Anesthesia Dance

Here’s this week’s reflection. I hope it resonates with you and ask that, if you enjoyed, please comment and share on your social media. Heartfelt thanks for all your support!

Keeping the light on for you,

Carol

I study the monitor screens before me. Displayed in a rainbow of color and a pulse tone, the usually rhythmic waves are my visual and audible vocational artform. Most people will never understand, but the always-in-motion bits, bips, and blips are an integral part of who I am. This soothing white noise provides a context of what matters.

A passion for life.

A vigilant caretaker, I listen and watch both mortal and machine, making adjustments as necessary to ensure their song stays in tune.

My chosen field provides the honor of participation in the choreography of the circle of life. From the joy of birth and ongoing vitality to the solemnity of one’s final moments, and everything in between.

Vital signs and their scientific siblings can offer up chaos as well as calm. As a human experience begins a different melody, my cadence keeps pace. I’m a DJ in the Club of Constant Change. I carefully remix everything from simple ballads to the rock ‘n roll or heavy metal of one’s being, finding the best rhythm, melody and lyrics in any given moment to care for the life in my possession.

To empathize and advocate for a life unable to speak under my watch is a sacred privilege. My calling’s tagline is ninety percent calm, ten percent sheer terror.

When decibels crescendo to foreboding, our professional disco morphs into a rapid and educationally calculated step sequence. This particular Ballroom of Darkness calls forth intelligence, ethics, and efficiency – a modern sway of technology and chorus line of skillsets. The goal is always the same and reverently shared by all: the preservation of life.

Despite our best efforts, some whirls in an operating room end, slowly, quietly, and with dignity after a lengthy resuscitation. A decrescendo into eternity, witnessed with tribute by those most indebted to their care. It’s this solemn waltz that can question our calling. 

Certainly one not for the faint of heart.

But we compassionately return to that same auditorium, ready for our next patient’s unique anthem.

And we dance.