"My" girl is all grown up!

710 Posts

Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.

Several years ago I started working w a lovely teen girl who has a disease in the MD spectrum who uses a wheelchair. She's smart, pretty, funny, and we established a fantastic rapport within days of my start w her. After a year of being her primary home health nurse, she went off to college several states away. For the last several years, I've only worked w her a night or two at a time when she comes home for holidays, and more during the summers. This past summer she stayed at college for classes, so I didn't see her for months. Well, she came home for three days this weekend and ... {sob}.... she's all grown up! Not only is she sporting a shorter hair style and business-like glasses, she's more poised in her speech and behavior, has less "silly" college stories of fun nights out, and speaks more of her classes and her future career path (grad school soon), and lost some of her juvenile ways, such as some good-natured teasing and playing pranks. While I'm incredibly proud of her achievements and her mature character, and overcoming the odds she faces with her physical challenges, I'm starting to feel for her the same wistful feeling I get from seeing my own kids grow! Work hazard or special blessing, it's hard to keep feelings strictly professional when you work in PDN. These kids become your own.