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Oh, heavens. When I look back on some of the crazy stuff I did as a young’un, I can’t catch my breath. Working in a hospital that specializes in neurocritical care has meant a big change in my perceptions of what’s smart and what’s not.
I wasn’t all that wild as a teenager and young adult, really. (Hi Mom!) There were just some things I did that I remember with awe.
Now that I’m a nurse, I would never:
1. Go car-surfing while a buddy of mine attempts to shoot me with a homemade bazooka that fires things tied to firecrackers.
You’d think this would be self-explanatory, wouldn’t you? It’s not.
2. Mix muscle relaxants, alcohol and Tylenol.
I shudder to think that I actually did this more than once, back when I was working in a college bookstore. Something about lifting three or four tons of books a day made it seem like a really good idea.
3. Ski.
If somebody came up to you and said, “Hey! I want you to hurl yourself down this steep hill while wearing a pair of fiberglass knife blades attached to your feet!” you’d look at him like he was cray to the cray to the zee. Yet, if the same person said, “Hey! Let’s go skiing!” you’d be all over it, wouldn’t you? I was, before I saw what running into a tree could do to a brain.
4. Assume that I know anything about anything.
People think that because you’re a nurse, you’ll know everything there is to know about everything from wound glue to chest tubes to newborns. It’s not true. You might have a good overview of things when you come out of school, but specialization rapidly deprives you of any knowledge you might’ve had outside of your field. I tell doctors all the time, “Don’t assume I know jack about what you’re doing, okay?” and it’s true.
5. Take my health or my ability to move for granted.
Any day spent on the right side of the ground is a good day. I am not kidding. If you can get up, move around, take care of yourself in a reasonable manner and communicate somehow, you’re way ahead of a whole bunch of people that I see every day. I have never been so thankful for what I’ve got, and so determined to keep it, as I was after seeing a few brain-injured people in a rehab facility.
lol…know exactly what you mean…the average american goes to an amusement park and sees a roller coaster, ferris wheel, etc….I see lacerated livers , fractured vertebrae, and traumatic brain injuries…sad isn’t it
I have been on the other side of the bed. Lost my career and been out on comp for 10 years due to taking a fall on a wet floor. I would give anything to go back and tried to avoid the wet floor sign rather than walking so close to it.
Amyjean you are the perfect example of being careful and loosing out. So sorry about your pain and loss. I am always called “the wild and crazy nurse” but I’m nott wild & careless. I want to live to the fullest…rather fall off the roller coaster than trip over the wet floor sign, no disrespect meant.
I will only eat hamburgers well done since I had a patient with ecoli so sick from a raw burger!
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Ugh! Great point!
Yes, well, there are many things I will not due after my experience recovering from a severe TBI. Medically miraculous and unexplainable they say I am. Learn to walk, write, cook, everything, a second time. A recent graduate from LPN school when the brain injury occurred and recently accepted to RN school, I scored higher on my ACT post brain injury than I did my senior year of high school. I spent three weeks in a coma with a frontal and parietal lobe injury. They debated on opening up my skull to relieve the pressure, but they didn’t have to. I had a collapsed lung and crushed cheek bone and broken jaw. I was deemed legally incompetent by my family as that was the expected outcome. Ten months later I was deemed legally competent, driving, and living on my own. The majority of people do not understand how significant the brain is to the simplest of daily functions, I had a first hand experience. It was a car wreck, I was not driving, nor was I wearing a seat belt. I learned to wear a seat belt.
I’m 54, done most types of nursing for almost 3 decades. I’ve had cancer, thoracotomy for a lung infection, numerous surgeries and been a health nut. I’m spiritual but not religious. I’ve lost many loved ones and found even more. What I’ll NEVER do as a nurse? I won’t miss the chance to tell someone how much I love them. I won’t miss a chance to try skydiving. Saturday I’ll go to an amusement park with my kids and NOT worry about that big roller coaster crashing. I WON’T listen when I hear naysayers to my motorcycle rides. What I won’t do is to miss a chance to live and experience every rush I can…I know life is too short. I probably won’t try the car surfing bazooka shooting firecracker thing but other than that: I AIN’T DEAD YET!
We all are amazed that we made it thru childhood and teen years. Many of us do not know how we survived. Fans with exposed blades, electric sockets with no dummy plugs, red meat…..need I say more? Nursing has a way of waking each of us to the ugly truths of how life honestly turns out. The lessons we learn are painful, emotional, and many times fatal.
We work daily to save patients from themselves and their families.
We should all respect each other as Nurses…we know the truth.
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