lets go wings :)

i'm going to a wings game and i couldn't be more excited!! thats the one upside to living in detriot, the wings are right here!! dave and tina are coming up two weeks from today for the game too. yay!! and it's still snowing outside...i'm getting a little tinsy bit ansy for spring time to be here. for things to be alive and pretty again. i rented this movie called young at heart from netflix and its a documentary about a show choir all made up of old people, the average age is 80!!! i highly recommend it, it's hilarious even if you may think it sounds lame. its not, i promise! it is sad though, i teared up a few times (shocking, i know).

i worked in the dish room today, bleck. it made me thankful i won't have to work in a job like that. but also made me realize how important their job is too. i did make some rounds picking up trays and such and saw the cutest little girl walking around with her mom. she had little peach fuzzies growing back on her head and a huge smile on her face. i said hi to her and she gave me a big HI back! so cute. makes me excited to get working with people, kids in particular.

God's been trying to remind me latley despite my doubts, He still knows what He's doing...like if i hadn't been placed at children's for this rotation, i may not have met up with the keto dietitian, among other things. patience patience patience is the still the key.

let it snow.

let it snow snow snow...it took me an HOUR and a half to get to work this morning. its only supposed to take 20 min!! ahh. it was SO frustrating and the roads were absolutely terrible. i spent most of my day in the formula room, mixing special formulas for babies in the NICU and such. but the good thing about today was that i got to introduce myself to the dietitian that does all the ketogenic kids! i told her i was really interested in spending some time with her and that i had been on the diet for a little bit when i was a kid. she was like "oh! i told the directors i wanted to nag you when you got here, but i forgot your name!" so that was great! im hopefully going to be spending a week of my peds rotation in july with her so i am SO excited!!

and im meeting a family to nanny for with a two month and a ninteen month old. im pretty excited :) i've put all my assignments off for a while now cause i keep thinking i don't have that much to do...but now i do before friday, whoops! im glad its hump day...im looking forward to sleeping in this weekend!

refreshing.

this weekend was very refreshing! i got to leave early on friday (which was the same old song and dance) and made it home by 4:30 to go to the daycare and see my kids. when i got there hanna saw me and goes "mae mae!!" and got all excited, ran and jumped on my. talk about melting my heart!!! i about had tears in my eyes. i got to see about half of my class which was sooo wonderful. i miss them so much, like i don't mention that enough. i stayed there an hour and went home. jordan got there later, we ate dinner and watched the x games and chilled. same thing for the rest of the weekend too, family came over sat night to celebrate birthdays so that was nice. except charlie decided to eat the head of my razor blade saturday night so i was pretty upset b/c it was my fault. i thought for sure he would have to have emergency surgery and my parents would kick me outta the house and shun me from the family. luckily none of those things happened and he has passed the blades...gross, but good.

it was so great to be surrounded by the familiar for a weekend. it gets lonely here in michigan sometimes. we had new employee orientation today for the DMC (detroit medical center) and that was boring. i've been being reminded constantly the past couple of weeks to pray pray pray. pray for yourself and growing closer to Him, pray for others whether you know their situation or not, pray for the country and the world. everyone is facing their own personal battles and prayer is so imporant and powerful! so do it...all the time, no matter what because He always is listening, always answering, whether you can see it or not.

ok thats it! onto my last week in foodservice...yipee skipee!

blah.

today was very blah and i think its going to be that way until i get outta this rotation. worked on the tray line and in the diet office where patients call in orders. i am slowly learning about the hospital politics between everyone that works there. like what the diet aids think of doctors or nurses and a couple cracks were even made at the dietitians today too haha. sort of annoying, but i suppose you get that anywhere you work. we had an incidence yesterday where a guy who works in the dish room threw away silverware simply because he didn't want to take the time to seperate it from the trash on the trays!! he threw away like 30-40 pieces of silverware! i couldn't believe it when my supervisor told me! totally ridiculous...

im hopefully meeting a family in the next week or so to possibly overnight sit for them. unfortunetly its not for babies and the kids are much older...but it seems like it would be an easy job and a good opportunity to make a little money, since i have no income right now! i really hope i can find a job with a baby, that would make me really happy.

i've been noticing that all i've been doing is looking forward to weekends and wanting the weeks to fly on by. i think partially this is because i don't like the rotation i'm in now, but also because i get to see my family, friends or jordan on the weekends. i want to be able to enjoy this time and focus on learning what i need to to be able to be an RD after i graduate. plus i don't want to keep wishing away weeks during this next week. God kindly reminded me today with my little calender quote to wait for Him. (wait for the Lord psalm 27:14) patience, patience patience, is what it said. so thats what i'm aiming for patience and for the ability to enjoy where i'm at, because eventually i'm going to look back and wish it hadn't passed by so quickly.

alright, enough of my enlightening thoughts...back to watching the office or something non-productive as usual. :)

update!

whoops...haven't posted in a couple days. i had a GREAT weekend with the slater fam and got to meet sweet, beautiful adeline joy. i just LOVE babies (in case you didn't already know that about me). She was just so adorable, she smelled so good and i loved just holding her. hopefully i get to see my kids this friday, i get SO excited just thinking about it. i miss them so so much. it was nice to be with family too, and be surrounded by dogs! i miss my puppies.

today we had a lecture by a speech pathologist that focused mainly on dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) and saw x-rays showing modified barium swallows and things like that. it was so cool to see what all happens when you swallow something, its all so complex! then we drove over to a hospital about 45 min away, sort of north of troy, for a diabetes lecture. i am really excited to do my clincial 2 rotations over there, the dietitians were all excited for us to be there! this was probably the best lecture we've had yet, so that was good. i had minor flashbacks to my class in school where i had to test my own blood sugar (where i almost passed out) because the RD had brought supplies to test our blood sugar or practice giving ourselves a shot if we wanted. needless to say, i politely declined!

rotations start back up tomorrow...bleck. hopefully better than last week though. can't wait for the weekend, jordan is coming to findlay and ill get to see my fam!!!

another frustrating day!

same old thing today...i didn't really do much. i worked on a one-day menu plan with 5 different dietary modifications for the menu for the entire morning til lunch. it probably shouldn't have taken that long, but i stretched it out because i didn't just want to sit there. i keep asking questions and pointing out different things i need to observe and keep getting answers like "oh yeah, well do that eventually" or "that will be really easy to do sometime". and i have heard more about this woman's ex husband and current boyfriend than i really care to hear about. dont get me wrong, this lady is wonderfully nice and very hospitable, but not very professional! we did get to do rounds on the floor and talk to some kids about their meals and if they liked the food or not. so that was cool. i saw a little girl having a video EEG done too so kind of brought back some memories there...

i have to be in at six tomorrow so i am reeeally not looking forward to that. i know my reasons for not continuing on with pre-med in undergrad and why i didnt really want to do the whole med school route, but being around everyone at the hospital and hearing about all the specialties here has been bringing on tiny regret pains. i forgot how much i LOVE this field and helping people and everything. its so incredibly fascinating to me, medicine that it. its amazing, our bodies are amazing. (i know i sound corny) but it seriously does amaze me. i love learning about it. so im hoping that once i get immersed in clinical work, it will have the right amount of all that in it to satisfy that tiny bit of regret i may have for not pursuing med school.

i want some peace about this rotation because i don't want to wish all the time i have in it away, but i can't wait to be done with it. so pray for peace if you think about it :) i burnt my finger really badly on a non-microwavable plate that cracked tonight, so im going to go ice it. it feels like its on fire. ouch.

relief/frustration.

today was my first day in my food service rotations at children's hospital and it was a very boring day. my preceptor was late so i stood and watched the tray line for over an hour and i could have fallen asleep standing on my feet. i don't care if they wanted me observing, but at least gimme something to do! it was SO boring. then my preceptor lady got there and was very disorganized, didn't know what i was supposed to really do, didn't know about my projects, and so on and so forth. it was a little frustrating to be in this program and get into a rotation that starts out like that. not cool. she kept asking me what i was expected to do and how the heck should i know?! they are the ones who organize the program and put us in these rotations...errr. but i was a little relieved because these foodservice rotations are going to be a breeze, just very boring. i was once again reminded why i do NOT want to be stuck in foodservice. not that it's not important, because it very much is, but it's not where i want to be once i get through all this schooling.

i spoke to my supervisor a little about the ketogenic diet which they have an RD that deals specifically with those kids, so that was cool because i told her i would have a big interest in that area. so hopefully i get to work with that. i got to hear a lot about personal drama from the people that work there and i wasn't so excited about that. it was unecessary and i don't care at all! haha i keep seeing all these RN's on the floors in scrubs and i keep asking myself why again i didn't go into nursing...i love scrubs.

i miss my kids so so much. i keep thinking about what they're doing at certain times of the day and how much i wish i was with them. i don't want them to forget me, and i know it's going to happen. it will make me so sad when i do get to visit and they have no idea who i am. sigh.

reality.

i think as the start of my rotations draw nearer and nearer, the reality of real life is setting in for me. we have been doing interviewing exercises with my supervisor, nancy, on how to interview adult and pediatric patients. its so very clear that all of us have two problems. (1) we are all fresh out of undergrad and have been conditioned to interview/respond in a systematic way that is NOT how you talk to real life patients and (2) we are all so very naive. Nancy very kindly pointed out that the majority of our patient population we will encounter have not grown up the way we have, therefore have a very different mindset. When someone asks us "how much physical activity do you get in a day?", we understand. however, a large part of the population wouldn't know how to respond to that. so instead we ask "what do you do in a typical day?". a much more conducive question to coax more information out a patient.

as far as the naive-ness of us all...i don't think im quite prepared for the types of people and situations i will be seeing. we had WIC (a program helping women, infant and children) training today and i think that made me realize even more, we will be seeing some pretty difficult stuff. there will only be so much we can do for certain patients. some will be homeless, some moms wont feed their babies the correct amount of formula to stretch out what they have because they can't afford any more, and some patients who need ongoing care, won't be able to get it. im going to really have to focus on not letting my emotions and feelings get the better of me, as they so often do. because the thought of not being able to provide all the care a patient may need to get them better, probably will be difficult for me in the beginning. im in this field to be around people and to help make a difference in their life. it will be hard when i might not be able to do this to the fullest of my ability because of financial constraints or a patient's unwillingness. obviously i have a lot to learn and a long way to go, because im sure i'll hit those road blocks a lot in the next ten months.

lori, my roommate, said her boyfriend (who just did his dietetic internship) got to step in on an open heart surgery!!! how awesome is that?! i would be elated if i got that opportunity! even though im not going to be a surgeon or doctor, a chance to see that, or any surgery would be incredible. im meeting my aunt sue and corey to shop tomorrow, i can't wait! off to read a little more about edward now... :)

boring day.

today was a relatively boring day. we didn't have to be in class til 9, so that meant sleeping in til 7! yay! but to start the day off right, i couldn't find my swipe badge right when we needed to leave (go figure, me lose a swipe card?! never.) so we were like 10 min late. good thing our supervisor is good about us being late haha we basically we over how to do calorie counts for a three day diet and thats it. what took us over an hour should take 15 min. takes a while to get use to guesstimating and not being anal about being so precise in counting calories and protein and things like those. we went over how to chart all those things in patient charts, how to access medical records online, blah blah blah...monotonous stuff really. tomorrow we're going over how to interview peds patients so that will be a little more interesting.

we're getting cable and internet finally set up today and finger's crossed, we'll be able to watch the office tonight!! :) tomorrow is FINALLY friday and this week feels like its been the longest week of my life...i can't WAIT to sleep in on saturday and hopefully go shopping saturday with sue and corey, unless baby addy wants visitors then!!

day two.

i survived day two. barely. talk about one of the most overwhelming days EVER! i knew this would be an intense program, but in no way shape or form was i prepared for this. to start the day off right, lori and i got off on the wrong exit and ended up on 696 instead of at the hospital. then holly (my gps system) was telling us to get over 4 lanes of traffic within in a 100 yds during rush hour, um, that did not happen. thankfully, we found our way to the parking garage and being as excersise concience as we are, decided to walk alllll the way around the medical compound (about 15 min to get down 2 streets) to finally get to the wrong hospital, ended up on the wrong floor. finally we got a hold of our surpervisor and we rolled into our classroom, 20 min late. go us! haha

it is absurd the amount of work and projects and travelling we will be doing in the next 11 months. seriously insane. we have to prepare a case study on a patient we choose within our clinicals, write a very lengthy paper and present it to 15 or so RD's from like 5 different hospitals in an auditorium!! AHH!! i about passed out when i heard that. my supervisor, nancy, seems super nice though and very encouraging. it seems like she really wants us to LEARN and is not focused heavily on giving out a grade or making us pass tests, and i like that. i get my foodservice rotations out of the way in the beginning; they start monday. we do get to work at a diabetes camp for a week with kids helping them carb count and stuff so im supppper excited for that! i miss being with my kids SO much...and just kids in general!

oh...funny side note that my roommates will appreciate! so we had a women come in today and lecture on school foodservice (very dry and boring things) and i may have been drifting off a little and my roommate lori caught me dozing...haha whoops :) old habits die hard i suppose!

first day.

so i am not a huge fan of these blog things where everyone spills their deepest most inner secrets and feelings online for the whole wide world to read about, but i figured i would give this a try since i'm doing something new and i have a bunch of people i want to tell about it! and i don't really care if you read it or not, i'll just put what i've been doing with my rotations and such. hopefully it will be somewhat interesting... :)


today was my first day at harper for my internship and i was slightly terrified and didn't now what to expect, but i was pleasantly surprised. first of all the dmc (detroit medical center) is GINORMOUS. very overwhelming. i think its comprised of 5 or 6 HUGE hospitals or something absurd like that. everyone we ran into was super uber friendly though, way more than i thought they would be, so that was comforting. but we all were introduced to the other interns and everyone seems really nice. two of the interns are a little older and have kids, so it will be a nice mix of people. we bascially had physicals, bloodwork, TB and drug tests ( i hope i pass!) and stuuuupid paperwork with taxes and all that crap. it was a VERY long day. my roommate lori and i got back around 2:30ish so it was nice to get out early. we have orientation and assignments the rest of the week...yayy homework!

i like my apartment and am really glad im living with lori. troy is a great area so far. i keep realizing how much i take for granted living at home...for convience and comfort reasons alike. i miss home already, i miss my friends. but i feel really good about this and am very hopeful that this is going to be a great learning experience. i feel peaceful that this is where im supposed to be, even if its not the first place i'd pick to be at right now...

be wise. psalm 2:10 (this weekend i'll ponder all things wonderful)
that little quote was on a calender i had and was very true for what i did this past weekend. i am very blessed and have some very wonderful things in my life.