OS: Happy Mother's Day

"RN supervisor line six please…RN supervisor line six," the receptionist called over the paging system at Hollywood Hills Care Center (HHCC).

The RN supervisor, who stood at the IV cart preparing an IV antibiotic drip for the patient in room 116B, groaned inwardly. Putting down the IV bag she held, closed the chart and walked away from the cart.

"This is Geet how may I help you?" she asked as she answered the phone.

And the complaining began the next second. Geet pulled up a chair, rested her elbow on the counter in front of her as she listened on. It was nearly twenty minutes later and the conversation had just began to die down.

"I'm so sorry about that Mr. Bennett," Geet said over the phone. "I will go and check on your wife myself as soon as I hang up."

I have a headache.

That 'hang up', came another five minutes later. Geet then paged the nurse assigned to Mrs. Bennett and asked her to go and make sure the call light was within reach and that the pitcher was filled with exactly half way with crushed ice and water. Returning to the task she'd been performing the interrupting phone call, Geet couldn't help but reflect on it.

Since graduating from college with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing, she'd been an RN for about eight years now. She had started with HHCC - a skilled nursing facility that specialized in physical, occupation and speech therapy for patients post surgery, illness, accidents, falls and/or strokes - right after she got licensed as only a medication nurse. Her initial duties had been to simply pass medications, monitor her patients and make sure everything ran smoothly at her station. Then, about two years into the job, she'd been promoted to RN supervisor in charge of all of the nurses on a shift. Initially, she was oriented on the graveyard, 11pm-7am shift, but then was transferred to the morning, 7am-3pm, shift.

The difference between the morning and night shift wasn't much. Anything could happen with the patients at any time, medications still needed to be passed and rounds still needed to be made every two hours. The only major difference was that in the morning shift, the patient's families were more present. While Geet loved her patients, each a sweet and kind person (most of the time), their families were not so. And while Geet sympathized with them the best she could, sometimes it was frustrating. Of course the family members were worried about the patients and wanted only the best care, but they forgot that their family member wasn't the only patient the nurses were in charge of. HHCC had a maximum capacity of 150 patients and averaged about 140 to 145 daily. Sometimes, that meant that it took nurses a few extra minutes to answer call lights.

Then, another two years after that, she had been promoted to being the Assistant Director of Nursing. Usually she worked only Monday – Friday, but someone had called in sick and they weren't able to find a willing replacement. This is why she was working today, on a Sunday.

Once the IV dose was prepared, Geet dragged the cart over to room 116 so she could attach the medication to the IV line already inserted in the patient's hand.

"Good morning Mrs. Taylor," Geet called as she knocked and entered the room, "I'm just here to get you hooked up to the antibiotic."

Geet was making small talk as she attached the IV and then did a quick check of the patient to make sure she was comfortable and everything was going smoothly.

"RN supervisor line three please, pharmacy holding…RN supervisor line three," the receptionist paged again.

Geet excused herself to take the call that was being announced. She approached Station 1, took a seat and pulled out the chart for the patient in room 104C, Mr. Wexler. He was a new admit that had come in during the early morning hours of the day.

"Hello," Geet said as she picked up the phone.

"Was the medication for Mr. Wexler not delivered?" the pharmacy representative asked after he introduced himself.

"Yes, it was…that wasn't the concern or complaint I had," Geet said.

"What seems to be the problem?" he asked.

"You delivery personnel," Geet said.

She continued and explained that the afterhour's delivery personnel was beyond rude when he had come with the medications. He talked down to the staff, seemed agitated when one of the nurses stated she couldn't sign because it wasn't her patient. To top it all off, he left muttering something under his breath as he walked.

"I'm very sorry to hear that," the representative said. "I would like to apologize on his behalf and do hope you understand that it was his last delivery of the all night shift he worked."

Geet's anger suddenly catapulted.

Is he serious!

"Look, I don't care if he worked an all night shift, it does not give him the excuse to talk to anyone, let alone customers, like that," Geet said.

"Yes of course…but…" the representative began.

"No, there are no 'buts'," Geet said. "Many of my nurses work double, sometimes triple shifts, and that still doesn't excuse them to be disrespectful towards coworkers or customers. I can assure you, had that been one of my nurses talking like that to your delivery boy, they'd have been written up."

Geet had no intention of continuing this conversation with the representative. Instead, she got the name of the supervisor so she could call them and deal with the matter. After hanging up, Geet looked at the clock – it read 11am. She'd only been on the floor for four hours and already she'd had to deal with so much. She was just about to call the pharmacy supervisors when a nurse popped out from room 110 and called to her.

"I need your help Geet," Sasha, a fellow nurse called. "Patient in B bed pulled out her G-tube and her site is bleeding."

Just what I needed.

Geet shot to her feet and grabbed a treatment cart as she ran to the room. She entered the room with gauze in her hands to control the bleeding. This was one of the difficulties of working with this particular population of patients. Many of them came in confused in the late age that they were in and often didn't realize that things which were attached to them were done to help them. For instance, the patient in 110B was hooked up to a gastrointestinal tube (G-tube), which provided nourishment for the patient because she couldn't eat orally w/out aspirating – choking - due to her stroke.

"I'll handle this," Geet said to Sasha, "You go call an ambulance to transfer her to the hospital."

"Ok," Sasha said.

"Check her chart to see which hospital she came from after she had the G-tube inserted. We can send her back there," Geet said as she controlled the bleeding.

With the bleeding controlled, Geet assigned a nursing assistant to sit with the patient until the ambulance company came just in case the patient did anything else.

Twenty minutes, Geet signed over the patient to the ambulance EMT's. She went and checked all of her running IV's, then checked her IV log for the next set of doses she would have to administer before sitting down at the nurses station. She pulled out the chart for the patient that had been in 110B to document the incident that had happened earlier. If there was one bit of advice she could give to all newly licensed nurses it was documentation, documentation and documentation. It was her rule to record and document everything no matter how insignificant it seemed just to cover her own hide and the hospitals hide.

She was half way through the notation when she heard a page that got her adrenaline running.

"Code blue room 214, code blue room 214," a nurse called.

Oh God…not today.

Immediately getting to her feet, Geet rushed down the hall toward the utility room. As she ran, she passed another nurse.

"Call 911, tell them it's a code blue and make sure they have the right address," Geet ordered.

She rounded the corner of station two and saw a nurse coming out of the med room.

"Page maintenance with a key to disarm the alarm on the door by central supply so the paramedics can come in this way," she said.

She reached the utility room and rushed back out with the crash cart. As she entered the room she saw two nurses already doing CPR on the patient who lay flat on his back, his skin pale. Geet tried to detect a pulse but couldn't.

"What happened?" she asked as she took over doing chest compressions.

"I was just about to get Mrs. Salom up for lunch when I noticed she wasn't responding," the nursing assistant said. "So I called the charge nurse and she paged the code blue."

Within three minutes the sounds of sirens could be heard and immediately extra staff began clearing the room to allow the paramedics easy access. They entered with a stretcher and defibrillator, and began working on the patient immediately. However, the stopped quickly.

"Time of death, 12:15pm," one of the paramedics announced.

Within a minute the room was cleared of the paramedics. Geet returned to crash cart to the utility room as two nursing assistants pulled the privacy curtain around the body so that no other patient would see what was going on. Geet was walking past station two when she noticed the charge nurse already calling the family to inform them of what had happened, before calling the mortuary.

That was also the down fall of working in a skill nursing facility that had a long-term unit – patients died. Patients that you really cared for.

"I'm taking a fifteen minute break," Geet told the receptionist over the phone.

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She had only been sitting in the lounge for five minutes when she heard herself being paged again. She groaned but didn't budge.  

Oh, for the love of God!

The page came again, still Geet didn't move.

"Geet," someone called.

Turning to the door, she saw the charge nurse of station three calling out to her.

"I'm on break," Geet groaned.

"I know and I'm sorry but Jesse called from the front office," the nurse informed. "There's a family in the lobby that wants to speak to the supervisor."

"About what?" Geet asked.

"I don't know. Jesse didn't say," the nurse said.

Geet sighed out loud as she got to her feet.

"Duty calls," Geet complained.

"Sorry," she said.

"Not your fault," Geet said with a smile.

As Geet approached and then passed nurses station one, the one closest to the lobby, a few nurses were smiling at her.

Odd.

She walked down the corridor that led to the lobby and more nurses and nursing assistants smiled at her. The daughter for the patient in 122, went so far as to comment on how lucky Geet was to have such a loving family.

What the hell…

As she reached the lobby, it took her a few seconds to register what she was seeing. There in front of her stood her husband of six years, Maan Singh Khurana, wearing a huge grin on his face. On his right stood their five year old son, Ketan, holding a bouquet of spring flowers and a box of chocolates. On his left stood their four year old daughter, Nisha, holding a large envelope and a small wrapped box. And in his arms was their two year old daughter, Mahi, who held a teddy bear with a heart.

"Happy Mother's Day," Maan, Ketan and Nisha said.  

Geet stood, rooted on her spot, as she stared at her family. It was mother's day and she'd completely forgotten in the madness at work. It wasn't until Ketan and Nisha ran into her that she came out of her trance. Looking down she saw them hugging her leg, so she bent down and took them in her arms.

"Happy Mother's Day Mommy," Ketan said as he handed Geet the flowers and chocolate. "I choose the flowers myself."

"They're beautiful," she said as she smelled them.

"I love you," he said after he quickly pecked her cheek.

She was taken back when Ketan kissed her, because of all the children; he was most like his father – not expressive of his emotions at all.

"I love you too baby," she said as she kissed him.

Next came Nisha who handed Geet the envelope and small box. "Love you Mommy, Happy Mother's Day," she said.

"I love you too honey," Geet said as she kissed and hugged her oldest girl.

Geet was about to get back up into standing position when she saw Mahi wobbling her way. Mahi had been a late walker due to some deformities on her feet that had to be surgically repaired. Therefore, she was still finding her balance so Maan trailed close behind.

"Appy Other's Ay Mmy," she said in her sweet voice.

Mahi dropped the first syllable of the words she spoke. At first they'd been scared and worried but a child development language specialist assured them that some children talked that way because at this early age it was easier to do.

"Thank you sweetie," Geet said as she took Mahi into her arms.

"Ove ou," Mahi said as she smacked her lips on Geet's cheek.

Geet couldn't help but giggle. "Love you too."

"Happy Mother's Day Mishti," she heard Maan call.

Before she could respond, she was in his arms and he leaned down to quickly kiss her.

Geet smiled. Just as she was about to respond, Ketan spoke up.

"Open your gift Mommy," he said excitedly.

"We all went and picked it out for you," Nisha added, "Even Mahi."

Geet moved the flowers, chocolate, card and teddy bear to a table nearby and handed Mahi off to Maan as she took the wrapped box and carefully unwrapped it to reveal a black velvet box. As she lifted the lid, she was surprised at the diamond ring that in the middle. It had one large diamond in the middle and two pink diamonds on each side.

"There's three diamonds, one for each of us," Ketan said.

"Yeah," Nisha agreed, "The pink ones are me and Mahi."

"I love it," Geet said. "Thank you so much."

With that she enveloped her two older children in her arms. She reached for Mahi but she was too busy playing with the teddy bear.

"Can we open the chocolate?" Nisha asked.

"What?" Geet said caught off guard.

"Daddy said we could open the chocolate but only after we gave it to you," Ketan explained. "So can we open it now?"

Geet and Maan both laughed.

"Sure baby, go ahead," Geet said.

"I'm not a baby," Ketan said as he pouted and reached for the chocolate box.

"You will always be my baby," Geet said as she kissed him on his cheek.

"Eww Mommy, gross," he complained, instantly dropping the box and wiping his cheek as if it were infected.

Nisha picked it up and began to open it and soon Ketan joined her.

"This is an anniversary present as well," Maan said as he took the ring and slipped it on Geet's finger.

"Ha! You wish," Geet said. "You're not getting off that easily."

"I thought I'd try," Maan joked.

"I love it," she said as she kissed him, "Thank you."

Maan simply smiled. Geet soon found herself in Maan's embrace as they both stood and watched their children. They had been blessed with three beautiful and healthy children. Each of them were a joy and a miracle that Geet loved more than she could ever explain. The best thing about her life was her family – her husband and her children. She couldn't imagine a life without them. As she stood there, watching her children laugh and be happy, she couldn't help but think of how lucky she truly was.

"You are the devil you know that," Geet said as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"What did I do?" Maan asked.

"You're making me cry," she said, unable to stop the tears. "Thank you for giving me such wonder children."

"No," Maan said as he kissed her temple, "That you for being the mother of my children. Happy Mother's Day."

Geet didn't know how long she stood there simply watching her children. It wasn't until she heard someone call to her that she realized where she was.

"Sorry to interrupt," the person called.

Looking up, Geet saw that I was Sasha.

"What happened Sasha?" Geet asked.

"I have the son of Mrs. Salom on line five," she said.

Sasha explained that when the charge nurse had called Mrs. Salome's family about her passing, no one had answered so the nurse had left a message, so now they were calling back. The charge nurse, unfortunately, was out of the facility on her break.

"What do you want me to do?" Sasha asked.

"I'll take it," Geet said. "Just give me a minute."

"Sure," Sasha said as she disappeared down the hall.

"Duty calls," Maan said as Geet looked at him.

Geet quickly kissed Maan and hugged him before going back on her knees in front of her children.

"Hey guys, Mommy's got to go back to work," she said.

"Is someone sick?" Nisha asked.

"Yes honey," Geet said. "But thank you so much for coming. I loved the gifts and I love you all."

"We love you too," Nisha and Ketan said as they hugged Geet.

"Ove ou," Mahi said as she too wobbled over.

Geet lifted Mahi and nuzzled her baby soft cheeks before handing her off to Maan.

"See you guys at home," Geet said.

"Hurry home Mommy, we have a surprise for you," Nisha said.

Geet's eyes grew wide.

"Stupid, you're not supposed to tell her," Ketan complained.

"Ketan…that's no way to talk to your sister," Maan warned.

"Sorry," Ketan mumbled under his breath.

Geet watched for a second as Maan gathered the kids, the gifts and headed home. As she walked down the hall towards the nurses station, Geet realized that it was Mothers Day and she was about to tell a son his mother was no longer here with him.

After a painful and sad conversation with Mrs. Salome's son, Geet spent the rest of the day on cloud nine – a smile playing on her lips ever time the light in the halls caught the diamond causing it to glisten.

Later that night when she'd gotten home – later than expected due to another nurse calling in sick – she found her three children nearly falling asleep as they waited for her. Shortly after she got cleaned up, the five of them sat down to dinner, which the children had helped prepare. The table was set with her finest china, candles and the bouquet of flowers sitting in the middle of the table in a crystal vase. The surprise had been a chocolate cake which the children had not only helped bake but also decorate.

While Maan and Geet cut the cake and put them on saucers to serve, the children were in the family room watching a cartoon.

"Cake time," Maan called as he entered the room.

Geet was stunned to find the three of her children, curled against each other on the plush couch in front of the TV. While 'The Lion King' played, her three babies slept. Ketan was sitting with his back against the couch, Nisha snuggled under one of his arms while Mahi was sleeping soundly with her head in his lap and her thumb in her mouth.

My babies.

Both Maan and Geet placed the saucers on the table in front of them and then came and stood by the door way. Geet leaned into Maan as he draped an arm around her shoulder.

"I tried to get them to take a nap but they were too excited about the cake," Maan said.

Geet laughed.

"Thank you for all you did today," Geet said.

"You deserved ever bit of it…and then some," Maan said as he kissed her forehead. "You're an amazing mother."

"You're just saying that," Geet teased.

Maan ignored her comment. "I'm so glad that you are my wife and the mother of my children."

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.

"Happy Mother's Day," he repeated for the third time that day.  

Geet's face lay against Maan's chest, turned to the left as she watched her children sleeping peacefully.

Happy Mother's Day indeed.