Crazy Weekend

Last weekend started on Friday about 1 in the afternoon, when I got a phone call from Chad. He told me he was having chest pain pretty badly, and was going in to Proctor First Care.
"Um, no you're not! Go to the ER!" (me)
"Are you sure I should?" (Chad)
"YES! If you go to Proctor, they will just send you to the ER anyway!" (me)
So, after 2 sprays of nitro, he started feeling a lot better. However, they did end up admitting him because of his extensive cardiac history and the fact that he was in a-fib. (Atrial Fibrillation)
The cardiologist told us that he wanted us to stay for observation for 24 hours, and amazingly enough, we ended up being there exactly 24 hours! After all his blood tests, and a stress echo came back fine, they let us go home.
It really got me thinking about my nursing career, though. For the past year, I have known that my cardiac rotation was coming up (this fall semester). I really thought that it would be really hard for me to go through that rotation. Because, of course, of the situations that 3 of the 4 men in my life face everyday. I didn't think I even wanted to hear about it. But, being by Chad's bedside, seeing the meds they put him on, the tests they ordered, and watching his heartrate and other vitals, it really became just the opposite for me. I wanted to know everything I could learn about. I went home and looked up all his meds, including IV meds, and figured out why he was on each one of them. I read all I could about A-fib and angina (chest pain) in my nursing books.
So, anyway, I'm not 100% on this yet, but I think I want to be a cardiac nurse. I would love to be able to go to Trae and Riley's appointments and talk to the doctor in a way that Chad has no idea what we are talking about! :) That doesn't change the fact that I am still scared to death and completely thankful that I still have a year left of someone constantly looking over my shoulder. But, now when people ask me what I want to do with my nursing education, I have an answer for them! Yaa!