Time flies...

When you are knee deep in crap all of the time... No joke! But, things are going really well despite the fact that I am starting to get no sleep and doing patient-related work for more hours of the day than I want to. We have six weeks to go at this point and I am so ready to be done.

I don't normally talk about patients I have taken care of, but this patient really touched me in particular and I almost cried about three times taking care of him the other day...

February 26, 2008, the 23rd birthday of a brave American Soldier that I had the pleasure of spending it with. He was involved in an IED blast that rolled the vehicle he was in, severing his spinal cord, breaking 10 of his vertebrae, contusing his left lung, puncturing his right lung, breaking 10 of his ribs on the right side and lacerating his liver. He is paralyzed from the waist down, with minimal function to his right hand and arm. You would think that he would be devastated, but he is so positive and has such a great outlook on life. Mid-morning, when his family came in with cake and ice cream, I said to him, "I am sure that you were not planning on spending your 23rd birthday here at Walter Reed," and he said to me, "Well, not really, but I am alive, not in Iraq and with my family, so I can't ask God for much more." I was absolutely speechless. In fact I had to excuse myself because I was about to cry. He was really nice and asked me later, "Are you okay Ma'am? You seemed like you were kinda sad when we were having cake and ice cream." Of course I lied and said that I was fine, but I couldn't help but think about Will all day.

Anyhow, it is definitely challenging here at Walter Reed with all of the Soldiers and their loved ones, but it just reaffirms my belief that I am doing exactly what I should be doing with my life... Serving those that are brave enough to put their lives in danger every day for the security of our country. I love it and never regret making the decision to be an Army nurse.

Well, like always, it is back to work for me. I have to start preparing for the week!

66H8A (in training) out...