No one ever told me it would be easy to be a contract travel nurse. No one told me anything. I was the first contract travel nurse I had ever
known! It didn’t take me long, however,
to realize that the fringe benefits were missing from my job. Well, anyway the fringe benefits of retirement
pay, sick time, holiday pay, and insurance anyway. Working
as a contract travel nurse had its own benefits. I
got to see the whole United States in an up close and personal way while I was young. I met people I still exchange holiday cards and
now e-mails with. However, my job as a
contract travel nurse netted me the greatest fringe benefit of my life. I want to tell you that amazing story tonight.
December 1, of that particular year found me in Corpus
Christi, Texas. Corpus Christi is a beautiful
city on the Gulf of Mexico. I had accepted a
travel assignment for 13 weeks there beginning in May.
That assignment should have ended, but I had extended it. And then, extended for yet a third 13-week tour
of duty. When I went to work that December
night, I was on “overdrive”. When I
finished my shift, I would have put in 84 hours that week.
Shortly after arriving at work, I learned that three
“crack” babies had been born on our unit that day. For the first time in my nursing career, I sat
down at the desk and just cried. I talked to
a doctor I never talked to and told her my life story.
The reason I had started working as a travel nurse was because I couldn’t have
babies of my own. (Twelve miscarriages and
one little girl who died in the sixteen years I had been married.) The doctor shook her head and asked me “Why
don’t you adopt one of these babies?” I
dried my tears and told her “I’ve come to terms with my infertility. Besides, I am 38 years old, I’m a contract
travel nurse. I don’t even own a home. Who would give me a baby?” Then, I went back to work and somehow survived
another night.
The next day, December 2, I was supposed to be off
work. I didn’t sleep that day, because I
planned on sleeping with my husband that night. We
had friends over for dinner. During dinner,
the phone rang. My boss called to ask me if I
would come work the night shift. Three nurses
had called in sick. I agreed to come in as
soon as my company left after dinner.
On the way to work that night, I hit rock bottom. If my boss hadn’t been older than dirt, I
don’t think I would have gone to work. I
remembered it was my dad’s birthday. My
precious Dad had died 20 years before. Suddenly
I felt I was living to work, not working to live.
As soon as I got to work that night, they started
calling me to Labor and Delivery. Now, at
that particular time in that particular hospital, I was the nurse they called to Labor and
Delivery to counsel parents who had just lost a baby.
That night I knew I couldn’t handle the task.
I went on to my unit, took report from my supervisor, and got things going in my
unit. Forty minutes later, I moseyed on over to Labor and Delivery.
When I pushed open the doors to Labor and Delivery, the
doctor whose shoulder I had cried on the night before met me. She grabbed me by the front on the scrubs and
said “This girl came in off the street. She’s
had no prenatal care. She doesn’t want
the baby. She wants me to find someone to
adopt the baby. Do you want this baby?
Well, being the articulate person that I am, I just
shook my head “Yes.” We went in to
the delivery room to talk to the girl. The
doctor told her “This is Melissa. She’s
a nurse.” The girl smiled and said she
would love for me to take her baby!
On the way back to my unit, I thought “Oh my God! What have I agreed to? I don’t know if this is a crack baby, a
heroin baby, a deformed baby or what!” I
walked on over to the nursery. I scrubbed my
hands and went in. There were 16 babies in
Newborn Nursery that night. The nursery
nurse, Janie, was feeding one. I started to
look at the babies. Suddenly, it’s like
there was a lightening bolt from Heaven. I
knew exactly which baby was mine. I walked
over and picked her up. She reached up and
touched my chin. I started crying. “Janie,” I said, “this is my baby. Her name is Sarah.” Janie said I said it with such authority, she
didn’t dare question me!
After cuddling this precious bundle for a few minutes,
I went back to my unit. The nurses, having
heard what was going on, called another nurse. Corrine was also a traveling nurse. Corrine
came in dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Now,
this girl had a heart of gold, but she tried really hard not to show it. She waved at me and said “Hey, I can hang
your midnight antibiotics. You go back to the
nursery and bond with that kid.” I did. Corrine worked for me that night, unpaid, while I
sat in the nursery and lost my heart to the little girl who still owns it.
Fringe benefits? Well,
I got one working as a traveling nurse that I may or may not have gotten as a nurse
working a local hospital. I feel like I was
in the right place, at the right time. God
gave me the daughter I so desperately needed. |
