After Maureen Walsh, a state senator, recently received a lot of push back after saying that nurses "probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day," mom and writer Nikki Pennington opted to give her take on the role that nurses play in our lives. Nikki recently penned a PSA about nurses that puts what they do every single day into perspective - and full disclosure - there doesn't seem to be any time for cards.
"I don't recall seeing a deck of cards in the hand of the one who held my hand tight the day I was given an epidural," she wrote. "I don't recall hearing 'Go Fish' as I laid in the operating room while delivering my child. I don't remember seeing cards laying by my bedside when I had a reaction to the medication. I don't remember going to the desk the night my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and seeing card games going on. I don't remember hearing 'Your turn' as my mom was being given chemo and radiation. I don't recall someone saying 'Can you hold my cards so I can hold your mom's hand while she's sick?'"
And while Nikki has had many experiences with nurses, there are a few particular moments that stick out in her mind.
"You know what I do recall? All the nurses with both hands holding mine each time I gave birth to my sweet babies," said Nikki. "The nurse who stood in the bathroom with me and gave me a shower after my C-section. The nurse who sat with me in the hallway at the hospital when I couldn't hold back the tears because I wasn't sure my mom was ever coming home again. The nurse who helped carry my mom when she was too weak to walk from the cancer. The nurse who was on the helicopter with my mom the day she died and said she made sure she held her hand because even after she passed she didn't want her to be alone."
As a matter of fact, Nikki has never seen nurses do anything besides care for people other than themselves. "I never once saw hands full of a deck of cards, I've only seen the hands of nurses holding the hand of someone else," she wrote.
from POPSUGAR https://www.popsugar.com/family/Mom-Ode-Nurses-46065191
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