Emergency Room Visits

I was recently reminded that emergency room visits are not the norm for most people.  I know this to be true, but it's easy to forget because I go there all the time to work.  You severed your finger using a table saw?  Yeah, people do that all the time.  You think you have a kidney stone and the pain is a 12 out of 10?  We have just the thing.  Chest pain?  We know what to do - happens every day.

Based on my patient's symptoms, I grabbed an EKG machine and rolled it into the room.  As I was checking out the electrical activity of his heart, a family member behind me said, "Keepin' the same hairstyle, huh?"  I quickly cased the room, but there was no one else in there he could be talking to.

"Are you talking to me?"  I said.  "Yeah.  You wore your hair like that the last time I was in here - with my mom."  I didn't recognize the guy, so I asked him when that was.   "Oh, you were still training so it was a few years ago...must have been 2007."  Hoping she was still alive and well, I asked about his mom.  He said she's doing just fine these days (praise the Lord - that could have been awkward).

I was, indeed, in orientation in 2007, but seeing dozens of patients a day, I really only remember a few of them.  Several, however, have remembered me.  I don't think this is because I'm extra special or anything like that, but because it's out of the ordinary for them to go to the ER.  When they do, they often remember the nurse that took care of them.

"Duh!"  All you out there are saying, but I need a reminder every once and a while.  People come into the ER scared and hurting and there is so much opportunity to have an impact on their lives, whether they remember their nurse years later or not.  This guy's comment inspired me to remember that.

"And as you go, preach, saying 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.  Freely you have received, freely give."  Matthew 10:7-8 

Happy Nurses' Week 2012

In honor of Nurses' Week, a hymn (no, not "There is Fountain Filled with Blood Drawn from Emmanuel's Veins ;)  

Rescue the Perishing
Selected words by Fanny Crosby

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.

Rescue the perishing, duty demands it,
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;
Back to the narrow way patiently win them,
Tell the poor wand'rer a Savior has died.


One thing I like about this song is the holistic nature of it.  People are not just physical beings, nor just spiritual.  Trying to treat a patient with a mental illness or one that is emotionally broken with merely physical treatments is not going to work.  Telling a patient to "transcend to a happy place" in their mind when their leg has been severed also will not work.  Jesus gives us a perfect example by having compassion on people and going out to preach and heal.  God has created us in a multidimensional way and this is how health care workers should view patients.  As for "feelings [that] lie buried that grace can restore" (exceedingly abundantly!), who hasn't, at one time or another, been stirred by kindness and love?  Oh how humbling it is to see God working through humans like this!  Why does "duty demand" that we rescue the perishing?  Because we ourselves have been rescued, we should realize how desperately others need to be.  Because He first loved us can we now love Him and others.  And by His grace He gives us the strength to do so.

Rescue the perishing, my fellow health care workers and friends!
Rescue the perishing, dear believing brothers and sisters!
Rescue the perishing, as you yourself have been rescued.

A Whole New World

Hello! Please pardon my infrequent postings. I'm finding it harder to write when my stories now revolve around people who can actually use the web and read this blog! :P  I've started cross-training up on the Medical-Surgical unit in my hospital and it is a Whole New World, let me tell you! It's been interesting discovering the different mindsets between "the floor" and the emergency room. My grandma and cousin also came for a visit. Since it was a beautiful day here in sunny Nashville we took them to the zoo. Here are a few pics for your visual enjoyment...

I think flamingos look kind of fake, but I like 'em.

I believe I would enjoy riding a giraffe someday.

Anteaters are such strange animals! God certainly is creative.

This bird thought Caleb was the bomb dot com.

He looks like he's in his environment!

Look, Mr. Frodo - an oliphant!

Pretty birds. :)

And a thought to leave you with...

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” - C.S. Lewis (from The Four Loves)

Beloved, let us love one another...I John 4:7
Love your enemies...Mt. 5:44
Walk in love...Eph 5:2

Lights and Sirens

Too tired to write more now, but a pic for ambulance ride-along day! :D



P.S. And as this post says "April 13th" even though it's the 12th I just now realized I never changed it from Mada time - aww! Now I don't want to... :P

Mean Mugging at the Post Office

I enter the post office on a day like any other, and waited in line while the elderly woman behind me made comments about how cute the four-year-old girl behind her was. Finally, it was my turn.

"Next." Came the bored call.

"Hello, thanks." I say.

The post office lady stares at my letter then looks up at me with a hairy eyebrow look that makes me wonder what I did wrong. I look down at my letter - name, address, country, return address, it's all there. She moves her eyes downward several times silently commanding me to check it out. It's all there, woman, what more do you want from me?! I think.

"Oh wait," she says. "Is this going overseas?"

Since MADAGASCAR is written on there in black Sharpie, I'm surprised to hear her ask, but I reply in the affirmative.

"Oh." She looks confused. "Is Madagascar a real place? Like, is it a country? I mean, I knew it was a movie..."

Oh my goodness. Okay, so tons of people have not known that Madagascar is a country and I know the movie is more popular in the U.S. than the place itself, but this woman works for the post office! And it's our regular post office, so it's ferried several packages and letters to Mada in the last few years. I don't fault the lady for not knowing, it just surprised me. When I sent postcards to places like India, Mexico, and China from Mada I was not surprised that they had to have a huddle of great minds to figure out which continent to even send them to, but I guess I just had higher expectations for America. :P
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In other news, after being back to work in the ER I have renewed my conviction that I will never use a table saw. Fingers and all, just sayin'.
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We had a delightful Easter with our First Friends, Ruifan and Xuejiao from China. It was Xuejiao's first church service ever, and both girls' first Easter in America. We had a delightful time talking about the real reason for Easter and how bunnies and eggs and candy fit in to the festivities! Ha ha. :P
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I called the Emergency Medical Services chief in Nashville and asked to do an ambulance ride along on Thursday. I'm pretty excited about it. :D
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In great news, three months and nearly a thousand dollars later, my car finally got re-tagged to drive in TN! The governmental run around kind of made me feel like I was back in Africa, but I passed. Take that emissions testing! And yes, I did get the same emissions guy who asked me out on Valentine's Day...ha ha ha! Fun times in Nashville. :P