Judge if you will....

For those of you who have known me for a long time, I've always struggled with this problem. I've tried everything under the sun, but nothing seems to stick for long. I've done a lot of thinking, researching, and pondering in order to come to this decision. I HATE being overweight...and it's time to actually give myself a true chance to be successful and keep it that way.

SO, on April 21st, I will be having weight loss surgery. Some people may view this move as taking the easy way out...but I don't think so. The myth of this surgery is that you don't have to do anything...the weight just falls off and you never have to worry a day in your life. This is not the case. Weight loss surgery is just a tool. If you are interested, I'll be glad to tell you more. If you aren't, I'd just ask you to pray for me on April 21st around 8am.

I've got a long road ahead of me...even just to get to my surgery date. Days of no Advil, a week of only liquids, and the fear of pain await me. I'm going to need a lot of support, even if you don't agree with my decision.

On a completely different note, I am SO excited to go to Boston in 9 days! I have never been there but have ALWAYS wanted to go! I'm staying in this very beautiful and lovely hotel right in the heart of the history! Excitement!

Okay, better be off. There are many puppies in this house who are circling my feet for attention!

April 21

A new start. A big change. A drastic move. A well thought out plan.

Want more?

Exciting times!

Well, some very exciting things are brewing....but you have to wait until after Friday morning to discover them. Let me just warn you, they are FABULOUS! :)

This week has been perfectly hilarious. I have spent the week watching a 40ish woman act like a child....and who wouldn't find that funny? Really! :) I also fell completely out of my chair today, right in front of all the cardiac clinic nurses and one of the ICU attendings (a cute one at that!). Thankfully, said ICU attending helped me OFF the floor and didn't comment on my lack of grace. For those of you who DON'T know, I actually broke my arm after falling out of a chair today whilst teaching a room of 7th graders in 2001! Never let it be said that my teaching days were boring!

Work is busy. We're listing kids left and right, which makes it so much harder for the person on call! The more kids that are on the list, the busier it gets! :) I think we may actually list three kids in the next few days...which is madness!

SO, stay tuned for future announcements. I am excited about it! :)

Dana's challenge!

Dana asked what our song would be. I absolutely agree with Kendi when she said she would be a mix tape. I have so MANY songs that define certain points in my life. There are songs that remind me of good times, and songs that make me want to absolutely shut OFF the radio.

One song that means the WORLD to me is sung by one of my favorite groups of all time. Why do I love them so? Well, they are down to earth, hilarious, and produce the most beautiful 4 part harmonies I've ever heard. I've seen them in concert since the mid 90's and never tire of their voices and stories. This song has seen me through some hard times. I listened to it five times in a row before I could muster up the courage to go into take my nursing boards. I've listened to it when I was happy, just because I wanted to hear the beautiful harmony section (skip to 3:20!). I've listened to it in order to encourage myself that I need to remain true to who I am.

So enjoy Avalon singing "Testify to Love". I know I have and will for years to come. Thanks Jody, Janna, Michael, and Melissa...you're amazing! :)

The never-ending drama!

My job is drama. Sheer drama. Let's just say that I am a serious threat to my co-worker...in her eyes, NOT mine! Today, I spent a lot of time working on research projects because there was absolutely nothing else to do in the outpatient world! Ah well, it's really feast or famine. At least when I have projects to do, I feel productive and get my name on research papers! Fabulous! :)

Liberty is sick again. I thought she was better and had even moved her food back to normal food. Her little doxie stomach did okay for a few days, but she got sick in her crate today which is completely unlike her. SO, we're back to the antibiotics and bland food. She'll survive. She hasn't lost her appetite, so I think we're gonna be ok.

I'm starting to count down the days until I go to Boston. Did I mention I am going to Boston? I can't remember. Anyways, I'm going to the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation conference in Boston! I'm staying with one of the docs and I am excited to go and learn! I'm also excited to meet all the people I've been networking with over the last few weeks! I've been doing a small survey project for my surgeon and it involves me calling a lot of transplant centers. I'm excited to meet people who do exactly what I do! I find at these transplant conferences, there are a lot of liver and kidney coordinators, but heart coordinators are few and far between.

One of my favorite reality shows started last night! I love Top Chef! What a great show for someone who is SO addicted to cooking shows, but can barely boil water! :) I really miss having The Food Network....so this is a good alternative. I'm a sucker for reality TV! Next week, the Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars starts again! How exciting is my week!?! I really am not that attached to my television. I survived in Honduras for 2 weeks without it...I just think reality TV is hilarious! :)

Tomorrow I am going to one of my very sweetest patient's schools. She was transplanted the day after Christmas and is going back to school after spring break. She's so excited for us to do this! I absolutely love her! It will be nice to see her in her natural environment and meet all her friends!

Okay. I guess I've rambled enough. Liberty is sitting on the couch across the room from me, just staring creepily at me. Creepy ween!

I'm alive!

I know, I know...this seems like a strange, yet obvious title. However, if you'll indulge me, I'll explain why it's so amazing! :)

First of all, I get hit by GI bugs very VERY easily. If your friend's friend is throwing up, chances are, I will be soon. I am just very fragile when it comes to that, and I really REALLY hate it! Thursday night, I went to bed feeling full. I hadn't really had all that much to eat, but it still felt odd. I woke up about 10:30 to my pager going off. It was a call with a donor heart...and a request to call my surgeon. After our short conversation and his deciding the heart wasn't good, I ran to the bathroom and the saga began. Thus would be the same for the next 5 hours. Up every 15 minutes. ICK!

About 3AM, I had a brilliant moment. I'd call my doctor and see if she could prescribe me something to stop the vomiting and everything else. Of course, I was thinking CRAZY then...with all the dehydration and all. She called back and said I needed to go to the ER. Lovely. I threw on clothes that were not disgusting or vomited on...got in my car with three plastic bags, and prayed I would not throw up in my car. I had a split second decision to make. I have 2 ER's about the same distance away. I needed to find the one where I thought I would wait less time. I remembered my friend Whitney had told me once about her trip to one of these ER's and how quick and efficient it was. I took a chance and went to that one. Mind you, it was SNOWING and frigid...and 3:30AM. Thankfully, the roads were clear and the snow had yet to cause any drama. I pulled into the ER and walked inside. I was the only person there. I was whisked away to triage and within 10 minutes of my arrival, I already had an IV giving me the fluids I'd lost and nausea medicine to stop the tirade of disgustingness. Hooray! I spent 3 hours there...and to my knowledge, was still the only there when I left at 6:30AM. I still felt exhausted, but no longer wanted to throw up everything that I even looked at. I went home, took the nausea meds the ER doc had given me, and blissfully slept until about 4pm. I got up, attempted to be alive, then went back to sleep for another 11 hours, in attempts to make up for lost sleep time.

Today, I feel refreshed and alive! I'm still not eating much, but that will come back eventually. I've even felt good enough to clean the bathroom...no small feat after all the action it saw Thursday night!

Even better, I'm off this weekend! I'm so glad to have an opportunity to get completely better! Hooray!

Return to real life!

What a busy week! It has been a crazy week, back at work...but definitely not the craziest I've ever seen it! I came back to be the impatient coordinator for the next few weeks. I like seeing the well kids in the outpatient clinic, but it's great to be a part of the new transplant recovery. This week, it's been mixed emotions. We've got a new transplanted heart next to one that's angry and rejecting its owner....which is what happens when you don't take your immunosuppresion meds! (okay, enough of my "medication is good and saves lives" soapbox!) I worked alone today, and I think my co-worker is gone the first part of next week...so it should be interesting. I got handed another project today, which I never mind! I like being busy, and despise it when I am bored! (At work, that is!)

I am feeling better today, too! I think I caught some icky GI bug on my way HOME from Honduras, because it didn't hit me until the day after I got home! I finally got one of the fellows at work to help me and I feel a LOT better now! :)

I'm on call this weekend, but I'm on with my favorite surgeon...so at least I'll be awakened pleasantly. I don't have any real plans yet for the weekend...but I do have a lot of baby showers to prepare for...so maybe I'll do that. I've got Oliver for a while longer, so it should be a weekend of cleaning up after his shredding tendancies.

Well, guess that's just about all that's going on around here. Work. Sleep. GI bug. Puppies. :)

12 days of blessings

For those who actually read this blog, I thought I'd give a day by day synopsis of my Honduran journey. I figure some of the details will actually escape my brain and it will be nice to have them all here!

February 8: My brother took me to the airport so early that I have since then blocked out the time. Our group was waiting for us to check in, especially since we had to check a bag of supplies with our own suitcases. One of the child life specialists had already received some not so wonderful news. She found out that if your passport expired within three months, you were not allowed to leave the country (which begs the question, why does it have an expiration date anyways?). She was not allowed to travel with us, and ended up spending the day in Houston trying to get her passport expedited so she could come! Our flight was uneventful, including the very VERY quick layover in Houston. We had high hopes, but not a lot of certainty that our bags would reach Honduras when we did. We landed in San Pedro Sula, where we were met by sunshine and HEAT! (The temp in Dallas was in the 30's!). ALL our bags made it safely there! Hooray! :) We all made it safely through customs and headed to our hotel. The Friends of Barnabus foundation has a very sweet driver named Elmer who picked us up and escorted us to the Gran Hotel Sula. We unpacked, wandered around the streets, and went to a local restaurant (Hasta la Pasta) for dinner.

Saturday, Feb 9: We unpacked ALL of the supplies that we had carted down to Honduras. There was so much stuff! Anything that had been in an isolation room was donated to the cause. Our cardiac cath cardiologist was already in the cath lab doing procedures at this point. A few times during the massive unpacking effort, several nurses were grabbed to go downstairs and monitor the kids. There were also screenings going on...hundreds of people had shown up to see our doctors! It was crazy! Cemesa Hospital had placed an article advertising our arrival in the newspaper...so everyone came! We finished the day by early evening and ate dinner in the wonderous "Cafe Skandia" in our hotel.

Sunday, Feb 10: BEACH day! :) We loaded up in the bus and trekked the 2 hours to hotel's private beach house. We had the whole stretch of beach to ourselves and scampered around the water for the day! We had a small devotional, followed by lunch and more scampering! At one point, a guy showed up who started knocking down coconuts out of the tree for us! He whacked them open with a machete and when you were finished with the coconut water (which was disgusting), you could eat the yummy coconut goo inside! We stayed until around 5, then drove home...happily drinking and eating and SINGING to someone's ipod tunes. (Thank goodness for speakers!)

Monday, Feb 11: Not a big day for me personally, but still many things were going on! We did three out of the four planned surgeries. One child was taken back into the OR after some excessive bleeding. I witnessed the most precious start to the week. Every child that was brought to the OR by the nurses and the parents was prayed over by the doctors and the anesthesiologist. I even had a mom pass out in my arms. CRAZY! I was pretty bored this day. Even though we did five cardiac caths, there were still six floor nurses wandering around needing something to do! I was pretty frustrated at my uselessness. I did get to meet some sweet kiddos who came in the day before their surgery!

Tuesday, Feb 12: I admitted the first post-surgery kid to the step-down unit. Lester, a 4 year old, had his Tetralogy of Fallot repair done the day before...a surgery normally done in the first year of life! I was so happy to have stuff to do! I also prepped two other kids to go to surgery. Let me tell you, I do NOT like being the person to make kids cry because they can't eat!

Wednesday, Feb 13: More surgeries, more caths. We are doing at least 4 caths a day, and three surgeries. The ICU is very busy, and I admitted two more kids to my "room" after their surgeries. Liliana and Alison both had amazingly quick recovery times! Lester gets his chest tube pulled and goes home TWO days after major heart surgery! :) Our most difficult case of the week is today...a Bi-directional Glenn is performed on an 11 year old girl, a surgery normally done around 5 months of age! Craziness! None of the doctors get much sleep tonight because the difficult surgery patient (Cinthia) was doing VERY poorly and it didn't look good for her. We were treated to dinner at a little Italian restaurant by an mystery donor. It was a great dinner, but we were SO exhausted! I think I pretty much fell asleep during dessert!

Thursday, Feb 14: Happy Valentine's Day! Things are getting busy on the step-down unit. We have to take over another room from the hospital because we don't have enough beds for all the cath kids and the post-surgery kids. The hospital knows that Valentine's is "important for Americans" (their words, not mine!) and throws us a little party, complete with snacks and a heart shaped cake! We are working SO hard, and our energy levels are really dwindling. The kids are continuing to do SO well out of surgery, and we're getting most of them out 1 day after they are operated on!

Friday, Feb 15: We are walking zombies. The madness continues. The nurses from Children's are pretty much holding up the step-down unit, while the nuress from Virginia seem to just be our assistants. We are still cathing 5 kids a day, and getting at least 2 surgery kids from the ICU. At night, we are sitting in Cafe Skandia, eating as little as possible (survival food, only!), and falling into bed.

Saturday, Feb 16: This is a semi-quiet day! All surgeries have been completed the day before and we have NO caths! All the overnight cath kids have been discharged and we are constantly discharging kids to the Barnabus House. (More on this later!) The ICU, which should be settling down, is getting MORE crazy because of events that happened in Honduras! Late Friday night, a prominent Honduran drug lord is being driven around with his sister and her daughter, plus two body guards. An assassination attempt goes down-with the sister and her daughter being killed by the AK-47, two body guards being disfigured, and the man ended up in the ICU. Our ICU people were helping as much as they could by placing lines and assisting the Honduran team, but it was still a mess! Everyone was on edge because they weren't sure if the people who started the assassination were coming to finish it! All the commotion died down around mid afternoon and we were starting to wrap up. An ICU kid was not doing well, so one of the step-down nurses and I were monitoring an ICU kid while they placed a chest tube on the sick child. As we were finishing, the pediatric cardiologist in Honduras came up to us and told us he had a new "blue" baby...a newborn who had been diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries. Basically, all the de-oxygenated blood was going to the body and the blood that had already been oxygenated was going back to the lungs. It's a complex defect that is normally corrected in the first few days of life. If we had not been there, this baby would have been wrapped up and given back to his mother and sent home to die. Our doctors performed a atrial septostomy on him...creating a hole between his atrium, allowing the blood to mix and giving him a few months of time. It was very risky, especially since this is done by cardiac catheterization and our cath doctor had left that morning to go back to the US! The cardiac intensivist performed the life saving intervention, and I'm happy to say it was successful! The baby is scheduled to go to the USA for complete repair within two weeks....but would not have lived to do that if we had not been able to do that procedure! We all met for dinner, including the Honduran doctors and nurses who had helped us during the week! It was very relaxing and happy...considering we had just saved an unexpected life!

Sunday, Feb 17: This was SUCH a hard day! We had been there for 6 previous 12 hour shifts, and the exhaustion was absolutely there. I had disgusting swelling of my feet and ankles...like a pregnant woman! We admitted all the kids remaining from the ICU, and gave report to the Honduran nurses. We were OUTTA there! My friend Amanda and I were supposed to be going to the Barnabus house later that day, but the coordinator of the trip told us we would not be going until the next day so we would have the night off! Hooray! Part of our group headed off to the beach wonderland of Roatan, while the rest of the group would leave the next morning. That night, we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and just relaxed!

Monday, Feb 18: Amanda and I slept WAY late (well, not that late, but considering we had been up at 5:30 for 7 days in a row, 9 was LATE!) and packed up our things. We headed out to the Barnabus house that afternoon. The Barnabus house is a place for all our surgery kids to recover before they head home to the very vast and remote regions of Honduras. They do clinics on Monday through Friday for the people in the community. It is located in a very rural area of Honduras, outside the town of Pena Blanca. We saw so many of our kids, who were thriving outside the hospital! We collapsed into bed, so happy to be relaxing for the next day and a half!

Tuesday, Feb 19: We slept until 10AM! What a relaxing time! We just hung out all morning and read, while relaxing with the kids! That afternoon, we went to the Pulapanzak Water Falls in Pena Blanca. SO amazing! We hiked all the way down to the bottom and got really wet! It was amazing! I took SO many pictures! It was such a relaxing time compared to what we had been through the week before! Amanda and I packed up our things and made it an early night!

Wednesday, Feb 20: We got up early to watch the sunrise...and were very disappointed. It wasn't that exciting, even though we had been told it was beautiful! We got ready for the day, and headed back to San Pedro Sula. We met up with our friends and flew home. Houston was having HORRID weather that day, and we absolutely met up with it! We were stuck in the air almost an hour waiting for permission to land, then were stuck in the airport another hour. We finally got home and I returned to my sweet puppies around 10pm. I fell asleep and slept for a LONG time in my fabulous bed!

To all those who supported me, prayed for me, thought of me, looked for updates from me, I hope you have just a wee glimpse into my very busy weeks in Honduras. I am so glad I decided to take Thursday and Friday off to recover....I absolutely needed it! Thanks for reading!

Most beautiful shot

On our trip, we were blessed to be accompanied by the D Magazine photographer. She took pictures of EVERYTHING! We'll be featured in the Best Doctor's edition later on in the year. On Valentine's, she snapped this completely random and unplanned shot. It's absolutely amazing!

Only a few of the 238 pictures I took! More to follow!

A friend on this trip is blogging with pictures about our experiences! Feel free to follow our story online!

http://trenasue.blogspot.com

All is going well! Will have to update when I have more time! :)

Please don't ever let it get easier!

Today, another one of my sweet patients ran headlong into the arms of Jesus. He persevered long and hard, but in the end, his earthly calling was finished and his heavenly calling was ready to begin. I had the honor and the priviledge to be part of his journey for a small moment, but the light in his eyes and his contagious smile will stay with me forever. I have the priviledge (and sometimes the burden) of knowing the last thing he said in this world was "I love you Stephanie"....almost three months ago.

One of the risks of my profession is that you can get desensitized to the idea of a child dying. I do not ever want to be one of those people. Even when I know it's time for a sweet angel to go meet Jesus, I still want to be as affected each and every time. It completely destroys me, but I know that's probably for the best. Today, my eyes have been so puffy that I haven't left the house for fear of scaring someone!

Enjoy fishing in heaven, my sweet friend. I'll bet the fish are HUGE! :) "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." ---2 Timothy 4:7

Mis vacaciones Honduran!!

Well, it's not really going to be a vacation, but wanted a minute to show off my pitiful grasp of the spanish language! My Honduran mission trip is now in less than a week and there's a million things going through my head! I have no doubt in my nursing abilities...so that's thankfully not one of my concerns! I am concerned about my communication skills! I can do a good round of medical Spanish with the best of them, but I'm hoping it's enough! Here's a run down on my itinerary...mostly so all the people who read this blog can pray for my team while we're gone!

Feb 8: We leave DFW at 7:15, arrive in San Pedro Sula, Honduras around noon.
Feb 9: Set up day at the hospital. We're going to be working at Cemesa Hospital in San Pedro Sula for the week.
Feb 10: Our team building day-we're going to the Honduran beach for a day of relaxation before the week's madness begins!
Feb 11: We start our week of fun. Not sure how many surgeries or heart catherizations we will be doing, but it's not my job to know! :) I will just be there to take care of those precious Honduran children and keep them out of pain! We'll be doing surgeries, most likely from Monday-Friday. We'll be getting the kids stable enough to be taken to the Barnabus house to recover until they can go to their remote villages. Saturday and Sunday will be spent making sure none of the children are still in the hospital when the team leaves the country.
Feb 18: The majority of the team will head home. I will be traveling to the mountains of central Honduras to the Barnabus house to monitor the children for complications before they go home. This house is staffed by nurses who get overwhelmed at the large influx of kids we send after our mission is completed. It's helpful to them to have a few extra pairs of nursing eyes to watch these sweet kiddos. It's pretty minimal work! We pretty much just relax in the beautiful mountains while reading, playing, and eating! What a nice ending to the trip!
Feb 20: I head home!

There are SO many people going on this trip! Surgeons, cardiologists, surgical techs, perfusionists(they run the life support machine!), Anesthesiologists, ICU doctors, ICU nurses, Step down nurses, child life specialists, chaplains....and so many more! Your prayers are coveted!



I hope to update before I leave, but I can't promise anything! If you're interested in a daily email while we're gone, you can send a blank email to news@fobf.org and they'll send one out!

Winter weather watch!

The weather here is FRIGID! I'm not complaining, I'd much rather be cold than hot anyway! Liberty and I are spending a delightful night under a blanket watching Hairspray for the third time this week! I am SO addicted to this movie! I've ordered it and the soundtrack from Amazon, but it's not here yet. Sadness! I am a sucker for a good musical and can't believe I didn't see this one in the theater!

I'm SO glad the week is over! Of course, I started back on call today, and don't worry...I've ALREADY gotten called with heart offers! My surgeon isn't even in town! If we end up transplanting, she'll fly back, but it makes for some excitement.

This weekend, I'm not planning on much! I've got a surprise birthday party tomorrow night in the absolute Dallas GHETTO. It's for a wonderful friend, so I don't mind that the location is a TAD shady. Other than that, Liberty and I have to deliver a birthday present to my sister-in-law tomorrow.

I really REALLY wanted it to ice over this morning. I even turned on the news before I even got out of bed to see if there were delays so I could spend my day in bed! Sadly, there was no ice to be had. There really wasn't even any traffic! So much for some early morning drama!

Hope your weekend is warm and wonderful!

Peace and quiet

Well, it was almost all peaceful and quiet, this beautiful off-call weekend of mine! I did wake up on Saturday morning to the annoying noise of my pager...apparently a doctor paged me at 4:40 that morning and I never even heard it! Now, when I'm not on call, I don't sleep with ANYTHING in my bedroom. No phone, no pager, no Treo. It's not surprising I didn't hear it...what's suprising is that the pager actually kept going off! Thankfully, I know the surgeon who called me was able to reach the actual person on call.

Yesterday, I went shopping and to the movies! 27 dresses is such a great chick flick, if anyone is in the mood to just smile! I've pretty much had a perfectly wonderful weekend! It's been relaxing and not stressful, which is exactly what I needed. Liberty is being annoyingly clingy...perhaps she senses that in less than 3 weeks, I'll leave her for 2 weeks! I don't think I've been away from her that long before. Oh well, she's a dog...and she'll no doubt handle it much better than I.

I'm watching Runaway Bride right now. Every time I watch this movie, I feel the absolute craving to eat eggs! Perhaps it's because eggs are talked about! Thankfully, it's not making me think of weddings or anything serious like that! I always loved that Richard Gere's cat is named Italics. What a great name! When I am finished with patriotic dog names, I'll have to move on to punctuation names....

I'm on outpatient this week, which means I get to see a few of my sweet babies tomorrow when they come for their biopsies! I do love seeing when they come in and they are healthy!

I think I have a Honduras planning meeting this week. Hooray! Especially since I am leaving in less than three weeks, I'd like to be more prepared...but that's apparently not going to be the case.

Well, I'd probably better get to bed. My staying up late on the weekends is always harmful when I start getting back into my week day schedule. Oh well, that's going to be a complication I'm willing to take.

The stupid Giants won the NFC championship. The ONE time I was rooting for the Packers...and they lost. Now I have to cheer for the Patriots, which Kris will LOVE, but I will loathe. I mean, really, the only good thing about the Patriots is Tom Brady's physical appearance. He's vapid, but still a beautiful man! Now I have to cheer FOR them because I can NOT in good conscience cheer for the Giants. It's a conundrum.

I hope your week is absolutely fabulous!

My blog's reading level....

Hmmm...interesting.

Online Payday Loans

Wow!

Just when I think I can't keep going in my job, something small like a performance review hits me when I need it. I had a mini review last month, but all the people who were supposed to evaluate me hadn't gotten their feedback in yet. Today, I got the official results. At Children's, we're rated 1-5 and our pay raise is linked to how good we do. My boss told me today that he's never had an employee who was "outstanding" in every category in their first year of working in that department. WOW! He had go through special permission to get me my raise since it was the most allowed. I was given a copy and am still in shock at the last phrase, coined by the transplant surgeon..."Stephanie is a true pleasure to work with and if technology someday permits should be cloned."

God has truly blessed me!

Cowboys Vs Giants.....17-21

ARG. That's all I have to say. Personally, I blame Jessica Simpson. I hate her.

Surviving the new year

A weekend off call when you have had a really horrible week at work is like a GIANT piece of chocolate cake. It's enticing, fabulous, and you just can't get enough! I don't really wish to blog about work right now, mostly because I'm trying to pretend it doesn't exist. Weeks where I have more than one occasion of bursting into tears are not common, but I still hate each and every one of them. When the medical director for transplant tells me I need to "go out and party this weekend so you don't think about work", I start to wonder what kind of image people are seeing on my face. When I walk into the surgical director's office and she says "oh GOOD, you still work here!", I really start to wonder! But ENOUGH about work. I'm tired of it and I don't wanna talk about it any more!

Let's instead discuss my fabulous weekend off! I have been extremely productive today! I actually CLEANED the bathroom, which is something I've been saying I was going to do for the last three weeks and have never done. I did a few loads of laundry, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and still played with the puppies enough to tire them both out. They are both passed out on the chaise lounge with me. I also got the opportunity to play with a friend from LeTourneau! I haven't had a chance to see her since her wedding in 2001! That's WAY too long! We roamed around Firewheel mall for several hours today! I had so much fun! (And I got to shop!)

In less than a month, I'll be in Honduras! I'm getting more and more excited about this trip! I still have absolutely no idea what to pack, but I'm sure I'll get told at some point. I know I'm leaving on February 8, but that's about all I know. One would hope I'd be given some information soon, but we'll just have to see. Once we get there, I'm just planning on being a post-op nurse...taking care of those sweet cardiac Honduran kiddos!

Hope your weekend is as relaxing as mine!

Happy New Year!

Wow! Can it really be 2008 already? I am absolutely convinced that the years go by much faster the older I get. It really seems like just yesterday I was ringing in 2007 and now it's already over. It's about to be one year since I started the quest for a new job....a job I don't regret taking most of the time. I've grown so much as both a person and a nurse through this job. I feel that I am smarter and every day I get to learn something new! I've developed friendships with surgeons and cardiologists....people I never would have had the opportunity to get to know before. I'm a lot busier than before, taking call, being at the hospital on weekends that I'm supposed to be off....but it's all worth it to have developed relationships with these precious families. I've seen nine hearts come out of ice and be restarted in their new owners and NINE times have I had the priviledge to go tell family "We have a beating heart!".

As far as the rest of my life goes, it's stayed pretty much the same. I guess that's good, right? It's best not to change everything at once! I'm looking forward to some changes in 2008, although not quite sure what they are yet. I'm not planning on moving, not changing jobs or puppies, and hopefully will just make even more friends!

I'm still on call for new transplants, but thankfully have switched off call for our kiddos who have already had them. Not that I don't love those kids, but being on all call at the same time gets really old and tiring! I'm starting to count down the days until I go to Honduras, and I can't WAIT! It will be one month from Tuesday! Thanks to my wonderful family and friends, I've already raised the money needed to go! I'll post more details about the trip when I get them.

I hope 2008 is an amazing year for all of us! HAPPY NEW YEAR!