Im spent. In the last 7 days Ive visited 13 hospice patients outside the hospital beyond my working a 24 hour week in the hospital. Ive answered 3 after hours trauma calls, up most of the night last night. Ive been with 5 people as they were actively dying. Ive been with 2 people when they died. Ive sat with a soon to die 25 year old woman. Ive sat with a soon to die 89 year old American hero, a Green Beret, a highly decorated veteran of 3 wars. Ive prayed over a dozen tiny babies in NICU (all of whom are going to be okay). I walked laps around the birth center with a very pregnant woman keeping her company until her husband arrived. Ive sat with a totally distraught, grieving, scared, younger than me woman whose husband, who has been her caregiver for the last 18 years since a car wreck, is now dying of pancreatic cancer and so she had to leave their home the day he entered a skilled nursing facility where he will die, because she cannot care for herself so she is in the room next to his, trying to come to grips with the sudden loss of EVERYTHING. And yet, and yet, I have laughed every single one of the last 7 days; Ive marveled at a salmon fighting upstream to spawn in a creek in the middle of a city of 125,000 people. Ive smiled at a sunset. Ive winked at a full moon. Ive woken up absolutely thrilled to wake up, to get another chance to get it right, to get another opportunity to search for the treasure. Ive felt God speak reassurance into my life. Ive seen (today) an amazing little dog give a tiny bark and stand up from where he was lying next to a patient exactly when I said Amen, causing a broken-hearted woman and myself to completely fall apart laughing. So yeah, Im spent. Im exhausted. The should do list is not going to get any shorter tonight. And I have never felt better.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 02:02:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015