So, after a year of being a closet blog reader, I have decided to start my own blog. I have thought about this for a long time and am so excited about starting my own blog that I couldn't sleep. It is now 11:30 at night and I am on my way with my first post. I am sure you are thinking that I must live a pretty sad, and boring life if blogging is what has me excited. The truth is that I have put the last two and a half years of my life on hold to pursue a career as a CRNA. I graduate in under two weeks and as soon as I pass my boards my life will have just begun.
Before I delve into what is ahead of us after I pass boards, I want to take a moment to document the last 2 1/2 years, and what a gruelling process school has been. When I thought of applying for anesthesia school I only knew that I didn't want to be a bedside nurse anymore and that the role of a nurse practitioner did not suit me either. I shadowed a few CRNA's and decided that anesthesia is where my true interest lied. In my quest that this blog remain real and honest I must say that the thought of earning a CRNA's salary also excited me. I began to apply to many different programs with in a 3 hour drive from Lexington. When all was said and done I was excepted into the Graduate Program of Nurse Anesthesia at Texas Wesleyan University.
TWU's anesthesia program had a campus at ST.Elizabeth Hospital in Edgwood Kentucky, which would be perfect for when it came time to do my residency because I could just move back in with my parents. A friend of mine from UK also started the program with me and we started our journey in August 2009. The entire first year was didactic, and Maggie and I drove 3 times a week to NKY for class and test. We put A LOT of miles on our vehicles but we also grew very close. The beginning of anesthesia school was a bit of a shocker. We actually studied 60+ hours a week and always felt like we could have studied more. The traveling was hard but the hours of studying were harder. Not only is it hard to dedicate that much time, it was really hard to watch everyone's life go on around me and to know I was missing out.
After a 3 week break in the beginning of August 2010, we started our residency. Our brains were so full of knowledge, we just needed to learn how to use it. We were in the OR everyday from 6am - whenever our cases ended or we were told to leave. This was usually around 5:30. 12 hour days, 5 days a week were exhausting. Not to mention when you got home you spent the rest of your evening looking up your cases for the next day and making careplans for each one. Each day we came to "work" and got drilled with questions. It was so hard to feel so dumb. My eyes welled up a few times while getting pushed around for not knowing something but I managed to hold back the tears until January during my childrens rotation. The first 5 months were awful, and I am so thankful that I had my parents to help me. Every Sunday night I would pack up my things and drive to NKY to spend the next five days. Every night I came home from the OR my mom or dad had made dinner. They usually made me a plate and I sat in a separate room eating and working on careplans until I was finished and promptly went to bed.
In January a group of us started our childrens rotation, at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital. I was grateful to be attending such a prestigious hospital but was absolutely terrified of taking care of kids. In some ways while I was there my worst fears came true and in others they were proved wrong. I left there feeling confident in my ability to provide anesthesia for children but lets just say working at childrens hospital after graduation was not on my top ten list.
As the months dredged on I rotated to Good Sam, Bethesda, and Jewish. I learned new thing at each place made many new friends. Emotionally I was very drained. It was really hard to live apart from Dave 5 days a week, and the constant epigastric pain I felt from GI issues was becoming really hard to smile through. In the end though, I muscled through and here we are just a few days shy of graduation.
I am so happy I choose this profession, and believe it or not I actually miss my job on my days off. My job is very gratifying and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I have lots to learn still, which is why I am glad I have contracted with the anesthesia department at St. E where I did the majority of my residency. I love the people there and feel like this will be great transition environment for me to go from student to CRNA.
The only thing standing in my way of becoming a CRNA now is 4 shifts, a blowout graduation party with my class, lots of studying, and passing my boards.
The countdown has begun!!
