Thursday Reading

Change of Shift is up at Nursing Voices, a forum for nurses from around the world.

Tuesday, if you missed it, Grand Rounds was done by Amy at Diabetes Mine. As I know from experience, hosting Grand Rounds is no picnic. Great job, Amy.

If you want to read something shorter, I was inspired to write this by David Bale at Very Short Novels. Hope you like it.



Our Boy

Your room was starting to have a well-lived in look; Pictures on the wall, stuffed animals, snacks, balloons. There was a huge, shaggy blanket that your mom brought in for you but usually she wrapped it around herself, just for the comfort in it. Then, the week before Super Bowl Sunday, your favorite nurse had brought in Giant’s pennants to put up around your room, because she knew it was your favorite team. Whether you even knew if what Super Bowl, or January for that matter, was besides the point. That was the same Sunday they brought the priest in to have you confirmed.

I didn’t really know you at all, sometimes when I saw your dad in the elevator, I’d ask him, “How’s our boy doing?” and he’d give me an encouraging nod. Meanwhile, your body just became smaller and thinner, until you were just a bump under the blankets. Your parents had been hopefully waiting for you to recover. Then they made you a DNR and a different kind of waiting was started.

I came back after three days off and the significance of the empty room didn’t hit me immediately, but in the lounge I saw a bag full of blue and red Giant’s gear with a piece of tape, “for Nurse Dawn.” That’s when I knew. The room had been swept bare and there wasn’t a sign left of the Giant’s or anything else that was yours. Even your specialty air mattress bed was gone.

A few hours later, the room had a new occupant, an annoyed looking teenager getting a respiratory treatment. She had no idea that you had ever been there.