shift with me, and since it would mean overtime pay, I agreed. BAD IDEA. When I walked in today everything seemed remotely normal. I took report on my new patients and one in particular was a troubling case. This man came into the ED this morning because of a low blood sugar. EMS gave him and amp of D50 (a sugary fluid) en route to the hospital and we fed him once he got there and she sugar came right up. As he was preparing to be discharged he said his throat felt like it was closing up and that he had a lot of phlegm in his throat. When his nurse at that time took a look at his airway it was extremely swollen and she notified the doctor immediately. The pat was given benedryl and a steroid and then I came in. We gave him a second round of the benedryl and steroid and also an epi pen. His airway looked almost completely closed at this point and an anesthesiologist came to look at it. As she started to asses the patient he began gasping for air and suffocating. The ER doctor immediately prepared to put in a chrichoidotomy, meaning he would have to cut the patient's chrichoid cartilage and insert and airway into his throat. This airway was not ventilating the patient properly and the patient began to crash. We then popped the code card and began giving the patient compressions and medications to keep him alive until a new artificial airway could be placed.

Long story short this patient is still alive but only by the grace of God. There is a point, a fine line in my job where I become helpless and can only hope. This man was dead but is now alive. Of course he may now have a noxious brain injury and we are unsure of his neurological status, but can only hope for the best.  I pray for his sweet wife who accompanied his this morning to the ED with a low blood sugar and out with a new tracheotomy and unresponsive state.

If I have failed to mention this to you before I have a hard job. Some people like to complain about their jobs. And yeah, there are a lot of jobs that suck. I have been a McDonald's worker, a maid, a waitress, an office worker, I have worked for tyrants and pushovers but nursing takes the cake. I literally have to comfort family members when their loved one is on death's door. I have to put up with mean doctors, clean up people's poop, deal with belligerent drunk people and do it all quickly and with a smile and sometimes I really don't feel like smiling about it. Because the people I take care of often treat me like dirt, and I get tired of washing blood off my hands all day, and I get tired of having 10 min to go shove my lunch down my throat and every day I go to work I never know if I'm going to walk into a storm.

With all of this said I must also tell you I have the best job i the world. I have given babies their first bath. I have also had the privilege of giving a dead person their last bath. I explain what the doctors don't and I am an advocate for my patients when they need someone to hear their problems or speak up for their pain. I heal the sick and keep people alive. People come to me hurting and dying and sick and leave me most often than not feeling better and in less pain. Perhaps these things are even more rewarding to me now that I have seen the sick die, I truly treasure when they live. Of course there will always be the crazy and uneducated who come in for no good reason and waste our tax dollars, and I struggle daily to have patience, but all in all there is nothing, absolutely nothing like being a nurse.

going green anyone?

Just wanted to share with everyone out there what we have been doing in our home to decrease our impact on the environment.  When we first moved to NOLA Chad and I both bought bikes. We have been so happy to be able to ride our bikes to and from the many businesses we frequent in our neighborhood. This is also Chad's primary transportation to and from school and he is loving it. After both having extensive commutes the last 2 years we are glad to have sold one car and picked up our awesome cruisers. 

We have also begun composting. Of course this may sound a bit daunting for the beginner, but there's really nothing to it. I keep a small plastic trash can by the chopping block and after preparing food put scraps into it. At the end of the day I take the scraps out to a large trash receptacle we have on the side of the house that we share with our neighbor. I have turned the rubbish once, added a bit of cut greens from landscaping and come spring we will hopefully have some nice gardening compost. 

We also use our local recycling company. New Orleans is one of the few metropolitan areas that probably charges for this service, but we also split this with the neighbors so it's not too bad. Of course they only come every other monday, so if I forget one week it starts really piling up. I keep the recyclables under the sink in a paper bag until time to set out. 

With all the composting and recycling I have really noticed a difference in the amount of trash we are putting out each week. All of our trash has to go somewhere, so I'm glad I ca at least do a small part to decrease the land that has to be used to process all of that junk. 

Lady Marmalade

One of the things I miss the most from our home back in Macon are our two pecan trees. Any of you out there who bake will know those trees might have well been dropping gold on our lawn, not pecans. Those things can easily cost you eight bucks for a half pound bag at the grocery which you can barely bake anything with! I truly enjoyed cooking with these yummy nuts not only because they were delicious, and man they were, but because they came from my very own front yard. I enjoyed collecting them and shelling them and Bella enjoyed batting a few strays around the house as well.


Well, since we moved to New Orleans we were surprised and happy to find a lime tree in our front yard. I was making key lime pie, margaritas, and all sorts of lime sauces all summer until slowly our limes weren't really limes anymore. As the weeks went by these little fruits became brighter and brighter in color on the inside. They also tasted sweeter too! My "limeade" no longer needed a full cup of sugar and we weren't quite sure what exactly it was growing in our front yard anymore.

As the summer turned to fall the outside of our "limes" slowly started to turn as well to a soft orange color. That's when it became official that we no longer had some strange strand of limes on our hands, we have Louisiana SATSUMAs! These are a small Japanese strand of oranges that have been growing in New Orleans since the 18th century when they were brought here by Jesuits from Asia.

We slowly became unable to eat as many satsumas as our little tree could produce and for fear of loosing so many good oranges we decided to make Satsuma Marmalade!

Here are some pics of our fun times canning the satsumas. The jam hasn't set too well yet, but hopefully we'll be having satsuma marmalade on our Christmas morning biscuits!

Spread The Word! Official Po-Boy Fest Downloads | New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival

Spread The Word! Official Po-Boy Fest Downloads | New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival

Geaux Saints!

Perhaps you don't keep up with what is going on the NFL world, but our little football team here in New Orleans has just reached a 9-0 record. It's pretty incredible. They have never had a record greater than 7-0 and have now created a new record. I of course have never been a pro football fan. I could care less about the falcons, with or without Michael Vick. But I must say there is something intoxicating about the Saints and their fans, of which I now count myself one. This city is obsessed with their boys in black and gold. Cars drive past with flags waving from the windows and banners fly from nearby porches. Any given sunday that the Saints are paying this town literally shuts down. While working in the ER on a "Saints sunday" we had patient's check into the "get their blood pressure checked" just to watch the team on the flat screen in the lobby. This team is also one of only 3 teams in the NFL to be completely SOLD OUT.

My personal conversion to the black and gold came shortly after the season started. Everyone was talking about the Saints it seemed and I had to find out what this little team was about. I've been watching them for the past 5-6 games and I have been so impressed. Of course you know I'm a Georgia Tech fan, who by they way are having an amazing season, and college football is about all I could get into, but watching the Saints is like a whole nother' deal. Pro-football is so precise, so much more prefect than what I have seen in college games. So just know, the way it looks now, come Superbowl Sunday I actually might care about more than just the commercials.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N30hSP5w2rI

Things that make me go humm

I don't know about you guys but this video makes me cry everytime I see it. Along with MANY country music songs, well a lot of songs. Thinking about people who have died at work, even if I wasn't there when it happened. so yeah, i'm basically a big sappy blob.

The Awakening

I have been working at my new job for about 6 weeks now. During those six weeks I would have to say I have grown more as a nurse than I ever thought I could when I was in school or working. It's really astounding. I feel like I have been through the ups and downs that some people look back on in a career, just in six weeks. I'm going to be pretty vague here to protect the innocent :-) but nursing is hard work.

I remember when I was the drum major of the marching band back in high school what an AMAZING feeling it was to move my hands up and back down in one swift movement and suddenly hear sound erupt from the crowd of musicians before you. It was like magic, making music with my hands. It was a thrill and one of the highlights of that time in my life.

Nursing is a lot like that feeling. It is a VERY powerful job. But instead of music coming out of my hands it's people's lives. I literally have the power to heal and harm in these two hands. It almost takes my breath away. It is my greatest fear to ever do a patient harm. It is this healthy fear that I hope pushes and urges my heart and head to think through every task I complete no matter how busy I am or how many times I have given that particular drug before. Not for any single reason other than the fact that people are placing their lives into my hands.

On a lighter note, I really wouldn't trade this job, right now, for the world. As much crap as I put up with (literally) and crazy people I have to deal with, this is why I do what I do. I GET the awesome responsibility to try to change people's lives for the better.

Chad's Speakeasy party

For Chad's birthday this year I decided to throw him a themed party. I really haven't thrown many parties in the three years we have been married, mainly because we didn't live near many of our friends. Since we have been in New Orleans we have made a good many friends in a short amount of time so it was fun to have everyone over. I decided on the Great Gatsby/speakeasy theme since that is one of Chad's favorite books and a speakeasy would be fun for everyone to dress up for. We instructed everyone to come in the back door and give the password for admittance. I made a ton of food and we mixed 1920's era cocktails. Everyone looked great in their costumes. Here are a few pics from the party.

Amazingness!!

The view from the bottom looking up

So here's a little update from your now workin' girl! As most of you know I started my new job last week. I had Ochsner (my company) orientation monday, Ochsner Baptist (my hospital) orientation tuesday, and nursing orientation on wednesday. They I worked two twelve hour shifts thursday and friday. Needless to say I was pretty pooped friday night! So far I have really enjoyed work. I really like just being back in the hospital and taking care of patients. I honestly live for it! The ER is so different though. Patients are in and out very quickly and most of your time is spent doing diagnostics on them to figure out what, if anything is actually wrong with them. I like most of the people I work with. I am current;y orienting on the day shift (7a-7p) for at least a month. Then I will be switching to my regular shift of 11a-11p and orienting with the guy who does that shift before they let me out on my own. And let me tell you that will be a scary day. Since I started I have just realized how much I still have to learn! It's scary. The nursing knowledge is in there, I just need practice with that. Then there's the task of figuring out how to chart everything, where everything is, protocols, etc. The learning curve is steep, I just hate climbing. Looking forward to the view from the top, but I have a feeling This is one of those mountains that never ends, just becomes less steep as you climb.

No Rif Raf

As I finished my last post I indicated there would be more "dream" making material ahead and here it is folks! This dream was a long time coming and finally realized in our backyard on Labor Day. Our neighbor peter mentioned earlier in the summer how badly he wanted to get a pool in the backyard for the summer. We of course thought this was a bit ludicrous and assumed it would not happen. Peter actually had the pool picked out on Walmart.com, but apparently the rest of the U.S. had the same idea and bought them all before we could get our hands on one.

A few months went by and the pool became a sore subject. That is until the day Alexis and Peter went to Walgreens one day and noticed their made for TV section had the EXACT pool from Walmart!! It was even marked down 50% off!!

Low and Behold for Labor Day we were sitting pretty in our very own pool complete with burgers, cool drinks and flippy floppies.

The stuff dreams are made of..

As promised I am back to tell the a story of some incredible happenings down here under the uptown oaks. Not sure if I have mentioned this before but we have been completely blessed since moving here to make some amazing friends right off the bat! Our neighbor Peter is one of the most fun loving people we have ever met. Through his we have met his girlfriend Alexis, and some of their other friends.

While we were enjoying the porch one fine new orleans evening with our new friends, fun loving Peter decided that for his upcoming birthday he

wants to have a pig roast! Wow, a Pig Roast! Really? yeah! Lets do it! Of course this enthusiasm most likely stemmed from everyone having had a few Abita's, but we were definitely on board.

Over the next few weeks leading up to Peter's

birthday we discussed all of the possibilities and particulars of pulling this off. Finally we came to the realization that New Orleans is in fact a swamp, meaning = soggy pig. Therefore it was time for the

next option: The CAJUN MICROWAVE!!! (this is basically a box with metal on top where you place coals to cook whatever is inside, kind of like an oven) Chad said, "hey I built a bathroom, I can build a CAJUN MICROWAVE." And that my friends is what he did!

The weekend before the big even the guys went over to Lowe's to make their pig roasting dreams a reality. Four hours later they came back with materials and an official plan and set to work. Late the following day it was finished and we loaded it with two hens to test it's cooking capabilities.

Those chickens were GOOD! So the e-vites were sent and the pig was

ordered.

Here are a few pics from the exciting event. We believe this is only the beginning of dreams come true here on oak street!

P.S. More dream fulfilling postings to come!

SO it's time to update.! A LOT has happened in our lives since the last post and I am excited to let everyone know.

In my last post I announced my acceptance of a job in Baton Rouge. Since then, I received a very exciting call. Before moving to New Orleans I had interviewed with a local hospital here called Ochsner Baptist for their ER. I was not selected for this position, but apparently the person who was did not end up being a good fit for them because a few weeks after accepting my position at Baton Rouge they called me to set up an interview! I was very excited about this because this is a job I had REALLY wanted. It is super close to our house and the manager on the unit seemed to be someone I would really enjoy working for. I interviewed for the job and the manager continued to seem interested. Well, two weeks ago he offered me the position!!! It really worked out well since they are owned by the same company I was about to work for so transferring was just a matter of paper work. It put me a little behind on my starting day, but it has been worth it to be able to take a job I really wanted. One of the best features about the position is I will work from 11a.m. to 11p.m.!! This is a dream nursing shift that is really rare and I am super excited about it. I will still be doing three shifts a week and every other weekend.

I also found out that I passed my boards exam! This was a HUGE milestone for me and I received my new license to practice nursing in the mail yesterday!!

Chad has begun law school and is in his third week. He spends a lot of time in the library, so we are officially coming out of "staycation".

Bella cat has enjoyed spending hours on end in front of the big window at the front of our house looking at her new best friend "grey cat". She has also most recently begun doing flips in front of the window to show off for her new friend as well.

Chad's birthday is coming up and we are planning a great gatsby themed speakeasy party for him. I'm very excited about this!

We most recently helped our neighbor throw a pig roast birthday party and I will discuss this extravaganza in my next post.

Until next time,

Ash, Chad and Bella

So with much consideration I decided to take the job at Ochsner medical center baton rouge. I went in for my pre-employment paperwork last week and am ready to go on August 31st. I will have hospital orientation for a few days and then move to my floor for nursing orientation. I am very lucky to have a day shift position, so hopefully even though I will be out of town several days a week, I will still be able to see chad and our friends at night and in my off days (instead of sleeping). I will be taking my boards exam on August 25 and have been studying diligently for the past few weeks.

Last week chad volunteered with the Louisiana Justice institute. This was a volunteer week set up by Tulane that new students could participate in before school starts. This organization works mainly with litigation that supports under represented populations in NOLA. They are working on fair housing, the save charity hospital initiative, and educational reform among other things. He worked with two other students that will be in his class this fall, one of which is also married. Chad starts orientation for law school tomorrow and will resume with classes on monday.

Bella has been a bad girl lately and keeps trying to get out of the house. Once in fact when we were on our way out with some friends to go get gelato. She hid under the house next door for about thirty minutes taunting us by coming just close enough to reach her as she then ran away again. We are considering getting her micro-chipped soon just in case. Chad has decided he might like grey cat better after all.

So I got a job offer today! What a great feeling.. an option. The position is for a telemetry unit which is great since that is what my background has been in. It is for a great company that has acquired several hospitals since Katrina and is doing well in this faltering economy. The only draw back is that it is for their Baton Rouge campus. This would mean a 1 hour drive 3 days a week. The benefit of doing this with such a large group is that if I couldn't stand the drive I could always transfer to a closer facility. I am still waiting to hear from several other hospitals I have interviewed with over the last 2 weeks which are closer to home. Hopefully the options and decision will be clear to me in the next few days, but of course passing my board's exam is the real hurdle ahead.

Below you'll find a bunch of pictures from around Uptown New Orleans. We have lots more, but it takes a good while to upload them. Check out Ashley's facebook page for more!

Tulane again Audubon Park directly south of Tulane Audubon Park again facing St. Charles Avenue (streetcar line) and Tulane

extra bedroom banana tree outside bedroom window with fruit actually growing on it. Ashley eating delectable snoball Ash on her sweet cruiser bike Chad with his new super cool refurbished cruiser

bedroom kitchen living room again Chad with the prolific lime tree

The New Addition to our Family.

A few days ago while sipping my morning brew I noticed our feline friend sitting at the window with a marked expression of excitement on her face. Upon turning from my chair to look out the window at what could have captured her attention so fully, I found a little grey cat sprawled out on one of our porch chairs catching a "cat nap". "Grey Cat", as he has come to be known, was soon startled at our watching him sleep, and as if sensing our curiosity at his snoozing on our chair, meandered down to the concrete and stretched out once more. Bella cat seemed to take this move as a flaunting of his freedom before her very eyes. She was indignant, and overcome with jealousy began to bounce around the door and meowing as hard as her little mouth could to let us know she would like to join her new friend "grey cat" outside. Well we managed to capture a few fun pics and bella managed to settle down, but we certainly haven't seen the last of our new friend. Grey cat has been visiting regularly and I have begun to leave him a bit to eat here and there as he looks like he could use a bite to eat. Enjoy the pics!

Hi Everyone!

Just as promised here are some pics of our house pre-move in. just stuff from our car piled around the rooms. These pictures are of the front, living room, kitchen, and backyard. Perhaps when we are all settled we can put up a grand tour of the finished product. 

Currently the job hunt is still in full force. I was offered a position in Baton Rouge, but we decided that was not an option to consider because of the lengthy drive and lower pay than what I could find here. Hopefully I will hear something soon from somewhere here in town. 

Til next time!

AJK

Hello Friends! Welcome to our new blog! We have decided to do this blog to hopefully keep everyone better updated on our adventures in N.O.L.A. 

These are pictures from move in day last week. As you can see Bella cat was very helpful in laying down contact paper in the cabinets. We are really enjoying our new home! It is a traditional "shotgun" style New Orleans home where all the rooms come in succession like a bullet from a gun. Our house is a little smaller than our last one so we have had to be creative with storage, but overall it is very nice. The best part is our location. We are just blocks on two sides from many restaurants and coffee shops and chad's new school. This has been a great change for us from our former life of driving everywhere. I will add more pictures of our new house soon. 

Til later, 

Ashley