September 2018

Keeping up with my blog has gotten a little more challenging over the years.  Especially as the girls have gotten older and all of us are involved with more activities.  It is spring break 2019 as I write about these last 6 months.  

Jane started pre-school at Iglesia Cristiana Mont Sinai at the beginning of the month.  They integrate English and Spanish into the curriculum, so we might have a little Spanish speaker (or undersander-er). The best part is wearing these cute little uniforms.  Unfortunately, Jane only likes to wear dresses, so I had to shop around for appropriate wear.  But isn't she darling!

I started a new job at Seton Medical Center in Harker Heights.  It is literally 7 minutes from my house.  I work in the surgical services area, which has been a little bit of an adjustment.  I see patients for about 1 hour at the most.  It is very family friendly though.  I work roughly 8-9 hours three days a week Monday-Friday.  I don't have to work on the weekends, unless I decide to take call.  Call is about once a week on the weekdays and one weekend every two months.  Super easy.  Eventually, I'd like to pick up some shifts in their ICU.  

Kate lost her other bottom, front tooth this month.  Her teacher pulled it out in class and she got a fancy tooth necklace to keep it safe from the school nurse.  She was excited because it was just like the story Fancy Nancy and the Too-Loose Tooth.  It is fun to see her grow up, but it is also a little painful.  I keep looking at her and thinking about when she was 18 months or 3 years old.  My little KitKate is growing up so quickly!  

I wrote a little note from the Tooth Fairy.  It says "Make sure you brush a little longer. Your tooth was a bit on the rotten side." 

Rebekah turned 34 this year.  I pampered myself with a haircut and pedicure.  We went out to eat at Richard Rawlings' Garage and I bought myself a Nothing Bunt Cake.  The girls and Bryan got me nail polish and a new car! 

The next weekend we traveled down to Kerrville, Texas for their triathlon.  Bryan did the sprint this year and I completed the Olympic distance.  If I remember correctly, Bryan got 4th in his age category (lost by 0.01 seconds) and I got 3rd place in my age category. Bryan's little brother, Michael, came out to race in the sprint triathlon as well.  We stayed out at Bryan's grandma's house and the girls enjoyed seeing and petting all the animals.  

The girls having fun at a trampoline park.

We started the girls in gymnastics every Tuesday at Texas Tumblers.  They both really enjoy it, thank goodness!

Goodbye ICU friends and family

My last day of work was sometime in August. I actually can't remember when I really "worked" this summer because it seemed like I was always on leave or working on out-processing. My fellow coworkers put on a wonderful farewell party before I left. I have truly learned so much from each of them over the past 3 years. I won't say I will miss working at Darnall, but I will miss my friends and my Texas family. 

The ICU: Jimmy, Monty, MAJ Yarde, MAJ Row, Merri, Rosa, Jeff, Jeanne, John, Rebekah Angela, Cline, Joan

I got some maternity scrubs for my new civilian job!

 A scrapbook with all my accomplishments while stationed at Fort Hood.

Texas Memorabilia: blue bonnet seeds, chili powder, Christmas ornament, Texas flag, and chocolate covered pecans!

 I guess I am going to have to learn to make crawfish etouffee.

 I was awarded an ARCOM for my service in the military at Fort Hood. 

Korea and Key Resolve

I was tasked to go to Korea for a field training exercise called Key Resolve 2012. Every 6 months, the 121st Combat Support Hospital (CSH) brings in about 60 personnel (also known as profis) from all over the states to help with this exercise. I was the lucky one from Fort Hood, or so I thought. I had little knowledge of what I was actually going to do out there; I thought it was going to be a vacation from work.

Korean Air is very fancy. Look at the cute little stewardess's in their fun outfits. They change throughout the flight with each meal. During the flight, they make the passengers open the windows for meal time and close the windows/turn off the lights for sleep time. The food was amazing and we got fed about every 3 hours on a 14 hour flight. The seats had there very own TV set with all sorts of new releases. I watched 4 on the way there, and 5 on the way back. Don't judge!

Overlooking Asia on the flight to Korea.

After arriving, I found out we would be putting up a CSH and running it like a regular hospital. We would be able to treat 82 or 84 patients. I had little idea how hard and labor-some putting up a hospital would be. We had a 36 hour deadline.

This is one of the 5 tents our group put up.

Then we had to fill it up with all the beds, blankets, medical supplies, computers, tables, ect. This was probably the worst part because the individual in charge had no idea where stuff was. No, I just lied. Putting up the tents was the worse part.

These are some of the lovely ladies I worked with- 1LT Gibbons, 1LT Bried, and 1LT Canales. I was made the Head Nurse of the ICW4. Suany Canales was my day shift nurse and Vonya Gibbons was my night shift nurse.

We had mandatory training while continuing the hospital's mission as well. I got to go to the range and the gas chamber. Fun army stuff.
When we weren't doing mandatory training, we were doing medical training. We had an excellent educator that taught the nurses and medics how to intubate, insert an IV in the external jugular, put in nasal trumps, and "carry downs" (ie: taking down a combative patient). All of which were with live patients the volunteered to have these teachings completed on them.

We had a 3 hour break to go to the PX and do laundry.

While our laundry was drying, we went bowling. We weren't sure if this was allowed, so we kept it secret the rest of the exercise. I won though!
These are a bunch of nurses during a practice mascal (or mass casualty situation). Left to Right: 1LT Chapuzio, 1LT Bried, CPT Ahlborn, 1LT Axtel, 1LT Canales, CPT Garcia, CPT Fufa, 1LT James.

The end goal of the exercise for the hospital side and the hospital training side was to do a mascal. We had 2 practice situations and then 1 "real" mascal situation. We had about 16 patients come through- I was asked to come up to the EMT to help triage because of my ICU experience. It was actually felt pretty real. The patients were volunteers with makeup and good acting. We would actually put IVs, cut there clothes off and perform all other life-saving procedures in the time they would actually take. This was very good training. It also helped me to see what I'd be doing if I deployed with a CSH.

The last day we were able to wear civilian clothes and explore Seoul.

As a group, we visited the War Museum. I am standing in front of the museum and you can see Seoul Tower in the background. The museum was very interesting and modern. We watched a battleship video game, a 3D airforce mission, and simulated weapons range. Unfortunately, most of the explanations of the exhibits were in Korean.

Dancing underneath Seoul Tower.

The Love Chain Wall: "From times of old, there was a story that if 2 lovers make a wish at the shrine on Mt. South, it comes true. Since that, this place became a symbol of promising an everlasting love for couples with hanging a lock together." Millions of locks are chained around the bottom of Seoul Tower.

My iconic pose.

After visiting the tower and war museum, we were free to roam the city. We went out to eat at an authentic Korean restaraunt. We had to take our shoes off and sit on the warm floor (heat is produced from the water pipes that run along the floor). Our food was cooked on coals in the middle of the table. Very fun experience and very good food. Left to Right: Harland, Rachelle, Shannon, Hall, Farmer, Mark, Me, Joseph, Suany.

This experience has definitely enlightened my mind. I made a lot of really good friends and got to experience things in the military I am not very familiar with (mostly because I spend all my time in a fixed hospital). We shall see whats in store for me next.

CCRN

One of my goals for 2011 was to pass the CCRN exam. Yesterday I did just that. The CCRN certification validates my knowledge of nursing care in the acute and/or critically ill patients and it promotes continued excellence in the critical care nursing field. It has been a gruelling 7 month process as I completed the Army's 4 month critical care nursing course and then another 3 months of self studying. Now I have to start working on my other goals?