What a day!

I'm just gonna spit it out. I just woke up from a nap, I'm in shock, and I can't believe that today turned out the way it did. I took my Surgical Technology Certification test this morning and I passed it! Yes, sir. I did!!!

You can call me many things. I'm a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a pretty loyal friend, a documented perfectionist and now....you can call me Janet Lopez, CST. (I worked for 2.5 years as a ST at one of the only hospitals in the area that did not recquire that I be certified....so why waste the $ to take the test when it really didn't matter to them?)

And now to explain to you why I'm so in shock about this new title. In recent months, I've had "pregnancy brain". Bad. I find myself not being able to form a complete thought at times, I often tune people out while they are talking to me (sorry folks, I know I've been a little anti-social), and when I would sit down to study for this test, I simply would not retain much information. So I gave up on studying this week. I also find myself trying to remember things like "When we did a TURP, did we use glycine or sterile water?" or "What was the name of that suture we used to close skin?". It's only been a few months since I've stopped working, so this scares me. I had accepted the fact that I would probably be one of those people that has to take the test twice. I figured I'd check into my hotel the night before, watch a movie to relax, and take the test to find out exactly what's on it so I could do some better, more intense studying in the future.

Last night, I cooked a Lopez favorite (Cabbage Casserole, and don't knock it, it's "the bomb"), ate, kissed the guys goodbye and set out for Austin. I figured that leaving later in the evening would help me to avoid that lovely traffic the city is famous for, but I had no such luck. A normally hour long drive turned out to be almost two hours! I checked into the Southpark Omni, which I got for a ridiculously low rate thanks to Priceline and went about finding the test site so I'd be all prepared with at least that. Okay, so we need to seriously update our version of Microsoft Streets and Trips, because the directions that were given led me about a mile out of my way (not good in that particular area of Austin due to twists and turns under major overpasses); I coulda just turned left out of the Omni parking lot and hooked a right, right on over to the test site!

Anyways, I woke up early this morning, made sure I had something good to eat and drove over to the test site to take my licking. I was allowed to start the test 15 minutes early and I admit that I was not sure about half of my answers. But, my work experience was there to carry me for much of the way. I clicked on the "end exam" button and hoped for the best. After a couple of minutes, there it was...the word "Pass". Sarah gave a small kick to my stomach and I nearly passed out. I stared at the screen with my mouth wide open for a bit. And then I gathered my locker key (purses not allowed) and bolted for the door to call my husband.

I doubted myself again and, again I proved myself wrong. And I am so happy that now, I can concentrate on the holidays and the last miserable months of pregnancy without the worry of having to study for this darned test! Yippppeeeeeeeee!!!

So, now that I'm Certified the question is....do I still want to go to Nursing school? hmmmmmmm.