A Cut and a Smile

   

 Credit to: www.clipart.of.com

      The thing that inspires me the most about wanting to become a nurse is the fact and thought about me being able to save people's lives. There are the simple things that nurses do that can make a huge difference in someone's life. It could be just the smile on their face or the many tasks they perform to make sure their patients are doing their very best at all times. There is nothing like experiencing having your life in a nurse's care firsthand.
     When I was 8 years old, my sister and I, who was 10 years old, flew on a plane all by ourselves from our hometown Birmingham, Alabama to Houston, Texas. We were flying there to spend what we thought was going to be two weeks at our aunt's house. When we first arrived, everything was great! Our aunt, uncle, and two cousins showed us so much love and great hospitality. We all spent tons of quality time together the first week of our visit and everything went downhill from there.
     Starting the second week of our visit, my aunt had to return to work so it was sort of like we instantly blended in as an everyday part of daily routines they used to perform before we arrived. One morning, me and my two cousins decided to play a game to relieve us from our boredom. We all decided on playing the infamous childhood game, "Tag! You're It!" One of my cousins started off being "it" so with that initiated, I took off running with him not too far behind me. We were running up and down the stairs, through the halls, and around the den area. All the fun came to an abrupt stop when we reached the living room. Running barefoot in the ALL WHITE living room, I took a quick moment to look over my shoulder to check my cousin's status behind me. Before I knew it, I tripped and fell to the ground. Without looking I grabbed my foot and rocked back and forth from the pain I felt. I removed my hand from my foot and I saw nothing but blood covering it. I immediately burst into tears at the horrific sight. Also, the once white carpet was now devastated and stained with my red blood. I slowly took my focus off of the carpet and concentrated it on my right foot. I was in total disbelief at what I saw. The top of my foot had a gash so deep that you could literally see my bones. I never thought I would get the chance to see my own bones, especially not this way. Then, I wondered what I could have done to provoke this to happen to me. I looked around, hysterically crying, and to my right I saw a clear, glass bowl sitting next to me. I examined the bowl a little closer to find out that the side of the bowl was chipped. I put two and two together to come up with the solution that I tripped over the chipped part of the bowl which caused the big, deep wound across my foot. I continued to cry as my sister and my cousins stood over me with a look of shock on their faces. They soon burst into tears as we all silently agreed that I was going to die soon. My cousin left to seek help from his dad upstairs. My uncle came, investigated the "crime scene", and gathered us up to rush me to the nearest hospital.
     Being that this was an emergency, we entered through the "Emergency" entrance. A nurse reacted swiftly and retrieved a wheelchair to place me in because I was unable to walk from the discombobulation of my foot. They ushered me into a small room while the nurse disappeared and returned with a doctor. When he saw me, then saw my foot, I could tell by the change of his facial expression that this was something he had never seen before. Implying this made me even more scared of what was about to happen next. The nurses and the doctor all agreed that they would have to perform an impromtu surgery in order to basically save my life because from the time I receieved the cut at my aun't house up until this point, I had lost and was losing enormous amounts of blood because it was freely escaping from the wide, open wound. The doctors and nurses soon got me in a surgey room and placed an IV in my arm and the next thing I knew I was drifting off into a deep sleep.  After a lot of extended hours, I was awakened by a nurse telling me it was time for me to go home. I was so dizzy but I managed to sit up and look down at my foot that was now wrapped up with a small boot on it. A nurse proceeded to explain to me that I had about 50 stitches in my foot and that I was going to have to use crutches for a few weeks until my wound healed. This was scary news to me because I never once thought I would have to depend on crutches to be able to walk. I didn't say anything, I just nodded my head to assure her that I understood what she was saying.
     Two nurses took it upon themselves to escort me outside to get me comfortably settled in the car. This was something they did not have to do but they did it anyway which made my heart warm on the inside. It showed me that they really love their jobs and that they truly cared about my well being. It's just the small things that nurses do to show they care that can make someone's day a lot better. That day, I started off with tears and ended it with a smile due to loving and caring ER nurses.