Freely you received, freely give

Matthew 10:8

"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers,

cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give."

I've been working as a pediatric transplant nurse at Georgetown University Hospital for just over a year now. Hard to believe. What a great year it has been. I get asked a lot why pediatrics, why kids? Kids are the best, even when they are so sick in the hospital they want to play. I have the best stories of the funny things my patients say and do. I my favorite age is 15 mo. to 7 yrs old. It is such a blessing to care for these children while they are in the hospital.

Some of my favorite moments:

• playing ring-around-the-rosey in the hallway with a 3 1/2 year old who basically just wanted to do the 'all fall down part' but every time he feel he'd say 'awww man, aww man!' SO loud.
• had to start an IV and draw blood off of one of my favorite 6 year olds. She was screaming her head off. Yelling at our attending saying "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!" (at least she knew who to blame, the doctors and not the nurses for the IV) - this same little girl another night, again had to draw blood for labs and I told her I just needed to get a little blood and she said in the sweetest, most angelic voice, "but I want to keep all my blood". Melted my heart.
• watching a 2 yr old run around the unit with his IV pole behind him and only in a diaper doing one of The Wiggles dances; "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle freeze".
• drawing blood at 4 am singing the little mermaid song to a 2 1/2 year old so she won't start crying.
• bringing in 'The Princess Bride' for one of my 13 yr old patients (she had NEVER seen it, oh geez had to fix that) of course I brought a computer into her room to chart and watched most of it with her.
• Listening/singing Michael Jackson while doing a sterile dressing change with a 9 yr old. Distraction is a great tactic with kids.
• The same 6 year old mentioned above - got a Santa coke on her lunch tray. The next day she just got a regular coke. Oh she was so upset. (obviously they are different) so I called dietary and told them that I had a 6 year old girl who would LOVE nothing more than to have a 'santa coke' the lady from dietary sent me santa coke and made sure that there was specifically a santa coke on her tray from then on.
• praying with a 6 month old during his last couple days of life.

There are so many more; Not all as 'happy' as these, but even in the terribly difficult times caring for these children and their families is a privilege.