Pogglebee Growing Up

Little by little, Poggles is growing up.  He's getting bigger, fatter, and a little more used to his new life with my family.  He's also developed some nice habits that make my life a little easier.  

First of all, he doesn't randomly poop anymore.  It used to be that he'd poop all over you if you tried to handle him.  He just couldn't control himself.  Now, you can play with him and you'll stay clean (Phewf!).

Secondly, he only poops on his wheel and inside of his litterbox.  What a champ!  The rest of his house stays poop free.  Well... almost.  He has the unfortunate habit of dragging his dirty paper towel into his house.  I think he uses it like a blanket to curl into, and as a plug for the door of his pouch.  

Each morning I have to steal his dirty blanket away from him.  Ewww.... 

I found a solution though.  (Owning Pogglebee is all about problem solving.)  I got rid of his corner litterbox and put the big, rectangular litterbox directly under the wheel.  Now the litterbox catches all of the moisture and poop, and the paper towel is just a floor towel for when he climbs out of the box.  The paper towel stays pretty clean, and I don't mind as much that he hugs it at night.  

Another big plus lately is that he has become more friendly.  Guess how?  I switched from letting him free-feed to hand-feeding most of his meals.  I still leave him a snack out during the day, but he has to wait for me to get the bulk of his food.  Yes, it takes more time to feed him one piece at a time, but he knows I'm nice now.

I've upgraded from scary cleaning lady to food lady.

I can lure him out of his house with a piece of food, and after that, I can pet his forehead or gently scratch or rub his chin while he's eating.  I find it really nice that I can touch him without him freaking out now.  I had to start with just touching his nose, then it moved to chin rub, and now it's small forehead strokes.  He's still against being touched on his back, but I'm working on it  :)

Oh, and just now, I used my stethoscope to listen to his heart through his fleece pouch.  His heart beats so fast!  My classmates in the Maternity ward have been telling me about how baby hearts beat super fast too.  Maybe I can practice counting Pogglebee's heart so that I'll be more prepared to count super fast baby hearts?

 Have a great day!

Weeks 1 to 3 of Nursing School (2nd Year)

The first three weeks back to school have zoomed by!  I feel like I have so much to tell you, and yet I have so little time to do it.  THERE IS SO MUCH HOMEWORK!!!

Watching Surgeries
So I'll just share a little of what has been going on.  First of all, the focus this term is on Surgery and Maternity.  The class has been split into two: half of us are in Surgery and half of us are in Maternity.  I'm starting in Surgery first so I've had the chance to watch three live surgeries so far!  I literally got to stand above a patient's head while the surgeon cut their chest open.

It was the most unreal experience I have ever had.  The surgical assistant was holding something smooth and pink inside of the patient and she told me that it was the stomach.  My eyes almost popped out of my head.

I expected to see a lot of blood, but the surgeon used a special tool that basically cuts and seals at the same time so there isn't much bleeding at all.  The only side effect is a very pungent burning smell, kind of like burning oil.

Team O.R.
Anyways, it was a really positive experience for me to see the surgeries because I'm quite afraid of the operating room.  Watching the operations as a student allowed me to see a different perspective and I was really impressed at how nice the nurses treated the patients and how well they all worked together as a team.  The anesthetist was able to time things perfectly so that the patient woke up immediately after being transferred to the bed that takes them to the recovery room.  It was like magic!

General Surgery Ward
I also got to care for the patients on the surgical ward after they underwent surgery.  This is very different than caring for elderly patients like I did last term.  Many of the patients on a surgical ward are not elderly and have very little illness aside from the surgery.  They can do most of their own care independently, and they also have less medications.  So, in a sense, it's easier this term than last term in clinical because I don't have to assist as many patients to the bathroom or bathe them.  On the flipside, we have new skills to practice, such as injections, IV, and dressing changes.  We also need to see the bigger picture now so that we can plan how to get the patient back to being healthy so that they can go home.

I find this really exciting because I get to think more about what I can do as a nurse to help the person heal better and feel better.  I also do a lot of exploring with the patient on how they cope with their illnesses, their support network, and what they do to improve their health.  I also get to teach patients about things that can improve their health.  Something about all this talking with patients and teaching them makes me feel really useful, so I have really enjoyed clinical so far.  I also have a fabulous teacher that really encourages us to think critically about how and why we do things, and whether there are better ways to do things.  I love improving processes, so this is candy for me.

Anyhow, I better get back to my studying.  So, if you're wondering about why there is a picture of an orange, it's because one of the patients gave it to me as a gift.  I only had her for one day, but it was her last day at the hospital and she wanted to give me something.  She said that she had really appreciated my care and how nice I had been to her.  You can't really give nurses gifts per say, so I asked the teacher what to do with the orange.  "Eat it," she said.  So the orange came home with me.

Have a great week!
 

Pumpkin Coasters Fall Decoration

I can't believe the summer holidays are almost over.  Tomorrow I'll be back to nursing school again!  *groan*  I know I should be excited, but summer has been so fun!  I went back to my old animation job, spent some quality time with my co-workers, and when I got home from work, I spent tons of time being creative  :)

One of the projects I've been working on is illustrating for some fantastic sewing tutorials for Patchwork Pottery.  I have really enjoyed drawing diagrams for her patterns.  In fact, I was so impressed with her designs that I actually tested out one of her patterns!  

I sewed some pretty strips of fabric together that I had in my stash and made four of  Laurraine's Patchwork Pottery pumpkin coasters!

They turned out really cute and they were really easy to make too!  I couldn't find coordinating buttons so I just used four similar sized buttons and covered them in batting and some dark orange fabric.  It seems to have done the trick  :P

 Here are some images of the actual pattern design.  Laurraine takes really nice photos!!!  My pumpkins don't look exactly like hers, but I am still really happy with how mine turned out.  You can hook the coasters together to make a great fall decoration!

I gave my creation to my boyfriend and he doesn't seem to have any intention to use them as coasters.  He immediately put a nail into one of his cupboards and hung the string of coasters up.  His sister noticed the decoration and asked if she could have one of them, but he wasn't willing to share  :P

This photo shows some of the illustrations I did for the Patchwork Pottery quilted craft patterns.  I illustrated the drawings for the Pumpkin Coasters, the Bird Ornament, and the Cupcake Pincushion.  I am actually quite excited about these patterns and other patterns that I'll be working on soon.

If you like to sew and love cute things, you should definitely go check out her online shop.  You can instantly download her patterns and sew to your heart's content.  I know Christmas seems far away right now, but if you start sewing now, you can have some really, really fantastic handmade gifts ready for your loved ones.

If you have time now while the kiddies are back to school, go make those pumpkin coasters!  They look so good!  I have to hunker down for school now, but you can bet that I'd be making more lovely sewn goodies if I had the time!

Enjoy the sunshine!