Leeeeeeeeearning (or "My grumpy old lady")

Yeah, its not creative, but A) It's late and I'm tired and B) It's what happened this week, so the title stays. So this week was actually surprisingly busy now that I think about it. Monday I had seminar and theory. In seminar we talked about living with AIDS (As I think of all the things I want to talk about in this entry I'm realizing I shouldn't have waited all week to do this, so I apologize for the ramblings). So Monday, AIDS speaker in seminar. I knew before seminar that we were having a guest speaker so I clearly assumed that someone with AIDS was going to come in and talk to us about life with AIDS. But then I walk into seminar and there's this 50ish year old woman at the front of the room that absolutely does not look like she has AIDS. I'm kind of disappointed because she starts by putting up a powerpoint (gag) and telling us about Project Red that she works for downtown, blah blah blah. I'm very disappointed. So she then goes on to tell us how they serve all kind of people, anyone can have AIDS, etc. I think "No shit, I already know all of this from the THOUSAND TIMES I HAVE HEARD IT. Dumb seminar." She says, "....I am a wife, mother, sister, etc. AND I HAVE AIDS." Boom, now I feel like a giant asshole. I don't have stereotypes? Lie. I obviously do. She tells us about her life and how she found out she had AIDS (One night stand between marriages), and how she told her husband and her family. Then she tells us about her infertility and battle to get pregnant. She does get pregnant and they take all the precautions to prevent transmission (roughly a 9% chance she told us). Just when you think this story is looking up, her son is HIV positive. Diagnosed at 6 weeks old. But he's awesome. And doing well. She showed us tons of pictures of her son, her family, her dogs, and she talks to us about her medications, costs, health, daily life, etc. Then she lets us drill her with questions. It was awesome. And I learned a huge lesson in not judging people.

Tuesday I just had theory, got my SUPER PROCRASTINATED PAPER back in class which I was actually semi freaking out about. Got a 93%. This is both a good and bad thing. It's good because it's an awesome grade. It's bad because I started this paper at 7pm the night before it was due and did only 1% worse then I did on the last paper I wrote that I worked on for DAYS. This is not good for encouraging my procrastination. Meh, still awesome. I also had my first LEI (elderly client) visit on Tuesday which was good because I need to do three this semester and I was kind of getting behind on that. Oh and we talked about cancer this week. Which I am super interested in. WINNING.

Wednesday and Thursday I had clinical. I can clump these into one since most of my learning experience came from one patient that I had both days. So Wednesday I meet my nurse and go in the room to meet my patient, she's 81, and I walk into the room and the nurse introduces me. She immediately gets super pissed and keeps saying "No student, I don't want a student, no students." Awesome, bring on the good day. The nurse basically tells her it will be fine, I promise her we will have a lovely day, and I leave the room thinking this day is going to completely suck. So I go in a few minutes later to get her vitals and do her assessment. I stay super polite. She is super rude. I try to make conversation. She looks like she hates me. I inadvertently make a joke and she actually smiles. I'm happy because maybe I can win her over. Then the doctors start coming in, and she is even more rude to them. Literally they walk in, she stares at them and says "What do you want." Then she insults them and tells them they don't know what they are doing essentially. Then she looks at me and winks, like now I am on her side. Boom. Now I'm winning with her. As the day goes on she continues to be rude to everyone that walks in the room but she keeps getting more open with me. She tells me about her son and her dog and her life when she was young. Don't get me wrong, this woman is absolutely still the boss and ordering me around like it's her job, but she is at least being nicer. She seems to hate me the least out of everyone that comes in her room so I take what I can get. I spent the whole day telling her that "She's the boss." Moral of the story, by the end of the day we are getting along pretty well and I'm feeling pretty good about myself for making it through my day and winning her over as much as I honestly feel anyone could have. So I go to tell her that I'm leaving and thank her for being a good sport she says "Oh, when are you coming back?" I tell her tomorrow morning. She says "Oh...are you going to be with me again tomorrow." I semi laugh and tell her "If you let me." She says "Yeah, I guess I'd like you back tomorrow." BOOM. I was really happy that she wanted me to come back and that she finally was feeling comfortable with me. So I was with her again all day Thursday (plus another patient, only three of us got to take 2 patients this week so I felt good there too). We talked a TON on Thursday and I spent lots of time in her room just chatting and helping her wash up, brush her hair and teeth, etc. It was a really great learning experience because it showed me that patients who may seem difficult may really just be anxious (she had a lot of anxiety) or frustrated and need someone to spend some time and listen to them. It was very eye opening and also gave me a lot of confidence in myself and my communication skills. I also felt good this week since I got complimented a few times by my instructor and also because she asked if I wanted two patients this week and only two other people got to have two patients. So it was a really good week of clinical for me. Next week I spend one day in the ICU and one day in the OR! Exciting for sure.

Friday I had my second LEI visit because I needed to get another one done and Tuesday and Friday this week both happened to work for us. Also my client is going on vacay next week so we needed to get these bad boys done. So yeah, busy, crazy, but GOOD WEEK. And I got a TON of homework done with weekend. At the risk of saying this too many times in one post- I. AM. WINNING.