Tag Archives: nursing

0

My Major Award

|

A little over two weeks ago I received a daisy nomination from my co-worker Ally for being a resource in endo and the care I have given to patients in the past by following up with them on the floor after procedures. That same day Kelly (she volunteers at Kesem Wash U with me as Nurse Needles) says to me, well I guess you didn’t get the Mission in Motion award. I looked at her very confused and she said I nominated you months ago for your involvement with Camp Kesem and I guess it’s all over with. Three days later Ally texted me to tell me I had won the award. I said oh please go to tell Kelly as I was off and I knew Kelly was working. Later on that afternoon Ally texted me to say Jodi wanted to know if I was working Monday so I said I better make sure my hair is in place for photos.

Monday came and nothing happened so I thought well I will make sure my hair looks good for Tuesday. On Tuesday the Chief Nursing Officer and two others showed up with a gorgeous Poinsettia and read to me what Kelly had said and that I had won this award. This is one of the highest honors a nurse can receive which honors employees who exemplify these values through their exceptional service and dedication to patients and their families both at work and in the community. Sadly, I do not have a copy of what she had written and of course it was months ago so she doesn’t exactly remember. However, it had to do with all the camps that I volunteer at and how much the kids love me. So the CNO then says to me, “you have your award right.” I was like no, so the charge nurse runs over to the managers office who it out sick and it is not there. I crack up laughing and say of course this always happens to me. I shared with them the story of it raining two inches the night before I was to visit Death Valley and the flood washed out roads and I didn’t get to see everything I had planned on seeing. So they assured me they would find it and give it to me.

At the end of the shift Sarah was checking her email and received a weird email so I said let me see if I received one too. Imagine my horror when I discovered the previous Friday was the brick ceremony and I received a brick with my name on it and was not there for it. I walked downstairs and found the brick and took photos. I then came back upstairs and was an emotional wreck. I also learned there was a luncheon that I also missed out on. The next day at work I emailed the CNO and the president of the hospital to let them know how upset I was that I missed that and that no one had told me about this. I heard back from the CNO a couple days later and then the president of the hospital called me personally a week later. When I looked at my caller ID and it said his name, my first thought OMG I’m in trouble. Then I said calm down and answered the phone. He was extremely apologetic and told me my award was sitting on the CNO’s desk. He offered to mail it to me but I said I am working tomorrow I can stop by and pick it up. He said that was fine and I said I would have to work up the nerve because administration is scary.

I told my co-workers all I wanted was a picture of me holding the brick. Clare and I had went down the next morning and discovered the bricks are not cemented in so taking it out would be very easy. I decided we should do this on a Monday when everyone is working including Kelly as I wanted her to share this joy with me.

Ally made a poster on Friday and on Monday she said she was hanging it up in the break room so it wouldn’t get messed up. I was like no one knows who Nurse Red is and she said “that’s ok, we will tell them.” I woke up at 4am as I was very excited and around 11:30 Kelly who was working in the room with me asked if it was ok for if she stepped out for five minutes to take care of something. I said sure but asked her what she was up to. She replied nothing and I said you are acting suspicious. As I was walking past the break room I noticed it smelled wonderful and thought anesthesia must have bought us food. Both rooms finished with morning cases at the same time so I said great let’s go do the brick. When they told me no let’s go to the break room first I became very suspicious. The food was for me and I had a cake and everything. The sneaky snakes I work with got together with the girls that get our patients ready and send home and planned a pot luck. Kelly had ordered pretzels which is why she needed to step out.

Dr. Cockerell joined us for lunch and went down to the bricks. The garden area where the bricks are located is just outside the cafeteria. So Ally is holding the sign she made and as we walked through the cafeteria and is yelling congratulations to our Mission in Motion winner. I like a little attention but this was over the top. I turned bright red but did indeed survive. We went outside and Dr. Cockerell took the brick out and handed it to me. It was so much fun.

No fear of destruction of property. And my favorite CRNA Matt is photo bombing us!
An awesome moment
Matt took the photo for us. I was so excited he could join us!
Ally who made the poster!
Matt, Clare and I
Me returning the brick as if nothing ever happened.

Somehow Nurse Needles did not see us leave so I demanded a photo with her because without her this would have never happened. As we walked back through the cafeteria rest assured Ally was still yelling congratulations to our award winner. I ignored the impulse to hide in the corner.

Nurse Needles and Nurse Red

I have the most amazing co-workers! They knew how devastated that I was for missing the actual award ceremony and created something one thousand times better! I actually love Camp Kesem and all of the kids. I do not do what I do for awards or recognition. I actually do this for the kids. If they do not have a nurse, camp cannot happen. It is also a great excuse to act as a kid as I participate in song circles, scream sing and do the hand motions. It is a nice throw back to when my kids were young and my church put on Kid Stuf. Yes, I would go without them because I enjoyed it so much. I had a really rough time after camp was over this year because someone I thought was a friend had lied to me about everything. I fully believe God inspired Nurse Needles to nominate me to remind me of why I do these camps in the first place.

Mole Moral ~ Good things come to those who wait.

0

Camp Kesem at JMU

|

After what it took to get to camp, I had a feeling it was going to be special and boy it didn’t disappoint!

James Madison University campus was really cool.

I instantly liked all the college kids on admin team and all of the counselors. Reflecting a week later it was just like my very first camp with Washington University.

One of the counselors, Joker was a nurse. He had just taken the MCAT to go to medical school. He shared a lot with me. He didn’t do well in high school but pulled it together in college. He did extremely well and decided he could indeed be a doctor. He then shared he wanted to be a surgeon. I said the exact same thing to him I said to Beaker at that first camp. Nope you are way too nice to be a surgeon. All surgeons are assholes. He smiled and then I told him the story of Beaker. One of the little girls flushed a small bottle of body wash down the toilet. Beaker ran in stuck his hand down into the hole and pulled it out. I told Beaker he’d be a great OB/GYN. I made Joker a friendship bracelet with a note that said put this somewhere that when med school is hard and you want to quit to remember Nurse Red believes in you and you got this. Whether he listened to me or not, I know he will succeed.

I have never sat in on cabin chat. It happens at end of every night and the kids talk about highlights of the day and answer questions. I could attend if I wanted but I felt the kids wouldn’t want some old grandma there. The way this camp did meds, I and Dr. pickles delivered night meds. So I heard some answers to questions. The kids were asked to describe Kesem in one word. Here are some of the answers

Amazing

Powerful

Safe

Magic

Love

Inspiring

Home

Magical

The last evening we delivered meds to the fifteen and up during their cabin chat. I was listening to all they had to say and then I asked if I could say something. They were all like yes. So I said I have multiple people ask me why I volunteer for camp and why I don’t get paid. And because of all that they shared, I finally know the answer. Without nurses, camp cannot happen. These camps need to happen I see how much they mean to all of you. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to be a nurse for these kids. So it was time for group hug. One of the counselors said Nurse Red get over here and then they all started chanting Nurse Red just like my very first year.

The parallel between my first camp and this one renewed and strengthened my love of Camp Kesem. I think this may be why everything that went wrong to get there was an attempt to get me to say nope and go home. My first two camps this summer were hard. Actually to the point I considered next summer only doing Wash U and Maine. However I have added James Madison to my must do camp list and if I have to bribe one of the docs to take vacation the week of this camp, I will.

Mole Moral ~ Great things happen when one shoves their fear of not knowing where they are going, what exactly is going to happen and not having every detailed planned.

0

Nurse Pooh’s Warm and Fuzzy

|

Most of the camp Kesem’s I have attended have done warm and fuzzies for the entire camp. So instead of writing Nurse Pooh a small snippet on a piece of colored paper, I’m dedicating this blog to her.

Last winter Dr. Heavey gave his vacation dates and so I went on Kesem’s website to see what camps were available for the week. I stumbled across UT Austin so I applied thinking I was going to Utah. I then conned Ricochet into doing this camp with me. So he informs me we are going to Texas. I’m like it will be 120 in July but I will prepare for excessive heat.

Right before the start of camp they told us there would be a third nurse. Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t do well with last minute change. Her name was Nurse Pooh. Now as an endo nurse I could hardly keep a straight face even though I was positive it was in reference to Winnie the Pooh. Even my husband got a kick out of it and said she was number two. Everyone knows the Moles are real mature.

So Pooh is the same age as everyone else, mid twenties. Within thirty minutes I knew she was one of my peeps. She reminds me of the endo girls whom I love. She attended week one and it wasn’t long before she told us about that experience. I had total anxiety while she told Ricochet and I about it, and will probably have anxiety writing about it.

She was asked to do camp two days prior to the start of camp. There is pre camp training computer modules that are to be completed before camp starts. I did mine back in April and have done them for five years. She didn’t see any of this. She did not receive the packing list and basically went into a camp with 100+ campers blind. I have only done three camps with 75 or more kids and they are rough in that check in and check out is mass chaos. The other nurse she was working with was also in the same boat, had never done camp and received no training. Neither could get out of the nurses station all week because it was non stop campers needing to be seen. This is why week two had three nurses.

After Ricochet and I listened to this we both said you are going to every activity and do not need to be in this nurses station. The best part about camp is being out and about with the kids. She did state she has an anaphylactic allergy to ants so we then said stay out of the grass. The camp had a golf cart for her to ride in to avoid the ants.

I’m so glad she agreed to come back for the second week so that I could meet her. I would be thrilled to be co workers with her. She just moved and will be starting her next job soon. She will be a huge blessing to all of her patients. I had an absolutely amazing week and may just tell the endo doctors one of them will need to take vacation for UT Austin camp next year

Mole Moral ~ Last minute changes to the schedule can bring about huge blessings.

0

Who Says You Can’t Have Fun at Work

|

In just two short days it will be FIVE years since I started in endoscopy. Say what? I vividly remember thinking what in Sam Hill are they going to talk about for a week in RNO (RN Orientation). I’m so happy this was pre Covid and all the classes were in person. Now days you sit at home behind your computer and it’s done via zoom. Anyway the entire week was like a review of everything I had learned over the past thirty years of my nursing career. I found it very interesting and learned a lot. After that week, I started the actual job.

The first year was total hell. For starters I left the floor I had worked on for eighteen years. I knew everyone, I could do the job blindfolded, and I had the most seniority. I found myself in a foreign country not knowing anyone or the language. I came home every night mentally spent because I had to think about what I was doing every second I was there. Then Covid hit and I felt called to go help in ICU and so I did. It was better for my mental health to know I was doing that every day then be sent to other areas of the hospital to help or screen people as they came in. This also greatly improved my self confidence.

As I reflect over the past five years, all of my original co-workers have left except for Chris who is now semi-retired and works on Mondays only. Somehow I now have the most endoscopy experience which is both comical and scary. Because I only work part time, I am not at work enough to fill the role of the highest seniority. Luckily Sarah and Kelly fulfill this role perfectly and I often go to them when I have no idea how to fix something or do some random rarely done procedure. They are both amazing and if they leave to further pursue their careers I will be screwed.

The current group of girls I have worked with for over a year now are so much fun. It’s like working every day with my own daughters. Halloween the past two years have been a lot of fun in endo. I was off last year when they decided to dress up like the doctors as a surprise. They sent me photos and it was amazing.

This next photo cracks me up every time I look at it. No, it is not a real patient on the stretcher. I think it might have been Sarah pretending. But anyway Clare has Dr. Heavey down perfectly and Dr. Heavey has us down perfectly. Although we don’t have ear buds in when working in the room but if it is a boring colon we may be messing around on our phone. Dr. Heavey never wears scrubs so seeing him in our scrubs is a hoot.

This year Dr. Aymerich decided we should dress up as Pirates for Pirate Booty since we deal with butts all day. Everyone was sure that he would get up late and not participate but he did as well as everyone. We had quite a good time. For the first time ever Dr. Aymerich was actually hot and had the endo room set at 65 instead of 75. He needs to wear his costume every day. Here was our set up outside the room. The treasure chest had pirates booty snacks inside it. Now that has always been a hot commodity in the snack bags for Big Stuf camp. It also worked perfectly with our theme.

Because of the day and how our cases fell we all couldn’t be in the same picture at once. Also the weight loss doctor decided to add an out patient case to our schedule on his non block time so we made him participate as well. Of course I snuck and took his picture while he was busy scoping so he looks super serious.

We are still waiting to hear if we won the Halloween costume contest. I mean I know we should have. However even if we didn’t, we are the most fun unit at St. Clare. We certainly had a great day and I am not going to lie when I came to get the patients for their procedures the looks on their faces when they saw me was priceless. When I sent these to our family group chat my husband immediately responded Big Red (that’s me) looks like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.

I took one look at this and absolutely could not stop laughing. My husband can be quite funny.

Mole Moral ~ If you don’t have fun at your job, perhaps it’s time to find a new one. Hopefully these girls will stick around until I retire because it will be the best time ever.

2

What’s in a name?

|

As I finish up the week with Camp Kesem at Notre Dame, I feel compelled to share Peter Pants story. Peter Pants is on the admin team. The admin team consists of anywhere from 5-10 college students who are in charge of running camp. They do things like set up for activities, actually make the camp schedule, round everyone up when it’s time to change activities and so on.

The first day someone asked Peter Pants what her name meant. Apparently when she was in grade school she had an accident and was called this. I didn’t ask how long because it broke my heart. Why are human beings so mean to each other?

I’ve thought about this a lot this summer. If everyone would treat each other the way they do at camp, the world would be a much better place. No one here cares what your sexual orientation is, what gender you identify as, if you are a male and let the girls French braid your hair, if you let the little kids put make up on and paint your nails. The outside world is so judgmental and ridiculous.

I’ve written about empowerment in the past. One of my favorite activities is the step in, step out. Step in if you have ever been bullied was so powerful. Every single person including yours truly stepped in. When they said step in if you ever lost a parent, it hit me really hard. I had fifty-four years with my dad, some of the kids that stepped in were under ten. It was even mentioned how hard it is to go to school activities where everyone’s dad is there except for yours because he’s dead. Empowerment is hard when you realize how much these kids are dealing with. Kudos to Camp Kesem for giving kids a week with each other!

Mole Moral ~ One should think long and hard before they say mean things. Words do indeed hurt people and can last a lifetime.

0

A week in Wisconsin with Camp Kesem

|

Nurse Red finished yet another amazing week with incredible college kids. I guess I’m going to write about this every camp because it is truly mind blowing.

So I had no idea when I signed up that Wisconsin has the biggest chapter in the country. They have three weeks of camp with about 80 campers each week. They also have at least forty counselors. The college has around thirty four thousand undergrads. So a good size pool to pull from as the camp needs that many to run smoothly.

Camp Kesem has strict ratios as well. I think it’s 2 counselors to every seven kids. They also strictly enforce the rule of three. This means no camper is alone with a counselor or no camper is alone with another camper. There must be at least one counselor per group of three. This is strictly enforced at all the camps I have been a nurse for. One camp that I have observed and would never volunteer for is terrible about keeping an eye on the kids and following the rule of three.

Urba and Brick were the camp coordinators. Both did an excellent job. I must say the organization at this camp was top notch. From pre made name tags to pre selected teams for color wars, to all the tie dye t-shirts being in bags and labeled with camper names before we even started the project. And if that wasn’t mind blowing, the shirts that we wore for check in needed to be washed to wear for check out. I went to put my name on the tag and it was already there. I told Urba today with her leadership skills, organization and personality she should be president. She informed me she’s too young and has no interest in politics. I forgot to mention she’s extremely smart as well.

I loved Minnow as she was the other nurse. She did adults for less than a year and then switched to pediatrics. I say bless her as dealing with parents of sick kids is extremely challenging. It just so happened her floor gets all the GI patients. So the kids that couldn’t poop this week were in great hands.

Because this chapter does three weeks many of the kids do all three weeks. This says so much about their hearts as it is an exhausting but rewarding week. They give up doing their paid job. I just can’t put this into words.

The camp advisors can make or break a camp. They are usually graduated but not always. Our advisors this camp were Sprout and Stiles. Ok Sprout still in college but I really thought he was 28 with the way he carried himself. Stiles is 28 and a high school math teacher. I would have loved to have him as a teacher even if his goal is to teach calculus. They were calm and very professional. If they were stressed over anything that happened they hid it well. If I’m lucky, I’ll work with them again in a Kesem of the future.

Mole Moral ~ If we treated each other every day the way we treat each other at camp the world would be a wonderful place. The socially awkward were just as included as the popular kids.

0

Stories From Nursing School

|

The Student Parking Lot

It hadn’t even been month since school started and I must have been looking for Gena and Leah to see what they were doing. I finally found them down on the student parking lot smoking. I walked up to them and asked why they didn’t tell me. They both said they were afraid I would be mad at them for smoking so had been doing it in secret. Yes I am a rule follower and a slight goody two shoes but I think I surprised them both by demanding a cigarette. This is how smoking during nursing school started. I would eventually quit after nursing school and then prn throughout the rest of my life. Gena finally quit in 2021 and my best guess is Leah quit after she left nursing school. However for the next year and a half we would smoke together and because it was 1985 we could smoke in the dorm. None of us (including my roommate) ever smoked in our rooms but we did smoke in our floor lounge. They had stopped selling cigarettes in the hospital gift shop but the gas station was only a short walk away. Actually the gas station is still on Hampton.

I had my first cigarette in fifth grade when my teen-age baby sitter Jenny gave me one of hers. I ended up vomiting and having a huge headache but I would smoke a cigarette every once in a while up until I started nursing school. My mom found out about my smoking because I left a letter from one of my high school friends laying around the house. In it he said he would quit drinking, if I quit smoking. He would eventually start smoking himself and also became an alcoholic. So if I play the comparison game, smoking prn is a much better option than drinking which I was never interested in.

Mole Moral ~ Pastor Tom always says, “you are who you hang with” and in nursing school we were a bunch of smokers because the stress was unbelievable.

0

Camp Kesem through Nurse Red’s eyes

|

It was the summer of 2019 and I had left Mercy and took the summer off to figure out what I would do next with my career. I was looking on Indeed for jobs when I came across a posting that Washington University was looking for a volunteer camp nurse for Camp Kesem. The only thing I really knew was that it was for kids whose parents have or had or have passed away from cancer. So I applied was interviewed by two college kids (thought they were grown adults over the phone) and offered the position.

I had an amazing week and two weeks later I jumped on a plane and flew to Maine to help University of Maine out. I was blown away by the college kids who put on these camps. They fundraiser all year long, have meetings they attend and then give a week out of their summer to go to camp. As I left Maine I made up my mind if my next job wouldn’t give me off, I would quit and find a new one. This problem was avoided as covid hit and camp was virtual for two years which meant no nurse needed.

Camp Kesem was started in 2000 at Stanford University by college student Iris “Abra Cadabra” Rave Wedeking and a group of student leaders. They wanted to create a camp at little to no cost to families. After assessing the needs of the community they found that kids whose parents have or had cancer had a unique set of needs and were underserved. The first camp was held in 2001, free of charge to 37 campers. Camp Kesem national was founded in 2002. It has a grown to more than 130 college and university chapters in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Kesem in Hebrew is magic. Camp Kesem is magic. For one week the kids can be kids and not focused on their parents cancer. Everyone chooses a camp name (hence Nurse Red because Big Red might be awkward) and no one uses their real name. As a nurse who has spent the greater part of her career purposely not remembering patients name to avoid HIPAA violations, I can barely remember camp names much less real names. So giving out medicine can be tricky and the only time real names are used. These kids look forward to this camp every year. Cancer is not spoken about (if brought up in causal conversation that is ok) except for at empowerment. It is a special two hour time period that I will not share. It’s a big part of the magic and words cannot describe it.

Karl the caterpillar became the mascot. A caterpillar was chosen because the kids often arrive very closed off, shy, timid. By the end of the week a complete transformation has occurred. They have come out of their shell, are engaged in activities and just kids. I witnessed this first hand in Maine. It was my only camper on medicine and she was mad she couldn’t keep her medicine with her. She was even madder she couldn’t bring her phone to camp. She sat like a bump on a log that evening. As the week went on she was laughing, smiling, participating in activities and was so excited to tell her mom all about camp. This was one of many reasons I said I would quit my job if I couldn’t be off for camp.

So the Karl I’m holding belong to Oklahoma University but I was at University of Arkansas camp. In true college movie life it seems Oklahoma broke something of Arkansas so they stole Karl. However at the end of camp Karl headed back to Oklahoma. I’m so glad he’s back where he belongs. The camp advisor for Arkansas came from Arizona State University so I knew him from last years camp. He is ASU director next year and informed me I’m doing his camp. The director for Oklahoma University next year was also at this camp and informed me I’m doing her camp as well. This means I’m up to six camps next year. I either need to win the lottery or convince the butt hut they can survive half of the summer without me.

Mole Moral ~ Jesus came to serve others, not be served. I am most happy when I serve others and Camp Kesem is the perfect place to accomplish this for me!!

0

The Pea Princess

|

If one has read my previous blog, they know that my mom was in the hospital for thirty-five days and then spent another two weeks at a rehab facility. I should have written this first but the trip home was too much of a comedy not to post first.

Briefly my mom had a big surgery to move her stomach out of her chest back into her abdomen. Leave it to her to experience a complication that occurs one percent of the time. But after five days with out of control pain I forced her to go to the ER. She was running a temp and her heart rate was in the 120’s. The ER did a CT and lab work while out in waiting room. Because I have access to her my chart I saw her WBC was 20 so I knew she was not going home. She got tired of waiting and wanted to leave. I said nope, not happening. Once we got to a room and the ER doc came in looking freaked out about CT results I knew my waiting room assessment was spot on. I just had no idea that the on call surgeon assisted with my moms surgery and said she needed to be transferred to SLUH or St Mary’s because only they had the equipment to do what he needed to do surgically. When she had a bed at SLUH and was in their ER in less than three hours I knew it was life or death. I have never known SLUH to have open icu bed for transfers (at least in my endoscopy world).

My mom had surgery that day and would have another within four or five more days. She and I truly believe the only reason she survived (she’s no spring chicken at 78) is because of the outstanding care she received at SLUH. Her surgeon had just arrived three weeks prior as the new chief of cardio thoracic surgery. Later he would tell me he treated this complication often and people were sent to him from all over the state. So she received excellent care surgery wise. However, it was the above and beyond nursing care she received that was instrumental in her recovery.

She spent the first week in ICU and those nurses were so incredibly kind, smart and attentive it made me want to leave endoscopy and work there. No worries I reminded myself why I left critical care in 2000 and how two months of it at the beginning of Covid was enough for me.

She was then moved to a regular floor. There were times when I know those nurses were working short and yet they never used it as an excuse and continued to act like my mom was their only patient. And no it was not because I was there all the time (I wasn’t) or calling them constantly (I didn’t. I still had access to her my chart so I followed her labs daily without bugging the nurses). It’s just how they are.

Now my mom was a bit of a PIA about her pillows. I swear she had every spare pillow on the floor in her bed. Well they decided my mom was like the princess and the pea. Since she nicknames people all the time they started calling her the pea princess. We all got such a kick out of it. When her chest tube came out and her esophageal stents came out I knew her time at SLUH was coming to an end. So I started thinking about a thank you gift. It is well known I can bake but I thought nurses always get food and it just makes us fat. Flowers are pretty but they die. Then the perfect idea came to me and I ran with it.

Every nurse needs a good black ink pen. And because my mom is snarky and funny, I decided on snarky nurse pens. But because not all of her nurses were snarky, I also did some custom ones that said “thank you from the pea princess”. My mom about started crying when I ran the idea by her. She loved it. I found the picture on the internet and Allyson helped me remove the background. I took it up on a weekend after she was discharged because the weekend charge nurse was phenomenal. Both my mother and sister also really liked her as well.

On the ride home from rehab just one week ago my mom thought she was going to need to buy a wheelchair. I went along with her while in my head thinking she was crazy. Yesterday we went to primary to get her blood pressure straightened out. (Rehab messed with her medicine till she was running 90’s over 50’s and so dizzy she couldn’t hardly walk with walker). The only time she used the walker that day was to see him. She’s all over the house without it. He said no more blood pressure medicine for now. A week without it and she was 120/70. He said she’s lost so much weight she may no longer need it. So my favorite saying “will continue to monitor”.

My mom was convinced no one would remember her. The fact that it’s a rarity to have a patient in the hospital for thirty five days alone is enough. But couple it with the fact she could have easily died and the fact she rarely asked for anything and was so freaking funny she will be remembered by some forever. When she left for rehab her nurse called me to tell me and said she (the nurse) cried when my mom left. A couple days ago someone called to set up home PT and said I never took care of you but I heard all about you. She left an impression on many that she will never know this side of heaven.

Mole Moral ~ So often people focus on the negative and complaining. It’s a choice to recognize the good and amazing. Focus on that and let those know how much you appreciate them.

0

Following my calling

|

When it became clear that almost every single Endoscopy case would be cancelled until the pandemic was over, I realized I had two choices. I could either stay where I was and screen employees or perhaps do one case a day or I could volunteer to help in the ICU. It’s very hard to explain but I knew my choice was the latter. I really felt God was calling me to go there. I’ve been up there for almost three weeks now. Those who volunteered were told they would not have to go to the covid side. Last night I again felt a calling to go to the covid side. Those patients are mostly medical ICU which is what I did all those years ago. I was going to discuss with charge nurse today. Today was my day to take team all by myself and they put me in covid unit, with a nurse I met in my RN orientation. As soon as I verified I could wear an N95 and not a respirator I was ok with it. I did fine with my two patients and actually got to call the spouse of the one and say their loved one was covid negative and would be moving over to the ICU side. Imagine my surprise when it was shared with me that not only is their wedding anniversary the same day as Brian’s parents but the same year as well. As we were hanging up it was said I hope we celebrate our anniversary and I said I hope so too and to stay safe. 

 

Mole Moral ~ Everything happens for a reason and sometimes a super scary situation turns into a huge blessing. Stay safe!!