A great day!

All you nurses out there will appreciate this. Have you ever had a day at work where you come home and think "THAT is why I became a nurse!" or "I just learned the most amazing things today!" Because of the wonderful HIPPA laws, I can't give you any specifics about my very critical patient yesterday except to say that the patient's heart had gone into Ventricular Fibrillation and EMS had defibrillated him once and suddenly we were doing it too. We found out later that the patient had had a large clot in his LAD that had thrown several smaller clots lateral to the first and the right side of his heart had compensated to provide the left side of the heart with blood. We've started doing hypothermic treatment after CPR to protect the brain from injury since it was without oxygen for a period of time too. Wow. This patient was so lucky to be alive. Initially it took a team of about 15 to be able to sedate the patient and in the two hours the patient was there, there were always 2-3 nurses in the room a at least one doctor. Probably one of the most critical cardiac patients I've had. I realize as I write this that nothing I've written seems too impressive but since I can't give specifics, I can't give you a full picture.

Within the past two weeks, I've dealt with some of the most critically ill patients I've ever layed a hand on (including a dissecting AAA with a systolic BP of 40)! Thankfully I try to start my days praying in the car before I go in to work - praying for everything from patience, humility, kindness and gentleness to saying "Lord, just let me be a blessing somehow today." When I take a second to step back, I am amazed at what I have learned in my past two years at Mercy and then God humbles me when I realize how much I. do. not. know. There is a huge part of me that wants to know it all....I even threw the idea of going back to med school at Jake last night. I don't think I'm any where near smart enough for med school, but I just want to soak up this stuff like a sponge.

I also wonder who can question evolution versus creation when dealing with medicine and the human body. People! The human body, it's capabilities, and it's complexities are no accident.

...the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the became a living being.....the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to to the man." (Genesis 2:7 and 21-23)

The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind." Proverbs 7: 22-31