The Last Section?

Woah, hard as it is to believe, the day has already arrived. Tomorrow will be my last shift at my job. It is possible that I may scrub in for my last c-section tomorrow. That is so just crazy and a bit sad to me. I’ve been working at the hospital for over ten years. Most of them have been on OB, as a scrub tech. I love working on labor and delivery. Being a surgical technologist is amazing. I will miss it greatly. I will also miss my coworkers, an amazing group of people – nurses, doctors, techs, anesthesia, so many ancillary personnel keep the hospital running. The staff is great! I don’t think, however, that I will miss the hospital politics, or the way health care seems to be trending – towards doing more and more with less. I usually have multiple roles at a time in my job and the duties were increasing. I never felt I was able to accomplish everything expected of me in one shift. While I love what I do, I don’t love my job, per se, anymore. I am glad to be getting the opportunity I have now. I’ve wanted to travel for quite some time.
Yet here on the eve of my departure, I am filled with nostalgia. I remember back to my first few days of watching c-sections and learning how to scrub. Surgery! Amazing, in and of itself, but a C-section is surgery, with a bonus prize! Like getting a second gift in your CrackerJack or cereal box. I remember the wonder and awe of those first few months, how I used to come home after every shift and write how many births I had attended that day, how many cesarean our vaginal deliveries, trying to keep a running tally…
I love being able to participate in a c-section! It’s an incredible feeling, being one of the first people ever to touch a new human.   And I love attending deliveries as well. I’ve enjoyed working in the nursery over the years. It’s satisfying for me, for example, to get a preterm or a late preterm baby who isn’t thriving appropriately to take a feeding.  I love being able to help moms get their babies latched on to breastfeed. All of these were the best aspects of my job over these last years and I shall miss them enormously….