annieNC

congrats!!! you sound sooooooooooo happy! I love it!

my story is not a happy one, but maybe one that should be brought up at the appropriate time. when I was a nursing student, my first pedies patient was an adorable 18 mo old male. he was brother to a twin. altho my pt. was 18 mo's old, he looked maybe only a yr. old. his twin was fully developed. this baby would cry ...kind of alot..until held by caring arms. I happened to be living at my parents house at the time...with my own two boys, due to going thru a divorce..(yeah, I did go back to MY home and establish OUR life there. ;-> ) so, I happened to be watching the news w/ my parents...and this story comes up about a baby dying. It was my patient. he was discharged..on the wk-end... his "father" and I use that term loosely, got ****** at him for crying... I most likely should not go in to further detail due to legal issues, but I think you probly get the idea of what happened. like I said before, his twin was fully developed..this one was neglected (ie, left in the crib.......) and even more abused. this just blows my mind. anyway.....as I am watching this story unfold on the news...I slip away into the kitchen n just start silently bawling my eyes out. needless to say, that night, in bed, was horrible. which when I think of it..is completely nothing compared to what this baby went thru. the very next morning my nursing instructor called me @ home. she said "your baby died"...we went on talking....I told her I wasnt sure I could stay in nursing...she gave me time...she asked if I needed time off...I told her no..but I needed to think. It was really....stay or go. It still haunts me, as it should. I went back to the hospital...we were all so sad...and yeah..they kept on saying what my instructor said.. (there is never the right thing to say, probly). I stayed in nursing....and when I went to hometown football games,...as I had to cross the biggest hopsital on the way to the stadium, some of my patients siblings would rush out and grab me, hug me,--as their sib was in...having an operation for intussusception or whatever. THIS IS THE STUFF THAT GRABS YOUR HEART & MAKES YOU STAY. and now I'm going for my bsn, go figure. ;->

my 3 cents....dynamap is "usually" faster, but manual is more accurate, imo. the thing that gets me is........I dont see a lot of nurses using the appropiate manual cuff, period. for normal weight people, use the regular cuff. for obese people, use a thigh cuff. this is such a simple objective. a regular cuff on an obese patient can lead to a much higher bp reading than the real one.

I'm assuming you're on 7a-7p ??....sounds early enough to me to get in before the "office type to downtown rush". haven't done the trip, but you'll figure it out and I am sure hear from other members on here. I'm jealous actually. I lived in va beach & worked at sentara leigh in norfolk. moved to nc but my heart is still there. (used to drive by the chesapeake bay bridge/tunnel @ approx 3am, 3 x's a week, when it was all lit up-you can see from an suv). whatever...stay w/ sentara.

my favorite also is Nags Head, but I will suffer thru either Wrightsville, Carolina, or Kure Beaches as I live smack dab between all 3. hehehhehe.