I enjoyed my break immensely. My mom and Leif (her significant other) arrived for a visit on the last day of finals for my first term.....so wonderful to see them and spend time with them - they even stayed through my birthday. The last time I had my mom with me on my birthday was 20 years ago so it was very special to have her here.
I also thoroughly enjoyed my children .. although I think they were happy for me to go back to school as I had scheduled all their medical, dental and orthodontic check-up while I was off, so me going back means no more appointments for shots and stuff! They are so wonderful - I am so blessed with the best kiddos ever. They may not always listen or do their homework ... but they are so loving, caring, creative and amazing - and I miss them every single day I am away.
School started again Monday and this will be a crazy term. If I thought summer was busy .. well then I better hang on for the ride because this term will be busier. I am excited to be back and looking forward to my clinical experiences this term. Today is only Thursday but I am exhausted and looking forward to a weekend at home and queezing my kiddos in great big bear hugs and snuggles tomorrow night.
A lot of things have been coming at us this week and the term is shaping up to be exciting and filled with lots of challenging assignments. Tuesday morning I participated in a flu clinic and I got to administer a great number of vaccines as well as a 4 TB skin tests. Great way to start out and I feel very accomplished and "nursy" :-)
As I come closer to the end of the week, I am trying to tackle the beginning of one more assignment and it is a tough one. I have a class on chronic illness this term and one of the assignments is to find and follow and end-of-life blog for someone with a terminal illness. It is an emotional experience reading through so many stories ... so many lives devastated by cancer. In the process of choosing the blog I want to focus on, I have read so many stories. Stories about breast cancer, about esophageal cancer, about parents loosing their children, children loosing their parents ... you name it. Reading these stories bring close memories of my aunt and cousin (mother and daughter) who both were diagnosed with breast cancer, survived only to be diagnosed with various metastasis of cancer at a later time. It brings close the loss of little J and the images of a perfect and sweet little baby boy. Lastly, it also brings back many memories of my dad and I wonder if an earlier diagnosis might had given him more time with all of us. Thinking about them makes me sad ... but remembering them also makes my heart smile :-)
I choose a blog about cancer both because of my personal experience but also because I will do my clinical rotation on an oncology floor this term. I know it will be an impactful experience. Death and dying comes very close when you choose a career in health care. While the goal for patient care is to make people better, I am very aware that is not always the outcome as some illness just cannot be beat. Death comes to all of us and sometimes it comes too soon. I know that I cannot let my emotions run away with me ... I know that I have to be strong - I pray that I will be strong!
Here is to a successful second term of school...
