Hangin' Up My Support Hose!!!

There have been major life changes happening at the Carpenter household over the last couple of weeks. First of all, Wade accepted a new position with a company out of Detroit. Wait, wait, wait... don't panic - we're not moving out of state. :) He will be working from home. He will, however, be doing some sporadic traveling. He assures me that he won't be out of town any more than he is now, it will just be more frequent 1-2 day trips instead of full week trips. The problem is that he won't be able to plan around my work schedule as well as he has been able to in the past. What's the solution, you ask? Well... I quit my job!

I have mixed feelings about it all. Being a PICU nurse has been MUCH harder since I had Clayton. Not to say that I wasn't sympathetic before, but now I have a much better grasp of the pain that those parents must feel. I have always tried to play it cool and answer "fine" whenever someone asks me about how my job is going. The truth is, that ICU nursing takes a toll on you. It is very stressful and emotional to take care of critically ill or dying children. It is hard to look at a child and know that they will never be "normal" again or to know that they will probably die before they ever get to leave the hospital. It can be so depressing. I have been fortunate, in that I have not had to make too many trips to the morgue in my 5 year career. That is what really gets me. No one should have to place a child in a body bag and take them to that cold dark room and put them in that stainless steel drawer. That is, by far, the very worst part. I spent several nights fighting back tears as the chaplain said a final prayer just before we closed that cold drawer. So... all that being said, it was a very hard 5 years of my life. There were many success stories, and that is what keeps an ICU nurse going. While I will truly miss all of the people that I worked with, I will not miss the heart breaking moments that come with that job. It was an extremely challenging job and I have grown so much in my time on the unit.

Now I am on to a different phase of life. One that doesn't require support hose, scrubs, or being up for 36 hours straight (that is until we have another newborn :) ). I am praying that Wade enjoys his new job and that everything pans out financially. It should be an interesting adjustment and one that will require us all to be flexible. :)

Here's a few pics that they took at work for a scholarship that I got in nursing school. Not the most flattering pictures that I have ever taken, but that is what I look like at 4 am at work. :)