ACLS and Funerals

I am proud to say that I am officially certified in Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS). A few months ago, it was decided that all of the labor RN's needed to obtain ACLS, that way we can recover our patients who end up general anesthesia for a c-section. Rarely, does that happen, but up until very recently, we had to call a nurse from the PACU to come recover the patient afterwards. There are horror stories about taking ACLS training and having to do the "megacode". But, it wasn't so bad. It wasn't my idea of a good time, but now I will know what drugs to push if my patient, God forbid, goes into cardiac arrest. The thing is, I'll probably never, ever have anything to do in a code. I am not on the hospital's code team, we rarely call a code (only know of 2 since I've worked OB)and by the time the code team gets to us, all we'll have time to do is grab the crash cart and start compressions. ICU is directly under us. So response time is very quick. Which, is just fine with me. But, I'm still ACLS certified either way. Feels good to be done with it.

This past week, Husband's grandmother passed away. She'd been sick for quite awhile and she's been ready to go "home" for several months. She had been seeing her late husband, a daughter who died years before and a late son-in-law, so we all knew her time was running short. She was ready, and although it is never easy to say good-bye, as we all want her here, she is no longer in pain and is with her family and God. This will also be the first time Jacob and Clara will go to a funeral/visitation. We've tried talking to them, trying to prepare them for seeing Great-Grandma, looking like she's sleeping, trying to explain that it's just her body and that her spirit is with God, etc. They seem to understand as well as can be expected for a 4 and 5 year old. Part of me wants to shield them from it, because, really, our society's approach to death is strange. We force the immediate family to stand next to their loved one, lying there in a coffin, for hours while people come through to give condolences and have a "last look". I remember that was how it was explained to me when my grandmother died when I was in kindergarten. A last look. But, death is a part of life, they know about God and Heaven so hopefully, they'll do alright.