Scrubbin’ to the elbows!

This morning I embarked on a new part of my life. It was my first clinical day at Franklin Square Hospital.

As I was driving to the hospital this morning, just as the first light rays were hitting the sky, I was thinking to myself that I really did it. I really am in nursing school. Woah!

As I drove down 695, I couldn’t help but think about all the classes I had been through to get to this point. All the exams, all the papers, all the stress that I have been through, and then I thought about what is still coming up for me, aand I decided not to think about it right then.

I found the employee parking lot, parked, and boarded the shuttle to take me to the hospital building. We pulled up to the side door, exited, and walked through into the hospital. I remember my instructor telling me to follow the long hallway till I got to the cafeteria and we would meet there at quarter to 8. I found it no problem [but there was still the anxiety present] and realized that I had over a half hour to sit and wait for every one else to arrive.

I picked a seat that would have a clear view of the entranceway and pulled out my pharmacology notes to study for my exam that was tonight. I studied for a few minutes, and then I just started to look around. That’s when it struck me. I had not been in a hospital cafeteria since Amy was in the NICU 14 years ago.

I remember it all very vividly even though I was only 4 at the time. Josh had stayed home with someone, since he was only 2, while Katie and I went with Dad to visit Mom and Amy. I remember scrubbing up with this scratchy soap or something all the way up to my elbows, putting on a gown that was altogether too big for my little 4-year old body, and trying to figure out how to put on my facemask while keeping my sleeves out of the way.

I remember walking over to visit my sister, and hearing all the machines beeping and blaring. It was either one of us; Katie or myself, who kept asking what all the machines were for. The nurse on duty was so nice and calm when she answered and told us what everything did and why it was hooked up to our sister, all the while getting Amy out of her incubator into mom’s waiting arms.

When the visit was over, Dad took Katie and I down to the cafeteria to get ice cream. And this is strictly a memory thing; there is no home video about this [I remember looking].

As I sat in the cafeteria at Franklin Square this morning I was over struck by emotions that I didn’t expect. I thought back through all the years since I was last in a hospital cafeteria and just realized how much we all have grown. Amy is no longer a very sick baby in the neonatal intensive care unit, but is a teenager with an attitude to boot. I am no longer that four year-old visiting her sister in the hospital, but a junior in college in the nursing program.

It’s amazing how time changes everything. Just imaging what can happen in the next 14 years.