A mom post tonight…
I love my job. I really and truly do. Like becoming a mother, it was the one thing I always knew that I wanted to do. I would spend my childhood summers planted at the pool and when asked I would tell everyone that I wanted to be a lifeguard. To take that childhood passion and actually be able to parlay it into a career has been one of my most joyous accomplishments. I get a satisfaction and fulfillment from work that I don’t get anywhere else
Only recently have I discovered a downfall to this job. Since Lily’s cardiac arrest I have struggled with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) – especially at work. I’m in an environment where our main goal is to ensure that our staff are ready to react in a moments notice and to react to the highest standard. It’s what I’ve been doing since I was 15 years old, as a lifeguard myself, a trainer or a programmer. And every once in a while (and more often than I would like), we end up talking/hearing about situations that have happened at one of our sites – we come together and talk about how it went and what could be learned and taken away. These moments now fill me with dread. As soon as people start talking I can feel myself get clammy and cold and my hands start to shake. I try to take deep breaths and calm myself down, I even leave the room to try and keep it at bay, but I’m always brought back to the moment of Lily’s arrest and knowing that I failed her – and myself. When someone stands in the front of a room and tells us that EMS says that we can “never push hard enough” (during CPR) I’m filled with guilt – knowing that I couldn’t push at all. And even though I know, in my head, that I’m the only one thinking it, I can’t help but feel as though If I were to repeat my story to this group of co-workers, who all share the same common work goal, all they would see is failure.
PS – I know that it’s one day after Adoption Day and I should still just be reeling from happiness but sometimes that’s the downfall for sharing this journey with us – there are ups and down’s and they come whether we like it or not.