Semester One, Week Thirteen

Last week was so hellacious, I didn't even get a chance to write until now.

Not really.

My comps, a demonstration of the skills I have learned this semester are officially "up there" as one of the most terrifying moments of my life. For one, I suffer from stage fright something awful. And when this happens, up goes the heart rate, breathing pattern, hands begin to shake, and my memory becomes cloudy.

So while I'm trying to demonstrate to my mannequin the skills I will be performing on her today, simple words evacuate my mind, and I'm left standing there, throwing any words out that I can remember from class. "S1 and S2 sounds ausculated! Clear, crisp! Lung sounds clear, no adventitious sounds, equal chest rise and fall, eupneic, capillary refill less than three seconds, equal bilaterally, brisk."

On and on it went; my hands shaking throughout, desperately trying to recall, and demonstrate that I am a worthy first semester student.

And, it went fairly well, until the foley catheter demonstration, where I forgot about this handy thing called sterile gloves. You need those babies in order to insert a catheter without introducing bacteria. I saw them, and removed them from my catheter kit, and got busy removing the betadine swabs from the kit, until my instructor made a dreaded buzzer sound (can't you hear it in your head?) and pointed out to me my fatal error. I mean, really? Catheter without sterile technique? Sarah!

She was gracious, and did not dock off every point I deserved.

In fact, she told me I did everything else almost perfectly, and she initially thought I just may be one of those 100% students (until the catheter incident of 2014.)

I passed, with an A.

The rest of the week included a pharmacology test (96%!) and a culture presentation (my group earned an A!)

I signed up for second semester. It's happening. One semester almost down.

I think my biggest struggle this semester has been having very limited people I can talk to. I crave conversation; and not just conversation about nursing school. Just a real-life, sit-down conversation. I haven't had one of those in a long time, and it'd be much appreciated. I'm alone so much of the time, and holding a one-sided conversation is plain boring. Maybe one day.