A difficult day

You never know when something is going to effect you in a unexpected way or why it does. Our theory class today started off with diseases of the elderly - stroke, Diabetes, COPD, fractures and Alzheimer's. So far so good. Then we moved on to death and dying. What the patient experiences, what the family may experience and what the body goes through during this process. WHAM hit me out of left field. As the instructor is giving the lecture I am sitting there listening to her and tears are streaming down my face. Everything came rushing back at me, my mom in the nursing home, my dad dying from the car accident coming home from seeing her and then Jerry. I was over whelmed. It was, to say the least, very emotional and I was not ready for it. Not that you are ever ready for something like that, but sometimes you know things are coming and you can sort of prepare yourself. I really didn't think I would get so emotional during the lecture. I did, but I got through it. It was tough, though. I did end on a high note, the afternoon consisted of getting checked off on blood pressure readings, which for some reason have been giving me trouble. Only thing in the class that has had me worried. But when it was my turn I went in and the first thing I had to do was a radial pulse count. Hit it right on the button. Then the blood pressure. Put the stethoscope on the crook of the arm, pumped up the cuff, slowly released the pressure and listened for the lump lump lump - got it! We use a very expensive mechanical arm in skills lab, his pulse and blood pressure is programed in by the instructor and only she knows if you get the numbers right. So, again, thank you Chell for coming to my rescue and helping me practice last night. It paid off. I have been checked off as passing these skills!!