I worked today, which does not happen all that often, and up until the last 2 hours it had been a pretty good day. All it takes is one patient to make a pretty good day turn sour. As a nurse I have tried hard not to bring home my work and most of the time I am pretty successful at it. One of my patients came in and the parents thought she had possible aspirated on some chicken because within minutes of eating it she had become really fussy and inconsolable. The fussiness would come and go and had been lasting for about 2 hours. Her breathing was shallow and she seemed to be in some real pain. In the end she only had an ear infection. Hahahaha is what went through my mind. Not because I thought the parents were dumb but because I realized how this is exactly what would have happened to me with one of my children and how stupid I would have felt thinking it was anything but a basic diagnosis. Very coincidental!!! This was just the calm before the storm....
Now this is where my day went down hill. An 11 year old girl came in with dizziness, blurriness, and weakness. History: post brain surgery removing only part of a tumor and 7 lesions on her spine! Really?? Are you serious? She is only 11!! When I walked into the room you would have never known she was sick. Her smile lit up the room. So innocent and so sweet. She really wished I wasn't doing the IV and taking blood but tolerated it extremely well!
Come out of the room and have been told that I am getting a suicidal patient who is hitting his mother and basically cussing the staff out! My thoughts: Great! Seriously don't feel like dealing with this today or any day. I don't understand why people act or do this. Didn't take long for my feelings to switch from annoyed to extremely compassionate. Most of my compassion was for the mom. He was telling her he hated her, F you (including the staff), you ruined my life, if you let them touch me I will put my head through this glass door and cut my head off!!! The mom actually was an employee for our hospital and I decided at the minute it was about her not him. So I asked "what do you need?". She said "for him to go to the floor ASAP". My mission was to make sure we could get him calm and to the floor sooner than later.
Before I go back to my little girl to draw more blood I hear the doctor say that she will be going into emergency surgery because the neurosurgeon thinks the lesions may be pressing onto her spin causing the issues. Deep breath as I walk into the room. All I can think about is how would i be handling this situation if this was one of my children. I look into these parents eyes and they seem to be handling everything quite well. While I am in the room drawing blood I am talking to the girl asking her questions to help ease the situation. I asked her what her favorite color was. She said cotton candy blue. Dad said basically baby blue. I laughed and said thank goodness it isn't gator blue. The family told me that there was only one gator in the family. I thought they meant only one family member liked the Gators but reality was they all loved Tim Tebow. This little girls wish was to meet Tim Tebow. Her wish was being granted by Dreams Come True and she will go to NY is the fall to see a game and meet Tim. Of course that all is dependant on how well she is at the time! I told the family that we knew the guy who was in charge of the Tim Tebow Foundation and they knew Eric and Liz Dellenback too. My thoughts: great now I feel a connection. Am I going to carry this home with me? I don't do this!
Truthfully I did carry it home with me! I asked to carry it home. Before I left for the night I took her a warm blanket and asked the parents if I could take a sticker with her name on it so that I could add her to my prayer list. The mom began to cry and said yes. Gave mom and dad a hug and told the little girl that she was in Gods hands.
You may ask...so did I pray for her yet? Yes I did!! I prayed for her, her parents and the doctors that would be doing the surgery.
In a 12 hour shift 2 hours made me stop and think how lucky I am to have such healthy kids, a healthy husband and my own health. Thank you god for what I have and who you gave me to be my family! Thank you for all that you provide and thank you for everything.
I love this, sis! Such a powerful reminder to be grateful, but more importantly, I think, is the reminder that we have divine appointments every day - people God puts in our day specifically for us to engage with and pray for. How often do we encounter people during our day who need our prayers, and we never think to capture their name and need to pray for later? Janice, if I were you, I would consider this the first of many times you will take home a name sticker and add someone to your prayer list. Who knows but that God has you in that job for just that reason? Love you, girl! We need to get together when this storm blows over. :)
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