Happy Thursday

Uff da. Anyone else say that a lot? Oh well, I guess I do. Though not so obvious in North Dakota where Norwegian slang is the norm, it seems a little out of place here in Colorado. Try as I might, it's a habit that's not going away any time soon.

My new job started on Monday and boy do I have a lot to learn. I've switched from neonatal intensive care and 12-hour rotating shifts to home health care and semi-normal hours. When I was looking for jobs this one just flew out at me. I loved home care in Africa and I knew it would be a good stretch for me and that I would learn oodles. So I'm very excited!! The problem is I know next to nothing about adult nursing. Sarah and I set our own schedule and pace in Africa and were able to just figure things out as we went along. Additionally, with the language barrier we weren't really able to recognize complicated medical diagnoses. We did what we could and prayed a lot. I can handle that! But I think I'd get fired if I just did a coin flip for my patients here. Hmm. Heads, "Maybe I can do something to help you." Tails, "YIKES! You're doomed." Though my coworkers encourage me by saying I can think of these patients as "big babies", I'm not convinced. It's not that I don't have my ducks in a row... I'm just not sure I have any ducks at all. Fortunately there is a really good orientation and I'm trying to spend evenings studying up on my med/surg nursing from back in college days (that makes me feel old). Everyone I work with is wonderful and to top things off I get a company Jeep! Plus I enjoy getting to be out and about in the beauty of the Rocky Mountains every day rather than cooped up in a hospital. I'll really miss the babies though.

It's Happy Thursday! Around here that means there is a new episode of The Office on tv and we're all going to watch it together. At the moment I have Jeopardy on in the background. I always listen to the very top question because sometimes... sometimes, mind you, I know that answer to that one. During the rest of the show I try to tune out.