Twenty Ten Initiative

During one of my pediatric shifts this past semester I was assigned to work under Nurse Fran. Fran is a compassionate skilled experienced nurse whom I want to be like someday! Aside from working on the Peds unit she is an IV specialist so she gets paged all over the hospital to place IVs when things are slow. Well things were most definitely slow and she got several pages. Naturally I went along. Who would pass up the opportunity to watch a pro place IVs? Not me. (Now I know why they page her. She takes the time to prep each patient to cause as little trauma as possible, carefully choosing the right vein. She places the IV in seconds and quickly secures the port to allow as little movement which could cause the patient discomfort. Yeah I totally want to be like her someday, did I mention that?!?!)

Anyways, my clinical partner and I ended up following Fran to the Outpatient wing. Things were busy and next thing I knew one of the nurses down the hall was yelling for us to get vital signs on the patient in the pre-op room. I turned to make sure she was talking to us and when I realized that there was no one else around we started off towards the room. *What I realized is that wearing a nursing uniform can be dangerous in a hospital. It's makes you a target. Nurses get a glimpse of that very flattering white neatly pressed top coming their way and they see two more hands to make their load lighter. * Good thing I don't mind the practice. Fran quickly followed us with the last minute pre-op forms and IV starter kit. In the room was an older man lying on a stretcher and his sweet wife sitting in the chair beside him.

As we took the vital signs I got to talking to the man and his wife. A progression of his prostate cancer had brought him into the hospital. It was a particularly warm and beautiful fall day in Virginia and he was explaining to me how he and his wife were going to go for a drive in his convertible when he encountered dysuria and hematuria (painful and bloody urine) which was his sign that the cancer was winning. He took his wife's hand and looked at me and said "I wouldn't have chosen to be in here today but I guess we don't always know what the day holds. Our plans don't always work out." I didn't think much about it at the time and I continued to listen as they told me of their adventures together. They had been to all 50 states, they had taken a recent bus trip with their church just to spend time together, and told stories of their grandbabies. Our duties were soon finished and as quickly as we had entered this man's life we had to leave to our next assignment and he was off to surgery.

Sadly I do not remember the man's name but his face, stories, and they way he lovingly interacted with his wife will forever be with me. As I approached the new year I got to thinking about resolutions and what I want out of the year and that's when his comment flooded my mind.

"I wouldn't have chosen to be here today but I guess we don't always know what the days holds. Our plans don't always work out."

A friend of mine mentioned in passing that he was doing a "Twenty Ten Initiative" in 2010. Instead of resolutions which have a poor success rate he was going to have a list of things to do through out the year. No pressure. No failure. Just take it one day at a time and accomplish the things he set out to do. I LOVE this idea. Like most people I am not very good with keeping resolutions but I love making lists and checking things off. So as I thought and prayed about things this is what my list came out to be:

1. Run a race (I have always wanted to run a half marathon or triathalon but I never get into a consistent training pattern. So I'm going to start out small - maybe like a 5k. Then when Kathryn returns we are going to run a half marathon! hopefully ha.)

2. Drink lots of water.

3. Be a better steward of the money I have (that means STICKING to my budget and couponing like it's my job).

4. Be consistent in my daily praying and devotion time.

5. Go legit camping - tents, sleeping bags, and cooking meals on a campfire...

6. Go to the gym AT LEAST three times a week and get the toned body that I always talk about.

7. Be like the Proverbs 31 woman who rises before her household and goes to sleep after they have. I have found that I can be quite lazy at times and I want to be one of those girls that gets everything done and in a timely manner. My roommates are probably laughing because I always say I want to set a time to get up everyday so that I can get about my day and oddly enough that time rolls around and I hit the snooze button. NOT ANYMORE!

8. Study better. I tend to get side track when studying and put it off till the last minute but I want a 4.0 and I am going to try and put forth my best studying skills to obtain that.

9. Enjoy the beach. I have always lived near the beach and as a kid I would go at least once a week. Well the last few years I have worked so much that I never really got the time to go and just enjoy the beach. This summer I am going to do just that - sit in the sand and read a good book!

10. Take opportunities to try new things or things that I would not normally do.

Those are just a few of them, I'm still refining my list :) I am not sure what this year holds. I have all these plans but who knows how it all will play out?

On the 31st my sister called me to see if I could come pick her up because her brakes had given out. On the way to pick her up I got in a car accident that totaled my beloved minivan. Obviously like my patient pointed out "we don't always know what the day holds."Being without a vehicle is not really how I saw the year starting out but I have to trust that God will provide and that even in the midst of crappy circumstances that He has a plan. We are not promised tomorrow (Matthw 6:34) so this year I am going to try and live everyday like the blessing that it is.