Two Down, Two to Go

Well....nursing 202 is complete....CHECK! I'm officially half a nurse. How about that! As we go through this little thing called nursing school we learn that we live one moment, one test and one skill at a time. Every thing is an accomplishment that means we're on to the next accomplishment that gets us to the end of the semester. I missed 9 out of 80 questions on the final exam making an 88% , which is a B and I made an 87% (B) total for the semester...not bad if I do say so myself. Only two people out of 30 made A's in the class. They must have photographic memories or something. I think's it's almost impossible to make an A in nursing and if you do then right on!!!!!! Congrats Michelle and Denise....you rock sistas!!!!!! I wish I were one of those people who remembered everything that was said to me. I have a terrible memory. I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, much less hours of lecture. Oh well....this is the brain God gave me...ha!

This past weekend was pretty much a nightmare. Everyone in my family had some kind of ailment and I had my final exam on Monday. I was stressing out big time. My youngest son was admitted into the hospital for dehydration. He had the terrible stomach virus for the second time since November SIGH! Bless his heart, he's better now and we're all still recovering, but getting there. My exam was 11:00 on Monday so I got to school at about 8:30 to try and study in some peace. As I sat in my car chugging my coffee, trying to wake up from being up all night nursing my kids back to health, I began to panic. I was reading all the material and it just wasn't sticking. My breathing became rapid and I couldn't gather my thoughts. My mouth was tingling so I automatically thought I was hypocalcemic and was experiencing tetany. LOL But then my rational mind told me I was hyperventilating. I tried my deep breathing and the more I did that the more panicked I became. Since when did I become so anxious about tests? I began to have test anxiety when I started nursing school, but this was the worst case I've ever had. I started feeling clostrophobic so I got out of the car and decided to go inside and find a quiet place to hide and gather myself. When I walk in the door I see one of my teachers doing some kind of relaxation therapy with a couple of other students and heard others talking about feeling like hurling. This did nothing to calm my own nerves. I ran into one of my first semester teachers Michelle and she must have noticed the panic on my face and began guiding me back to my happy place. She talked to me and helped me calm down and it really eased my mind and I owe her. God bless ya Michelle! I'm just glad it's over.

It's funny, when I would go to clinical and talk to the nurses about nursing school all they would say was...."it was difficult". They wouldn't say anything else. Maybe they blocked it out of their minds never to be thought about again and I can see why. I'm not trying to be a whiner or complainer, but this is the most challenging time of my life. If it weren't for my family and my nursing school buddies I don't think I could have made it this far. I'm glad it's over....until January anyway.

I am going to relax and spend a lot of time with my kids until I go back to school. Relax and re-energize....that's my goal.

Until next time.....