Musings by The Poet Loriet - Hysterectomy Patient With A Shrek Balloon

Her Crystalline Gaze by Mayfair

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Hysterectomy Patient With A Shrek Balloon

Code Blue Recovery Room
Code Blue Recovery Room
Code Blue Recovery Room

She had enough...
Morphine, Demerol, Fentanyl
to kill a small cow...
and her chart read that
she goes into respiratory arrest
with narcotics on board,
and it was no small wonder
that she stopped breathing,
needed resuscitation.

Then, they sent her to me
along with my other nine patients,
all brand new C-sections,
and said, "She's fine now."

33 years old and she peeked at me
through blonde curls with a
smile of recognition, "You...
were my nurse three years ago,
when my little girl was born.
She got me this Shrek balloon."

I smiled at the extra-large
green ogre head that floated
protectively above her siderail.
I looked at the Morphine pump
attached to her I.V.,
the very hair of the
dog that bit her...
and I shuddered.

She had a little girl,
a family, and she looked
at me with trust after
almost losing her life
earlier today.

My eyes stared back,
trying to tell her,
"I will not let you down.
Nothing will happen to you,
not on my shift!"

Every time I walked down the hall,
I was like one of the new mothers
who awoke to watch their babies breathe...
I stood over her bed for a few moments
in the dark (Shrek and I)...
watching her chest
rise and fall,
fall and rise,
rise and fall.

Like a Roman Empire...
and I was the guard.
Because I knew Shrek,
cute as he was,
would be useless
in a code.

Lori Beal