Marvelous

I'll give ya a little update. I'm sure I'll forget things though...

Um, nothing especially new lately. This past weekend was fun, I had Sat, Sun, and Mon. off, so that was awesome.

Friday I got done with a horendous week at work. I left on Friday feeling like I wanted to quit and be done with it all. I had the most challenging patients all at once and everything was nuts, everything! Ugh. I needed to do something fun! So, God blessed me by having Kelsey call me! We went to Noodles and chatted for a while, always fun, then we met up with Denise and went to "Vacancy" hahah, 80 minutes straight of me watching the movie through my fingers, scary!!! Then Kelsey invited us to her place (both Jeff and Chris were working at Culv's) and she fed us her first homemade apple pie and Denise brought ice cream. We stayed until midnight! Thanks for the fabulous night girls.

Saturday, what did I do? Oh yeh! Chris and I rollerbladed/biked all the way to Brueger's Bagels! It felt cool that we could go there on foot, or wheels. Chris had never been there and he really liked it, cooooool. They have more food there now since the last time I was there (like in high school). Later we hit softballs around with Dad and Gavin. Then Mom made us a delicious meal.

Sunday, I went to church without my husband, tear, and then to the mall. Heather was there as usual and I got to see her ring, very pretty! Mom and I walked around for a while and then we left. Later, I went to watch game #2 of the Culver's flag football tournement. It was at JM and I kept score! Chris' team won last week and this week Jeff's team won, so now there'll be a final game in a few weeks! These Culver's boys really go all out! They bought real jerseys and a flag football set, it's a blast to watch them. I hope they do Culver's soccer next, that would be cool. Next I went with all the boys to Perkins, it was yummy. Luckily Travis (Kelsey's brother) was there to be the only other person other than me to NOT be working at Culver's South. We chit-chatted while the rest of them talked about Culver's, hahahaha.

Monday I decided to ditch the town and I randomly went to the Mall of America, just me and my car. I got there at like 11:30 and left shortly after 2:00. I've never been there alone and it was fun to take my time and just look around. I ended up getting just one shirt, at a store we have in Rochester, hahah, but it was fun. I was tempted to go on rides in Camp Snoopy (or whatever it's called now) but I didn't. They have good Christian radio stations in the cities so it was fun to listen to those up and back. Last night I did laundry and Chris and I had spaghetti! Yum!

Now, it's Tuesday and I am home from work, it was better today than horrible last week, thank goodness. I work three more days this week, then I have the weekend off. I got to see Chris for a bit, but now he's off to his night class and is taking a test! Good luck babe!

Wellll...that's all I think. I love you all dearly and I'm sorry if you should have been in my update and I left you out? I wish I had fun pictures to put up, but I don't!

Adios friends. I'm off to get some food and get excited about watching Gilmore and Idol and House. Whoop, I like Tuesday nights!

~Brianna

Happpeee Birthday Kelzzzzzie!!!!

Hey Kels, Happy Birthday!!! It was wonderful to see you today and I hope you had a good night with Jeff! Love ya lots! Thanks for being so "special" with me.
Love, Brie

I need some hobbies.

I think I'm blogging a little too much lately, but oh well, here's another one for your reading pleasure.

I worked yesterday and today, however, today I got out early! Yay! How fun. Michelle, my charge nurse came up to me and said, "you wanna EA?" (excused absense) and I was like, "yeh!" The cool thing about EAs is that you can just simply sign up for them and if the floor and the hospital as a whole does not need you based on patient numbers, then you just may get to leave. But the other cool part is that I can leave and still get paid, by using my PTO (paid time off). Yes, it is good to save PTO for vacations and such, but it's also a fun lil' treat to use just a few hours of it every now and then to leave work and not feel guilty.

I felt good about today though. It's crazy what you can get done in 4 hours. I organized two patients discharges. I decided that I am an investigator. Sometimes I get random patient requests or I have to plan something and I don't know where to start. Today I needed something for a patient and I didn't know who to call first, so I tried someone. They thought I was a nut and directed me to another phone number, they thought I was a nut too. Finally, I called a number with someone on the end who knew what I was talking about!!! In the end, my patient will get what they wanted! Yip yip!

Then later I had to organize someone going to the airport. That was kinda fun. I called different places and got quotes for the cost of the rides and the patients chose one and then I called them back and on and on. So now it's set and then fly outta here (to Southern Europe!).

Sometimes I'm just on the phone all day, callin' doctors, pharmacy, transportation people, nursing homes, family members (or they call me repeatedly), physical therapy, occupational therapy, infusion therapy, pain service, medical service, discharge planning, urology, respiratory, IV techs, lab techs, home health care, infectious disease, social services, and on and on. Oofdah, it's all fun though, when it's not chaotic, oh wait, it usually is chaotic, hahah, oh well.

I am thankful however, for my hospital, there are so many people to help out. People say that being a nurse at St. Mary's means you dont' do IVs, or catheters, etc. which sometimes I'd like to do, but it gives me the extra time I need to do all the other stuff!!!

Today I had 3 calls from family members for one patient, sometimes that is frustrating, because they really like to tell me their life stories. Okay, not that much, but still, c'mon, I'm trying to take care of your loved one, which I cannot do when I'm talking to her daughter-in-law all afternoon on the phone! Hahah, I know, it's important though, because if my mom was in the hospital, I'd be calling too, but I'd keep it brief, ehheheh.

Today after work I went to Wendys with 2 great men I know....my husband and my papa! Chris is a regular now down at the Rec Center, playing basketball Mon, Wed, Fri with a group of guys that have been doing the same for 25 years (like my dad!) So, sometimes they go to Wendy's after playing and on occasion I get invited along! Dad gives me a hard time, like I'm steppin' in on their guy time, but whatev, he knows he likes me there!

Chris is working, so I must say I'm a little bored. It's hard sometimes when I'm not working to find things to do. I really don't have any friends in town in my situation. Most of my friends are elsewhere, the citites, Winona, and Cinncinnatti! The few that are here are in school and are busy!!!! I'm not so busy anymore. It seems like a good thing (I know what you're thinking peeps like Hut and Bish), but sometimes it's not so good, it's BORING!!! So, I'm really looking forward to my friends coming home and for volleyball to start!

That's right folks, I'm joining my work volleyball team. Someone asked me if I wanted to and I was like, um... "YES!" I love volleyball. I'm not one to join things because I'm not overly social, but when it comes to something I love, I will do it! I need to find hobbies, I need to work out more and be motivated to do things like scrapbook and such, but ugh, I dunno, I'm not very motivated!

Well, Heather is coming to play with me tomorrow, so I am thrilled to be in the prescence of a girl my age who I love to hang out with!!! Apparently she is "interviewing" me for a project. I will be interviewed as a nurse. I hope she doesn't ask hard questions, uh no, I'm nervous!!! What am I gonna wear! Ms. Tlougan is intimidating!!!!!!! Ahhhh!!!!!!! Maybe she'll ask me if I have to deal with difficult patients, hahhahah, I have a book of stories for ya! Whooppp!

Tonight I watched America's Next Top Model and American Idol. Haley was voted off and that's who I would have picked to vote off, so la de dah. I haven't really faithfullly watched American Idol since like the 2nd season when I lived at home, because school's kept me too busy. But, yeh, now, I can.

One exciting thing for me is that I'm reading a book for fun. I used to be a read-a-holic. Especially in elementary school and middle school. But ever since college I have not been reading much, for fun (well, aside from Harry Potter, but that's must). So, I went to the Christian book store and got a book that looked good, and it is! So that's cool.

Mmmkay, better go, I'm sure many won't read this due to it's length, but if you made it this far, good job, I appreciate it, hehehe.

See ya...

To all of the people whose burdens and pains, keeping you back from your life. you believe that there's nothing and there is no one who can make it right.


There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary, love for the broken heart. There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing, He'll meet you whereever you are, cry out to Jesus.

And I thought Lonny was a challenge.....

Yesterday at work, W-O-W.

People never fail to be dramatic. I experienced my MOST dramatic patient moments yesterday. But it was a good day.

Our unit is really slow right now, we have like 15 patients, which is nuts. The Alfred side (the smaller side) only has 4 of the 15. I've been on the Alfred side all week. So, it's usually only me and one other nurse. Yesterday the other nurse sat at a desk that's on the other side, not by me, and our secretary was gone for like 1.5 hours, so, for those 1.5 hours, I felt like I was runnin' the place. I answered all the phones and call lights and such. It was fun. Then one of my patients took an emotional turn for the worst. No details here, but let's just say it was a matter of about a half hour before this IRATE patiet would rip out his/her own IV/Nerve catherter/etc. and walk outta the joint AGAINST medical advice. So, being the nurse advocate that I was, I called the 4 different doctors/medical professionals that needed to see this patient before he/she left. I said, if you don't come right now, the patient is outta here, no joke. So, these four wonderful people sprung into action and pretty much ran up to the floor and did what was needed and my patient was out. So, if you want to leave the hospital against medical advice, just act completely unreasonable and out of control, swear a lot, yell a lot, threaten to sue and you'll get a nurse and a bunch of doctors to forget everything else important in their day to come let you out.

I took the brunt of this patient's anger because I'm the go-between. A patient's mad at everything and I have to hear about it and do what I can to make it better. I have to try to make them feel better and stick up for the doctors the patient is mad at, all at the same time. At the end, the patient and the spouse thanked me and appologized like crazy saying how unfair it was that I had to listen to all the yelling when it all had nothing to do with me. But it's ok I said, that's why I'm here. And it is.

So, the angry patient became the apologetic and kind patient, once he/she found out they could go. Sigh..............I didn't even bother asking them if they wanted an escort (that's another 1/2 hour wait) hahaha, so I kinda pushed the patient towards the door and said, get outta here! And we all laughed, awwww, what a sweet ending. It coulda been a soap opera. After all this what did I do? Well I charted it all of course, nursing is 1/2 care and 1/2 documentation.

A bonus to my day was my mom calling me to come down to Alfred 6 and see were she works! I met her fun co-workers and saw where she does her thang. It was cool. Finally, I went home, watched Gilmore Girls and fell asleep. A little while later I found myself on the phone talking to my mom. I did not remember picking up the phone, but I did. She invited me to a movie with her and Papa. So, while I waited for them to pick me up, I watched the beginning of the Sound of Music on TV and I thought of you HEATHER and how you love that movie.

Then we went to The Lookout, it was interesting, sad, but good. Then I hung out at Mom and Dad's and we watched Pay It Forward on tv and Chris came over when he was done with work.

Now it's Saturday and I woke up @ 11 cuz I was tired apparently. When I woke up, I couldn't get out of bed, I was too lethargic, so I yelled out, "HELP, HELP!" and Chris came in and pulled me out, ahahah. We had a delicious lunch of egg rolls, burritos, and rice, which is fine because rice is a both a mexican and chinese food (remember that Amie/Winona friends?)

And now Chris has left for b-ball playin' and I sit here in my jammies, remembering that this time yesterday I in the middle of an anger mangement scenario at work.

Peace dawgs.

A Day of Firsts

Hello all you blogger wannabes...


Today was neat. I only had to work until 11:30am. At around 10am the charge nurse came up to me and said, yo, Brianna, you wanna go home at 11? I was like, heck yes.


So, Chris and I had a lovely lunch together

First #1 of the day: we went to Roscoe's! I've never been in there and neither has Chris. It was neat and yummy and something new! Whoop!


First#2 of the day: I made banana bread, it's ok, I never did it before so I think it's pretty good for the first time. My inspiration to do so were the old bananas and Chris' love of banana bread.


First#3 of the day: Jammie ride with Chris. What is a jammie ride you ask, well I will tell you. When I was a child, a younger child that is, my dad would announce to my brothers and I that we should go on a jammie ride! We usually did this when mom was at work and it was just Dad, me, Brice, and Gavin sittin' home all night. So, we'd run upstairs and get our pajamas on (this was later at night, when it was dark out) and we'd get in the car. Dad let us get in without shoes on, so it felt more jammie-like. Then we'd squeeze in the backseat together all cozy with a blanket over us and we'd just drive around (well Dad would drive) We'd sometimes go to McDonalds or DQ to get icecream or we'd drive up this big hill near our neighborhood were you can see the whole city and we'd just look out at it. It was fun to be in the car at night driving around randomly in our jammies. So, tonight, I told Chris about it and we got our jammies on and went through the DQ drive-thru! Fun! Although, we did wear shoes, ehehehe.

Well there ya have it, it was a good day :) I also cleaned the house! Whoop! Now Chris and I are gonna play yahtzee and I'm a goin' ta bed. Cuz I gots to get up for a day shift tomorrow! Yikes.


Love ya all, Love Brianna


Chris and Brianna: Post Jammie Ride

Happy 25th Anniversary!!!

Congratulations Mom and Dad on your 25 years together!!! I love you both so very much!!!

Love, Brianna