Thankful Thursday | three weeks

This week, I am thankful:

that my countdown is at three weeks!

After tomorrow’s shift, I only have three more weeks left of full-time work.

And after I make two more discussion post replies, I have three weeks left in this class.

(Nothing terribly exciting happens after this class finishes; another class starts the next day! But every completed class is one step closer to me having my degree done.)

that I am good at writing

I know I’ve said this before in a Thursday post, but my goodness, this BSN program is almost all writing. It’s been very time-consuming for me, even though writing is one of my strengths. I cannot even imagine trying to do this if writing is not a strong suit.

that I’m a fast reader

I have to dig through so many scholarly journal articles to find the information I need for these essays and discussion posts. I am lucky that I’m a fast reader (and an even faster skimmer) because this would take me so much longer otherwise.

that I got to catch some sunrises/sunsets

We had a tiny stretch of less-humid weather, and I worked for most of it. But I did manage to get out and catch two sunsets and a sunrise.

that my digestive system is feeling better

I’m still not quite 100%; mainly, I am still not as hungry as usual. But almost all of my other symptoms are gone, and I’m so glad.

I still have not added coffee back into the rotation, though; it’s been two and a half weeks since I had any, and that is definitely my longest coffee-free stretch since I started drinking it in my early 40s.

Tea has just seemed like a safer option for now. 😉

for the empathy reminder

I take care of a lot of patients with digestive problems, and my recent experience was a good reminder of how miserable it is not to be able to eat, or to have diarrhea, or to deal with bloating and nausea.

that I got nominated for a Daisy award

You can read about Daisy awards here, in case you haven’t heard of them. One of my patients nominated me, and while I don’t think I did anything special enough to get the big Daisy award, I will get a pin for my badge just for being nominated.

And it made my day to read the note from the patient because it said I was both compassionate and competent. A good nurse needs to be both; if you take good care of the patient’s physical needs but you don’t care for their feelings, that’s less than ideal.

Conversely, if you take good care of a patient’s feelings but you fail to notice that their blood pressure is tanking, well, that’s not ideal either.

So, it made me happy to be nominated for compassion and competence.

that my van came in handy

Sadly, a friend of mine recently passed away from rectal/colon cancer. Her three young adult children, who live out of state, were here, of course, and after my friend passed, her kids needed help getting her storage unit emptied.

So, my van and I volunteered for the job, and I felt so grateful to still have it available. This job would have taken so many trips with a smaller car, and some of the items wouldn’t have fit in a smaller car anyway (like the bed frame!)

I’m also happy I was able to do something to help my friend’s kids; this is the second parent they have lost to cancer, so my heart went out to them.

What are you thankful for this week?