anyways…

It’s been a while since I’ve written. Lots has happened since I’ve been away. Work and Savannah’s death to name a few. I have had a lot to do and so little time to do it. It seems like whenever I had time off, I was off to somewhere else to do something. Sheesh.
Lundi went to camp at Camp Natarswi, a Girl Scout Camp at Baxter State Park. She had a wonderful experience! You see, what happened is that she went to LL Bean with the family one day. There was a kid’s adventure day there and there were contests to enter. One of the contests, she had to fill out a form and her name was drawn later. The prize was summer camp at one of 5 locations up to $500. Then in addition to that, she received a $200 gift certificate to LL Bean so she could get stocked up to go. She had a wonderful time! The camp was 3.5 hours away and when we went to pick her up and she saw us, she turned the other way and said, “Bye!” She didn’t want to come home, she had so much fun. Lundi got her wish to go to a summer camp.
The olympic story of Michael Phelps is amazing! I was inspired by a recent quote by him that I saw in a newspaper…it goes like this - “With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination,” Michael Phelps. I felt that truth because a lot of people told me of the impossibility of becoming a nurse. He’s right. It takes imagination. Nursing has been absolutely wonderful! I’ve had a few of my own patients. There have been overwhelming moments, rewarding moments and learning moments. Emergency nursing is something I never thought possible right out of nursing school. I got my wish, though…and I think I fit right in. I had to work on Sunday. I looked over my training materials and found a few things to focus on for the day. One of the things was blood transfusions. So I told them…“please let me know if you have a patient who needs blood, because I need to get the experience.” I got my wish, but it was with my own patient. I gave a blood transfusion on my own real sick patient. He had many problems in the past that seemed to be culminating on this one episode. He was a busy patient.
Yesterday afternoon, I was listening to music, and one of the songs that came up was Savannah’s song. She had a song made for her. It’s so cute! I have it because I made a DVD of her life that included that song. You see, she died this month before her 8th birthday. I had the honor of making 2 DVD’s with about 1,000 pictures in a slideshow set to music. One of the DVD’s was of her 2 visits to Disney - one of which was on the tab of the Make A Wish Foundation. She wished to go to Disney and she got her wish. Then the cancer came back and she wanted to go back again. This time, the WHOLE family went - grandparents and all. These DVD’s were filled with her smiles and fun times. It was a tribute to her life. I had a hard time containing my emotions while putting it together. Savannah is such a gift. The wonderful stories of her life were amazing. Here’s one more - it happened after her funeral. I shared her story with so many of the nurses at the hospital. One of the nurses, my preceptor, recently lost her husband a year ago yesterday. I showed her the program from Savannah’s funeral and it had a poem with author unknown. She loved it so much that she photocopied it and published it yesterday in a local paper to memorialize his passing. Savannah has given in so many ways - intentional and intentional - known and unknown. I wish that I will never forget - and that I can witness many more of her gifts - even after she’s gone.