Despite the Sheer Exhaustion of it All, THIS is the Life

The past 2 days at work were not fun. I was Charge Nurse both days and yesterday it felt like a circus, a zoo. I answered phone call after phone call of admission after admission. I told parent after parent I’m sorry for the waiting. Thankfully only 1 patient got really sick (I swear it’s days like that where 5 patients start crumbing at the same time). I’m not a hugely confrontational person, but yesterday I told people no, and then no again. I told different doctors no, something they don’t like to be told, god-complex you know. At 2:30 after working for 8 1/2 hours straight, I went down to Subway and got everyone sandwiches because no one had eaten and I was about ready to pass out and needed 5 minutes where someone wasn’t pulling on my shirt. No one left on time, oh and I just realized I don’t think the narcotics got counted.

A co-worker of mine, who just happened to be there at the end of shift gave me a ride home. I couldn’t complete a whole sentence without yawning I was so tired. She had met Steven the day before, she’s single and commented how it wasn’t fair that some people got to meet their soul mates young and some people had to fight an uphill battle for them. I thought she was crazy since there are so many good things about being single, pointed out a few including the one where on days like today, you could go home and just crash and not be mugged the moment you walk in the door (I included my children in the whole soul mate conversation because well they came with the package in a way). She said yeah but at least you have people to go home to that love you. Put me in perspective a little bit.

So as I walked through the door ready to keel over dead from exhaustion and despite the house is trashed due to everyone living in it, it was really nice to have an almost toddler come crawling straight for me wanting my every attention and breast, “mamamama!” and another toddler that wanted to show me The Wonderpets and sit in my lap even with Felicity eating, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” and a husband that wanted me just as much.