A three year old little girl stands in the lobby of a hospital. It smells odd. She’s there to have surgery. She doesn’t know exactly what that means, but it sounds painful. Like a doctor’s visit, with needles and stuff involved. Before she gets to the elevator with her parents, three sisters (nuns) walk in front of her. It’s a weird memory she’ll carry with her for the rest of her life. She walks into the elevator with her parents. They are holding her tiny hands in theirs. They get out on the 5th floor. A nurse greets them and takes them to the room. This is where the little girl will spend the next several days. There’s a bed against the wall. It can move in all sorts of directions, different from her bed at home. She already misses her dog. There’s a knock at the door. It’s her doctor. He’s a tall, lanky man with dark hair and kind eyes. He talks with her parents about surgery, but she doesn’t understand what they are saying. She won’t understand until many years later. Soon, a dinner tray arrives. She gets to eat in the bed, but the food tastes nothing like her mom’s.

The next day, nurses come and take her to the operating room. Her parents must stay behind in her room. In the operating room, it’s very cold. The nurse gives her medicine that makes her sleepy. When she wakes, she’s not yet in her room, but the nurse is there, giving her medicine because it hurts. She falls back asleep.

When she wakes again, she’s back in the hospital room. Her grandparents are there to visit with her. They’ve brought toys for her to play with. She later forgot what toys they brought, but in the moment, it was like having another Christmas. The nurse brings her Jello. She also brings a shot. The little girl doesn’t like shots. The nurse makes her turn over and gives the shot. It hurts, a lot. It’s the first of many in the next few days.

The next day, her other grandparents visit. They bring more toys. It’s Christmas again! Her brother is going to be jealous that she has so many new toys. She misses her dog.

She just wants to go home. After a few days, and more shots, they finally let her go home. She does not know it yet, but she will have this surgery again in two years, then eleven years after that, and one more time as an adult.

She also doesn’t know that this first hospital experience will shape her life in a profound way. It will set her on her lifelong path. It is the impetus that makes her decide to become a nurse.

This was 1977. The three year old girl was me.