The Blond Charge Nurse and the Surgical Emergency

It all started when I was a kid I always wanted to do surgery. I know crazy right. It just seemed so fascinating to me. Putting a live person to sleep and fixing something inside of them that could save their life.Seemed like a worthy purpose for a young person! But anyway. It's all perspective.

As you might guess after working in surgery for 25 years I have seen plenty and accumulated some interesting stories to say the least!

Back in the 70s I worked for a small hospital in California. We did all types of surgeries and the surgical staff was required to take call almost every weekend.

I didn't mind it was a chance to earn extra money as we were not paid very much back then. Also you got to test your skills in an emergency.

I was young just out of the Army so as you would imagine I sometimes had the opportunity to date some nurses that had similar interests and liked to help people like I do. Some very compassionate and dedicated people for the most part.

But being young I had to learn that not all people were in the health field for the same reason. Also this lesson for me was one that my father had reiterated to me many times. To put it crudely he said (That thing in your pants is not your brain!) So use your brain instead. I would get embarrassed when he would tell me that but I tried to head his words. My dad had a
track record of being correct and spot on.

There was a particular nurse that I was attracted to. She usually worked evenings and was in charge of the hospital. I only saw her when and if I was called in when she was working.

Over a few months I got to know her a bit and asked her out on a date. We went out to dinner watched the sunset on the beach. Everything seemed to be going pretty well in my book.

Except I was on call so at any time I could be called to help the doctors do surgery. The nurse certainly knew that I was on call and that I was a responsible person. Well maybe not!

You may not know but back in the day we carried pagers before cell phones.

They beeped and displayed the # we were supposed to call. They seemed to beep at the most inconvenient times!

Well this night was no different. That dam pager beeped at the worst time it could have possible beeped. To me Yes I was disappointed but I knew that someone's life was in jeopardy and I had to go. The charge nurse had a different idea.

Don't answer the page! What?? It amazed me how ignorant I was to the fact that this person only cared about herself.

I went to work and delivered twins. The nurse vowed never to speak to me again.

Hindsight I was glad that it happened and i was able to see her in a new light!

I learned to be careful because many people are just putting on a face!
I feel like, I am straight up What you see is what you get sort of a person.

Chilling on my porch in Hawaii playing my Ukulele