Monday, November 3, 2008

My emotions got the better of me...

I always thought I was able to keep my emotions in check. Movies, TV Shows, books, music rarely makes me cry. Even when my brother passed away I barely shed a tear. Believe me, it’s not because it didn’t hurt! I’ve just always been the strong, serious one. Then today, almost out of nowhere, I get sideswiped by my emotions!

I was in class watching an educational video on head injuries and comas. I’ve seen many videos this year that dealt with a variety of difficult issues and I’ve always been fine. Most of them dealt with real people who witnessed real loss and I was ok… but today… ugh. There was a mother with her 7-month old baby who had a traumatic head injury in a car accident. The baby was essentially brain dead and the family decided to stop all forms of life support… but the little guy kept fighting for a whole 2 weeks. There was a scene where the mother was rocking the baby and telling him, “It’s ok, you can go now, I’ll always love you”… and I lost it. Even now as I reflect on it I’m crying. At the end of class I had to head to the washroom to try to compose myself before my next class.

This really took me by surprise. I still can't shake the image out of my head. I thought I would be ok working in pediatrics, but maybe I’ll have to revise that idea. :-(

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