thejoebear

I ended up wearing "the boot" at night and did all the foot stretching before getting out of bed stuff. Weight loss is a major reduction in stress to the area I found. I am now wearing Z-coil shoes. They are designed to reduce stress when standing on hard concrete floors. They are a little different looking but when my feet FEEL the same on carpeting or on concrete, "Who the crap cares if my shoes look different?" The shoes are not cheap but they come in many different styles and colors including white for work. Ask your Doc if he has any experience with them. I own 3 pairs of them now and swear by them..And I am off to get a fourth pair now.

re: big pharma's newest fake disease or the horrifying disease hypotrichosis (not enough eyelashes). ask if you should be treated with latisse. have you seen the unretouched pictures of before and after with that stuff? the red all-most, "sores" on the eyelids at the eye lash base area? i guess if you want to wear heavy duty professional makeup "like a drag queen does!" to cover those sores up like they do on every television or print ad ever photographed it be ok, but in real life??? yuck! yuck! yuck! and the discoloration or permanent brown pigmentation on the iris? that sounds so hot to me! i all ways wanted to say to a girl, you have poo in your eye! moreover, of course the eyelash change will only stay this way as long as you buy the drug! funny that all ways seems to be the case. what a deal!! i want 20 boxes! thanks brook sheilds!!!!!!

Roller bags...All the way... The massive reduction of stress and strain to your back makes this choice obvious to me. Back related issues, damage and pain are some of the largest problems a Nurse has in their career. Textbooks used for today's students are bigger, weigh more and students today HAVE MORE textbooks than the generation before, PERIOD! Trust me, even with stairs, roller bags reduce back strain and stress DRAMATICALLY!!! Professional nurses take care of themselves so they can take care of others, that is why nurses wear high quality shoes and use professional up-to-date equipment. You might as well get used to thinking this way. Remember that many back injuries are not caused usually from ONE incident, but usually from years of stress and strain and the final incident was just the last straw.... I pulled one of the largest rollerbags ever made (They Stopped making it unfortunately) and am glad I did! I ALL WAYS had my reference material with me as well as all my textbooks. I could and would be able to study; join in or start an impromptu study group because I was fully ready with ALL my material, at all times. I had additional supplies if a study partner forgot theirs. When you can loan somebody something in a crisis it helps build bonds. These types of bonds pay off a lot faster than you think. I was given many needed insights or information because of helping somebody else out. I know for a fact this "unplanned help" I got due to me dragging a ton of stuff, helped my grade point BIG TIME! I had things with me even a few teachers began to appreciate. When a teacher knows and sees YOU as a "in-class resource" it helps your grades! It sure as hell did for me! Teachers appreciated me bringing out another text on a topic so THEY could explain something in another way! Plus, never having that, "Dam I forgot to bring that today" feeling is wonderful! I now have multiple rollerbags as backup and for times when I only need a smaller amount verses a buss load amount.

I did! It all depends on what school you apply to and how that school decides what your GPA IS & what ever else they use to judge incoming classes. Some schools have a min. 2.5 GPA and a lottery, some schools 4.0 GPA or do not waste our time applying, and then there is everything in between. The actual GPA used to rank you into Nursing School is scored by the school you apply to out here. Your entrance GPA is NOT the same GPA you had for doing all your Pre-Req's. Schools decide what classes to base your GPA for admission to their school. So, your GPA will change from school to school as you apply to them. Mine went from very good to OK depending on where I applied. So stop stressing. Remember, just because someone can get A's in school does not mean they can be a good nurse. Yes, book smarts are important but many brilliant people out there still can not do this job.

You are going to need Professional Help on more than One Front to get Through your Moms Current Situation BEFORE It Is to Late for Her. . Your mother needs to get into a Professional Rehab Situation, STAT! . Your mother is in alot of trouble & not in her right mind by any means. Your Mother is Her Own Worst Enemy Right Now & In Terrible Pain. Your mother cannot & will probably never be able to snap out of this behavior own her own W/O some Drug/Alcohol Intervention. . Chances of an Accidental Overdose from the Mixture of Drugs You found, Combined with the Large Amounts of Daily Alcohol Intake makes a Professional Medical Intervention Mandatory for humans who want to live through this Type of an Alcoholic/Drug Abuse Situation. . A Medical Professional that is Impaired or Under the Influence CAN inflict Needless Death, Suffering & Uncalled For Injury to Helpless Patients. R.N.'s have to try to Stop Impaired Medical Care When Ever they see it. . Your Moms Patients are Being Unfairly Compromised & Could BE IN Jeopardy. Your Moms Final outcome can distort & destroy more than just Her Own Life. Your Mom has NOW Possibly put YOUR New career in Sizeable Trouble. Your Mom Committed FELONY Drug Acts while she was She was on the JOB. . We all hate to see any good R.N. loose a Lic. This is especially hard to watch happen when the R.N. losing a Lic. has been or is family to us. In the Alcoholic/Addict World; Some Times, We have to use VERY Real Threats Sometimes We do not want to HAVE to carry out IN ORDER to see needed RECOVERY come to the Suffering Alcoholic/Addict Before It Is To Late for them. . Your Mom is powerlessly locked inside a deadly fast moving Black hole. Your Moms type of Black Hole Sucks everybody into it fast & real hard. Your Mom NEEDS TO GET AWAY FROM ALL Patient CARE RIGHT NOW! R.N.'s have an obligation to Safe Guard Patients, The Public at Large, Their FAMILY AND THE R.N.'s OWN HARD EARNED NURSING CAREER. . YOUR MOM IS NOT DOING ANY OF THESE THINGS! . Your Moms Mind is Very Damaged Right Now & She is a Very Ill Person. Nurses Take Care of The Sick. Her needs as a Patient are just outside Your Training & Experience. Get a Specialist to Treat Her Medical Needs. . We are all born into roles of being a Daughter or a Son. We continue to develop as human beings from birth until our death. The role of Medical Interventionist or Caretaker of a Parent does not happen for all of us; It's not a role any of US ever wanted but there is help out there! . Watching a family member/loved one get lost into an Alcoholic/Addict World is a Pain I know all to Well and have to Deal with Myself. I keep You & Your Family in my prayers. I wish You the Best of Luck. JOE

Look at getting proper medication for your conditions. MANY MANY nursing students are on meds for anxiety issues. And a certain percentage of ADD adults are on both ADD meds AND anti-anxiety meds. These meds assist many students to get through nursing school. . Once on the job, the needs for Rx meeds can and usually does change/are not needed/ or are significantly reduced. . Nursing school is its own period of HELL unlike most things you can go through in this life. You will have to take additional steps to complete nursing school due to your disability of ADD and Anxiety, trust me... . You should speak to the schools ADA counselor or disability specialist so you can get some reasonable accommodations made so you can be a successful student... . . DO THAT NOW!!!! IT CAN TAKE TIME, AND SOME SCHOOLS ARE NOT REAL HELPFUL... YOU MIGHT HAVE TO BE VERY DIRECT OR GET A DR. INVOLVED IN YOUR ADD situation and your schools reasonable accommodations being made for you. . . It is amazing what a letter from a Dr. that has been working with ADD for a few years , especially with kids, can get done at a school in regards to getting reasonable accommodations made to help you succeed. These Dr.s know what to say in writing and usually the schools, (I have seen it done in undergraduate examples only though) stop being passive when they get this type of document. Good Luck PS, Note taking is something you should be doing as you are recording your classes, so you can type up more accurate notes later. based off the recording and not the chicken scratch that passes for notes taking in class by most ADD persons.... Go get a digital recorder., they are cheap and small. Good Luck

CRNA??? That is one of the most advanced and difficult Nursing fields available. The competition into those programs is similar to trying to get into MEDICAL SCHOOL. If you are serious about doing that I am pretty sure your going about that goal of becoming a CRNA in the totally wrong way! . FIRST, most accredited nursing schools will NOT ALLOW you to work full time and go to Nursing School at the same time. . The idea that you can DO BOTH AT THE SAME TIME may be showing WHY this ADN program has such a non/weird accreditation. . I am not sure you can go on and get the P.h.D.; BTW, that P.h.D. is GOING TO BE required for CRNA's in the near future a pal told me who teaches at a CRNA school. I think you are not going to be accepted into any GRADUATE CRNA program in the U.S. COMING FROM A NON-ACCREDITED ADN SCHOOL. HELL, I had to get my high school transcripts from all most 30 years ago to just file my application to a basic ADN program. I cannot see why a CRNA school would bother with your application when there is 100+ other students applying for the same seat that have only attended accredited schools as their undergraduate degrees. Sorry to sound harsh but that is how these schools think. . I am about to start an ADN program in Jan and my study partner all ready has a P.h.D. in Biology and has worked in cancer research labs for years with his P.h.D. and he can not work full time and go to an ADN Nursing School at the same time. . I think you have underestimated what kind of HELL nursing school really is! You better do some more research real fast. I think your about to waste a year or so that you could better use by following the normal path people follow to become R.N.s. Good Luck

Your BON will know. I think your in for some bad news, but that is just a gut feeling. AN ACCREDITED SCHOOL that graduates you in a Nursing program is the foundation you need before taking your Boards; I am pretty sure it is mandatory aspect of taking your boards. I am interested if an Accredited BSN can and will replace the un-accredited ADN situation though. That be nice for people who got screwed over by schools that lied to them or were shut down due to the incompetency of the schools administration and or instructors... Good Luck!

. Do a search for nursing schools with out waiting lists in PA. When I did I found a ton of them. PA has a VERY long history of being a nursing school state with MANY schools and they are not full! I recommend doing a search of all community colleges with nursing programs in the state your looking at first. I would also look up the state board of Nursing to see if schools are accredited or not or on any type of probation. A nursing school will not tell you it is going down the crapper! Remember, NON-accredited schools are the biggest mistake you could make! Find out what and who does the accreditation in a state and follow their guidelines. If your school loses its accreditation while you are going there you may have just wasted years and TEN's of thousands of dollars. I would then look at your selected schools Pre-Req's and see if you are close to meeting them for the various schools. Then start your research. I find most of the larger schools will not answer general information phone calls from non-students so looking into smaller schools sometimes is actually easier. Look at the small cities that are basically unheard of. Quite often small cities have OLD nursing schools that have been around for a long time. Houston is to large of a city I think. I found San Antonio sized about right. Austin is a bit to popular. I heard Dallas/Fort Worth might be an exception to the rule about avoid large cities. Laredo is a GREAT option if you speak Spanish, it is actually located RIGHT ON THE BORDER! Wetherford has a good school. BAsically, just move to some place that people are not crazy about living in, get your R.N. Lic. in 2 years and then move to where you want to live as new R.N.

I was so sure I would never get into the school of my dreams that when that school's e-mail came to me I figured it was a rejection letter. I did not open the e-mail for a day. I read the message line of the email and even though it said "acceptance" in it I did not believe it and figured the e-mail was a form denial letter sent to me. Well, stupid me, It was an offer and I start Jan. 4, 2009. Amazing..... :paw:

Accredited vs non-Accredited is just about the TOP issue you better get figured out for any school in any state! . There are MANY schools across the country claiming to be nursing schools and the time and money you spend attending them is a total and complete waste! . Every state has its own rules and policies regarding this matter. I would never waste the time to even apply to a school ANYWHERE if I did not know its standings both present and past. Save yourself a lot time and money. Call your state board of nursing is where I started off looking up information. Talk to an R.N. and Do internet research until you find the EXACT information you need.. Good luck

TEXAS! . I moved here from the Pacific North West due to the insane wait lists and the 10 to 1 qualified nursing school applicants that applied to every ONE open student position at a nursing school. . . In Texas I found one school, with a decent history, that pretty much told me, "If you meet the Pre-Req's, Your in HERE!" Since that school was in a predominantly Spanish speaking area of Texas, I did not think my English only skills was a good match for that school. . . Literally as I was meeting with that schools staff I received an email from another nursing school I had applied to before. The email was from the main school I dreamed of going too but figured I would never get into that school. When I first saw the e-mail I did not even read it. I did not want to read a nursing school rejection letter while I was still in a motel room visiting this other school. The next day I decided what the hell, read the e-mail, I had already accepted the fact I would never get into the school at the top of my list of schools anyway. This e-mail said I was accepted at the nursing school I always wanted to go to! AMAZING! . . Look at the South, PA, or parts of the country people are not so hot about living in. . . Nursing school is a dam blur anyway, so where you live during school really DOES NOT MATTER, BECAUSE, you are going to be to busy to enjoy where you live anyway!... . . PLUS life is cheaper in areas people are not looking to live in! . . I decided to be done with school and have a R.N. job before I would waste years of my life on some stupid list... I will be done and employed as a R.N. YEARS before most of the people I saw waiting on those dam WAIT lists because I decided to go this route to nursing school. . . The reality of most nursing schools is they just get you to pass the dam boards anyway.... . . Being a real R.N. is mostly learned on the floor of your first job/jobs and will take another TWO years before your not seen as a novice anyway. . . Find schools that are NOT in popular large areas, most of the large areas have HIGH RATES OF PEOPLE trying to get in as well! . . Nursing schools are getting more and more people trying to get into them every semester. This trend will get worse until the economy of this country changes dramatically. They can not and will not build enough new nursing schools to change this situation and it will only get WORSE every year. The first wave of baby boomer R.N.s about to hit retirement age in 5 years or so. I can only imagine the HELL that will happen to nursing schools then; You think it sucks now, wait until this happens... I say get into a school NOW before it becomes TWICE as hard to do the same thing.. Good luck

a really great book on add is "driven to distraction" by edward m. hallowell, m.d. & john ratey, m.d. this book is a very good start about life with add through-out all age groups. i found it as an audio-book and played it in the car on my way to classes. it really helped me see the possibilities instead of the limitations. it is over ten years old and still very valid and up to date.

10+ students to every 1 opening is a common example at many schools now days. Try some schools that are not so highly ranked or University level based. These are the hardest schools to get into and I would not even try unless I had a 3.5+ GPA all around for them anyway... Try a 2-year school and then go get your advanced degree somewhere else later. Makes more sense, costs much less and makes better nurses actually. There are to many theory heavy R.N.s with not enough hands-on skills and in the trenchs time.

I first of all would find out EXACTLY WHAT PART of the test scores are used by each school you are going to apply to. My school just looked at the Reading Comp. and Math scores, that was all! The rest of the exam was a total waste of time and I could have walked out of the exam after taking my two needed aspects and it would have had no effect on my ranking in admissions at my school. Once I found out what to focus on thats all I focused on. Just focus on those needed areas to study and do not worry about what else is on the exam if your school does not worry or use those scores! I did many different types of google searches on this topic. I found tons of web pages and practice tests for free. Try to avoid the pay sites, they are usually crap. . Critical thinking skills is supposedly what is REALLY being looked for by many of these exams and schools. If you have the time do some research into critical thinking skills and, how critical thinking skills are used in these exams doing so should help, it sure did for me! When I figured out much of this exam was about seeing how much you could "SEE" into a problem; or see the differences, or for the ONE SINGLE item that was different and more inclusive or more exclusive than all the other answers, even if only by a small percentage, then that is what the test writers were looking for in the correct exam answer to their exam question. . These tests do not usually show how much general education or knowledge you have at all!!! They are not meant to do that. Many are SUPPOSED to show HOW you think! NOT, WHAT YOU ALL READY KNOW! . YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO FOLLOW WHAT THEY SAY in the test, NOT what YOU all ready know about something. They WILL want a correct answer from THEIR test information provided from THEIR test and NOT the real answer from life in the real world! This point was made very clear over and over both by the company that writes and owns the NET and by other exams I found out. . (I do not totally buy this idea that a secret, privately made and controlled, supposedly standardized, insanely high stress 3-hour long test, taken with a packed class room of very stressed out people, all taking the same stressed out 3-hour exam (my test version was 3 years old BTW!) can actually do such a great job of actually seeing how well you think in reality. But testing mass numbers of desperate students this way sure does make millions of dollars for the test making companies! Maybe I should work for them!) By the way, Not all schools waste their time with such antiquated ideas of how a single pre-exam proposes that students with scores above a certain percentage point on a single very high stress exam will make the best nurses someday anyway! Quite often these tests are just one more tool to lower the over whelming amount of students applying for the too few seats in nursing schools....