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Medicine Meets Faith

      I recently had the fortune of meeting an amazing family through my work with medically fragile and technology dependent babies and children. These children require gastrostomy tubes, ventilators or tracheostomy tubes to survive. When I met Sarah*, her 9-year-old baby girl Lucy* was not walking or talking and required a ventilator to breathe. She was in a vegetative state and unresponsive to painful stimuli. My job was to organize and provide nursing care for Lucy in her home.        Sarah is a single mom who put herself through LPN school while raising her beautiful girls. They are her entire world. Everything she does is to help them become loving and caring women that will hopefully become mothers themselves one day.        Lucy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of 8 in November. The tumor was inoperable and chemotherapy or radiation would not have any effect on it. She was given steroids to decrease the swelling surrounding her brain so that she coul
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Zavanelli Maneuver

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There’s a super moon coming tonight. Where I live it will most likely not be seen because of the overcast skies, but its effect will definitely be felt on the L&D floors. Of course there is no proof this is true. In fact, it has been scientifically proven that a full moon does not affect hospital admissions, ER visits, or births. However, the majority of medical professionals will disagree. I can remember many times working the 3pm-11pm shift, looking up at the sky when I left and shaking my head – no wonder it was such a crazy night. I would be covered in sweat and not having peed or sat down all shift and those were the good parts of the evening……. During a Harvest Moon in 2004, a woman came into the L&D unit. She was an ER walk-in, which meant she had not visited a doctor her entire pregnancy.     This would be her 4 th child, and she was giving the baby up for adoption. She had a social worker with her to facilitate the adoption and the
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Wipe My Butt

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            “WIPE MY BUTT.”  My three colleagues and I looked at each other, dumbfounded, as the new mother repeated herself in her thick Southern accent.  “HELP ME WIPE MY BUTT!” None of us could figure out why this woman would request such a thing, but one of my colleagues crouched next to her on that toilet and wiped her butt.  As soon as we left the room, we couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Being a nurse is extraordinary. I went to nursing school after the birth of my son.   I always wanted to be a nurse, but didn’t think I was smart or dedicated enough to get through nursing school. Giving birth changes things. It makes you realize that you can do anything. Having a baby, from conception to birth, is truly a miracle. During nursing school, I worked as a nurse’s aide on the mother/baby unit. I absolutely loved it. Taking care of the new moms right after delivery and helping them care for their newborns was a true gift. After graduation, I worked on that same unit
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