Transport, Donuts and O2 Tanks

One part of my job , that I absolutely adored, was being a transport nurse.  I would go via ambulance or helicopter and take a sick patient to a hospital or pick up a patient from another hospital.  I loved being a transport nurse, my coworkers used to call me "Tinker Transport Bell" Nurse. I don't know why, but the name stuck.  Anyway, I loved being on Transport, the thrill, the control, the getting a patient somewhere safely,  the cute Parametics and EMTs , I loved it all. I remember one particular night, the EMTs and I were taking a child up to another hospital far north,via ground, ie: in an ambulance. I always rode in the back of the ambulance, with my patient, there and back.  We delivered her safely to the waiting hospital without any incidences.  But on the way home, I was in the back of the ambulance, and we took a sharp turn and one of the O2 tanks sitting on the shelf behind my head, slid out and bonked me on my head. Holy cow that hurt.  The EMTs felt so bad,  because one of them had not secured the bus in the back, before we left for home.
They felt so horrible, that they took me for donuts, since it was almost 6am anyway.  I didn't mind, I love donuts too.

9/11 Above the Ashes

I am sure that most everyone remembers exactly where they were on that fateful day.  I do, I was at home, my husband had just left for work, and I was getting ready to start my day, rest a bit and then go to work that night at the hospital. My husband and I had just returned from a 10 day road trip. We had gone to the East coast.  I was to return to work that night.  My husband called me from the car at 8:50 am and told me to turn the T.V. on. A plane hit a building in New York. What?, I thought, are they making a movie?  I quickly turned on the TV and watched in horror as the second plane hit.  I kept thinking to myself  "Are there people in those buildings?"  Horrified I called my husband crying, begging him to come home, they were unsure of  where another plane was, then the pentagon was hit.  I was sure that Chicago was going to get hit next.  My husband calmed me down and stated that he was going to stay at his office, in Chicago, until things settled down.

All those lives lost, my heart was broken.  As a Nurse, I felt like I should have been doing somthing.  I went to work that night. I was so sad.  Our NICU was in the process of building a new state of the art Nursery, and the construction company had put up a fake wall, to seperate us from the building going on.

I saw that wall and told my night crew that I am going to draw the American flag on it. I felt very patriotic and proud of our country.  The girls and I spent the whole night drawing this flag, it was very cathartic.

Then we drew little stars with all of our premie patient's names on them.

And at last we put up the saying, "Above the ashes we will rise and unite"

There were four of us nurses that night, who did this, but when the day shift came in, they felt very proud of our flag, they started adding everyones name to the little stars.

People from all over the hospital came to see our flag.  It was just a drawing, but it brought us a little closer together that night.

I will never forget that fateful day or that healing night.

Tequila, Love Husband

Have you ever had a night (or day) where, when you come home, you can't stop thinking about all the events that happened.  I had one of those nights.  It was a very long, intense, 12 hours in the NICU.
NICU stands for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where the most fragile sickest infants come to, in the hospital.  I had a a very sick little peanut that night.  I got home late, 8:30 am, I had to be back to work at 7pm that same day. Eleven hours was all I had to sleep, eat and regenerate.
I changed into my jammies, washed my face, kissed my husband good morning and good night, made the bed, so I can get back into a nice orderly bed. That's a nurse thing, the analnicity of it all  (a word that I made up, explaining why a nurse needs to have things in a certain order.) got into bed and promptly thought about everything that went on that last night.  Ughhhh I couldn't turn off my brain. Why??? I need these precious hours of sleep. I started to cry, I was so tired. My husband heard me and came upstairs to check on me.

"Whats wrong?" he asked gently. Always approach a tired crying nurse slowly, with care.

"I can't sleeeep" I wailed. "I need to sleep."

He promptly turned around and went back downstairs. I heard him rumbling around in the kitchen for a few minutes. Then he came back upstairs holding a tray and on it was a piece of toast and a shot glass full of tequila.  "Eat this, then drink this, and then you will have no problem going to sleep."

Did I forget to mention that I love this man.

"Tequila, Love Husband"