Lessons Learned…
Time 6
Twenty
four hours. In the pediatric unit of a hospital. Any time spent here with your
child for a reason other than visiting someone else is equivalent to eternity. RSV,
or respiratory syncytial virus, was the diagnosis for my nine month old. His
breathing was raspy and labored and the discomfort his little body felt from
this struggle left him so very restless and irritable. My heart ached watching
him fight this insidious enemy as in his hospital crib he attempted to sleep
tethered to wires and monitors. With permission, I lifted him from the foreign,
strange-feeling crib and cradled him in my arms where rest and a bit of sleep
more easily came. All night long, I
prayed over this angel in my arms, as the excellent but stretched-way-too-thin
medical staff frantically ran from room to pediatric room tending monitors and
needs. Between RSV and the Rotavirus, on that particular night during that
particular year, every pediatric bed was filled, and sick, hospitalized
children were filling beds in other units. Two children died. Rocking and praying my son through the night,
there was peace in our little room despite the overwhelming and overarching anxiety wrapped around a stay such as this. The
hospital night in that pediatric unit was noisy with the cries of children
whose bodies were in tremendous distress and I wept for them through the night
as their painful, fearful cries went on. I asked our nurse why their parents
were not allowed to hold these children to calm their little bodies? Their
parents were not able to stay the night, for circumstances and reasons that
demanded they not stay. These little ones cried and cried alone, and I cried wishing
I had more arms and more time to hold and rock and pray over these other
precious lives struggling with sickness. Sometimes there simply is not enough time to
do all that we need to do because life is busy and hard and full of choices
that frequently leave you feeling that none of the options are really that
wonderful. Perhaps this is the place where we need to step in for one another
and fill in those gaps with our time. We all have hands and hearts and arms to
hold and rock. We all have bits of time here and there that we could offer up
to help. All we really need is a desire to do something about the cries filling
the hallway. To be continued…
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