I'm On It

28 May 2012

observations from last week (with gifs!)

before i get too far behind let me catch up

no ER stories because i haven’t been in to work. that changes tomorrow hopefully!

From community clinicals (domestic violence shelter):

we met w/ about 7 ladies or so. i made the STUPID mistake of asking their names..smh..

they all looked nervous but they were willing to give their first names. i felt like a total idiot lol but i just smiled and went with it

we pretty much just had open discussion w/ them. some diff issues came up that a lot of us could relate to. most had to do w/ stress, insomnia, diet and nutrition, developing lactose intolerance and how to deal w/ it even with a love for cheese, how to get a little brother to stop eating because he was over 250lbs and not very tall or very old (ironically this kid was considered to be healthy by a physician and doesn’t even eat junk food! only healthy food! he’s eating so much though because he’s scared his mom will go back to jail and he will not have any food…so he is trying to store it all now.. Lord..=’(   )

we also brought a yummy and healthy treat that every1 loved (except for the diabetic who had to pass, but we gave her an alternative..which was fruit..which idk if that was a good idea or not but my professor was there and she didn’t object lol )

next time we will go and take their family health history so we can talk about preventative care. i wonder if hte same women will be there. we didn’t know what to expect but really only two or so looked anything close to banged up. well 1..it wasn’t really noticeable..but another literally looked like a wounded animal..it made me wonder what she had gone through before finding her way here. my goodness

hospital clinicals:

the neuro floor isn’t so bad. at least it wasn’t last week. considering that when i thought of ‘neuro’ i thought of a total care patient..my patient was so easy and low maintenance and independent

and so sweet! the only thing she needed help w/ was w/ a bed pan. and she barely peed. she had me talk to her daughter in law who is also a nurse so that i could remain encouraged. she said i’d make a great nurse. she was super sweet! my only freak out moment was after i found out that she had had C.Diff 

and then she gave me a hug and touched my face…i was like

but in her records she was off of c.diff precautions (oh we have that? )

because it had not been active or w/e the word is (sorry) in 5 months..which is the limit..it had been exactly 5 months. i swamped my professor with questions because the last thing i want is c.diff. but then i realized how many times i had unknowingly come into contact with it in the ER (like w/ that first lady who passed away) and i fig i’d be ok. 

so far so good (knock on wood)

now i’m studying for our first exam which will cover hematology/oncology

hiphiphooray!

oh…i also missed my first class this semester. darn those mid-day naps!!! anyways. it wont’ happen again.

15 May 2012

let me say a little more on the community clinical visit today

like i said, it was at the domestic violence shelter

and this made me a lil concerned because as much as i am all about women’s and sexual health… certain things really disturb me. don’t get me wrong, i want to help and be involved, but to a certain extent i feel like i have to kind of remove myself

because it truly disturbs me

i really enjoy all things and convos related to sex

but rape, for example, is such an intimate and vicious thing that it just completely taints the whole idea of sex. it is not what sex should be. someone’s sexual experience should not be in that form. and someone should not have to devalue their rape by attempting to devalue sex in their mind

sex should be valued!

and love/relationships. another topic i enjoy. but in a case of domestic violence, all of that gets skewed. and it is very difficult to repair. in a lot of cases you can’t predict that outcome…so i can’t imagine ever trusting someone again if i did go through that

i feel like when i meet the women i’m going to have to mentally picture with each of them what they must have been through and what must go through their minds on a regular basis when they’re out and about and don’t know where their abuser is

so these are the questions that popped into my mind today:

1) how does pent up sexual frustration effect how long a woman stays at the shelter? like for someone who is a very sexual being and can’t even have a moment of privacy to satisfy herself because she’s sharing a room with another woman and her kids. i’m being serious. i feel like that could be enough to make someone reconsider. esp knowing how some people stay in relationships just because the sex is good. it can almost be like a fix. i’d imagine that situation to be frustrating.. as my professor described it- you’re snatched out of your environment. even if it is an unsafe one. u miss your bed, your tv, your kitchen..etc etc.

2) have their been incidents within this safe house where children were abused (ie sexually) by other children? considering the psychological effects abuse or witnessing abuse has on a child, i wonder if any child has ever taken it out knowingly or unknowingly so on another child. and if so, i’d imagine that child to be hesitant to tell because as far as they know this is the only safe place for their mom…and who are they to mess that up? tht’s a tough position. Lord, i hate when children are involved. they just have no control and very limited knowledge and resources concerning their options. heartbreaking.. it’s why i worry about my kids and the last community clinical site we went to. like all i can think about sometimes is one of my kids (“my kids”) could be gettin abused right this very moment. and where have they to go?

3)  shoot, i can ‘t remember!

anyways. i feel like this community clinical experience is going to weigh heavy on me. but that’s ok. it will help somehow. i just can’t imagine being sexually abused by a spouse..that’d be confusing. or being hit. like i’ve been accidentally hit before and that was shock enough. but actually hit with full force intention….my goodness

like, what would i even do?

ok that’s all i got for tonight

22 Oct 2011

brief post. sleepy…

so today we had a special lecture instead of seminar and the topic was domestic violence, sexual violence, and (kind of somehow) pregnancy

very interesting. although i always wonder who in the room is affected by these topics considering the statistics i knew some people had to be..

at one part i got a lil emo for some reason. i believe they were talking about how it’s hard to show up on the scene and decide who is the aggressor and such and how the system doesn’t always work the way they’d like but they can only do their best. and how she (the detective) knows some of the men on her team (the domestic violence response team or w/e) have personal issues that sometimes manifest themselves in how they handle situations they’re called to

interesting

one girl said something really stupid in response to a scenario presented about a girl who was at a party w/ her sober bf but got really drunk and was raped by someone other than her bf. the girl said something like ‘not trying to..idk..but if her bf was there and sober how did she manage to get raped?’

we were all like

i thought to myself that i hope she’s never left alone w/ a rape victim!

the lady told her the wording was bullying the victim and she should maybe say how did someone manage to rape her but still even that sounds accusatory and belittling.

this girl is kind of known for opening her mouth and inappropriate things just spilling out

also tonight i did some assessment stuff on family and heard very interesting thing. it’s so crazy how (outside of lab where everyone is fit and ‘normal’) it correlated so well w/ what was in the most recent powerpoint lecture! i was like omgsh you’re saying and i’m hearing everything the slide said i would!!

idk i guess i thought it was all hypothetical? lol whowould’vethunkit

anyways i then let them try out my stethoscope on me. they were very impressed. although because she didn’t have her hearing aid in and was just kind of going with it one of my aunts thought she heard clear indicators of consolidation haha we died laughing.

‘99’