Boston & Ribbon blankies

I'm sooooo excited...I leave next Thursday @1100 headed to Boston to visit Cameron, Lyndsey, & to meet baby Scarlett. Scarlett will turn 3 months old while I'm there. I'll get to stay until that Sunday. I can't wait to finally meet the little one & hold her for myself. I've got some fun goodies that I've collected to take to her. If only my camera worked I could take pictures of the little gifts to post...bummer! As soon as I can, I'll post pictures of them. I can wait to post pictures of my visit too!!!

Before Miss Scarlett was born I was introduced to the Taggie blankets. I absolutel love them! They're such simple little things that babies seem to love. I've decided that I'm going to try my hand at making them myself. I don't have a sewing machine, but figure I can handle it by hand as I'd only make little blankets. If I have time tomorrow, maybe I'll head to Walmart to by some fleece material to get started. Who knows...I might even pick up some more ribbon, although I know I have enough for several of these blankets! Maybe, just maybe I can get it finished before heading to Boston, but if not, I'll mail it to the little one. If it turns out well, I'd like to make several as we have 3 friends that are pregnant now. I might even make a couple of extra just to put away for our own little one someday! I got this picture off of Etsy.com of a tag blankie someone has for sale. (Thanks to Hollie for introducing me to Etsy-I'm in love with it!)I'm off to fold a load of laundry & take advantage of a more normal feeling back!

worker's compensation...me???...ahhh!

So, today I had an appointment with Employee & Occupational Health to see about my back pain. Luckily, the FNP feels it's just a muscle-related injury. Although I wouldn't say just because my back is still killing me. He gave me a prescription for 800mg Motrin tablets & a mild muscle relaxer for pain. I now have a 25-lb. lifting restriction for a week until I follow up with them again. I can still work though, thank goodness! He told me I could expect it to heal up in 1-2 weeks.

It's all filed under worker's compensation so we have to pay nothing for it, I just have to follow up with them & follow their specific instructions. It's weird thinking that I will be getting worker's compensation. I feel like that is for people who have serious on the job injuries. I'm thankful that it's in place though for any injury so we don't have to worry about paying ourselves.

I do feel somewhat better after taking the muscle relaxant this afternoon after I got back from my Aveda salon appointment (I think that made me feel better too-I definitely was in need of a haircut). Hopefully the pain will just keep getting progressively better & then disappear. I will never take a healthy back for granted again!

ouch...

Tuesday morning after I got off work I noticed that the left side of my back felt very sore. Sometimes after working, especially at night, I'm so worn out that I do notice little aches but they disappear pretty quickly. This ache in my back is only getting worse...ahhhh. I'm a bit scared to know what's going on. I've e-mailed my boss so she can get me an appointment in Employee Occupational Health. For now, I've just returned from Target where I bought a gel heating pad and a bottle of Aleve to see if that will help.

I'm always petrified of hurting my back at work because we do so much lifting & pulling on sometimes heavy people. I hope that this is just a little muscle pull that will quickly resolve, but I suppose I better have it checked out.

I'm going to go lie down with my Epidemiology book (great reading, I tell you!) & my heating pad and hopefully get some reading in while I rest my back.

I went skydiving...

Are you hearing the Tim McGraw song "Live Like you Were Dying" playing in your head? You know..."I went skydiving, I went Rocky Mountain Climbing, I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu...". As you all know, skydiving is on my "bucket list". So...

Saturday, my mom, my sisters & I headed to Rockmart, Georgia to a place called Skydive the Farm for an adventure of a lifetime. I've wanted to go skydiving for some time now & Chris has made it evident that he will never go with me. My mom celebrated her 50th birthday 2 weekends ago & decided she wanted to do something bold & daring so we talked her into skydiving with us!

It was a beautiful day & despite a few butterflies in all of our stomachs, we had an amazing experience. It was about 60 degrees on the ground, but obviously much colder at 15,000 feet when we jumped. It was very windy when we were free-falling as you can see in the pictures from the wind in my cheeks. After we pulled our parachute the wind and our speed slowed & we drifted down checking out the scenery. I was amazed at how quiet it is at that altitude. Once the parachute was pulled, I could hear my instructor talking to me just like we were face to face in a room alone & you could have heard a pin drop.

It was such an amazing day & experience for each of us. I am so glad I had the opportunity & took the chance to skydive! I'm crossing it off my "bucket list" right now!

We each had our own videographer/photographer jump with us so we have our own amazing videos & still shots to prove our adventure. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Work news...

I love my job!

I am so blessed to have a job that I love getting up to go to and, even when I'm exhausted afterwards, feel that I have accomplished something great for the day.

This week after 2 shifts of orientation to the charge nurse role, I was the day-shift charge nurse yesterday! I am honored that my boss thinks that I am capable of such a role and trusts me charging her unit for the day. I'll be in charge again for my 3 shifts next week. It's my job as the charge nurse to round with the physicians on each patient (which is fun because then I know something about all 31 patients on our unit), manage the flow of admissions & discharges, assign admissions, serve as a resource for the staff nurses, make the staffing assignment for the following shift, pass along unit report to the oncoming charge nurse, and keep the unit running smoothly. I think that overall the day went well. I'm looking forward to continuing to learn how to be a better charge nurse and how to best help everyone on our team!

Early in May I will be taking the OCN, Oncology Certified Nurse, exam. My boss encouraged me to take the exam and I registered back in December. I received confirmation a couple of weeks ago that I can secure a test date sometime in May. Somewhere between work, school work, and household stuff, I'll have to squeeze in some time for studying for the OCN.