My Christmas Story

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.

We've all been gearing up for Christmas (and the holidays in general) ... so how'd it all go? I for one would like to share my Christmas morning story, in the hopes that all I went through will not be for nothing.

I've been on since Friday, so Christmas was my 4th in a row. I got to bed at a decent time, alarm set. Christmas morning, I was awakened by my cousin busting into my room (I sleep in the dark basement ... this is important), flipping on the lights and yelling at me that "the cops are here and they need to see you!" I looked at my alarm clock, and it read 5 AM. I was confused. I looked at another clock (a battery operated one) and it read 9:30. Seriously, 9:30. Work starts at 7. Oh crap.

I threw on my scrubs and ran upstairs to be met by a police officer who my brother graduated high school with (so he knew right well who I was). "I just had to see if you were alive. Merry Christmas" he said. I found my cell phone, where there were 8 missed calls and 4 messages from my work, ranging from "Where are you?" to "Um, we're really hoping your house didn't burn down" to "Okay, don't be mad, we're sending the cops to make sure you're okay." I finally got in to the unit, and they revealed that, when the supervisor didn't get back to them, they went online to find my address and dispatched the cops to see if I was okay, hoping they weren't going to surprise the wrong family with a visit from the police. Can I just tell you that I love the nurses I work with? They were all so forgiving and just helped me laugh it off.

Unfortunately, they were able to be so even-keeled was because OUR unit was fully staffed. The NICU wasn't (nothing against NICUs! I love them! It was just the particular unit that wasn't staffed in this case), so I got floated, where I endured 8 hours of comments about calling the cops in case I got lost. =(

How were your Christmases? I'm praying they weren't as dramatic as mine. I'm never going to live this one down .....

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Wow! That sounds like some morning!

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Ho Ho Ho-ly guacamole! Yes, my Christmas was definitely less dramatic. How fortunate you are to work with people who care so much about you! Belated Merry Christmas, AliRae. :Ball:

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