Monday, July 21, 2008

Say a little prayer for me....

Those of you who know me know that I LOVE BEING A NURSE. Ever since I was I little girl it was all that I ever dreamed of wanting to be and just knew that when I grew up that I would one day be a nurse. I never was one of those kids who went from being a artist, then to an zoo keeper, then to being a dentist then being a teacher. Nope not me. From day one....Jodi was going to be a nurse. Maybe it was because I spent SO MUCH time on the other side of that bed, being so sick as an infant and a child, that it compelled me to want to be a nurse, and get to see what it was actually like to get to do some of the work from the other side. Who knows what it was but my mind was set. And I went right out of High School into College and worked very hard to earn my nursing license and have been practicing as a registered nurse currently for almost 20 years. WOW!!!! And it is something that I love. It is my life's work and I enjoy it so much....that i enjoy it almost to a fault. Now....we all have our faults mind you and we are all people persons (well there are some of us that are NOT) to a degree but I am most certainly a people person to a F-A-U-L-T!!!!! Especially when they are my patients and they demand my care and attention. They get it. Well, the bad thing is that once they leave my care, that is where the fault comes in. That is when I sometimes have the hard time letting go. Especially when I see a potential need or a situation when my "nursing" needs to continue. :0)
For those of you who don't know what I am doing, I am currently working in a recovery room/ICU and not only do we recovery surgery patient and take care of ICU patients, we also recover Mom's who have just had C-sections (well, because they have just had a surgery per se). On this particular day I was working on C-sections and I got this mother who happened to be 17 years old. As a was getting ready to get her the OR nurse runs in and tells me that her baby is being shipped to LeBonhuer because his rectal open didn't form and the mom doesn't know and I can't say anything. They will be down to tell her soon. I get her in and from the instant I get her we bond. She is not only a sweetheart but she is YEARS beyond her age in maturity and intellect and already "knows" something is up with her baby because no-one in her family is around and no one has told her anything. Here I am trying to play everything off and distract her. An hour and a half passes and still no word from anyone. I am trying to call and get information with no luck. Finally within 15 minutes a nurse from our NICU comes in with papers for her to sign for the transfer. I informed her that no one has spoken to her about the situation and someone needs to before she signs papers. I get "deer in the headlight looks" and told her to stay outside the room and let me talk to Mom for a couple minutes. I went in and explained the babies situation and what was about to take place. I told her that I didn't want to lie to her that was why I wasn't telling her anything, because I didn't know. We cried together, we prayed together, then the nurse came in and got the appropriate papers signed. Then the LeBonheur flight team (which I can't say ENOUGH about) brought the baby down to see Mom before taking him to the hospital.
Well, I am happy to say that as three days ago, Baby Travis is now home. He is now about three months old and weighs about 9 1/2 pounds. But he and his Mom need alot of prayers. He has a colostomy but they have found some other medical issues with him as well. He has some bladder issues, a VSD (which is a small hole in his heart), a spinal cord issue (which affects some growth plates) and a hypospadius. Please, please remember them in your prayers. THis little family is very special to me and I think that God placed her in my care that night for a reason. He doesn't make mistakes and maybe it was because he just knew that I was a nurse "to a fault"!!!!
Love to you all and til next time-







2 comments:

Jennifer said...

How PRECIOUS is that baby? I could never ever do your job... you know me... I would end up taking them all home with me. :)

Jennifer said...

Just wanted you to know that I am still praying for you... but now it is that you will do a new post. :) Bah ha ha ha. Being that I am the only true stalker of your blog... you need to only post FOR ME. It can even be titled ESPECIALLY FOR FURF