Life as a Nurse — Mary Kessee

I graduated a nurse baby May of 2016. I felt so accomplished;. The emotions felt walking across the stage to receive a diploma is unlike any other. Add countless sleepless nights, 2 jobs, due with my first child 2 months post graduation, and praying night after night that it will all be worth it ; tears were an understatement.

I did it.

I was eager to save the world and take names. Ready to save some babies. Now…take some kiddos, add a little bit of organized chaos and you’ll find yourself in my world. The PICU or Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Now, before you begin making the scrunched up, pained face look I ALWAYS get -some believe i work in the saddest place on earth; hear this. I love what I do. I get to walk with children and their families during some of the most difficult times of their lives. I get to be a light where there is darkness, I get to hug and love on these babies when they may not always have anyone else and I promise if they are in my care, they will know love. I pray for these babies. I pray with their families. I am an aura of peace in the midst of chaos. I sit with mamas and daddies during hard times and ensure them that i’ll care for their littles as my own. If ever your child is in the hospital, you don’t even want to leave to shower or eat or even get a breath of fresh air. I get it. I am a mama of 3 . I would have to be torn away with a crowbar from their bedside, but I also understand that in order to take care of them, I have to take care of me.

Yes, there are times where Jesus takes them home and those days are unfathomably difficult, I could not do what I have been called to do without faith. I have held little hands as they take their last breaths, I have compressed tiny hearts fighting to bring them back, but I have also cheered and cried when they are cancer free, when they can walk or speak again, and when they finally get to go home away from the world that is the hospital.

Is my job difficult? Absolutely. Would I trade it for anything? Absolutely not.

Nice to meet you all. I am Mary the PICU nurse.