So the remainder of the week sorta just flew by. . . These were waiting for me when i arrived last Saturday. I havent uploaded pictures until today. 

I worked with heart and lung transplant patients, picu and cicu kids, and i worked in the ER Friday night until 11:30. All of the rotoations were great experiences, but were different in their own little ways. My favorite of all of them would have to of been the ER. I handled the exposer to the nastiness really well. I had warned Beth and he made me feel so much better about it. I got to see 2 eye brow lacs, a dog bits lac to the lip, an echo, a hip tap, and a couple of IV starts. I really handled all of it really well. Beth was very understanding and told me at any point if I felt like i needed to leave the room i could. That in itself made me feel better about the whole situation. I really enjoyed working with the staff down there. They were all so funny and just loved to hear me talk. They  tried to guess where I was from. Too funny! I loved the late night shift. I was able to be at the house by myself during the day. I loved it! I was able to sleep in and actually rest a little. I really hope I end up getting that rotation. I feel like i need to challenge myself and that would be a great place to do it.

I spent the afternoon running around town trying to find something to wear to Aaron and Gena's wedding. No luck! Nancy Stewart called and invited me over to tye food tonight. I am looking forward to spending time with them and getting to hold those babies. 

It has only been a week and it feels like it has been a month. I am looking forward to getting busy so the time will fly by. Just ready to see Ash. 18 days. . . such a long time! 

First day in the some what "real" world. . .

Well. . . Once again all of the worrying was for nothing. The day went great. All of the CLS were just so helpful, encouraging, and just welcomed me with open arms. 

            I left the house today at about 6:55 in hopes to beat the traffic. Well I did that for sure. I ended up walking in the front door of the hospital at 7:20 this morning. I didn’t have to be there until 8. Lets just say tomorrow I will leave just a little later.  After parking my car in the employee-parking garage I walked down the ramp to the shuttle pick up. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces getting on. Luckily Jenny, who is my advisor, was already on the shuttle. We started right in with the orientation and continued talking about it until we walked into the CL office.  As soon as we walked in I noticed a big sign that read "welcome Rachel" over one of the desks. Jenny told me it was my very own. I was so surprised. At Children's in Little Rock I didn't even have a chair to call my own much less an actual desk. From there she showed me around again to familiarize me with the facility. Here is a website if you want to go look at where I will be working for the next 4 months. 

 

http://www.stlouischildrens.org/content/VirtualTours.htm

 

            I got my orientation schedule for the next 2 weeks. I was pleased to find out that I wasn't going to be in the classroom settling learning about policy and procedure for 10 days straight. They worked out a schedule that has me with a different CLS each day. This way I will know about the units I will be choosing from for my 3 different rotations.

            I started today with Pam. She is one of the older ladies in the department. She calls herself the mother of the group. She’s the one everyone goes to and tells her about their, problems and love lives. She gives them pretty good advice from what I hear. Good thing we hit it off great today! :) She works in general surgery and the PAWS unit. PAWS stands for Patient Acute Wound Services. Of course I am not good with the whole open wound situations. They are in charge of dressing changes and flushing different things after surgery. Wouldn’t you know it that as soon as we walked through the double doors onto the small 2-room unit there was something I could have for sure gone without seeing. A young lady had about 300 staples on the outside of her left leg. They started at her ankle and went all the way up to her hip. Of course, the wounded side was facing the door so everyone could see it. Someone was just about to walk in the door as we were just happening to walk by. Perfect timing huh!? Pam said “ oh Rachel we need to go in there and distract her during this” . . . I just politely told her I just don’t think I could do that. I found me a seat and prayed that I wouldn’t pass out after seeing it. For a few moments I was pretty sure I was about to go, but luckily those prayers worked. The nurses didn’t have to pick me up off of the hospital floor.

After Pam finished with the distraction we started out day full of visiting patients. When she introduces the services she puts it a new way for me. . . she would go in and say “ we are from Child Life . . .  we specialize in fun and information.” I had a really good day with Pam. I don’t believe I will be choosing that rotation, but I know she will be there as a resource if I need her down the road.

Later on this afternoon Jenny sat down with me and went over all of the assignments I will be doing over the next 4 months. I am really glad I don’t have friends and stuff to do because that would just be distraction from all of the “busy” work I have to do. I know each project has a purpose, but some of it seems sort of pointless. I learn a lot better by observation and hands on interactions with patients. Jenny was very encouraging and acted like it wasn’t going to take much to keep up on everything that I will have due on a weekly basis. I get to pick 2 different facilities I want to go observe CL services. I actually will be able to take whole day if I wanted. She mentioned Chicago. That would be great! How fun would that be?!  I looked it up and it is about 4 ½ hours from St. Louis. Wouldn’t be a bad weekend trip. Take off on Friday and have the weekend to spend. I don’t know anyone from there, but it wouldn’t be the first time I went somewhere not knowing anyone. I will look into it. I have a while before I have to have those done.  

I am with Rebecca on the cardiology unit tomorrow. She also does the CICU and the PICU. This is a little more my cup of tea. No big opened wounds that might just happen to catch me off guard. I am looking forward to it! We will see how it goes. 

And the journey begins. . .

So I finally made it. It didn't take as long as I had anticipate in the beginning. I went ahead and bought a book on tape to help with the long drive. The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks. . . because I broke down and bought one I ended up not being able to listen to it because of the constant phone calls from family and friends just making sure I was doing alright. My luck if I wouldn't of gotten anything I would no have gotten a call at all and I would have had to listen to myself sing the whole way. Luckily my family and friend love me so much. It really helped the trip go by really quick. 

Luckily I have a very supportive family. They love to take care of me and make sure I am prepared for anything. I was givin the laws to live by this morning from not only Nana, who I spent the night with last night in Marion, but also Mom and Dad called before I could even leave Nana's this morning. 

As I was driving in it began to snow. Not something I am use to thats for sure. If we get anything in Arkansas its just ice, but we call it snow because thats all we know. At the same time I started to dread the much colder weather I secretly got excited about the changes I would soon be experiencing. I pulled up to the house I would be staying in for the next 4 months. Its an older house, but has had some work done to update it a little. Mrs. Wanda greeted me at the door with a big smile, which was very comforting. Soon after I arrived Mr. Alec pulled up and we were all 3 off to take a test drive to St. Louis Children's Hospital. The place my life will revolve around for the next 4 months. It wasn't all that bad of a drive. They showed me a couple of shortcuts that will be helpful on the mornings when there is a bunch of traffic. Its not that bad of a drive really. The parking garage was pretty confusing to find, but once we got there it made us feel sorta silly because how easy it really was to find. We went back to the house and then unloaded my car. Dad was right. I felt weird having so much stuff. I am sure the Hill's were thinking there is no way she is going to wear all of these clothes while she is here. 

After unloading and attempting to unpack Mrs. Wanda and I went driving. She made sure first off that I knew where both Wal-Mart and Target were.  A must for all woman these days. Everything is fairly close to where we live. She also showed me some really neat shops on the other side under the interstate. I am looking forward to walking down around that area one afternoon and visiting the little stores. There was a neat little coffee shop that looked like it was owned by someone here is town and a pizza place she says is wonderful. It had lots of TV's up so I am sure that is where fans go to watch the Cards play when they are out of town. 

The Hill's son Brian came by for a few this afternoon to introduce himself. He is in the Army and he and his wife just live a couple of miles away. He is wanting to introduce me to some of his friends tomorrow morning at church. I am looking forward to making new friends. I just hope I fit in. Mr. Alec is retired from the social security something, but now works for a non profit organization in town that raises money for children's homes. I have made sure to let him know that I would love to help with anything they need me for. From what he has told me he could keep me pretty busy in my down time if I wanted. I know I probably wont have  much down time, but when I do I cant sit still. I have to being working on a project or cleaning some most of the time. So instead of wasting my time doing something pointless I might as well be down at his office helping with their great cause. It could be a good way to meet people as well! I am definitely looking forward to that. 

Sam's friend Todd Stewart called me this afternoon and invited me over for supper. I am suppose to be there around 530 tomorrow. He seems really nice. They just had twin boys 7 weeks ago and they have an 11 year old daughter. I hope they know that I am willing to help they out with anything they need. I am really looking forward to going over and meeting them. Sam says that they are a lot of fun and just laid back people. They would have to be fun for him to be such good friends with Sam. I really appreciate Sam talking with Dr. Todd for me. It feels good knowing you have someone here that is willing to help you if you need them. 

We are just a few blocks from Webster Jr. High School. The high school team was 5A State Champ last year in football. Basketball season it getting cranked up and I am looking forward to going to a few games. They are suppose to be really good. There is nothing like the smell of salty popcorn and the sound of squeaky shoes to remind you of back home. :) 

I ran to Wal-Mart after supper. . . which was some sort of wonderful soup. She is going to have to give me the recipe. While I was at Wal-Mart I just got things for lunches this next week. Surprisingly it wasn't a Super Wal-Mart. Pretty disappointing. Luckily they did have a few of the food things that  I needed. Bad thing happened while I was there though. I ended up leaving one of my sacks behind. I don't know how it happened. I thought I looked and made sure I had all of my bags. I got home and had no downy wrinkle reducer, dryer sheets, or the smell good sticks for my room. 17.00 worth of stuff. I am hopeing it is just in the car. I didn't go back out and check when I realized it because it was so late and so COLD! I was pretty bummed about it. I normally don't do things like that. Anyways. . . after I got back from shopping I told myself that I was going to get my room organized before I went to bed. It went really well once I turned on my boy band CD Kyle made. I have plenty of room for everything. They have really treated me like family. They are always checking to make sure I am comfortable. Making sure I know I can raid the cabinets for a snack any time I want or just making sure I am not freezing. 

I am planning on taking pictures tomorrow of the house and around Webster. Its really not at all what I was expecting. I had been preparing myself for self defense mode since I found out I got the internship, but once I got here I see that its just a little town that is sort of a safe haven for a lot of people away from the city. I am still on alert and my head is still on a swivel, but I'm just not as paranoid about it as I was. 

I just want to thank everyone that has supported me along the way. I hope I make you proud. I love each of you. I miss home already. As Dorothy said. .  . There is no place like home.