new rotation = last rotation!

Today was a big day for my internship because I started my new rotation on the 3rd floor pediatrics unit and I am beyond excited for it! With the start of this rotation, it also means that I am almost done already with my internship. I can't believe how fast the past 7 weeks have literally flown by and how much I have already learned and accomplished. Anyway! Third floor at the hospital is the same unit that I used to volunteer on for Dance Marathon and where I spent a lot of time working when I was a Child Life Assistant. There are several patients and families that I already know and have a close relationship with so I'm really looking forward to working with them again and being able to spend time with them while developing my skills for my internship. These next five weeks are going to fly by...I have a lot to learn and do in the next 25 days so here goes nothing! 

Give Kids The World

For the first time in my entire college career, I was able to tell my work supervisor that I am unavailable for Spring Break and can't work. And this is because I am finally going on my first ever Spring Break trip and I could NOT be more excited about it!!!! I got asked to go on the "Child Life Alternative Spring Break Workshop: Give Kids The World Trip" and am so pumped! They only take ten students, TEN students, each spring so I feel honored and lucky to be part of the group of ten. We will be traveling to the Give Kids The World Village which is located about 20 minutes away from DisneyWorld in Florida! GKTW is a home-away-from-home village that is ran entirely by volunteers and it is a place where kids with a life-threatening illness and their families can stay and visit for a week....entirely COST FREE! They get a week of vacation in a fantasy land and get to visit the Disney parks for free. Seriously, this place is like a dream land! If you have seen the movie, Letters To God, then you have seen a glimpse of the village. There is a mailbox there, from the movie, where kids and families can mail letters each day and many times they are prayers, hopes and dreams written by the kids, siblings and parents. There is soft-serve ice-cream served around the clock so kids can have ice-cream for breakfast if they want! I will spend the week volunteering with the group by helping to serve meals, hang out with the families and play with the kiddos and advocating for Child Life while learning different ways to incorporate where Child Life services could be provided. We each will get a diagnosis of a child staying at the village, learn about them and their diagnosis then do a presentation on it at the end of the week. Then to top it off, our group gets to spend a day at SeaWorld and Downtown Disney--possibly a trip to one of the parks is in the works as well!!! Yipee!!! Talk about the best spring break trip ever!!!!!!!!! And it is all entirely covered by Iowa (for me at least!) since I am a teaching assistant so it is covered as part of my tuition...double yipee! I have never felt luckier to be asked to join this amazing group of people going on the trip and I feel like it is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me! It warms my heart and I am so, soooo excited for it! It may have taken me six years of school to go on a spring break trip, but I would say this one is well worth the wait and definitely well deserved! 

a surprise visit...

Today while at work at the hospital, I got a very sweet surprise visit from a former patient who was back for her 3-month check ups and scans. I hadn't seen Izzy since she left after her last chemo treatment well over 3 months ago and I was not expecting to see her sweet and sassy self! When she was first diagnosed, Izzy didn't take it very well at all and was terrified of anyone and everyone who walked into her room, and rightly so for only being four years old! She refused to come to activity and didn't want any of us to hang out with her in her room to play a game or do a craft. She wanted her normal four year old life back and to spend time at home with her parents and newborn baby brother. And all I wanted was to make a difference in her stay at the hospital and her course of treatment. So every single day, I went to her room and knocked on the door, knowing she would get upset and tell me no and send me on my way just like she did to everyone else. Until one day, that all changed. Izzy finally said, "well I like princess books and puzzles." So I brought some in and together we read some books and worked on some puzzles. It only lasted maybe a half an hour until she got upset when her pole started beeping and she was snapped back to the reality of still being in her hospital room and undergoing cancer treatment. But that one day of books and puzzles was all it took. I returned the next day, and she greeted me with a smile and invited me into her room to play Barbies and princess with her. I guess you could say the rest is history...

We hit it off and she was always quick to give me a hug or snuggle onto my lap. My heart was overwhelmed and I think it was the first time her mom finally breathed a sigh of relief. Izzy then always referred to me as "her best friend" and rarely let any of the other child life assistants do the 1:1 activities with her like she let me. There will always be those adults, kids and patients that I will form different relationships with and a bond with in different ways but I'm so thankful for the bond I formed with Izzy. She trusted only me to chase her around the hospital while she rode the tricycle as we went from floor to floor. And the day she left the hospital after her last chemo treatment, she gave me a sign she had made and decorated that said, "i luv child life and katie. xxxoooooxxoxoxo" and she drew stick people giving hugs to each other. Straight from the mouth and mind of babes...so precious. And I was so beyond happy to see her today as she walked into the playroom healthy with a head full of hair this time, a smile on her face that no one or anything could wipe off, and a big hug waiting for me full of love. Nothing makes my heart happier than a surprise visit from a special kiddo who no longer fears the hospital and I know I made a difference in her life. I'm thankful for my job and the miracles I get to witness day in and day out!

my fingers hurt

I have spent the past four days typing up a 20-page research paper on the clinical framework of pediatric palliative care and the implications it has in the field of child life. Needless to say, my fingers hurt. I'm not sure I have ever done so much typing like that before!! But, I'm am so thankful to be done with it!!! And it made me really appreciate that fact that I have the opportunity to be getting the higher education that I am getting. I know not everyone can because of financial reasons or where they live and the point they are at in their lives. So while I complain about it some days and how that paper was brutal to write, it made me feel very proud and thankful to be at this position in my life. I think it's awesome seeing the numbers of women my age that choose higher education for themselves first and foremost but then to also give their current, or future, families a better life. And no matter what, no one can take away your education and that is something you can always fall back on and have to help you get back on your feet. I'm thankful to be a big time nerd but also pretty pumped to be done with classes in the spring!!!!

And so it begins...

Well, the second semester is officially underway. And with two days in, it has already been quite the whirlwind of events. And of course, the two classes I'm taking this semester are in the two formats that I despise of...online and at night. Double Curses!!! Seriously. Oh well I guess, whatever gets the requirements checked off is all that matters to me! I have also been getting ready to start my new job at the children's hospital next week. I don't think I've ever been this excited before just to start a new job! But I know it'll be great and hopefully a good lead in for my future internship and jobs. In the Child Life field, it seems like the biggest part is networking and it comes down to who you know, not what you know. I'm thankful I know the right people. However, I'm not thankful for what all I had to go through today just to start orientation. The hospital requires two TB tests, which yes, that is ridiculous. And why you might ask? Wellllllll obviously, because the first one could just be read wrong and is a "control" to get your body geared up for the 2nd one! Oooh right. Thanks Nurse, because my body was really sad without these two TB tests and now I'm gonna feel all nice and geared up after having both. Wow. I have a better idea....um how about you read the TB results right the first time so not everyone has to do a second one?! There. Boom, problem solved. Anyway, since I'll be in the children's hospital, I also had to get a flu shot and tDAP shot (it's a combined tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine for all of you non-medicine people) and on top of that, my blood drawn to test for chicken pox antibodies! Which, if you're following along, that totals up to 4 pokes. I may be 24 but that doesn't mean I have to be okay with getting 4 pokes in one day...in a 30 minute time frame and two in each arm. This, I am not ok with at all. And no, your Muppet Character bandaids didn't make it hurt any less but nice try. Needless to say, I left the clinic with my arms feeling lifeless and slightly throbbing. You know when Ace Ventura got hit with the tranquilizer dart and his arms were just flailing around and he couldn't lift them? Yeah, that's how mine felt.

Now that I'm finally starting to have feeling again in my arms, turns out my biceps and shoulders are feeling pretty sore. Why must vaccines make your arms all achey and then your whole body starts feeling it?? And on top of it, I've already been fever-ish with a wicked sore throat and a nasty head cold over the past few days. I haven't had strep yet at all this winter season so maybe my body is finally caving in. Big bummer. Good thing the weekend is in the near future! But better yet, good thing my bed is even closer right now. One week in and I'm already exhausted. I need to start mentally preparing for next week when I have to work 30+ hours a week, do my own class stuff and teach all the newbies about health. Yikes. Since Jordan is playing Call of Duty (ugh, don't even get me started about that) I think I'll mentally prepare by snuggling up with Paisley and watch The Lion King in bed! I knew that 5 week break would catch up to me eventually....