Decisions, Decisions

First off, I wanted to post an update regarding my Micro lecture exam. I didn't do too hot.....I got a B, and while most people would be happy with that B, I, in all honesty, am not. There are several reasons. One is that IF I continue on to my Bachelor's or Master's degree, my GPA will be important, and from what I've heard about nursing school is that hardly anyone gets A's. So, I am trying to keep my grades as high as I can before nursing school for that reason. Two, it comes down to the fact that I am competitive, not just with other people, but mostly with myself. I try to outdo myself everytime. Three, which is kind of related to number two, is that because of the type of student I was in high school, which was not a very good one, I am trying my hardest to do well now, and in a sense prove to myself that I can be a good student.

Soo all that to say I am not happy with my grade. Ultimately, there is no one to blame but myself, but I don't think I've adjusted well to this new professor. He's a nice guy, don't get me wrong, but he is very unorganzied with the way he presents the information. Honestly, if I just read the book myself, I would have taught myself anything he would have. With my old professor, he explained things in depth, and got you to understand them. I LOVED the challenge of his test because they got you to think critically, which is a MAJOR plus for nursing school. I think because I knew the new professor was going to be "easier" I slacked off a bit with my studying. Now I have to get a 90 on my last exam in order to keep my A in the class. Phew, that's going to be a tough task to take on!

Now for the main reason I posted a blog today. We have decided, after much deliberation, prayer, and conversations that I will be starting nursing school THIS August. August 24th will be the official day I start my journey into the unknown world of nursing school. I'll tell you what, I'm scared to death! I honestly can't remember a time in my life I was more scared. But, I really, really want this, and I have an awesome family to support me, and I have made some good friends in school that will be going through the same things as I will be, so I can definitely do this, and I will share every step of that journey here.

I have a quiz in my lab this week, a quiz next week, along with my final exam in lecture, and then the following week I will have my lab final. It's going to be a busy several weeks, since in addition to my tests, I have a lot of things to get done to start nursing school.

Up In The Air

As of this blog, my nursing school status is up in the air. "Up in the air?" you ask, "What does that mean? Didn't you get accepted into the nursing program?"

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I did get accepted into the program. The plan was to start this coming January. Ray and I have done some talking, and we toyed with the idea of me starting NEXT August instead, but it still looked like January would be the time. Then Ray suggested perhaps I just start THIS August! What?!?!? Oh my gosh, I have so much to do. I want to do it....get it done, but the problem is we are not sure that I will go this August. So I can't go get my drug test, do my background check, get my fingerprints, get my physical, do my CEU courses (these are continuing education courses that I would need to work in a hospital and keep my license current), buy books, and uniforms, and a PDA, and a stethoscope and a nerdy rolling backpack. I can't do any of that yet!! I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed at this moment.

I have registered for my fall NURSING classes already, and while, under normal circumstances I would be gleefully excited, I am trying to be cautiously optimistic, because chances are I will be registering for real in January.

What's holding me up, you ask? Well, quite honestly, we're dealing with the issue of what to do about Nate. He may go to school 3 half days a week, and stay with Ray's mom some of the other time, and stay with Ray other times. My first semester will be the most hectic. I have lecture class on Momday from 9-12, then I have pharmacology class from 5-7pm. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have clinicals from 630am-3pm. Thursday I have off, and I have lecture class again on Friday from 9-12 and a nursing math class (doasge calculations) from 1-5pm (but this class only runs 5 weeks).

I will need to do A LOT of studying in the in between time. But the biggest concern is that Nate says he doesn't want me to "be a nurse" and go to school. Sometimes when I leave now for my Micro class, he says he doesn't want me to leave, he wants me to say, etc. I mean, what do I do? Unfortunately, I can't really grasp how much this would really affect him because this is just how he is with everything. When Ray leaves for work, he tells him he doesn't want him to go. Tonight, Ray took Grace out to dinner, just the two of them, and Nate said he wanted to go, too. I asked him if he wanted to go out on a date with me, and he says he wanted Ray to be there, too. So needless to say, we're trying to figure things out. Part of me feels guilty.....I'm his mom, he's only young once, etc. etc. But another part of me feels like he'll be ok. He won't be with strangers, he will be with people who love him and care for him, and this is a really good thing for our family.....a steady income, a secure job, health insurance. At this point, its all still up in the air.

I told the Health Science Admissions Coordinator that I would let her know by this Thursday if I needed to defer my seat, this way they can offer it to someone else still waiting to get in. The up side to starting now is that I have a lot of people I know through A&P class, as well as Micro class that will be a familiar face to seek out and study with in the program. One of my friends, who is also my neighbor, only living a few buildings away from me, will also go in January, and we could carpool and stuff sometimes, so that is a plus. Also, starting now would mean that I only have to attend ONE summer semester which is a 4 week shorter semester and if I start in Jan (or May, as that is third start time the school offers) I would have to attend TWO summer semesters.

Anyway, just keep me and my family in youtr thoughts and prayers while we figure this out.

Look for an update about my lab quiz and lecture exam coming around Tuesday.

Updates, Updates

To start off, I need to update my Micro Lecture Exam. I last blogged that I got a 43/50, which is basically an 86, which is a B. It ended up that I actually got a 46/50, which is an A, and basically a 92. I got some extra credit points that I didn't expect when I first found out my grade. So thats 2 A's out of 2 exams. Yay.

I had to take my lab midterm last Tuesday, which I had not studied more than 5 minutes for because I was sick with the Flu the week before and then found out the day of midterm I had come down with pneumonia as well. I went into school to take my midterm anyway after unsuccessfully trying to reach my professor to find out about when I could retake the exam. So Thursday comes around, and we get our grades for the midterm. NOT good. I got 38/50, which is a 76 which is a C. Yuck! I come to find out that EVERYONE did horrible. The highest grade was a 44 (an 88), and there was one person with that grade. THe next highest was an 82. A lot of A and B students had C's and D's on this exam. Not just my class, but all of the lab classes, not one person got an A. And most of the grades were in the B/C border range.

Today I got a very pleasant surprise. The professor (the new guy) said he was going to bring the tests so we could look them over. Apparently, he went back through the test, that was created by my old professor, and a lot of answers changed. He regraded the tests, and just about everyone's grade went up! Mine went up 9 points and I ended up getting 47/50, which is obviously an A (94%). I was so excited. I can't believe I did so well after being SOOOOO sick and not studying.

I already have a quiz next Tuesday for lab and my third exam in lecture next Thursday. I only have 3 quizzes and my final left in lab, and 2 exams left in lecture. One more month and this class will be done!! I'm really excited.

We're doing some super cool things right now in lab. Last week we inoculated plates with several different bacteria (one type each plate), and then we put these little discs full of antibiotics (each disc was a separate antibiotic) and we put them in the incubator for a few days. Today we got to see the results and what happens is, if the antibiotic works, there will be a cleared circle around the disc. If not, the bacteria will have continued growth around the disc. This was really neat.

Today we did a very similar experiment. We took several plates and inoculated them with several different bacteria (one bacteria each plate), and then separated each plate into three different zones (by drawing a line on the outside). Then we took a disc that was soaked in lysol, another disc that was soaked in hydrogen peroxide, and one that was soaked in listerine and placed them in one of the three separate areas on each plate. Currently, they are in the incubator and we will see the results on Thursday. This, too, will be interesting to see. We were basically testing the antiseptic capabilities of these chemicals.

As far as that, not much else is going on. Next week we start our "Unknown" experiment, which will be fun. We will be given a bacteria, and we will start testing it, step by step, and we have to figure out what bacteria we were given. Each step we do, it will help eliminate any bacteria that it won't be. Sounds fun. I am looking forward to this part of the class.

Until next time.......