prepping for extraction

in honor of nursing week, may i remind you that i LOVE nursing. and as you may have discovered, i rarely use capital letters. in a world of grey's anatomy and nurse jackie and health care reform, sometimes it feels like the core of nursing gets lost in the shuffle. but the core of nursing is firmly rooted in my heart. and rooted in the hearts of the wonderful women with which i work.

photo courtesy of avera queen of peace hospital

what makes this nursing rumination worse is moving. thinking about leaving these 15 pseudo-mom, coworker nurses who are amazing makes me so sad! not to mention the 5 or so squirrely-bird girls my age who i really never want to live, work, or post-night shift drink, without. i can't even imagine the day jesse and i are having a baby and these women wouldn't be at my side.

mentally part of me has checked out and adopted a "what are they going to do, fire me?" attitude. but that's just a coping mechanism. because when i think of the 5, FIVE! measly shifts i have left with these amazing nurses, helping amazing patients bring beautiful squished-nose bundles of baby into the world, my heart literally breaks.








 i've come so far from the mental place i was when i first started my job at aqop. like a 180 degree twisty. it is the place where i first had to don a pair of big girl (meshie) panties and try this whole life thing on my own. granted, i had the love and support and constant wise words from my real family and my nursing family, but there were parts i just had to learn on my own. God put me there, to teach me how to be me again. and then he even threw in a husband meeting encounter there. the beginning of the life i always meant for it to be started within the confines of the nurse's station of aqop. and through tear-streaked typing i realize how it will forever feel like the place i got my sea legs back. and learned how to be a kick-ass nurse, and a semi-funny, totally sarcastic and blunt, but chocked full of love person i am today. and then comes the scheduled extraction...

every random corner is a box, either to-be-filled, or full and masking taped shut with a clear label of where it came from, because for God's sake, i have no idea where it going to end up. there should be no doubt that i am a hospital employee... baby formula box, check. adult diapers box, check (p.s., those have nifty handles), and urinary collection product boxes, got those too.

as you can see, i haven't really touched to tip of the book-built ice burg. and nursing books are exponentially heavier than regular books...  lucky for everyone who is volunteering their back for the task for moving the mcmuffins. pre-medicate with ibu my friends. and lift with your legs, not your kind-hearted backs :)

as i continue to embrace this move, i realize how close this has made jesse and me, how much more i love him every day. and tomorrow he's graduating with a 4.0 on the semester, which is TOTALLY worth mentioning. serious wife pride going on. 'nigh all

OH, and the wrench in the smooth move plan, our hail storm last weekend totalled out my car, my material baby. more tears.... sad, sad face.