Then and Now

Last week, a series of texts between my nursing-student college sophomore about his clinicals that day:

Son:  Clinicals were fine, starting to learn how to do an NG tube

Mom:  Oh wow!  That sure brings back memories!  I can also do an NG tube.  Or at least I used to be able to!

Son:  Well, you can't put one in a person, you can just do upkeep on one and do feedings, right?

Mom: No, Dad and I inserted one for you multiple times!

Son:  Ohhhh ok.

        That's fire!

        We are only learning how to do one through the nasal cavity right now.

Mom: long-ish explanation filled with memories, summed up like this:  Yes, we inserted one for you lots of times for the first two months you were home from the NICU.

Son:  That's kinda crazy. 

        I did not know that.

        Thanks, Mom and Dad.

        Ya'll goated fr

Then dear old mom proceeded to share lots more memories with my son about those days and months.  Over 20 years ago, it all seems like a bit of a blur and definitely surreal now.  I recall being at Riley and the NICU nurses telling us our baby might be discharged still on oxygen, apnea monitor, and with an NG tube.  And I recall immediately thinking, "Ohhhhh no thanks!! We'll just stay here until he doesn't need any of those things, thankyouverymuch!"  But, as time passed, the reality became clear that after seven weeks in the NICU, our little guy was ready to come home, still needing all three of those things I had politely declined several weeks earlier.  And miraculously, we discovered we could do hard and scary things, especially when it came to taking care of our child. 

So fast forward almost 21 years later, and our son, the little fragile baby who needed an NG tube, is now learning how to insert them on patients.  It feels like a bit of a full-circle moment to me. Nurses always played a huge part in our son's hospital stays, and he can call to mind many specific nurses who were "goated" as he would say.  During our text exchange last week, we were remembering one of them, and my final text to him about it all was this:

Mom:  Someday Isaac gonna be the goat to his patients. ❤