Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work I Go!
by Lori Dennison
by Lori Dennison
After a long (almost) year home with the little dude of the household, I am returning to fulltime employment outside the walls of what we affectionately call The University of Dennison Hospital. Seriously, we have more medical supplies than a medical warehouse.
Between 50 plus hours of nursing per week and preschool 16 hours per week, I am confident that the little ball and chain I've been toting around for the past several months will be in good hands. I will once again be able to have meaningful conversations on a daily basis with other adults about things I went to school for YEARS to learn how to do, rather than discussing ostomy output with my child's doctor, or placement spots of insuflon ports with my husband. I will no longer go weeks without speaking to an individual over the age of ten.
On my first day of orientation, I was almost giddy after a lengthy conversation during rounds with the psychiatrist of the treatment team I will be a part of in my new position. I got to use words like "affect," "psychosomatic complaints," "diagnostic criteria," etc., etc. I tried not to giggle as we walked through the halls between treatment units about how overjoyed that not a single sentence I spoke that day included the words "stoma," "creatinine," or "elemental formula." I could get used to that!!!
An unexpected benefit of the position: I was able to reconnect with my adult niece who I have had little contact with over the past few years. While I've been living out of a suitcase at various hospitals, she put herself through nursing school and is a new hire for the state. She will be working overnight so I don't know how much our paths will cross. We were able to catch up over lunch and I filled her in on how much life has changed for Glenn and me including Will's feet being bigger than mine (the boy is gonna be big like his uncles), Isaac learning to talk (speech is still a struggle), and her Uncle Glenn the mechanic mastering the art of infusion pumps, port accesses, and IV meds all in the name of keeping our littlest alive. She got a kick out of the last part!
The most common questions asked of me at this time of monumental transition:
"Was is hard to find a job that is flexible in your field?"
"Are you worried that you'll lose his nursing care again?"
"Will you miss being home with him?"
"Why don't you go back to school to be a nurse?"
My answers:
Yup. I was picky. I interviewed with several private agencies and determined that state agencies are far less likely to care that my multimillion dollar kid is a bit taxing to take onto their insurance plan.
Heck ya. Our nursing agency made it very clear through their lack of care provided for 10 months that they do not value him as a patient. I have no doubt that they'll discharge the first time he is hospitalized.
Yup. I would love to not have to work. Most days he is pretty independent though and would rather play fetch with the dog than snuggle with me. We need to maximize our resources (aka nursing care) to catch up financially from years of expensive medical travel, medical debt, cars that need repairs, etc. He's growing up. We're figuring out more frequently how to keep him out of the hospital. His hospital stays are shorter. We are broke.
And HELL NO. Contrary to how it may appear, I do not enjoy poking needles into my or anyone else's child. I recently reminded Benji's pediatrician that I do not wish to partake in poking my child multiple times per week. I want to be his mom, not his nurse. That being said, I plan to roll out of bed at 7AM tomorrow and poke my kid in the arm because I am aware that as a parent of such a complex little bundle of joy, I can't really say I won't do something for him. Perhaps I'll utilize my government employee benefits that include reduced tuition in the future to return to school. Perhaps I'll just teach Benji how to do his own darn shots and insuflon port placements.
Soooo......round 57 of trying-to-balance-full-time-employment-with-raising-a-child-with-multiple-medical-needs begins....
Read more about Lori and her family at http://thedennisonboys.blogspot.com.
| Author: Lori Dennison | Date Uploaded: 10/18/2010 |