So first off, I'm not sick anymore! After being sick for a month and having Student Health Services tell me that there isn't anything that they can do for me, I decided to get a second opinion. I drove myself over to Salisbury Immediate Care and waited only for 15minutes before I was seen by a nurse. She took my history and vitals (B/P: 116/68 Resp: 18 P:100 SpO2: 98 Temp: 99.5) and then I waited about 5 minutes before the doctor saw me.
He looked in my ears, nose, throat and said I had a lot of thick mucus draining from my sinuses and that was irritating my throat, which in turn caused it to swell a bit thus pinching my eustachian tube, causing my ears to hurt. The doctor gave me a shot of some natural steroid that your body makes to reduce the swelling and pain in my throat and then gave me a prescription for an antibiotic which would clear up my sinuses.
I left there and tried to get my script filled at Wal*Mart, but just FYI if you're ever trying to use insurance at Wal*Mart, it won't work. They're lame.
So fast forward a few days and spring retreat was good. It was so awesome seeing people that I haven't seen in a while and getting to spend time with them : ) Despite the nasty weather, we all had a good time and I'm really glad that I went. Fast forward to the next week and I was crazy busy studying for tests and reading books and writing papers, now that I got a few of those out of the way things should be a bit better.
Friday, I went to the Orioles/Yankees game with a few friends which was a really good time! I'm apathetic when it comes to sports, but I was rooting for the O's just b/c they're our home team. But unfortunately, I didn't think about what I was wearing and wore my CRU shirt that is navy and white (Yankees colors) and proceeded to get boo'd and heckled the entire time. It was still a lot of fun to get out of Salisbury though.
So right now I should be doing one (or all) of the following things:
1) Showering
2) Reading my book for sociology
3) Returning Juno
4) Doing laundry
5) Studying for my history test that's tomorrow
6) Cleaning my room
7) Going to Wal*Mart b/c I'm out of milk and water and juice
...All of these things I hope to accomplish sometime today either before or after B-Stud.
But instead of doing the aforementioned list of activities, I'm doing research on either being a nurse, or a respiratory therapist. It scares me that up until I learned of respiratory therapy, I was so sure that I wanted to go into nursing...but now, I don't know. I know that either is a good choice, because anything in health care is a good career, but which one do I want to follow? I thought that I liked nursing because I get to take care of people, but then as I'm at the hospital more and more with H2H, I see what the nurses really do and I just don't know if it appeals to me anymore. Taking care of bed sores, wiping poopy butts, dressing wounds and taking vitals. That's mainly what I see when I'm on the floor at PRMC (or anywhere really). Do I really want to do that? I "got my feet wet" in health care through the fire department doing emergency care. Emergency care is what really appeals to me and I just don't see it in the majority of the nurses I see.
Nurses have to know a little bit about the entire body in order to get their license to practice medicine. Respiratory Therapists on the other hand, they need to know a lot about the cardio-pulmonary systems and a little about the rest of the body. Respiratory Therapists are the ones who are called upon in times of crisis and of life-or-death situations. They're the ones that intubate the patient and secure the airway before if becomes compromised. They're the ones that administer breathing treatments to the child who is having an asthma attack and can't breathe. They're the ones that are there in the first moments of life to suction and if necessary, breathe for the newborn baby. They're the ones that fly on the helicopters and ride in ambulances transporting the critically sick and wounded.
To me, Respiratory Therapists are the elite, the Navy SEALS of the medical field. The pay is lower than nurses, and they're often under appreciated until they're needed, but it just seems more "me" then nursing. I don't know, either is a good career, but I just need to pray about it more and give it over to God. I know that he'll pull my heart in the right direction and until then, I'm just going to take the prerequisites for both careers (since they're the same) and just relax.
So this is a really long post, and cheers to you if you made it this far! I'll try to keep this updated more and now that we're all caught up on my life, I'm going to try to be productive today.
~Scott
