Notes from me to you

Introducing Andrea!

A beautiful friend with whom I grew up in De Witt. Andrea and I have potentially known each other since the early years of elementary school when her family relocated to De Witt. We really got to know each other and became friends in middle school and have been friends since. Upon graduating from high school, Andrea went to the U of Iowa, and I to CSP in Minnesota, so its been a long time since I've gotten to spend this much time with her.. I really am cherishing it and she was correct in her prediction that I'd love her friends! They are also great people.


(Mariah, Lisa, Laura, Andrea, Ellie.. and I forget her name.. :-/)


(Andrea, Mariah, Mona, and I)

I've also been gifted a great roommate whom i met by "chance" through craigslist.org when i saw her posting looking for a roommate (but really I saw it right after I'd begged in prayer to find a good person to live with!). I've even managed to get involved in the local young adult Catholic crowd in the neighborhood, too, which was something I knew I needed to do for my heart's sake and my life as a new Catholic. I'm also hoping to volunteer as nurse at a local non-profit clinic.

So, yes, life is good in Baltimore. Work is definitely challenging.. things were just starting to fall in place when three night shifts snuck into my schedule and messed everything up! :) Ok, not everything.. but its definitely threw me off. I was just starting to get the hang of day shifts when I had to work nights. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal but they do a lot more on nights than any other place I've worked. They draw "AM" or "daily" labs at 10 PM and proceed to replace the patients K+, Mg+, blood, and platelets as needed per the results of the "daily" labs. Its great because the day shift is too busy to do all of this but it sucks for the patients who'd like to do partake in that activity we call sleep!!!

Every shift that I've worked since I started on my own, I've had at least two patients who are confused and really sick, which has also been challenging. The nice thing about this hospital is they don't hesitate to order sitters. There's no restrain the patient "because its safer" (aka so we don't have to pay for a sitter) because they recognize that its much safer and actually usually problem-solving to just have someone in there with the patient!

Despite the first night shift, things are starting to fall into place and I'm predicting that if the hospital wants me to stay another assignment.. I probably will! I'm excited to have great co-workers and good physicians/residents/fellows to work with and I do appreciate the challenge of only depending on myself to get everything done.

So.. we shall see!!

As always, thanks for checking in.. feel free to comment or send an e-mail. I'd love to hear back from you.

Love to all,

Laura