One Year Down, One Year To Go

Yay! I'm done! I've officially completed my first year of nursing school! Woot! Won't know final grades until next week sometime. But Haiti will be a wonderful distraction. (Although I *think* I did pretty well).

Thankfully that random icky feeling has disappeared. Now I'm just left with my back pain. sigh.  I *should* be spending my time packing tonight, but I'm so tired and my back hurts. It's been a full day on only four hours of sleep. Walking around the house bending over to pick up stuff off the floor and move it somewhere else is not my idea of fun! Thankfully I did run a bunch of errands this evening, but I have no motivation to do any packing. I've probably got way too much stuff--but that's because I like to be prepared. But what I have to keep reminding myself is that I'm only going for a week...not a year. And if I forget something...it's not the end of the world...well okay, if I forgot my camera, I'd be pretty annoyed with myself.  

Well, to bed I go...chiropractor appt in the morning...then a full out packing mission.

Can't remember the last time I felt really icky...

Wow, I feel icky. Not exactly nauseous, but a vague discomfort in my upper abdomen and a not-quite headache. And kinda sorta, but not really, clammy or diaphoretic yet (low blood sugar?). Yesterday I switched to taking off-brand Excedrine (aspirin, caffeine, acetaminophen) for my pain--just to see if it would be better than the ibuprofen. I felt fine all day and then last night as I was studying (after 11pm), this general icky feeling came on. I went to bed about 2am after eating a dozen saltine crackers (hoping maybe I was just hungry). But I woke up with same feeling. Pain med should be long gone from my stomach by now. Hmm? Maybe I've finally done it. Maybe I've finally taken enough ibuprofen/aspirin in the last two weeks to give myself an ulcer? Lovely. Well, I guess I'll go try to hunt down some antacids and see if that makes any improvement. And no, I'm not pregnant. No chance of that. Abdominal aneurysm cross my mind but--that's only because I'm a nursing student and prone to think of all the worse-case scenarios!

I'm planning to take my LAST final exam this morning--so this is not boding well for a great performance (and I was going to get up and study a bit more this morning). *sigh*  Plus after my exam, I'm supposed to be heading off to be a standardized patient for 4 hours this afternoon. But my biggest concern is, HOW LONG is this ickyness going to hang around? My biggest concern is that I'm flying out for Haiti this weekend!

Well, I best go and pull myself together: Wash face, eat breakfast, find antacid and do quick review of the notes I didn't get to look at last night. Heck, maybe it's just gas?  :/

Hopefully a better report later.

Not in Charge

One thing about being jammed up right before leaving for Haiti, is that I am completely relying on my team leaders to figure everything out for the team. Every other time I've been on an international mission trip, I have had some sort of team leadership/administration function (Ireland and Liberia x3).

This morning I finally was looking online to see recommendations for arrival time at airport. Dulles suggests three hours for international flights, which means I need to get to leave 3-ish to get to airport for my 6am flight! Yeesh! Thankfully my sister lives only 20 minutes from the airport. However, American Airlines again suggests three hours when departing from Port-au-Prince.  So our flight is at 9ish Saturday morning. So that means getting to the airport about 6ish. Well that's all fine and dandy except we are staying in Gonavies, which I think is a 3 hour drive from PaP!  So again, it seems that I'll be headed to airport at 3AM. I'm so glad someone else is worrying about this. 

So yesterday my back felt a bit better for having gone off Allegra. But this morning I woke up and my back was BURNING!  I'm really puzzled. Does it really take several days for Allegra to leave the body, or are my nerves really just this irritated?  I have not been able to get the pain under control today with ibuprofen or Excedrine.  Last night, like the past week and a half, I have slept on my air mattress --the one going with me to Haiti. But last night I took the mattress downstairs and slept on it IN the mosquito tent. I was too tired to go upstairs to get a legitimate blanket and just grabbed a fuzzy warm lap/throw blanket. I was COLD all night long. So I'm guessing, that in the midst of trying to stay warm, I probably did not have very good sleeping posture/alignment.  So it's hard to say what exactly exacerbated things. *sigh*  And tonight I'm planning to sleep on my regular mattress/bed while my mosquito net airs out (from Permethrin treatment), so again I'm adding another "change" into the mix. This is just really frustrating. So glad to be going to chiropractor tomorrow to get stretch out again.

Okay, so I'm glad I'm not in charge of Haiti trip details...but I sure wish I could do something about my back issue. Mercy!!!!

Amberjack Is A Success!

Almost missed the UPS delivery of my Amberjack mosquito tent this evening. If I hadn't heard him drive up my street and been waiting for him at the end of my driveway, he probably would have kept driving! Apparently he couldn't find the house, even though the number is CLEARLY on the mailbox. He had given up looking for the house when he drove by (leaving) and saw me and looked at the mailbox. Something to do with our street not following odd/even numbers. Whatever...I got the tent!

PROS: It will fit in my carry-on luggage. My twinsize air mattress fits inside easily. Good price.

CONS: It's a bit more complicated to set up than the SansBug which virtually took 2 seconds (go back and look at the video I posted). The Amberjack is a lot like a regular tent and requires manhandling the shock-corded poles. And really, when was the last time you set up a regular tent in your living room? Yeesh! Those poles are kinda wicked. I think I'm going to suggest that once we arrive in Haiti, we need to set up our tents one at a time or help each other--otherwise we're going to make enemies fast by poking eyes out.

So tonight I'll be sleeping inside the tent. Tomorrow I'll take it outside and treat it with permethrin (mosquito killer) and let it air out before I pack it.

This Time, it's an Amberjack

Okay, just purchased another mosquito tent. This one is going to require a bit more setup (no one-second set-up like the SansBug).  Got free shipping, so roughly the same price as what I paid for the other one (with shipping). It says it will easily fit in carry-on luggage.  I should be able to fit my air mattress inside according to the dimensions...but I might have to blow it up inside, rather than blowing it up and then moving it inside. The Sansbug tent easily allowed me to negotiate a blow-up twin size mattress through it's zippered door.

I really DO hate this down to the wire business. Hate it. It's my fault for not further researching carry-on size restrictions...and paying attention to the flat size of the SansBug double tent. I just remembered reading "somewhere" that it would fit in overhead storage area...I definitely was reading about the smaller size. Sigh. I know the single would've be just fine. Hopefully the new one will arrive before I leave for Haiti!!! And it would be really nice if it arrived early enough for me to treat it with Permethrin to make it extra-offensive to mosquitoes. My team leaders are suggesting we treat all our clothes with Permethrin. I really hate that...but suppose that makes sense since as we may still be running the clinic when the mosquitoes come out in the evenings (or in the early mornings too, I guess). When I was in Liberia, and I was going to be out after dusk, I would just use bug spray...but since we also don't know how mosquito-proof the house where we'll be stay is...I guess this makes sense. We won't know a lot until we get there. So we've got to be prepared. :D

The next thing to do is to initiate returning the SansBug tent. I really wish I could keep it...it's so cool. But reality is that I can't afford something I can't really haul around the world. Hopefully the SansBug people will be helpful and honor their satisfaction guarantee/return policy. If not... haha, I've got a blog and I'm not afraid to use it (or threaten them with it). Heck, I think they've got a great product, it's just unfortunate that they are out of the smaller size.

Well, Happy Easter everyone!

SansBug update

My Sansbug "bug tent" arrived today. It's nice and spacious. But now I am wondering if it really will be acceptable for carry-on with American Airlines! uh oh. It might be that I read that the smallest SansBug tent is okay for carry-on. Sigh.

 Here it is in "compact" mode next to my rolling book bag (which is basically a carry-on size bag!)  It's 31" in diameter...

Here it is set up in my den with my twin-size air mattress. It is on the spacious side - no risk of claustrophobia!






I really like it. It is FAST (um, 2 seconds) to set up (haven't yet tried putting it away). But I think it's going to be too big as a carry-on. The smaller one is 26", but sold out. That's why I bought this one. And it's such a good price. I'm pretty sure whatever else I find will be more expensive. Bleh. What a headache. Now I'm back to having to figure this out. Do I take this to local airport for their input? Do I return this and start looking again and trying to find one that will accommodate my twin-size air mattress. Ack. This is not what I need right now. Really.  I'd really like to keep this and use it. Now, if there was a way to fit this in a large suitcase...then MAYBE I can force this to work. I guess I need to call my parents and ask them to bring me my large suitcase tonight when I see them (although I had not planned on taking it). Hmm?

Well, I'll report back..hopefully with better news.

My Bug Tent

I'd basically given up on finding the exact "bug tent" (mosquito-free sleep zone) that I was looking for. I had searched online for a hour or so back when I signed on to the trip, but didn't make any decisions b/c I wasn't thrilled with what I was finding.

My desire was to find a tent that would be MOSTLY netting or screen (not solid) and be large enough to allow me to have an inflatable mattress inside if I wanted. Oh, and I didn't want to break the bank on it either (poor nursing student). So I waited a bit and then yesterday I did another search and I found this beauty:

This is a SANSBUG tent. I was planning to get the 1-person but they were sold out...so I ordered the 2-person size and I think I will enjoy the extra room--plus I will be nice to come back and use again with friends (watching fireworks maybe?)  There's no privacy as it's ALL netting--so NOT the best option for camping! haha...oh and the rain that is always inevitable with camping would come right in. LOL.

I'm really excited about this find. It was even on sale at the SansBug website for $36.95 (rather than 52.95) and while the shipping is ridiculous (coming from Ontario), I only ended up paying $56 total. Much below anything I was looking at earlier!

Because I got the mid-size model (2 person), any twin size air mattress would definitely work! Which means I can get a cheapy Wal-Mart one because I don't have to get one less than 33" with the other bug tents available. Originally I thought I was going to have to go with the  Travel Tent, but it didn't meet all my hopes...so I'm glad I waited and found the SansBug. I think you'll agree that the SansBug definitely has the Travel Tent beat in the CUTE-ness category!

The other really cool thing about this tent is that it is quick to set up and quick to put away! It folds down to a 31" disk (easy for carry-on)...

What a find! I'll have to report back on it when I get back from Haiti!

Okay, well now I can cross this off my Haiti To-Do list. Whew. When this arrives I'll go buy my air mattress and then set it up in my living room and try to sleep on it for a couple nights to get use to it. I'm also taking a battery-operated fan which I will have to figure out how to string up too. I think SansBug could totally create some "extras" to give this tent even more marketability.

Wednesday Woots!

EPIC training only took 2 hours, kinda a waste for a clinical day. Wonder if we're gonna have to make up clinical hours later? Hmm?

But since EPIC training got out early, I decided to go ahead and take my Pharm exam this afternoon so that I can spend tomorrow studying for the test on Monday. Got a B+ and am very happy with that. Could have done much worse...and doubt I'd have done much better tomorrow if I had waited. So overall, a good decision to take it early. Plus, now I've got all tomorrow to study for my Med-Surg test on Monday.

I was a little discouraged when initial pricing for ticket to Haiti was over $1,000 with the missionary travel agency that my team is using. I checked Travelocity and price was about $175 less...then called RAPTIM, another missionary/humanitarian travel agency (which I used 2x for Liberia and LOVED them) and they priced me $678 with everything but travel insurance ($33). Which is $337 cheaper than original quotes! woohoo!  My organization is totally fine with me purchasing my ticket separately--which is awesome! I just had to have specific flights in/out of Haiti so that the team will all arrive/depart together. I have crazy departure (early) /arrival (late) times for my originating flights. AND I think I'll have an 9.5 hour layover in Miami on the way home (ack!).  But that's largely due to lack of flights between Miami and DC. At least I can fly in/out of DC (where my sister lives) and not out of Richmond or BWI. Too bad I don't know anyone in Miami!

So good news over all! :D  WOOT!

Well, storms are a comin' so I better finish this up before the power goes out! haha.

Haiti Trip | The Planning Begins

I've passed the first obstacle of going to Haiti! My nursing instructors have given me permission to take my final exams early! So it looks like I'm heading to Haiti in early May!

The remaining "obstacles" include:

• Staying focused/diligent during final three weeks of the semester (once clinicals are over) to start the work of reviewing for my final exams --even while continuing to learn new information! The week that I leave, I'll be taking a Unit Test and two final exams! Studying, packing, errand-running all the same week.
• Making time to properly prepare for this trip (spiritually, emotionally, professionally & culturally) amid school pressures.
• Financial aspect of trip (required $550 plus airfare--would be nice to keep under a $1,000 but not sure that's feasible)
• Moving up medical appt that I had already scheduled for May 5th.
• Locating equipment (free-standing mosquito "net" + lightweight air mattress) to take with me.

Yes, there will be lots of list-making going on! And I'm probably going to dig up some of my old lists from Liberia travels to trigger new lists. 

I realize that by going to Haiti, I will have to give up donating platelets for a year (at least).  Here's hoping I can get 3 more donations in before I go--they are already scheduled, so hopefully my iron levels will cooperate!

I'm excited, nervous and not even sure what to expect. My team leader is currently in the Phillipines until end of March, so I expect more information will be coming in next couple weeks.

Because of EPIC training tomorrow afternoon, we won't be doing patient care in clinical tomorrow and thus no need to do patient prep today. So today will be spent studying for Pharmacology test which I hope to take on Thursday.