The Alphabet Series G: Gratitude

This is a post in a series of posts for the professional woman

Wake each morning with gratitude in your heart and I can assure you, your day will be a delight~

The feeling of gratitude

It hit me tonight when I was in the angio suite after everyone in the dept was gone. Standing there in the quiet sterility of the room, I felt at home. I finally know where I belong. It was powerful, I was covered in goose bumps. Everything was in its place ready for the next case: the anesthesia equipment, the ultrasound machine, the fluoro machine, the table set with a sheet ready for a patient, the monitoring equipment and cables ready to be placed on that patient; the sterile steel table, ready for instruments and supplies… all of it ready, waiting. I was curious as to who would be there over the weekend, if anyone, and what procedure they’d have. Would it be an anesthesia case? Would they come from one of the ICU’s?  Would they put the music on to ease the patients anxiety?

I’m so grateful to have a job that I love.

Earlier in the day I took care of a woman who suffered severe skin burns to her back from neglect of a care provider. She asked me, “How come you’ve come along to protect me?” And as I searched for a vein to place her IV,  I explained that I was there to make sure she was comfortable when they did the dressing changes to her back. And she looked confused and almost unable to trust the sincerity of my actions. I placed the tourniquet on her arm and stroked her arm (to make the veins rise to the surface) as we talked about her life, children, the weather, etc. Unable to place an IV in her, I sought out another route for access.

Later on that day, I was with her in the angio suite when she arrived for the procedure to place a catheter in her arm. She called my name as she was wheeled through the door of the dept and she kept her eyes on me as we wheeled her into the room. She called my name again, to make sure she was safe and in good hands. I stayed with her while we carefully placed her on the table, her eyes locked on mine as we slid her over, the look of angst on her face is one I won’t forget. She was in such pain. I left her and checked in on her later that night, before my shift ended. She was smiling and thanked me.

I didn’t pick my career, the career picked me.

I don’t hate my job, as a matter of fact, I love it. I am comfortable and happy in the halls and walls of a hospital. I’m at home amongst the chaos that each day brings. I’ve been in medicine for all of my working years, since I was 16. For many reasons, I  belong where I am. I felt it when I was standing in the angio suite alone after my shift ended.

I have been blessed with a job that has carried me all these years.

With my job as an RN, I am able to provide for my family. It offered me flexibility and health insurance to work around my husband’s desires to be self-employed. I have been able to self-schedule so that I can be at my children’s events. Most everything I do at work is familiar to me, from the sounds of the siren on an ambulance, to the dings of the monitors, the chirping of alarms on  pumps, the beeps from the ventilator that breathes for a patient.

All of it. I love it all.

I often whisper to the Universe those two simple words: Thank you. Two words that when put together, have great power.

THANK you. Thank YOU. Thank you.

To health, happiness and a life of gratitude. May all your days be as wonderful and fulfilling.