Worth It

So working in the ER can get pretty wild at times. I worked on Friday and I had a very interesting patient to put it mildly. I had a guy somewhere between 50 and 60 years old- not super old but not super young. He had been having some chest pressure for a week but was pretty stable. He had been in the ER with us for a while and I was getting ready to admitt him to the hospital for observation- no big deal right? He and I had even been joking around together the whole time he was there. So I go out to get another patient who had showed up and as Im talking with my other patient suddenly I hear- "code blue ER, code blue in ER" and my other patient was the only one there....needless to say I am SHOCKED and dash out of the room Im in and into my other patients room where there are already about 10 other nurses and the Dr. givving my patient CPR- and honestly all I can think is WTF and then I just start working- and then suddenly he is alive and fine again. As he told me "It was like I was waking up from a dream" He had died for 7 seconds.... it was wild. After that I sat and talked with him as we got things ready for him to be transfered. Well we transfer him to Des Moines and he did fine and was released pretty quickly.
Yesterday I worked and I was running all day long. It was a pretty bad shift. I wasnt probably in the best mood. Im being pulled in 12 different directions when our receptioninst calls back to the ER and tells me I need to come out the desk. I go out to the desk and my patient from friday is there- He was visiting a patient in the hospital and heard I was working and came to say hello, and thank you! I gave him the biggest hug-it was so wonderful to see him completly fine and walking around like nothing had happend. He told me this "I just wanted to see you and say thank you and to tell you that the only thing I remember is you sitting with me and that you had the most beautiful blue eyes"
Sometimes you just need someone to tell you that you made a difference to make a whole shift better :) What an amazing story the two of us now share!