Sorry, I've been in the TANK

What a crazy last two weeks it has been getting used to working a REAL job with real hours that I don't create to work around my social life. I've already put in 78 hours since the 22nd (8 days). Work has been intense. The first week was such a bore as I sat through 4 days of classroom lectures with power points and annoying people that love to ask a ridiculous amount of personal questions to the ones putting on the class. Or the ones who have an example to share with everyone about every topic we discussed. I think there were a couple of times I slept with my eyes open or maybe was having petit mal seizures as I was staring off into space (ok not really). After my long week of lectures and computer modules I spent my weekend at Southwind, a Young Life camp in the Ocala National Forest about 50 min south of Gainesville. At Southwind, I carried a walkie talkie and keys again as camp nurse. It was quite different than how it was this summer at Sharptop. I think I administered a few Ibuprofens and some bandaids, nothing too difficult. After a long sleepless weekend of fun and friends I started my first day on the unit of the Burn ICU working with my preceptor. I've already been incredibly blessed this week! Not only do I have a preceptor that is extremely cute, bubbly, and gets my sarcasm w/o getting offended by it, she also is very grace filled. News flash, I'm not perfect. Especially at my new job that I know hardly anything about. I mess up a lot and have so much to learn. Lacey (my preceptor) has been very patient with me and doesn't try to pass me off when things need to get done. She'll slow down and actually teach me what she knows even if it takes 2 or 3x longer than it would take her if she did it on her own, especially in the tank- the hydrotherapy showers for the dressing changes we have to do daily. I'm so thankful for that. Somehow, I didn't notice that when I set my alarm clock for work each night that it wasn't set for each day of the week, just specifically Thursday and Friday which was silly because I'm not working those days this week. My alarm clock did not go off Tuesday morning and this morning. Miraculously I woke up 15-20 min before I needed to be at work. Good thing I live less than 3 miles from the hospital! Today, Lacey noticed tears in my eyes and my nose all red and asked me, "Are you about to cry!?" I was SOO tired today that I was to the point of tears. I managed not to cry thank goodness because that would have been embarrassing! Things I'm looking forward to this weekend: SLEEP, studying burns (so I don't look like an idiot on Monday), visiting good friends in Tallahassee for Octoberfest weekend at the Hammonds, and a little bit more SLEEP! More updates soon on the many things I get to do as a new burn nurse. Thanks for all of the support!