Marcy Diamond
November 2020
Marcy
Diamond
,
RN
Neonatal ICU
Tampa General Hospital
Tampa
,
FL
United States
Marcy has become a light for us in this dark time, encouraging us to celebrate the small things.
There are people you meet who become such an important part of your life that you cannot imagine what things would have been like without them. That is our booger queen to us, Marcy, the best night nurse to have ever graced the hallways of one the scariest places for any new parent.
NICUs are never the way you picture your life as a new parent, and it is not a place most of us think about unless we are unfortunate enough to need to. You become a mother, but you don't feel like a mom. Your child is dependent on the care of their nurses and you, at least in the beginning with a small, fragile, and medically critical newborn. You are dependent on the permission of others to touch and meet the most basic needs of your child. Changing diapers, taking temperature, holding my baby for an hour at a time became things I obsess over and look forward to every day.
During our time at Tampa General Hospital, I have realized how incredibly important nurses are. They became a lifeline, sometimes the best advocate, and in these COVID times they have become friends. Nurses talk and listen to me, they let me cry and have comforted me when I have needed it. They have helped me feel better, laugh, look beyond the walls of this hospital and our circumstances, and look forward to better times ahead.
Marcy is one of these nurses, she has become a light for us in this dark time, encouraging us to celebrate the small things, pushing us to take ownership of our child's care, helping take fun pictures of and with our son, picking up coffee for us when we weren't allowed out of the NICU, always showing up with an incredible attitude and kind words, and providing compassionate care to our son. She is never in a rush and makes us feel like there is no one more important than us while she is in our son's NICU room. She never fails to check on him if his alarm goes off, even for a second, and she has a way with the suction machine that can find any little booger in my son's little nose regardless of how well it is hidden. She makes us laugh and listens to our concerns. We share things about our day-to-day life and for just a few minutes, it reminds us that this is only temporary and someday we will go back to living our regular lives where this will be a distant bittersweet memory of our son's first few months of life.
I look forward to telling our son the story of the angel nurse who spent nights getting him to be the strong little warrior boy he is slowly becoming.
NICUs are never the way you picture your life as a new parent, and it is not a place most of us think about unless we are unfortunate enough to need to. You become a mother, but you don't feel like a mom. Your child is dependent on the care of their nurses and you, at least in the beginning with a small, fragile, and medically critical newborn. You are dependent on the permission of others to touch and meet the most basic needs of your child. Changing diapers, taking temperature, holding my baby for an hour at a time became things I obsess over and look forward to every day.
During our time at Tampa General Hospital, I have realized how incredibly important nurses are. They became a lifeline, sometimes the best advocate, and in these COVID times they have become friends. Nurses talk and listen to me, they let me cry and have comforted me when I have needed it. They have helped me feel better, laugh, look beyond the walls of this hospital and our circumstances, and look forward to better times ahead.
Marcy is one of these nurses, she has become a light for us in this dark time, encouraging us to celebrate the small things, pushing us to take ownership of our child's care, helping take fun pictures of and with our son, picking up coffee for us when we weren't allowed out of the NICU, always showing up with an incredible attitude and kind words, and providing compassionate care to our son. She is never in a rush and makes us feel like there is no one more important than us while she is in our son's NICU room. She never fails to check on him if his alarm goes off, even for a second, and she has a way with the suction machine that can find any little booger in my son's little nose regardless of how well it is hidden. She makes us laugh and listens to our concerns. We share things about our day-to-day life and for just a few minutes, it reminds us that this is only temporary and someday we will go back to living our regular lives where this will be a distant bittersweet memory of our son's first few months of life.
I look forward to telling our son the story of the angel nurse who spent nights getting him to be the strong little warrior boy he is slowly becoming.