Happy Nurses Day!!

Almost exactly 14 years ago, I fulfilled my childhood dream of becoming a nurse! And when I say "childhood dream", that's really how long ago I started day-dreaming about becoming a nurse! (Some of you have heard the following story before, but please indulge me! You know how I love to tell stories, and this is one of my favorites...)

Once upon a time, when I was but a wee girl, my mom (who is the best nurse I know, by the way) had to take me with her to work because she didn't have a baby-sitter. I thought it was super cool, and busied myself with passing waters and playing checkers with the residents of the OMNI unit at the old Levering Hospital in Hannibal, Missouri. No one cared that I was there as long as I stayed out of trouble, and I enjoyed being there and making some new friends. One such friend was a very VERY old lady name Dempie Cluck. Really. That was her name.

She told me "I bet you're going to become a wonderful nurse one day, just like your mother!" And that was it. I said, "Yes, I AM going to be a nurse!" And I never wanted to do anything else! She gave me an antique-looking little gold mirror as a gift and it was one of my most prized possessions until I lost it years later.

So that's it. Not that exciting of a story, but it was a memorable defining moment in my life, I guess! The past 14 years have been the most wonderful, difficult, challenging, and rewarding years of my life as far as my career goes. No matter how many days I come home from work with a huge headache, covered in blood spatters and poop, or just fed up with the "politics" of it all, longing for the good 'ole days before electronic charting when I had more time to sit at the bedside and hold someone's had for an hour, I will always know that I made the right choice!

So for all of you amazing people out there who hold the privileged title of NURSE, you are MY heroes, and thank you for everything you do!