Through My Daughter's Eyes...

(This was written in late March, about a month ago....)

My daughter and her husband are in The Big Apple this week.  It’s the first vacation in a long time for them.  My daughter works too hard, going in to work extra shifts when there’s a staffing shortage, working a double shift when someone calls in sick, and taking the ER duty when no one else wants it.

She’s a Certified Cardiology Tech at a hospital about 45 miles up the road from Podunk.  She does the 12-lead EKGs as ordered, transcribes Holter monitor reports, and makes her mama proud.  She was even ACLS certified for a few years.  (CCTs are not required to take Advanced Cardiac Life Support training: she just wanted to know more about the EKGs she does….).

There was a patient once, who had an EKG done in the morning.  Later in the afternoon, he was complaining of chest discomfort and the physician ordered another EKG.  My daughter compared the two EKGs and alerted the RN that there was a significant change in the afternoon EKG.  The RN shrugged and mentioned that the physician would be in “soon” and she would tell him them.

Not satisfied with that response, my daughter paged the physician.  When he called her back, she shared her concerns about the patient.  To make a long story short, the physician came straight away to see the patient and took him immediately to the cardiac cath lab.  When he was finished, he came back to the cardiology department to inform my daughter that she probably saved the patient’s life.

No, not a proud mama here….  But you can see just how important it is that she has a vacation.  And so, she’s posting photos on Facebook from her adventures.  Every chance I get, I go online to see where she is and what she is seeing.  In the photos taken by her husband, she is happy and smiling, with a little bit of wide-eyed awe thrown in….

She has ferried out to Ellis Island, taken photos from atop the Empire State Building, been to all the important museums on Manhattan, walked through Central Park, made a pilgrimage to Tiffany’s, and even spent some time in FAO Schwartz…..

It has truly been a trip of a lifetime for her.  A chance to see a place she had only seen in movies and dreamt about seeing in person…..some day.  And her someday finally arrived…..  She has seized the moment and put all her energy into enjoying her time there, just as she puts so much energy into doing her job well.

And I have been to New York this week, too, through my daughter’s eyes….

Cali