Its Carolina weather with random rains that washed away
humidity and welcomed sunlight. Its rustic nature, with its steep, swerved,
and pebbled roads. Its natural rivers of water, and dirt paths leading to
mysterious forests of green nature. I had just left beeping monitors,
ringing call bells and the tunes of bed alarms singing to the movements of
anxious patients. I entered the streets of honking cabs, rushed New Yorkers,
lost tourists and millions of bystanders. I took a second to observe the
comings and goings of a busy city life and hailed a cab; onto a new adventure.
And so, after bouncing and swerving through the windy, pebbled roads,
#AuntynurseD entered workation mode in a living wonder. My day job put on hold
as work and focus turned in the direction of a special population camping out
in the rustic greenery of a North Carolina, wonder filled camp.
Life back at home, as a nurse, was focused on adults who were
ill and or had gone through surgery. My healing skills were guided through medications,
incision care, intravenous lines and cardiac monitors.
Enter
Camp Living wonders.
#LittlenurseD, with her curly hair and big glasses, abandoned
her beeping monitors, IV poles and that crazy yellow cabbed city that never
sleeps, for an enchanted workation on the rustic yet illuminating grounds of a
wonder camp. I faced a new population of special children and their incredible
staff. In wonder camp, I didn't play Nightingale and stitch up wounds or act as
the angel that chased away pain with a morphine push. Bare of scrubs or a name
tag to tell my role, there I was just #nurseypoo. That little girl with the curly
hair, who wore different glasses each day and who you went to for meds, cuts,
bites, wheezes and homesickness. Medications still deeply guided my workload,
but here the strongest healer of the most irritating headache and belly ache
wasn't a dilaudid or morphine cocktail, but a chilled Gatorade, salty pretzel
cocktail, delivered with a tight hug. Sometimes, just one dose of hug healed
the troubles of homesickness, bug bites, scratches and belly aches in these
wonder-children.
Part of my job was to deliver medications over a bar counter.
The kids called it 'Medline'. I often called it cocktail hour. Some received
their meds with a shot of ice cold water, some preferred no ice, and some like
to spice up their pills with a sweeter kind of beverage. 'Medline' or cocktail
hour although very much guided my daily schedule, was only a minor part of
being nurse in wonder camp. My days were often welcomed with 6:00 AM belly
aches and wheezing lungs at my infirmary door. Other days, when all the belly
aches and stomach pains were still asleep, #nurseypoo pondered on the nature
road in a morning run,that was more like a climb on the steep, windy, pebbled
road. As I jogged back into to camp I was usually congratulated and cheered on
by the 'wonder' early risers. Then the day began; 'medlines', bug bites,
dehydration, sprained ankles and occasional wheezes.
The rustic grounds with its sharp edged branches, and rocky
hills with dirt path roads displayed an opaqueness over the bright wonders
emanating from within the grounds. The wonder was about various and very
different worlds colliding in one location; yet its various awkward shapes
seemed to mesh itself together in a fascinating mosaic. The awkwardly shaped
colorful characters puzzled together in perfect misshaped connections to create
the masterpiece; the living wonder family. Each awkward and colorful edge
complemented the characters at its side, and shared a connection that ran
deeper than a diagnosis, age or background. It were the differences that refined
the uniqueness of the final piece. The unusual sound effects, the awkward body
movement, and unexpected yet fairly frequent strangled hugs we all got from the
campers, added color to the rustic dirt paths and the weeds of greenery.
While some may have gotten dizzy from the amount of pacing
that one camper marathoned around our dining room each day, the wonder staff
all wished they had the energy to maintain such rapid body movement. We only
watched the movement in amazement. One child's queer movements and constant
undertone mumbling in a language we knew yet could not understand, made us wish
we could walk into their world to hear and understand what that mind was
hearing and share pleasure in the exciting things those eyes were seeing. So
many words were spoken from the speechless campers. Their body movements, their
smiles, and the expressions emanating from their bright yet wandering eyes.
Their cries; whether from laughter, pain or homesickness; all spoke an infinite
amount more than a perfectly structured verbal sentence, or even the most
eloquently written essay. Feelings of love, cries of emotions, and tones of
joy, penetrated the air of our wonder camp; they were intangible yet so real.
Their presence and character brightened our wonder fields from sunrise to
sunset, and until way after bedtime. Each of the campers carried small yet bright
lights that are often insignificant sparks in our ordinary world. But their
tiny flickers of light united together, with the support of the wonder
staff, brightened our wonder world.
A mosaic without out a frame, can look like a shattered mess
of glass. But a mosaic sheltered by a fitted frame, can be displayed as a
beautiful masterpiece. As the nurse I just dealt with petty external bruises,
aches and medication. That left me time to observe from a distance, the
internal healers, healers of the souls, frames to our colorful mosaic, and the
forces that glinted the light from our wandering sparks; the counselors. Some were
still in their teens and others well into their twenties. Some just graduated
high school and others had just begun their careers. Yet, in this camp of
wonder the counselors were the parents, the friends the advocates, the
cheerleaders, the healers, and many other characters; but all with a sole purpose
of being there for the needs of every wonder child.
What impacted me most from this experience was how in this
environment, no one was singled out to be special or unique, whether they were
a counselor, specialty staff or camper. Prior to becoming a nurse,I had worked
with these 'special' populations, but they were always singled out as special,
and different; but a different that separated them from others. Here, in the
world of "Living Wonders", everyone was special and unique, and those
who were normally singled out as special or different, were just a camper
or staff member treated like any other. The wonder of the camp was the acceptance,
the bond and the family. Each individual was just a piece in the mosaic;
colorful and irregular, but each additional irregular piece made the final
picture complete.
While I see wonders everyday as a nurse, when incisions heal,
people relearn to walk after surgery, and pain is chased away; my two week
experience as a camp nurse, or as #nurseypoo, taught me another type of wonder. A wonder that doesn't get
lost as a distant memory after the patient is discharged and when the bed is
filled by another human being. A memory that one is part of does not wither
away with time. I am one of the many crooked pieces making the beautiful mosaic
of this wonder family. I treasure my role in the making of the mosaic.I cherish
the imprint I have made to its final piece, and I value the effect it has
etched in me. As I continue to nurse patients each day, I carry this beautiful
mosaic on my heart. Each unique shape reminds be that a big heart can be the
best adjunct to the strongest medication or therapy, and can do wondrous things;
even in a setting of singing monitors and beeping call bells.
