The dreaded exam

So I'm super duper nervous about taking my state board of nursing exam "the dreaded" NCLEX-PN (cue evil music). I've gone through 2 years of book education and on the job clinical training, I took advantage of my school's review classes and I even picked up a couple review books (Kaplan and Saunders) and still when someone says NCLEX-PN (cue evil music) I want to barf. The exam is coming up and I have to take it (gulp!). I read up on the exam experience of others, tried relaxation techniques like meditation (I fell asleep), focusing on my Chi (still trying to locate it, its not in my closet or under my bed), exercise forget it cause the junk food is calling my name...ok take a breather...I'm going to be fine I keep telling myself. There's not much more I can do to prepare, I just need to do it, maybe I can hire some strange looking guy that resembles Rob Schnieder in The Waterboy to scream "you can do it" as I walk into the testing center.

To be continued...

A toast to good health...or maybe not

As a human we pray for good health of newborns, keep fingers crossed during surgeries, worry ourselves sick over possible ailments etc. The same goes for us pet owners, who wouldn't want their pet, the furry member of the family to be healthy esp after you see the vet bill *OUCH*.

My two beagles are my children and spoiled to the bone, and I've always approached pet ownership with the thought that if I can't afford the necessities such as food, basic health care, toys (yes toys are a necessity unless you want them eating your things lol) then I shouldn't have one no matter how cute they are. But then there's the unexpected costs that sneak up on you like the medications, blood work, diagnostic exams like x-rays and surgeries. BAM! your pet is injured what now?!

Growing up I lucked out with pets, never having any unexpected things come up. It was always the norm just the yearly shots and check up. Unfortunately my two beagles today haven't had the best of luck when it comes to good health.

Although we had Doc Holliday for a few years already when we got Katie as a wedding present I could of never of guessed I would of been swarmed by the unexpected costs of pet ownership. Doc started having seizures about a year before we got Katie, I had no idea what it was or what was happening to him and it scared me to death. The vet in a way put me at ease by informing me of what was happening but also sparked sadness at what Doc was going through. Doc's seizures are fortunately controlled by medication but it took my vet bill from a yearly visit with some shots to multiple visits a year which include blood work and prescriptions.

Recently a more serious problem has plagued Doc, he managed to blow the CCLs in both knees. Our vet was in amazement, throughout his entire career he said he's only seen 6 dogs who blew both knees at the same time and none were beagles. He recommended a vet out of our area to perform surgery. I wasn't up for it at first, the 1 1/2 hour one way drive and then there was the ball park figure of $700-$1,000 per knee which made me a little queasy. These secondary thoughts slowly left my mind once we heard of this vets wonderful reputation and his high success rate with few complications from surgery (knee surgery being his specialty). So my husband and I decided and a sudden gust of wind blew by sucking our savings out the window. Ok ok that's a little dramatic but money does seem to disappear that fast. In the end Doc has a very long road a head of him healing from one knee while the other knee is to be operated on in a few months time.

Was my rant above for nothing of course not, was it about money...in a way but more importantly, saving money is nice but when it comes down to leaving it in savings or helping our little buddy have a better quality of life...one look at his face and my heart melts and I know we made the right choice.

I just need to know...

So many thoughts run through my head on a daily basis it's hard for me to keep up sometimes. One thing that I find my brain wondering to is life during centuries past. I'm obsessed with history, the Tudors, Marie Antoinette, the subjects of Jane Austen's books etc. It never fails once I begin a conversation about such things my husband loves to throw in the difficulties of those times, the diseases, the harsh work environments, the status of women...when he begins his rants I find myself slowly drifting into an episode of Seinfeld- "yada yada yada". I'm not oblivious I can imagine what life was like during those times, I've read books, articles, blogs, watched movies/television and my curiosity for more information is never satisfied. I always want to know more, how were things made, how did someone do this or that, things we take for granted like the ease of communication with others, transportation, medicine, I could go on and on. I thought I would list a couple of books that came in handy for quenching my thirst for knowledge.

The first is Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (Cambridge History of Europe) by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. Yes this book is for college level courses and I did receive a lot of weird looks from others when they asked what college class I was taking when I responded with no college class I'm just reading it for fun. I found the book easy to read and it has a load of information for those that have the "I need to know" complex such as myself lol. This book is full of photographs which I love!

Another book I keep handy is Elizabeth's London by Liza Picard. Being the Tudor nut that I am I was so excited to discover this book at my local Barnes and Noble store. Before this book I wondered how roads and housing were made, clothing, food and so forth. It doesn't contain many pictures but its very good reading material.

I'm always on the lookout for material to feed my need to know complex

So August 2011 is finally here. I've been waiting for this month for what has seemed to be a long time but the past couple of years went by a lot faster than I originally thought they would. Nursing school has been full of ups and downs and its almost over, I can't believe it. No wait I believe it, looking ahead at something can sometimes feel daunting, like an impossible goal that your never going to reach but yet my goal is almost here. I'm not quite sure where this blog will take me, I'm hoping for it to be somewhere I can put my expression to good use and maybe just maybe someone out there might find it interesting enough to take a peek at every now and again. I don't have a straight forward purpose, after all this is my lil corner of the world so can contain just about anything that's flying my way.