To the Nurses

I'm a bit late on this, but I know I've been whiny about the medical profession recently (mostly my GYN, may he live his next life as a woman with excessively heavy periods and have his own clone for a doctor). Last week was the week to appreciate our nurses out there, and I've really known some good ones. So thanks, all of you.

Thank you to the nurse who wasn't even assigned to me when my first son was born who desperately tried to fit the squat bar to the bed, and when that wouldn't work, had me kneel up against the end of the bed. You helped me feel much less useless.

Thank you to the nurse in charge of my grandmother's care as she lay dying in the hospital of a massive stroke. Thank you for quietly telling me she was going. Thank you for quietly encouraging me to help my mother sign the DNR. And thank you for not looking at me as if I were a freak when my last words to my grandmother were, "Have fun."

Thank you to the nurses who helped me out during my recent ridiculous ER visit. Thank you for not looking at me as if I were a waste of your time, even though I fell under the heading of "Not Needing to be in the ER". Thank you for talking with me and laughing with me. Thank you for giggling when, after you mentioned a lowered sex drive being the result of some anti-depressants, I said, "With all this bleeding I'm doing it isn't as if I'm getting any anyway."

And thank you for waving me on my way and telling me if I was ever bored one night at 2:00, to please stub my toe and come in. It made me laugh, and weirdly, made me feel much less like a nutcase about my freak-out.

And finally, even though I recently whined about her, thank you to my GYN's nurse. Bless your heart woman, you put up with a lot, and yet you're always cheerful, always ready with a joke. And thank you for sympathising with me about my dog's death after the biopsy. It was and is much appreciated.

For all those who nurse, all those who care, thank you, from the bottom of this rather stressed-out patient's heart.