curleysue

I went to Linfield McMinnville campus for 2 years and then to the Portland Nursing campus for 1 year until I got sick with meningitis but anyways, yes its super expensive, I owe like $30K and I still have 1 year left of my BSN. And that is with grants and loans. I almost wished I just went to PCC or OHSU. I now work at OHSU and am looking to apply in the winter for 2007. Linfield has not recieved that good of reviews from what I hear from employees at OHSU. I guess their students didn't pass as good on the boards as average. Oh well, just thought I would put my two cents in.

You must live really close to Mt. Saint Helens. I am from Eastern Oregon so I don't feel it. I heard on the news channel today that the USGS service is thinking with the increase in magnitude and activity of earthquakes, the mountain might have another burp. Monday though there was so much fog and clouds that nobody could see it if anything were to happen. I am excited to see some lava flow sometime. But not enough to harm anybody or homes. I think that would be exciting. Take care. Curleysue

Hey All- I just found out about these awsome shoes called MBT that can almost guarentee to tone your muscles in your feet, ankles, hamstrings, thigh, butt, stomach and back. I went to a home show we had in our town and there was this exhibit about these shoes. I have severe plantar fasciitis (heel pain) and these shoes are awsome, my feet are not supposed to not hurt in them at all. You guys got to check these out. However the only downside is that they are around $220 but its well worth it. Website is: www.swissmasaius.com There are 12 styles to choose from including shoes good for nursing (professional style). I guess the shoe lifts and aligns you body on its own center of gravity thus forcing you to use weakened muscles. As the body lenghtens and tightens with each step, circulation improves and strength is regained. So not only are they comfortable and your feet feel so good in them, but they actually help tone your muscles and get this, they can help with cellulite and varicose veins cause they increase circulation to your legs when your posture is re-aligned with they shoes. I bought them and they made a mold to the shape of my feet including the bottom arch of my foot. I am really excited to get them and try them out! Curleysue. :)

Wow, no replies yet. There are a lot of nurses on this forum who would probably know a lot more than me but I felt bad that no one had responded yet. For nursing school I used dansko clogs which were awsome, I was just uncordinated and tripped in them a couple times but they seem to make your feet feel so good. I had awsome athletic shoes and tried those out but by about 5 hours of standing on my feet my heels and arches started hurting. So that is when I got my clogs. If you have no trouble walking in heels you shouldn't have trouble walking in clogs. Or maybe its just me that is uncordinated. Also, if your feet still hurt I guess there is a weird looking shoes with a spring like coil on the heel of the shoe. I think some nurses swear by this shoe, that it makes you feet feel so good. I have no idea what they are called but maybe someone on this forum can tell you. IF you have good insurance, I would go to a podiatrist and get a cast molding of your feet to have personal orthotics to put in your shoes. These I swear by. They are awsome. No pain after 12 hours on my feet!! Unfortunetely somehow I developed plantar fasciitis which is when the fascia that connects your heel to your arch (I think) is torn. I am in a cast on one leg right now for two weeks and then two weeks on the right later. I might have to have surgery if we cannot get my heels feeling better. I wouldn't worry about getting this though unless you have extreme heel pain. You get this condition when you have been not on your feet for quite a while and then all of a sudden start 5 days a week 8 hours a day on your feet. That can sometimes tear your fascia which is what happened to me. I have it in both feet which is odd. But I consider myself odd anyways. Well, good luck. I would go the podiatrist route and get a personal fitted orthotic to wear in your shoe. Without insurance it can run like $600! Take care, Curleysue :)

RJFLYN- Thanks for the reply. Yes its a tough case. Since I was 18 I have been so sick with meningitis twice, DVT's 4 times, PE's bilateral 2 times, oxygen therapy for 2 years, 8 surgeries, polycystic ovaries, multiple pnemonia and pnemothorax's. Its just SICK! WHEN WILL IT STOP. Now I am in the hospital (small rural hospital) monday, wednesday and friday for IV magnesium cause I am so low. We don't know why. I have been to every specialists in a major university hospital for that and the kidney doc just says, "yes its your kidneys but I don't know what to do". WHAT?! THey don't know what to do. I cannot be hooked up to an IV pole three times a week for the rest of my life! I am only 25. So life is really rough for me. And now with my CBC being so off wack. My internist says, I think you are definetly bleeding somewhere. Like that isn't scary enough. Yes I have been on lovenox multiple times. So, I don't know if that would be what they want to do or not. I think its time to save money and go to MAYO clinic to get some awnsers. I know my doctor said my red blood cells are really tiny and abnormal shapes and sizes. Whatever that means I don't know. So, I will definetly go back to my hematologist if we don't find what is going on. Thanks for listening. Curleysue

Thanks for all the wonderful information. I am definetly not using this site to be diagnosed I just thought I would get some input on other medical professionals. Hundreds of heads together is better than one! To answer some questions: No I do not take any NSAIDs cause I take coumadin however I have had two times were my INR was above 10! At those times I was quickly given vit K. I do already take carafate so that route has been tried. I do have a hematologist who I saw when I got all the PE's and DVT's to be tested for hypercouagability so I can still see him about this is the endo and colonoscopy is negative. Yes I do eat meat, I am no vegatarian by far. Yes, I know about braintalk.org but last I heard it was only a read only website. I'll have to look at it again. Again thanks for all the info. I just cannot wait to start my bowel prep on monday! Joy. Take care. Curleysue

since october 2004 my cbc labs have been dropping significantly. my labs are as follows: type date results reference range hemaglobin 10/04 11.3 12.4-15.7 12/04 10.5 02/05 9.8 03/05 9.5 hemacrit 10/04 35 37.7-47 12/04 32 02/05 29.4 03/05 31 mcv 10/04 74.6 82-97 11/04 72.7 12/04 69 02/05 65.4 03/05 64.7 my internist was very concerned about these values especially since i am on coumadin therapy. i have no periods cause of polycystic disease so i am not bleeding from there. so we are totally puzzled why my lab values are dropping! its scary, i could be bleeding internally and not know it. the one diagnosis we got out of this was severe chronic anemia which makes me so so exhausted! so next wednesday i am going into the or and having an upper endoscopy and lower colonoscopy to find out if i am bleeding in my intestines. my bowel movement look normal to me, no blood or coffee colored stools that i know of. but what else could it be? any ideas? let me know. if my values keep dropping i will need a blood transfusion. oh and i am taking iron pills and have been for 3-4 months. thanks for listening, curleysue :uhoh21:

I can't report all the stuff I do cause she already told me that they are not paying me for all those extra stuff that is not on my job description list. I know I will lose my job cause my supervisor is going out for a visit to her house to actually determine is she needs all the hours that I am working. I feel like if I let her know of all the things I am doing out of my way she will dock hours off from her and I will be punished by not getting enough hours. See my point? I am stuck. I don't have another job lined up to work if hours are taken away from her. I am trying to raise money to finish nursing school, I only have one year left. So do you understand now? I wish there was a job opening so I could say, "See ya" but there isn't. CS

Hairstylingnurse- Sometimes I do feel like I am doing way too much housework and not enough nursing care! Both of my clients manipulate me, and I take it cause I cannot afford to loose my job. Today I got into an arguement with my client cause she wanted me to pick up cat poop. I said its not in my job description but I would happily give some gloves to her non-disabled husband. Oh no she said, its you job plus cause he has a huge gag reflex and would throw up. Excuse me?! THis is like the 4th time she has had me pick up cat ****. I suggested she get cat litter box so her cats would stop pooping on the carpet, but oh no, she said she already trained her cats to go outside and that it might confuse them. I was like Oh my gosh, are you stupid! The cat is going to go in the house when it needs to go and I am always the ONE to have to pick up the sh*t! I am so mad. I said its not in my job description and that I can give her husband (who was home) a pair of gloves to pick it up and she said, Oh no you cannot make him do it, he will throw up at the smell. Well, excuse me, I hate the smell too, but I have to pick it up?! I go out of my way in a lot of things to help her out. I take her daughter to school everyday and I don't get paid for it, plus I bought her sheets and cleaning supplies when I first started working there cause she was so poor. I have about had it. However I cannot quit with her yet until I get another job lined up. And full time caregiver jobs are hard to find in my small town. So I AM STUCK! AHHH! I am so mad. SHe manipulates me into doing everything. Her and her husband trash the house everyday and it takes me hours to clean up. However according to my job description I am only supposed to pick up after her! But that never happens. Do you see what kind of predictimate I am in? I called my boss and said I am up for a new job as soon as one comes in. So I cannot wait until one comes. Sorry to vent but I had a very bad bad day. CS :rotfl:

I live near Portland, OR and saw the mountain burp at about 5:30pm when it spit out a bunch of ash and smoke. It was an awsome site. I was just excited for lava flow!! Curleysue

Future nurse- I know how frustrating it is waiting for your doc to call and at five till five you call again saying, "Now what am I supposed to do?" I have a doc like this right now who has denied me my twice a week magnesium infusion till he can see me. Okay so at the end of the week when my heart is racing and skipping beats and my mucscles hurt so bad from cramping, than that is when you want me to go to the ER? When it would be cheaper for him to just write the order for twice a week like it was last month?! I mean its really terrible, I have been getting magneisum infusions for 1 year and when I heard my insurance was cutting me off I decided to try once a week cause eachtime I have an infusion its $500. So when I found out last week that I couldn't make it once a week I had to go to the ER on a saturday cause he refused to see me on the Friday. So this week I tried to get into him but because we live in a small town all the other internist are not accepting new patients so he is the only thing I have. But we won't change my stupid order till he sees me on the 14th of March! Its so frustrating. Sorry I had to vent. Yah, and I have been caught in your situation also with a migraine. Then you end up at the ER at 5:30pm and they look at you like you some kind of idiot or drug seeker. That you purposly waited till 5:30pm so you could get a shot of demerol and phenergan and go home? Oh well. At least now I have found a pain doctor who gave me shots to take at home when it gets too bad. Thats always nice. Take care. Curleysue :rotfl:

Its kinda hard to learn the difference between drug seekers and the real pain cause as a nurse its hard in some cases cause sometimes you just cannot figure out which patients are just abusing the system to get their 'high'. I know a lot of nurses have been trained to keep their mouths shut and whatever the doctor orders the patient needs. I guess after a while working in the ER you learn who is the classic drug seekers and frequent flyers. I saw a TV show that had a frequent flyer who would fake seizure out of the hospital setting so that an ambulance would come and immediately give her valium or versed. But as soon as she would get the medication she would wake up like nothing happened. The paramedic caused it 'psuedo-seizures'. She would be so good at it she even wet herself. Finally after so many times doing it the ER caught onto it and the ER doc confronted her about it and she admitted she was trying to kick methamphetamines and that she needed help with the withdrawls. I think confronting patients who are drug seekers might get them to admit something. At least for a few people but not all. Some docs will, knowing the patient is a drug seeker, just say give her what she wants and get her out of here. But that isn't such a good solution. However, what if someday you are wrong and they are really in pain? That is the other issue with it. How can you really determine who is faking it and who isn't. Anyways, good luck in the ER. I loved working there as a paramedic and would love to do it when I am done with my BSN. Its exciting. Although the drug seeking behavior seems to be a huge topic in the ER nursing forum. It must be just a huge problem and frustrating for both the docs and nurses. Curleysue :uhoh21:

And plus the sad thing is, the assisted living facilty that I worked at who's RN was hardly there, she trusted the MA's to fill out the MAR sheets on their own even with new meds and all that. We had one of the med aides who was actually working as the supervising med aid (with absolutely no background in pharm or nursing) and she had written the wrong times and dosages on the MAR sheet one day and the patient went TWO WEEKS with it like that until the doctor found out about it. Lets just say she is now working as just a resident assistant. What I find odd is that the RN who was hardley ever there, only delegated us on insulin shots. She never asked us about the MAR's or even trained us herself on them. We were actually just trained by other med aides. It just insane! Honestly. The amount of mistakes these so called med aides were making would of easily been avoided if they would of taught them about the 5 R's rule. And some of the most stupidest MA's were caught many times by me or other CNA's as giving the patients the wrong meds and it was like the RN would say, "this is to be kept between you and I, nobody needs to know about this" Yah right, I knew right then that this place was definetly not for me. Its scary to know its still operating today. Scary. Curleysue

Hey it looks like the majority of y'all hate the thought of med aides. I guess they are legal in OR cause I have worked as one at an assisted living facility. It was scary though a lot of the med aides had no previous medication or nursing educaiton. Me, I was a CNA and was on my spring break of nursing school and had one year left of my BSN. I was the ONLY med aid with any background in pharmacology and nursing. We all worked under a RN who was only at our facility once a week. Lets just say I only worked there for 4 months cause it was scary. Lots of med aides were getting fired cause they made major mistakes on the MAR sheets and many patients had either recieved the wrong dosage or the wrong meds. I never had any mistakes but it took me only a few weeks to figure out that this was really a bad thing, having unsupervised med aides with no background. They were not trained in looking up meds in the med books or even the simple tasks of the 5 R's. I agree with all of you, med aides are a bad thing. They should have some form of prior education in pharmacology and nursing. It is indeed a scary thought, having one of your relatives in the care of an unsupervised non-educated person. They also did no criminal background checks. Thats really scary! Take care. Curleysue

I think that is a good idea. When a frequent flyer does come in why doesn't the nurse take a minute to sit down with them and tell them straight up that this behavior has been recognized and it not acceptable and to let them know the exact thing Future Nurse has said, the PCP will be notified and asked to help you find out a good care plan for the patient when this happens instead of seeking narcs in a ER. I think a lot of patients who have this behavior get away with it in the ER and nobody attempts to sit down with them and let them know that they are being watched closely cause of the behavior. I have seen a lot of nurses just shut their mouths cause they are afriad of opening them in fear they will uncontrolably go off on the patient. But seriously the FF who come in and don't hear anything about being watched will just continue coming in and getting what they want not knowing its unacceptable. I also think its a great idea to get Social Workers somehow involved in getting help for them if they don't have a PCP and are experiencing chronic conditions. I know Social Workers might have a big problem with that saying they don't have the time to deal with FF but then maybe we need more Social Workers?! I think instead of keeping the frustation of it all to ourselves, let the patients know that yes, this is unacceptable behavior and next time you will not recieve narcs. I don't know if that would work, but something needs to happen. Course there will be those FF who work the system and still get away with it but I do believe that we could get lucky with a few FF and they may admit they have a problem. Just an idea. Curleysue