A LEAP OF FAITH

First Step

UCSF Medical Center
San Francisco, California
July 21, 2001
Gia

"Damn," Jeremiah, the lone male nurse working today said as he washed his hands at the nurses' station sink. "I've been stuck in this room for half an hour. His rectal bag exploded. Code fucking brown."

"JB... Why do you have to be so graphic?" I asked, chucking the piece of chocolate I was eating into the garbage bag, my appetite for anything brown gone. "Please tell me you gowned up."

"Gig, there's no way in hell I would clean that mess up without a gown, a mask, and whatever else I can find to cover myself up," he commented, his eyes on the double doors through which Jung Jin Lee just left to go to the meeting he had been so keen to mention to me. "What did I miss? And who was that hot dish of a man you were talking to?" He picked up a chocolate square from the box sitting at the nurses' station, a gift from one of the patients' family and popped it straight into his mouth without a thought, making me grin. Nurses can eat anytime anywhere.

"You didn't miss much. Katya got a new patient with a balloon pump in 44," I answered. "And you need to stop saying stuff like 'dish of a man'. This is how people get the wrong idea about male nurses."

"I was just trying to be one of the girls," he said, putting his hands up in surrender. "And he was dishy. I’m comfortable enough with my masculinity to admit this."

"As you should."

Jeremiah was one of a half a dozen male nurses in this ICU, one of the two who worked day shift. His presence and strength were invaluable, as well as the much needed testosterone in an environment dominated by women and their hormones. I also trained him when he was a student and recruited him when he graduated, mentoring him as he passed his boards. Over the years we've forged a solid senior-junior relationship, making him a little loose with his opinions and words.

He was complaining about the new schedule when he stopped mid sentence and nudged me on the shoulder. "I almost forgot," he said. "I have something for you. Wait here."

I watched as he walked off into the nurses' break room before I sat myself down on the charge nurse chair. It wasn't long until I received another page from registration, a new post bypass surgery patient coming from the OR being admitted into our last room. I quickly dialed the on call nurse's number, ready to apologize for calling her in so early. It turned out that was totally unnecessary as she had been trying to pick up overtime, and a 1:1 assignment is not so bad a way to get it.

By the time I finished the phone call, JB was back at my desk, putting a cream colored envelope over my papers.

"Don't tell me," I said happily as I opened it. "Finally. You and Amy are finally sending out invitations."

Amy was JB's fiancée, his girlfriend from his college years, and they had been engaged for the last two years. I stood up and gave him a warm embrace, truly happy for him and his soon to be wife. I wholly and totally approved. I'd gone out with the two of them a few times for drinks and she was a lovely girl.

"It's not for another couple of months, but I know you like really advanced warning," he said. "Plus I know you probably have your life planned for at least six months."

"I'll be there, with a party hat and whistle," I said as he ruffled my hair and I smacked his arm. "Congratulations."

"You can congratulate me again once I've walked down the aisle," he said. "Bring a date."

"No thanks," I said lightly. "You're only working eight hours today too, right?"

"Yep. You are too?"