my first 80 hours

I volunteer on Wednesday nights for an unnamed hospital in General Medicine. Tonight, I reached my first 80 hours of volunteering, the equivalent of say your first two weeks on the job. I will not lie to you, my 'job' is not a particularly exciting one. I do not rush into a patient's room, crash cart in hand assisting the nurses and aides in bringing someone back to life. No, my real duties are filling patient's drawers with hygiene products, helping the HUCs (health unit coordinators) with paperwork, clean the IV poles and returning them to the sanitizing area, and putting together packets for newly admitted patients.

My most memorable moment yet is wheeling a dear woman through the three wings of the floor for an hour and a half. My job was to keep her busy until she fell asleep since she wouldn't stay in her bed, was at a risk of falling and believed that she was indeed at home in her apartment with new 'neighbors'. Obviously, her memory failed her often, so each time we went to a new wing, it was like she has never been there where in fact it is a hospital and each wing looks almost exactly as the one next door. When we wheeled by the front desk, a new vase of flowers had been brought up. I suggested that we stop and smell the flowers. Her reaction to the flowers was genuine and beautiful. She was so child-like and happy to just be there smelling those flowers.

It is most often that there is elderly people on the floor, this is the way it should be. When I see someone young, my age or around this, on the census it strikes me. I'm curious why they are there, what kind of health are they in, do they have visitors sitting with them? So tonight, I have decided to stop and smell my flowers. I thank God that today I am healthy. I thank God that if I weren't I would have my husband and children with me making me smile with each breath and fighting to become healthy for them and for myself. I thank God that today I was able to have Henry crawl into my lap and rest his head there for a few minutes and that today I was able to kiss Wyatt's bleeding lip over and over as he yet again attempts to stand up on his own.

Today, my flowers are beautiful!