Big_Esh's Xanga

As a citizen of the US,

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:49:20 GMT

I am offended that our president decided to allow terrorists to stroll into NYC and face a civilian trial. Way to go, Obama. WTF.

Docs.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:47:25 GMT

Doctors are great, I think we can all agree. They put in some stinking ridiculous long hours, work hard, and usually really do care about their patients. I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with some really great doctors.

But. Some are a little too proud of the fact that they are what they are. Not saying they can't be proud. Shoot, I would be. But some on. Let's not forget that you are human (gasp!!) and are not always correct. You are also not too good to help your nurses.

My patient today was morbidly obese. My preceptor and I were attempting to turn her so we could put a clean sheet under her. The woman weighs almost 400 pounds. So we were not succeeding. So, right as I was talking about how I was going to go grab some help, this resident walks in. Young guy, strapping and tall. He hears me say I was going to go get help and says "Ya'll seem to be having some trouble". I said that yeah, we needed a lot of help to move this woman. I grabbed some other people and we went back in and proceeded to move the patient, while the resident just stood there and watched. Yeah. Then, after we moved her and were sweating and breathing hard, we go out to do some charting, and there sits two more doctors, an intern and a resident, at our desk. We asked if they were busy, and they said no, they were just discussing something. So my nurse proceeded to ask them to move out of our place so we could get our work done. You'd have thought I had just smacked someone's grandmother from the look I got from these two. Holy crap.

Cockiness doesn't even begin to describe it. Its not my job to cater to some punk doctor. Its my job to take care of the people who need it. Clearly they aren't teaching that in med school these days. Respect your nurses. They can and will save your ass someday.

Its been awhile.

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:50:06 GMT

I made it to and through my experience in Rhode Island. And boy, was it an experience.

It was the hardest five weeks of my life. But I had tons and tons of fun. Ok, yeah, we got up at 3:30 everyday to work out and get yelled at. Sure, the first week they would storm in each morning screaming and cursing, kicking our doors down. And yes, being without your cell phone while simultaneously missing the crap out of your loved ones makes for some nights of pure pitifulness. But, I met some truly awesome people who I will never forget, and have the fortune of working with many of them. It was like living with 45 of your best buddies, and you didn't really have time to be lonely. Going into Newport on liberty in our summer whites (i.e., "Top Gun" uniforms) and getting photo requests from tourists and special treatment in bars and restaurants (um, hello VIP room and free drinks!) was quite amazing, and it was also cool when total strangers would come up and thank us for our service.

I almost miss it. I was running like hell to get out of there, haha, so I could see my family again. But it was some solid good times. I am a push-ups champ now.

So here I am, in my house in the historic district of Portsmouth, Virginia, with an all access pass to Norfolk and Virginia Beach. I live 5 minutes from work...very nice for when those early morning 12 hours shifts start. Nevermind that I could be deployed in 6 months...a prospect I am kinda excited about but petrified of at the same time.

But, I do miss Nashville. I miss my family, I miss my college friends. I miss this time of the year in Cookeville when things are getting started up and there is an air of excitement and anticipation throughout the campus. And its kinda a tear-jerker to know that it is the end of an era, and that although I am always welcome back to school and old friends, it will be as the person on the outside looking in. Kinda weird.

Oh well, time to get life moving!

Blaaahhh

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:36:59 GMT

Nancy Pelosi is such an irritating figure...yikes.

I leave Saturday for Rhode Island. I am pretty stinking nervous. Its going to be different, that's for sure.

Officially Official

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:54:42 GMT

I did pretty well on my NCLEX, as it turns out...only took 75 questions! YAY, I passed!

NOW I am ENS Sarah Wade, USN, BSN, RN.

North Korea

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:04:34 GMT

should be more concerned about being "wiped off the map" rather than them trying to do the wiping. What a bunch of lunatics.

I'll miss it.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:30:29 GMT

Swim, run, pack, study. This is basically been my life for the past few weeks. Getting into shape for ODS, packing stuff up for my move, and studying for the NCLEX, which I am sooo nervous about its not even funny.

So last night I was at the Brentwood High School track, and I did my run and noticed that the sunset was beautiful as it lowered behind the middle school. So, I went to the top of the bleachers and watched as it set, cooling off from my run.

It was weird. That track represents a lot to me. In middle school gym class, when we had to wear those awful uniforms, and everything was awkward, and I HATED running our half mile everyday. There were the immature boys that got on my nerves, and then it seems there was always one cute one that I was nervous around. It reminds me of when I ran track, and how I never felt like I was as good as or as pretty as the other, slim girls on the team. It reminds me of middle school football games on Thursday nights, when I would walk around with my two good friends, trying to be "cool" and subtly capture the attention of the BMS football player whom I had had a crush on for a long time. Feelings of frustration and sadness related to the pains of being a new adolescent. I think we all understand what that is like.

Then, it fast-forwards me to high school. Primarily band. All the sweltering hot practices when the color guard would go to the field while the band stayed on the parking lot for practice, being yelled at for stupid crap, sunburns, tears, ants, lukewarm water. The excitement of football games and marching in on the track, goofing off with friends during the third quarter, and then going to Sonic afterwards for lack of anything better to do.

Brentwood, you are a bubble, that is for sure. The rest of the world is not made up of well-manicured lawns and Bradford Pear trees dotting the parking lots. The rest of the world doesn't give its children brand-new vehicles when they turn sixteen, or live in houses that are 5 times larger than the family living there. The rest of the world is not made up of the endless supply of yuppies who zip about trying to keep up with the Joneses in their BMWs, Mercedes, and Audi SUVs. Brentwood, you are a bad place to grow up as far as giving kids an understanding of life, and that fact that hardships are very real. Struggle in Brentwood is swept under the carpet, away from the prying eyes of neighbors.

But, although all the above is true, I am glad I grew up here. Not just moved here from somewhere elses, but lived here for 22 years. My pre-college life represents an innocence, and sweetness to life that I will probably never have again. Things were simple, problems were not really existent. As I prepare to transition from a resident of the area to an out of state guest of the area, I find that even when I am gone, Tennessee is in my blood. The hills, the hot, humid weather, the sweet tea and drawling accents (that are almost all gone in this area because of so many out-of-staters) have a beauty that you simply cannot get anywhere else in this county. New York? Keep it. California, with its beaches and mountains? Keep that, too. Nothing beats Tennessee.

Time, it keeps a-marchin'.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:20:03 GMT

I got commissioned today.

So, I am officially Ensign Sarah Wade, USN. Hopefully, that title will get longer soon and I will be Ensign Sarah Wade, USN, BSN, RN. Haha. So many N's. Gotta pass that stinkin' test first.

Tom started his job today in Newport News. Weird. We are officially...adults...now. (??!!)

Days until I go to ODS in Newport, RI: 26
Days until I have to report to Portsmouth, VA: 86

Wooot.

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:17:13 GMT

So, I am getting commissioned Monday. Yay, I will officially be an officer in the United State Navy!

Thunderstorms are God bowling.

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:45:15 GMT

Why do I believe in God?

Because not believing based on some of the arguments I have heard against the case for a God don't fly for me. Because no matter what someone else tells me, they can't understand what I have felt, experienced and seen. And science proves to me there is a higher power, rather than disproves it.

It seems to me that a lot of arguments against a higher being are all grossly human in nature (and we can't help that because we are limited by what we are) and I kinda laugh to think that some people think they actually have "God" pinned down to a few human demands. "Why do bad things happen to good people, why does God allow suffering, why doesn't he do this or that if he exists?" Well, why do you think that if a supreme being does exist, your human mind could ever come even one tiny, insignificant bit close to understanding him and his ways? We haven't even scratched the surface on our own universe, even our deep seas remain a mystery (and they are at least on the same planet as us!), and people expect the answer to a god to come neatly wrapped so we can "get it"? Our brains cannot fathom God, and I think that's why it bothers so many people, particularly intellectuals. After being told all their lives that "reason", "logic", and their earthly brains could solve any problem, this is one area that frustrates the crap out of them. Maybe the reason they don't know is not because he doesn't exist, but because they fail to see a different kind of logic and reason. Blinded by their own demand for earhtly, concrete answers.

Anyways. It is depressing to hear the horrible things said about religious people. It is just as horrible to hear some of the things religious people have to say about non-believers. Either way, I wish people were less concerned with an ardent desire to be "right" and more concerned with at least making an effort to understand. I am guilty of this as well.

This quote from Einstein makes a heck of a lot of sense to me:

"If God has created the world, his primary worry was certainly not to make its understanding easy for us."

— Letter to David Bohm, February 10, 1954; Einstein Archive 8-041