Achy breaky back

  

After 6 wonderful years of living relatively pain free from chronic aching back pain (as long as I'm not sitting down) something happened to my precious spine. I am blaming it on the day shift hours I picked up this week!!!

I woke up Tuesday morning with 8/10 pain- burning, sharp pain- radiating from my lumbar spine outward in all directions. Sitting, standing, lying down, sneezing all brought new sharp sensations of tortuous pain I had no idea even existed. Putting on pants was like being put through a version of a Spanish Inquisition interrogation - I would have admitted to anything to have had the pain just stop. Thank goodness for slip on shoes at least, I may of never left the house otherwise.

I called the chiropractor and waited with clenched teeth, yoga stretches, an electric heating pad, and a bottle of Aleve for my Wednesday appointment. The appointment went well, apparently my L5 vertebrae was out of place and since muscles can be slow to respond to change I've got another 2-3 days of hurt ahead.

So, here I am now, Thursday morning, down to 4-5/10 pain post adjustment with a new back brace, more Aleve, and a rice pack heating pad just wondering how the next 3 nights of work are going to go...

9 more nights to go...

This week I was caught off guard when the staffing office called and asked me to work part of a day- not a night-shift. I caved and said yes to coming in since they had already exhausted the day shift roster and were in need for help.

I worked from 1500-2000 essentially and suddenly remembered why I have come to dislike day shift. Even though there are tons more people on the floor they are all as frantically busy as you and unable to help you if you need help, as well as vice versa. I can't even be helpful to my coworkers because I'm running around like a loon. 

After a 4 hour shift I was SO incredibly tired. It was quite stunning and when I got home all my ambitions for packing more boxes evaporated as I turned into a slug and melted into a chair.

I am slowly wrapping my head around 5am mornings again as my first 3 months on orientation will be on days at the MICU. In the mean time, I have 3 weeks and 9 nights to go at the IMCU and many more boxes to pack!

Announcement: Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Dear friends and family,

June is already upon us and some more changes with it! The summer heat, rattlesnakes, and tired dogs are in full swing here in the Magic Valley.

Recently my husband got a promotion indicating that he is going to be travelling more often. With this information and the fact that his company was dismayed at how far away Twin Falls is from a large airport it was decided we would be relocating to Boise!

Initially we were discussing the idea of moving to Boise and to have me commute the 2 hours to Twin Falls for work, but upon talking to my manager it actually turned out to be incredibly easy to transfer from Saint Luke’s Magic Valley to Saint Luke’s Boise (downtown). Furthermore, I will be moving from the intermediate care unit (IMCU) to a medical intensive care unit (MICU) where I will be brought on as a new nurse in a formal new nurse residency and given lots of support and education to flourish in the more critical/stressful environment. 

Although I will definitely miss my IMCU because of all the wonderful skills I built there and the BEST coworkers a new grad nurse could ever ask for – we are really excited to be moving to a place that meets our wants and needs in a community.

Additionally, this week we had an offer accepted on an adorable bungalow in downtown Boise. The location is perfect – both my husband and I will be able to bicycle or walk to work (my honey, having got a taste for having an office outside the house, will be finding a downtown office space), there is a park 2 blocks from our house, and the farmer’s market is within minutes by bicycle. 

We have been struggling since leaving our wonderful community in Portland and it seemed that Boise would offer a balance for us in terms of family, community, “bikability/walkability” all the while being both affordable and best for our careers in a way that may not have been possible in Portland (e.g. my husband can have an office outside the house due to affordability, I can be in an ICU with less than 2 years experience!!!).

To our dearest Portland friends – we still miss you dearly and we love you SO much. We missed every week without game night. We are so excited to be 2 hours closer driving and when we come back to visit we will be so much more fun to hang out with now because we will be more settled in our lives here in Idaho. Now you all have to come out and visit because we have our own set of breweries to show off and new biking trails, rivers, and ski hills to explore! ;)

To our families – thank you for bearing through the multitude of plans we kept trying to make and through our mourning period over the past 6 months. You made the hard days a little better and we love you for sticking by us in our worst moods. We are so happy to share our new home with you and even happier that we will be good company once more instead of your whiny children.

Again, thank you all for your love and support and we look forward to seeing you in Boise! I will continue my blogging adventures as my nursing career continue to unfold.

A rattling tail of a story

On my hiking adventure this week I was in the lead of our small hiking group with Roxie on her leash and following me and my coworker a few paces behind. The path at the time was gravel and we were down in a small ravine with a mix of wildflowers and sagebrush on the left (the uphill side of us) and lush grasses and choke cherry trees to the right (the downhill side of us) next to a creek. 

Beautiful, wildflowery day

My coworker and I were talking as we hiked, mostly about how the hike was going since we had completely misread the map and were somehow on mile 6 of what was supposed to be a 3.5 mile hike. My left foot was coming down next to a sage brush bush and out of the corner of my eye I saw the ground below it move and then I heard the infamous warning rattle like a "tsh-tsh-tsh-tsh-tsh." 

My body and it's primal fight-or-flight instinct reacted eons before my mind was able to catch up and process what was going on. Instead of putting my left foot down on what was a coil of a snake's body, I pushed off my right foot and leaped in an Olympic style fashion probably a good 4 feet ahead all the while dragging Roxie with me.

I hollered for my coworker to stop and from the sagebrush bush we heard the rattle again and a rattlesnake's head pop out from below the bush to peer at us. I generally have no problems with snakes, but this was my first encounter with a poisonous one. Thankfully the snake and I had mutually scared the pants off each other that Monday afternoon and both reacted by running/slithering in opposite directions. The snake looked at us for probably about a minute deciding which way to go, and then turned up hill while shaking it's rattler at us as it headed up the hill. I am so incredibly thankful I did not get bitten!

Not my photo---but about the right size

Things that I learned from this heart thumping experience:

1. Always pay attention to where your feet are
2. I will never hike alone and whoever is with me better have a medical degree of some sort
3. I have no clue how to treat a rattlesnake bite in the field-so now I've looked it up

The do's and don'ts of treating a rattlesnake bite according to Backpacker Magazine:

• DON'T
• slice the bite mark to try to suck out venom: you are creating a wound site for infection
• suction the area: you aren't going to get any venom out anyway since the it has already started pumping through your system since your heart rate accelerated from the situation
• apply a tourniquet: it will concentrate the venom in one area and accelerate cell death in that one place. It's actually better to let it get diluted through your system.
• apply an ice pack (who is carrying one of these while back packing anyway?): the cold will slow the circulation to the area (much like a tourniquet) and concentrate the cell damage
• DO
• Get medical attention as soon as possible
• An antivenom will be needed to treat the patient. 
• Interesting fact: rattlesnake antivenom is made from the serum globulins from horses that are immunized against many different species of snakes
• Remove tight fitting clothes/jewelry: this in preparation for swelling
• Clean the bite area: with soap and water or an antiseptic from a first aid kit
• Carry the victim (or yourself) out slowly: Ditch the backpack, you don't need to make your body work any harder
• If you have a pen: mark the swelling area every 15 minutes. This helps doctors guess the amount of venom in the bite
• Interesting fact: about 20% of bites don't have venom injected by poisonous snakes and are considered "dry" bites

South Hills: Wildflowers and sore legs

Yesterday, Roxie the dingo, a coworker also a nurse, and I went for what we thought was going to be a 3.5 mile hike and ended up being a 9 mile hike in the South Hills. The weather couldn't have been more perfect - all the wildflowers from purple lupines to Indian paintbrush were blooming and Rock Creek was bubbling away.

Today, Roxie and I are both limping around the house. Here are some photos from the day!

Lupine

Roxie checking out the flora

Viewshed

Beaver ponds

Valley

Aspens so close to the desert

The entirety of one of the valleys we hiked