My alarm went off at its usual time, and I got up, did my hair and makeup, put my scrubs on and went to work. I made it to Huddle on time, did that, went to breakfast with my friend, Cindy, and then went back to my office and fired up my computer. Going through emails, I saw one from a local news channel (which I am not supposed to be getting, but dang! How many times to I need to be cancelling news updates from one channel???) that mentioned a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had to click through and could NOT believe what I was seeing….

I may have gone a little bit numb, but I got payroll out by 11:00, then read up a little bit on the shooting. I really have NO words. About that time, I got a FaceBook PM from a Monat teammate that told me our sponsor (who is also my friend) was in Vegas this weekend. I could have sworn it was next weekend. My heart sank into my stomach. I went to her page to see her last activity, which was yesterday in Sedona, AZ. I hoped like hell she was still in Arizona. She was. She messaged me while I was at lunch.

But seriously… today’s world pretty much sucks hardcore!

That doesn’t detract from the now 59 dead and 527 hospitalized at last count. And then you have ISIS claiming responsibility for a white sixty-something man opening fire on all those concert-goers. None of this makes sense! The world today doesn’t make sense!

On my way back from lunch, I had my water jug in my hand, which is really just one of those 24 ounce super-cooled cups, when one of my Transport team was trying to get out of the elevator when another was trying to get on. I helped the first one pull the bed out of the elevator and held the door so that the second could get the bed into the elevator with a little more ease. I helped the first bed down the hall, because sometimes these beds have minds of their own. Turns out we were going all the way down to MRI. The Transporter made a comment about our patient’s hair, which was an absolutely gorgeous shade of grey/white, but under the hallway lights, looked like it had been tinted light lavender and baby pink. It really was beautiful! The patient was upset because she felt like after her chemo, it had left her hair yellow. We both assured her that it was far from yellow, and really pretty!

By the time we got our patient to MRI holding, she was scared to death! She had tears rolling out of her eyes. The original Transporter had another patient to move and all I had waiting for me in my office was a pile of paperwork. I told the patient that I would stay with her until her test. Our facility’s motto is, “Patients First,” so I held her hand for two and a half hours. One of our MRI techs asked her if she needed a little something to take the edge off her fear, and my patient told her, emphatically, YES!

Every time someone came through MRI holding, my patient (because now she was my responsibility, even though she wasn’t originally my patient), asked if that was someone with her meds. I told her who everyone was that came through that area, and that we were looking for her nurse, who would be in Navy blue and white, or Navy on Navy. Then I explained to her the color-coding of our departments. We carried on a pretty amazing conversation, this afternoon. She graduated high school the same year I was born. We talked about our kids, what my husband and I did over the weekend, her grandkids, and she was often confused. Then her nurse came and gave her a sedative. I told her, “See? Navy blue, right?” Then I relayed my experience on the same sedative that she took. We won’t go into that, here, but if you’ve been a reader since the beginning, you might recognize this, LOL! It tickled her!

I helped get her onto the MRI table, and told her that I would go find her sister and tell her what was going on, which I did. I also told her I would be back to take her to her room, because familiar faces. I then returned to home base and told our dispatcher that when she was done I wanted to take her back up to her room. That I did. I left my card with her, her sister, and left one for her son, who was coming after five.

My boss tried to get up with me, but with both of my hands holding hers, I couldn’t answer my phone, so I called him back, left him a voicemail and told him what my current situation was. He was totally cool with the fact that my numbers weren’t done, because, “Patients First.”

Once I got back to my office, I was able to run up to my boss’s office to get some paperwork that I needed to finish six of my employees’ evaluations. Got them back down to my office, and my patient was ready to go back to her room, so I went and got her.

We got off the elevator, and her sister was in the doorway (her room was by the staff elevators). I got her back into her room, made her comfortable, and called for our nurse. I got the hand-off sheet signed and I promised her that I’d be back in the morning to check on her.

I know that this is a long story, and for that I do apologize, but it is part of my life now, and sometimes my patients move me to tears. All I could think of was, “what if it was me in that bed, being scared to tears?” Would I want someone to stick around and hold my hand and get my mind off the issue at hand or not. Well, that’s a no-brainer. Or what if it was MY mom, and I wasn’t able to be there with her? I would absolutely want someone there to help her relax.

This patient moved me so much that I have no words, but I do have a lump in my throat for the other patients that I have not come across.

The hubs and I were supposed to walk the fair tonight, but I stayed late to finish as much paperwork as I could, because of people’s pay so we put it off till tomorrow or Wednesday.

So I get home and my husband says someone on Facebook said that Tom Petty was dead.

Do WHAT?

I told him that if it was on FB, it might not necessarily be news. But I googled, and saw numerous articles stating that he’d died after a massive coronary on Sunday night.

So as I was prepping for this post, I went back to look for pictures, like the one above, and found numerous outlets saying that nobody can confirm his death!

Dafuq? Is the man dead or isn’t he?

I’m, personally, hoping that he isn’t. Johnny and I had hoped to catch his next tour, as we both grew up on his music, from early teens to the present. His music spoke to us while we were dating. I remember sitting in the hot tub singing songs from the album Wildflowers to him. Those songs bring back the most romantic memories.

So all of that being said? I am going to call it a night because tomorrow is Tuesday, and I really need a Tuesday after today’s Monday.

How was your day? Thoughts on Vegas? Tom Petty?

Until next time…