Soo

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I just started nursing school and have been pretty busy these past couple of weeks trying to get back in the swing of things. We had our first test for the term yesterday and I got a 48.5/51 on the test! Tomorrow I start to pass meds for the first time in a long term care setting and I am a little nervous. I have lots of studying to do before tomorrow so I am going to go now. I will try to write a better blog later!

Stroke

Today I am going to talk to you all about strokes! I got all this info from the National Stroke Association go there if you would like to learn more
Here is something that everyone in my nursing class was taught to remember strokes.

Here are some symptoms of a stroke

Sudden numbness or weakness of  the face, arm or leg especially if it is on one side of the body
Sudden confusion trouble speaking or understanding
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance
Sudden sever headache with no known cause

Now for us Females the signs of a stroke can be different so as a female you may not show or have the same symptoms
For females
Sudden limb and face pain
Sudden hiccups
Sudden nausea
Sudden general weakness
Sudden chest pain
Sudden shortness of breath
Sudden palpitations (abnormal heart beat)

If help is given to a stroke victim within three hours the side effects can be reversed but time is brain so if you have these symptoms or someone else does get them help right away!
Do not try to drive your self or your friend/family member to the hospital if you think they are having a stroke call 911 if symptoms worsen the medical personnel will have the equipment to help. 

You may be wondering who is at risk for a stroke you may think it can only happen to old people but a stroke can happen to any one of any age, race, or gender. Though there are some things that do increase your risk of a stroke
Here are  is a table that shows the modifiable and non modifiable risk factors.

 And finally here is a little scorecard you can do to see where your chance of a stroke lies. Please remember that if you have any concerns you should see your doctor. This card isn't suppose to diagnose but to let you know where you are.

Random

I haven't blogged in a while because I have no idea what to blog about now. I have been working a lot since I got back from my last little trip. In fact I volunteered to work the next three nights (1030pm-7am).
 So I just got off work! At night we usually have three CNA's and split the floor up into three groups we average about 14-15 patients each. Someone called in sick so that put us to a two group. Luckily someone from the previous shift stayed until 2am. But we were a two group for three hours this gave us 21 patients each. People think that old people sleep at night but they really don't. They get Sundowners and they become more active. Lucky for us it was a slow night. Another aid came in at 5am.
Now that I am home I am trying to decide what to eat for my dinner before I go to bed. I really just want to eat a couple of doughnuts but thats not a good dinner :(.

I'm really feeling the urge to play a video game so I may play a video game before I go to bed. I just need to make sure I don't stay up to late otherwise I will sleep really late. Anyway I will try to think of something better to blog later.



-Chaela

James Rollins book signing!

Last week I traveled to Portland with my husband and brother for a little vacation. This week I drove up to Beaverton/Portland with my best friend to meet one of our favorite authors James Rollins.
My cousins dad gave me a book called Amazonia by James Rollins about 9 years ago and I loved it. So I brought that book and his newest book to sign. I was really nervous to meet him because I have heard horror stories of people meeting their favorite celebrity/author and how disappointed they were to meet them. I was not disappointed at all! He was extremely nice and really funny. I had him sign "To Chaela"in the newer book. This is the name I use for gaming so we had a little conversation about it.
According to my friend the first time he came out to greet the crowd I blushed. He also took a picture of the crowd I am in the front row!

Something I found suprising was some people brought a tote or two full of his books for him to sign. I was nervous about bringing just the two. But James Rollins manager said that he would sign everyones book but if they had more then three they would have to wait until the end.
So we spent the night up there and I just got back. It was worth the long drive to see someone who we really like.

Here I am getting my books signed. I was so nervous I was shaking (this was my first book signing ever!)
So any one else have a good or bad experience of meeting someone you admired?

Barefoot in public

So while I was in Portland we went into the Omnimax theater I guess it is like an IMAX theater. Anyway three females sitting in front of us had their shoes off and had their gross feet up on the chair. I thought it was extremely rude and just gross. Another time while I was at a school I saw a guy sitting in a comfy chair with his shoes off and had them propped on a table. I mean come on! This is one of my pet peeves. There are times when being barefoot in public is okay and most other times it is not okay whatsoever! Here are some pics of places it is not okay to be barefoot.

Remember when Britany Spears did this? Barefoot in a public bathroom? That is definitely a place you should not be bare foot. Do you really know what is on the floor?

At

A store is another place that is not okay to be barefoot. I understand if  its summer and your going to the lake or whatever but come on wear flip flops at least.

Here are some places that it is okay to be barefoot

At the beach is the perfect time to lose the shoes! I love the feeling of sand!

At the pool is another place to be barefoot.
The park, the yard, the driveway, your home, your friends home, the shower, the lake/river, the podiatrist office are other places it is okay to be barefoot. I really hate seeing peoples bare feet in places where its not necessary.
Have any of you see people without shoes where they should be wearing them?

-Chaela 

Home

I got home yesterday but was way too exhausted to blog. Sooo! Here are some pics .

So this is just us driving into Portland. I live in a really small town so going to bigger cities is always exciting.

This was my first experience with a parking meter! I was successful in using it!

 Our bed! It was huge!

This is our hotel we stayed in the second night. It was pretty nice except for the $4 they wanted for water...

Just us taking pics of ourselves in the elevator.

We didn't eat here but the truck was pretty and we saw that their tacos are really pink! You can follow them on facebook :)

 This was the best Chinese food we have ever eaten!

 I took my food back to the hotel only to realize we had no silver ware or chopsticks luckily we had two coffee stirring sticks. I used them as chopsticks

I look depressed but I was really enjoying my food.

 This was the clear woman we saw at OMSI a science museum. You could light up different parts of her body can you tell which part we lit up?

 This is a dinosaur print

I looooved seeing this! Its a giant ear!!!

This is the parking lot we could see from our window.  As you can see cars are always blocked in. The guy who managed the lot would move cars as needed. We also saw a fight happen near this parking lot.

We went to Voodoo doughnuts. I got a traditional chocolate doughnut and it was really good.

 My husband got the famous Voodoo doughnut

It was a fun trip but I was glad to be home. I am sooo sick of driving in cars though! And this Thursday I am driving up to Beaverton which is near Portland to see my 2nd favorite author James Rollins. My best friend is driving though which makes car trips a little more bearable.
Oh and here is a pic of the weather on the way home good thing we left when we did.

Road Trip

So we made it to Portland safely! The traffic scared me. On our way to Portland we stopped by Corvallis to drop a friend off. As we tried to leave we went the wrong way and drove around for a little bit until we found our way back to the freeway.

 This is Corvallis

Here are some pics of my car pets!

 My husband made the little wire cow a few years ago.

 I love happy meals! Especially if they come with little stuff animals!

 
I have had the ducks for a while so they are turning black :( and the one on the far right is stuck in that position.

And here is Portland!

I think we are going to have dinner soon and then we'll go to the comedy show! I will post more of my adventure later!

-Chaela