Introductions

I'm a nurse, and nobody ever gets it right about nurses. We're beneath the radar of popular culture. People in America like to hear about doctors. Through shows like ER and Grey's Anatomy, House and heck, even Scrubs, we get to live vicariously through doctors. They have all the sexy power--they make all the money (eventually) and, most importantly, for most of us, they will be making decisions about most of us that will involve our most brutal battles--our end games. They're like demigods, so it's natural that our culture has formed a mini-cult around them--humanizing them, making them accessible to us. It's natural, and I don't resent it too much, but we need to know about nurses, too, so this blog is to tell their stories. If you're reading this, I want you to know our perspective--or at least, my perspective!
So, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to spend a half hour a day telling you about my life as a nurse, and I'll try to avoid breaking any HIPAA regulations, or exposing my hospital to any legal repercussions, or causing my colleagues any undue embarrassment, or losing my job! Write me if you'd like.

So, let's begin.

Me: I work in a trauma/surgical ICU in a medium-sized city. I grew up here, but moved away when I was seventeen. I returned at 34 with two kids in tow. Balzac has a character called "La Marana" in one of his short stories and I'm her: La Marana is poor sometimes and rich sometimes and doesn't care a whit. She just keeps on dancing through. I've done everything and seen everything and been everywhere. I've been rich, which was okay, and I've been so poor that I've had teeth fall out from poor nutrition--but that was just because I was too proud to ask for help. I'm quiet and rumpled and most people aren't too aware of me. I have too much family money, probably, to seed much ambition. No one knows this about me, either.

When I was in my mid thirties, I decided I was tired of being frivolous. I've been a practicing zen buddhist for 21 years--well I don't know whether I really get to claim that--I started because I heard meditation prevents wrinkes (it does!)--and I started really thinking about the bodhisattva vows that we say in Japanese at the beginning of every session--and step by step, I started getting my hands into the muck of the world--and boy, are my hands in it now.

Well, that's my 1/2 hour. Talk to you tomorrow.