Questions people ask

An elderly patient asked me today how come I don't have any kids"

I responded "Because the baby fiery hasn't brought me any yet".

Nurse loses it and laughs and says, "I never heard that one before."

Got to love dementia patients.

Stuck

I threatened to cook Phil to groundhog after the weather forecast for this weekend. I had dreams of a boatdrink by the pool with a silly umbrella in it while the Superbowl was on. Instead I get the "Oh-My-God" mother of all snowstorms.

I am packing up to sleep at the hospital for my on-call tomorrow.

Heard

A patient says to me that the History Channel is atheist. Huh???

Obama is the anti-Christ. I've heard that one...

He started quoting scripture and I freaked him out by telling him what book in the Bible he is referencing.

Who on earth has he been listening too?

Another day as a chaplain. Glad I got 40 miles in on Sunday. I need some exercise...

Signs of God

Those little things that show the Divine presence is here.

I ended up talking to a patient and family today that happened to be in a room I had a referral too. As we talked, the older patient was in fear of having a procedure of enduring so many procedures and dealing with death so much. She mentioned that a relative died yesterday morning at the other hospital. I asked for the name. I was on call Monday night at the other hospital and I was present at the death of her relative and met with the other members of her family. We really had a connection.

This is one of those times when we are placed in the right place at the right time for a purpose that is so much greater than us.

You're the chaplain!

I was out visiting patients when I met someone who says "you're the chaplain that sat with my daughter". I was lost and asked her for more information because I had no recollection of ever meeting this patient. Then she said she was a Code and I went and sat with her daughter for a long time while the doctors took care of her. I then remembered the incident and the daughter.

Sometimes we touch someone just by sitting there.

Hope

Veni, Veni Emmanuel

It is about hope. It always is.

I had two tough days because a man saw no hope and ended his life.

I was with his family for 2 days as they watched the attempts to keep the man alive but the decision was to not prolong an ending.

I could not be there when the end came but I know there was hope.

I saw it in his family that will continue living, loving, hoping.

I know his children will always have hope

But this is not about that . It is about a hope that is here and one to come.

Come Hope,

Come now and let this pain be gone

Come hope into this darkness and be the light

Come hope into our midst and be the love

Come hope, just be present as I get up and see your creation and want to know the whys

Come Hope and just let your peace settle upon me

Just enough for today.

Come

Gratitude

I received a letter at work today from a family that lost a loved one. They used words to express their thanks to the whole staff for the care they and their son received. I shared the letter with the staffs on two floors and gave it to the ICU charge nurse.

We then talked about this whole incident again. The doctors took this death hard and still need to process and they know we are there to listen, even if we don't understand all the medical jargon/test results.

Someone took the time to say thanks for doing your job. Just not something you hear to much anymore.

From my heart. You are welcome.

Funeral

I went to the funeral of a patient today. He was 28 and died three weeks after his cancer diagnosis. I was there during that 3 weeks and I know he was fighting everyday. I remember the last time I talked with him. I pray for his wife, his mother, father and sister. He was a good man.

Papers

I have 2 of 3 papers done. Just the final edits. One due Monday, the other any old time and the final one in a few weeks. Glad da wif is out of town because she might be pretty upset I am ignoring her.

Just 10 more months to go. I can not believe how hard this is.

Recovery

On call last night resulted in maybe 2 hours of sleep. I have not had much motivation today. I did read some and thought about some things I need to write about. It was not a terrible day. Just busy. Just wish I wasn't seeing so much alcohol related visits and teens coming in after crashing. Was thinking about having a scared straight for teens but know they already have it. Those crashed cars out on school lawns are real. I see what the insides look like when the car stops moving.

Addiction

Addiction has a language all its own. I hear it frequently and am now learning to speak it. Some things I never knew I would learn.

I knew it would happen

It did. A baby died while I was on call. It was horrible to experience but I prayed I did my best for the whole family.

I did not have time to process this until now. I have no idea how many people I saw yesterday. It is still a blur.

God grant him peace.

Tired

On call. Code at 4am. Alarm goes off and I get there 7 minutes later. In the next room a patient was being x-rayed when the patient hit him in a private spot. Trying not to laugh while CPR is going on the room. Nurses did not hold it together as well as I did.

Just plain strange.

On call

6 traumas and one cardiac arrest before 7 pm. I could not sleep so I am beat today. Happy I am off and got to go to church. Praying for all those who passed by and were hurt yesterday.

Best line was when I got a call for a person wanting prayer. I could not get there for an hour and a half and during the prayer she wanted me to pray for her daughter the virgin. Really hard not to laugh during a prayer.

Ice breaker

I was in Maternity visiting the nurses who just had a crisis to check in with them. They were having a tough time so just about anything you did for them was welcomed.

The nurse’s station is a typical counter with the glass walled nursery behind it but I noticed two Plexiglas bassinets in front of the nursery, just behind the nurses. I am sitting there staring at these when it came to me,

“Those are real babies” is what came out of my mouth. It took me a while to figure this out.

The ice was broken and we could move forward.

Finally out

I am out from behind the table and out into the hospital today.

Time to open all my senses and see what is out there.

I know I will be tired when I get back tonight from sensory overload.

Process, process, process - sleep.

Awake in a new city

I could not stay asleep so I got up. Turned on the local morning news. Watched 5 minutes, turned it off and turne on NPR.

Trying to figure on what to do this next 2 hours before I have to leave.