What I Want ‘The View’ Co-Hosts to Know About My Children’s Nurses
Joy Behar and Michelle Collins, co-hosts of “The View,” recently caused a stir with their comments about Kelley Johnson, a registered nurse and the Miss Colorado contestant in The Miss America Pageant. (You can watch a YouTube clip of the show here.)
This is for you, Joy Behar and Michelle Collins. Let me enlighten you about nurses.
My children have required nursing care their entire lives. They are 28 and 27 years old and have far outlived their bleak prognosis thanks to dedicated nurses.
Who was it that calmed this frightened mother while her son’s temperature climbed to 105? His little body was shaking and seizing and his breathing was erratic. While caring for him, she reassured me.
It was a nurse.
Who was it that cared for my little boy in the back of our van while I drove to the hospital? I was a wreck that day, you know. He wasn’t breathing well and his vital signs were not good.
It was a nurse.
Who was it that saw me in the halls of the Pediatric ICU looking lost and hopeless? She went out of her way that day to get me a snack from the snack machine. It was a gesture I will never forget. She offered me a snack and her heart.
It was a nurse.
Who saw my daughter lying in bed after an EEG and came in to give her the best hair wash ever? Nurses are stretched so thin these days, and she took the time to get that glue out of every strand of MaryEllen’s thick and wavy hair. I knew by the look on MaryEllen’s face that it really was the best hair wash ever.
It was a nurse.
Who stayed with my husband and me while our son was evaluated by the ICU team? Our little boy needed IVs and central lines and medication to keep his blood pressure up (in other words, to stay alive), and she stayed with us to explain, reassure and most of all comfort fearful parents. She could have easily left us alone in the hallway that night, yet instead of going home at the end of her shift, she stayed with us until our little boy was stable.
It was a nurse.
Who did I call for in the ICU when MaryEllen’s pulse ox was dropping or Kevin’s body was ravaged with seizures?
It was a nurse.
Who walks into our home willing to care for my children and doesn’t run the other way? They see my children first, then the medical chaos of the room. I know how overwhelming it looks, believe me!
It’s nurses.
Who ran into our room in the pediatric ICU while my daughter was crashing, and as if it was nothing, saved her life? Time and time again?
It was nurses, Joy Behar. Nurses.
I could go on and on. Without nurses, my children wouldn’t be here. Plain and simple.
Nurses are more than just someone wearing a “doctor’s stethoscope.” Take a walk through a pediatric ICU and see for yourselves. Nurses are the heart and soul of caregiving.
It takes a special person to be a nurse.
Can you say that about your profession, Michelle Collins and Joy Behar?
Follow this journey on The Heartful Mom.
Lori Burke is a stay-at-home mom. She shares bits of her children’s rare disease journey with a joyful slant on her blog, The Heartful Mom.
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