Still alive!!!

Contrary to popular belief, I didn't actually drop off the face of the planet never to be seen or heard from again... at least not technically! (That's happening next semester, mind you.) My third semester of nursing school did keep me ridiculously busy though, and I found it increasingly difficult to find any time for anything fun.

Even spring break was ridiculously busy with school related stuff. However I did get to do 1 fun thing (with my nursing school buddies) during spring break... can you guess what that was?

Rachel (aka Effie Trinket), Me (aka Katniss Everdeen), and Whitney (aka Capitol Citizen)

My "Girl on Fire" nails!

Ohhhhh yeah, we went to the midnight premier of The Hunger Games!!! It was GREAT! Rach and Whit were kind enough to humor me and dress up as well, what good sports! I'm kinda doomed next time around as I have been banned from "normal" people costumes and will probably end up as a crazy capitol citizen or worse yet... Katniss in her arena unitard? LOL I personally was hoping for her awesome smoking Mockingjay wedding gown, heck yeah! But we'll see...

Yes, I know I'm in my 30's now. No, I don't care. =)

Other than that, I've been pretty much dead to the world. But my hard work paid off and my 4.0 is still alive and kicking! Hooray! I have one more semester left before I graduate and am officially an RN!!! (Well, once I take and pass my boards, that is... small detail!) So time to live it up and enjoy my summer break, right??? Wooooohooooo????

NO :)

I am still 3 classes short for my RN to BSN program pre-reqs, so  guess what I get to do this summer? Yup... more school. Statistics, Sociology, and a random humanities class (Comparative World Religions) will consume my summer, but alas, it will be worth it. This time next year I will be working as an RN and about to start my RN to BSN program at OU, so yeah... studying will never end for me, but what else would you expect from this super-nerd? I don't know what I'm going to do myself when I run out of classes/degrees to pursue... seriously.

Also to look forward to this summer is my 6 week externship at work! I will have an assigned preceptor (an RN mentor) to train me and whom I will shadow so that I can polish my skills. Who wants a Fooooooleeeeeeeeeey/NG tube/lab drawn etc??? MUAHAHAHAHAAAAA! (Once I graduate I will basically do the same thing as a Nurse Resident but for about 3 months before they set me loose, so this is kind of like getting a jump on that) I've got an awesome preceptor and I'm looking forward to learning A LOT this summer!!!

Who gives injections like THAT?!?! They obviously needed a longer externship/residency. And so did the speller! (you're)

The Tale of Three Stones

Last Friday night we noticed Sirius was acting a bit odd as we were getting ready for bed. He was panting randomly and a bit restless. The next morning we noticed he was straining and crying when he tried to pee... and that nothing was coming out. Not one single drop. Uh-oh.

Off we went to the Vet and as we were waiting to be seen poor little Sirius started drip dropping urine everywhere, incontinence had set in. Our vet, Dr.Mauldin, wasn't seeing patients that day so Sirius was seen by their newest vet and she told us her hunch was that he might have stones and probably an obstructed urethra. X-rays confirmed 3 stones, 2 in his bladder and one stuck in his urethra. First order of business was to sedate the poor pup and insert a catheter to push the stone back into his bladder and then drain it. Once that was done he was brought back to us, high as a kite, and we were informed that the stones would have to be surgically removed because 1) they were the kind that don't dissolve and 2) they were entirely too big to pass, obviously. So we scheduled surgery for Monday with Dr.Mauldin and took our drugged up Blubbers home with antibiotics and pain meds.

Unfortunately,  by nightfall Sirius was back to straining and dribbling. We talked to the vet and she asked us to bring him back in the next morning where it was confirmed by a 2nd x-ray that he had become obstructed again. This time she said surgery couldn't wait any longer, so he stayed behind and had surgery that morning. The original plan was to have him back home by night, but due to the 2nd obstruction and the extra trauma it caused, she decided to keep him overnight. That was hard for me, I was a wreck all day and night. Dr.Mauldin called Ben on Monday after he'd looked him over and said that Sirius could come home that afternoon/evening. Hooray!!! I don't do very well when my buddy is sick/hurting... much less when he's away from me and I can't comfort him... so yeah, those were 2 rough days!

The next few days/nights were pretty bad too, especially the nights. Sirius has had some temporary incontinence and has had to empty his bladder about every hour or so. His urine for the first couple of days looked like straight blood, so we lay piddle pads alllllll over the house, especially upstairs in our room and bathroom. I have also been getting up with him every 1-2 hours every night so that his bladder won't get overly distended. Poor guy can't pee it all out in one go, so emptying completely takes him about 10 minutes. Throw in work and school every day this week and you've got one tired Alex. Ben's been working from home so he watches him during the day and I take the night shift... Lucky me =)

(This is what he has been doing most of the time this week. Thank goodness for pain meds!)

He's doing better every day though and his stitches should come out sometime next week.  His poor little belly is still swollen and bruised and his incision looks awful (not infected... just painful and ugly) but it will get better. The biggest challenges right now are his incontinence spells (we're seriously considering doggie diapers!) and keeping him from ripping his incision open by jumping on the couch...the bed...the stairs, etc.

 Oh and the stones? The vet saved them for us, so we'll get to see the suckers next week when we take him in for his post-op appointment! =)

Nursing School + Bad Back = FAT

I just completed my 2nd semester of Nursing School, so I'm 1/2 way done- WOOHOO!!! It was a much harder semester compared to our first (which was just Fundamentals.) We had MedSurg the first 8 weeks and OB the second 8 weeks which I enjoyed quite a bit, particularly my rotation in the NICU... love me some babies, and those teeny tiny miracles just tug at my heart strings even more. Gradewise I wasn't sure if I would manage to keep my 4.0 during the MedSurg half, but I did really well in OB and that did the trick! Phew! Most of the class is barely passing and I'm freaking out over keeping my A... Yeah, I know, I'm such a nerd.

Despite my success, Nursing School has been doing a number on my health/fitness. Ha! To say that I was "fit" when I began is a gross overstatement, but at least I wasn't technically overweight. However, the combination of a hectic schedule, bad eating habits (made worse by my hectic schedule), and no exercise because of my back problems has resulted in a significant weight gain this past year... particularly this past semester. So when my back specialist told me I needed to lose some weight, it was a big wake up call.

I grew up being the tall skinny girl, and was always underweight no matter what I ate or how hard I tried to gain weight! Even when Ben and I got married, I was about 10-15 lbs underweight. So to actually be OVERweight (and by 20 lbs!) is just ridiculous to me... completely bewildering, because I never thought that could actually happen. 4 years of fertility treatments and hormones definitely contributed, but it wasn't until this past year that my eating habits went completely haywires and my activity level dropped dramatically. So yeah, now I feel like this:

Say hello to my little friend called Adipose. Learn more about him here.

So what now? Torture, that's what! Being a tall string bean most of my life, I've never had to "watch what/how much I eat." Dieting was never part of my vocabulary. Of course I was a lot more active back then, not because I exercised on purpose, but because I grew up in NYC without a car, walking everywhere and taking public transportation (buses/subway) instead of driving all the time. One thing I absolutely LOATHE about not living in a more urban area is the lack of sidewalks and the fact that every store is miles and miles away. I hate having to walk on people's front lawns because I don't want to get run over by traffic. I hate walking on curbs trying not to fall off because I don't want to walk on people's front lawns. So yeah, I just haven't ever walked much here. That's changing... it has to because I HAVE to move more and walking is what my doc said I can safely do without aggravating my back. So I have been walking with Ben and the pups and hating every minute of it, but whatever... I'm doing it. 

I've also begun the South Beach diet again with Ben. He had great results with this last year before falling off the bandwagon, so I've decided to really give it a go this year. Like really truly try and not give up after 2 weeks. I loooooove my breads and pastas and sugar, so this is the real "torture" part of it. We've also joined myfitnesspal.com which is great for tracking calories, water intake (another weakness of mine- I hate water), and daily exercise. I'm hoping this will help keep me more accountable!!!

So yeah, that's my plan... eat smarter and get my butt in motion. I fear that my back will eventually get in the way and i will have to focus more on losing weight through dieting, but I've made a goal to at least walk every single day. I recently got Zumba Fitness 2 on the Wii and have been cautiously working out with that every other day, being careful to modify all the moves that stress my back. On the days my back is bothering me more I will just walk... but for someone who never walks, that's a small victory in itself.

My goal? Well, my doc wants me to lose 20-25 lbs but I would ideally like to return to pre-fertility treatment weight. Not quite as skinny as I was when we got married 8 years ago, but a healthy thin. That's about 46 lbs, yikes! Once school starts again in a week I know this will get soooo much harder (especially finding time to exercise and prepare meals to take with me!) but I am resolved to do this. So much so that I'm blogging about it so that I have more of a sense of urgency and accountability. See my little ticker up there? Yup, nice little reminder for me.

So as cliche as New Years Resolutions are... I'm going for the age-old "losing weight!" I can still hardly believe I've let myself get to this point, the younger version of me would be flabbergasted... oh well, it is what it is... now its time to change it up! How about YOU? What are you doing to be a better/healthier/happier you this year? =)

Overnight freeze-away!

Ben's been itching to go camping for a while now but because of our crazy schedules (mostly mine) we can never do/go anywhere! Luckily I managed to get a day off during fall break and we decided a few weeks ago to make the most of it and go overnight camping as a getaway. It was, however, with some trepidation on my part because I had just thrown out my back and it was during a cold snap... I don't do camping in the cold!!!

Our trip was short but a nice change of pace! It did get down in the high 30's/low 40's overnight so we pretty much froze... well myself and the dogs anyway! We ended up putting Mini back in the car with some blankets and Sirius curled up between us and shivered all night long, poor thing! I don't think any of us got much sleep that night. =/  However, the smores were yummy, as well as the breakfast Ben cooked for us the next morning!!! Of course, by mid-day the temp had climbed back up and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day just as we were packing up and getting ready to leave... go figure!

Here are some pics and a video:

Getting the smores started!

Can I have some Dad?

Nummers!!!

The pups exploring and hoping for some bacon!

Yummy breakfast in the making!!!

Say freeze!

Finally here is a video... backstory, when Sirius was a puppy he had this odd habit of showing his displeasure with his food by burying it. He normally did this by covering it with his blankets. He would also always bring us his "peace offering" (in the form of a kibble or two, dropped in front of us) before finally eating! Anyway, he hasn't done this in ages... until that morning when we were all still half frozen. We think this was his way of saying, "That was NOT fun... and now you give me this?!?! I want some BACON people!!!" 

Crazy dog!  =)

Work, Books, and The Docta!

Summer has flown by for me! Since I wasn't in school and someone has been on maternity leave at work, I've been spending most of my days at the hospital the past few months. Boy am I ready to get back to school and not be at work so much... the extra $ has been nice but I feel like my patience and good-naturedness has been slowly sucked away every time I set foot in that hospital, particularly these past few weeks. Talk about burn out...

Anyway, when I haven't been at work I've been catching up on some pleasure (as opposed to textbook) reading - my most favorite (and relaxing) thing to do! I tend to go through genre kicks, and this summer it has been YA Dystopian novels. I'd never been into sociopolitical type stuff until The Hunger Games, but rather than read the trilogy for the umpteenth time, I figured I'd see what else I could find.

So, over the past few weeks I've enjoyed:

 

and it's sequel

 

All in all a pretty good series thus far. I enjoyed the second book much more, which is odd for me since I always have a hard time with middle books in trilogies. The Death Cure is to be released in October, and I'm much looking forward to it! The plot is so convoluted I can't even begin to explain so read about the storyline here.

Was ok... Basically its about a society in which everything is chosen for you (your spouse, your job, where you live, when you will die, etc.) and in return you get to live a long and "perfect" life. Not so. Book 2 (Crossed) comes out soon so I'm interested to see where it goes. For more on the storyline, go here.

 Oooh, this one was particularly interesting! I loved the snippets of government propaganda (including revised biblical verses to "support" their agenda) as the chapter headings. Very disturbing. More than just a mere love story. Bittersweet ending, but I'm excited for the sequel, Pandemonium. Read more about the storyline here.

Ah, but my favorite read of them all

LOVED this book. I am so sad that its sequel, Insurgent, doesn't come out until next year! I always do that too, grrrr... It's based on a society that has chosen 5 virtues to build itself upon, deeming them the only way to obtain perfection, order, peace, and happiness. It is a world of absolutes, no middle-ground. Of course, as with all dystopian novels, this society is not as perfect as it seems and the protagonist discovers this as she is forced to make difficult and life-altering decisions regarding which Faction she will belong to. More on the storyline here.

One more fun thing I've done this summer was discovering the hilariousness that is

Oh. My. Goodness. I cannot believe it's taken me THIS long to finally come to appreciate the sheer genius of this show!!! Ben has watched it for years and I would always roll my eyes and bury my head in a book because I thought it was boring and ridiculous and just plain dumb. Then one night after a very bad day at work, I just needed some mind-numbing anything. I turned on Netflix and by some stroke of luck decided I was actually kind of curious about The Doctor...(WHO exactly is he? Why does he have so many faces? What's with the flying police box? And what the heck is a sonic screwdriver?!?!?) Within 10 minutes I was rolling! Ben was flabbergasted, to say the least! Now I'm hooked! 

School starts Monday and I will be even busier now with both work and school, so I fear my pleasure reading and Dr.Who kick will come to an abrupt end. *sigh* Oh well, at least I'll have a few books and many more Docta episodes to look forward to as "treats" after big tests or on short breaks. I really am excited for school to start back up, I've been ready since July! Such a nerd, I know... ;)