To BE or NOT TO BE

My decision to become a Registered Nurse, began when I was five years old. When I came down with Pneumonia at age twelve and spent 2 weeks in the Lethbridge, Alberta Hospital,I loved the Nurses and that was what I wanted to be, when I grew up. When I graduated from High School.

I entered the Nursing profession.I enrolled in the three year Nursing Course at St. Michael's School of Nursing,in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada to become a R.N. We had six hours of book work a day and then were assigned to work on the Hospital floors. This how we learned hands on through watching the older Nurses perform their duties.

I loved my Nurses Uniform, I felt so professional. I lived on the fifth floor of the Nurses Residence. I had to attend Catholic prayers at 6 a.m. each morning. If you were late for prayers you were house bound. So if I slept in,I was usually was found dashing down the five flights of stairs, putting my uniform on while I was running. By the time I reached the bottom I was dressed. We didn't have an elevator in the building.

The Polio epidemic was raging in the 50's,many children came down with it, Penicillin was the new drug of choice, along with hot packs, which we applied continuously on their legs and arms. Also Tuberculosis was very contagious and the patients were sent to the T.B. Sanitarium at Calgary, Alberta, where they were isolated and treated. Pneumonia was very common, many developed it from the harsh cold winter weather in Canada, Treatment was again Penicillin and hot steamer in the room, and linseed poultices which we put on their chests. No antibiotics were available yet. Cancer was just starting very few cases were diagnosed.

On day, my younger Sister age 5 and my Mother came to visit me, she saw the red thing on the wall, which she hadn't seen before, and pulled it, she didn't know it was the fire alarm, she was little,the fire alarm went off and the fire trucks came.After that no visitors were allowed upstairs, in our residence to visit us.

The first year we had a Capping Ceremony where I received my Yellow band on my Nurses hat. Then the second year I received a navy blue band. The Third year I received a Black band, as my Graduation Ceremony. I received a dozen long stemmed roses when I graduated.

My Internship was at the Mental Hospital at Ponoka, Alberta, for three months.The food was all home made by the patients. We had fresh homemade rolls, everyday. Homemade Ice Cream was a favorite.Of course I gained 30 pounds there.
I helped give the electric shock treatments.You tie belts around the patient so they can't move. It erased their memory.

There was a lot of Schizophrenia patients there, some thought they were the Queen of England,or somebody famous.They sat around and smoked and rolled their own cigarettes all day. Man they were crazy!!One day I had to clean the toilets about 20 of them in a row, I found after I had done this I was supposed to wear rubber gloves. These were the toilets the Syphilis patients used.I thought I would get Syphilis for sure. There were rumors that if you worked on the second floor,this crazy lady would throw chairs and tables at you, That scared me to death. I didn't have to work on that floor. The Male interns were fun to be with, I developed a crush on one of them. We dated after work.

My next internship was the Calgary Crippled Children's Hospital,at Calgary, Alberta. While there I lived a Dorum next to the Hospital there were twelve beds for us. I had good experiences while training there. I worked with the Perthe's Children, they had a hip deformity's where there didn't have a hip socket.They were five or six years old.Every morning I would give them a bed bath,make their beds and wrap the tensor bandages around their legs in a splint to keep their legs at the right angle,then their foot of the bed was elevated, so their hip socket could develop.Then they could walk. They stayed in the Hospital for two years. We read to them, gave them games to play etc. They had to stay in bed all day.
There was a sweet young girl I remember about 8 years old, who had Osteomylitis in her legs. Where the bone in her legs,had staphylococcus infection and the infection oozed out of the skin on top of her legs. I had to change her bandages every day.
After I graduated in September 1959,I worked at St.Michael's Hospital for two years on the Medical and Surgical Floors.Then I worked at the Campbell Clinic as a Clinical Nurse for a Pediatrician.

I got married to James Brian Gough after Graduation. Three years later, I got pregnant with my first child.and quit nursing for a short period.
My husband and I moved to Medicine Hat,Alberta, Canada.I worked part time at the Hospital there, on a Surgery floor,for two years. then we moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

I didn't work in Calgary I had two little boys now,and they took all of my time.
We moved back to Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Where my Husband was called as Bishop of our Ward. He was a Furniture Salesman, drove a semi truck on weekends for Law Transport to Calgary.

I worked at the Medicine Hat Hospital, on the Labor and delivery floor part time three days a week.I loved this job,new babies coming into this world. Especially on New Years Eve, it was very exciting and busy,seeing who would have the New Years baby for that year. I had another baby boy while we lived there.
I worked for six years at this Hospital then, we sold our home and moved to Raymond,Alberta,Canada.

I worked as an Operating Room Nurse at the Raymond Municipal Hospital. I loved the Operating room, it was so interesting to work there. We did a lot of Gall Bladder and Hysterectomy's, Tonsils, D & C's, Hip replacements, Breast implants,casts on broken limbs. This hospital was a small Community Hospital with only 25 beds. So I was the charge Nurse on other shifts,we had only one Nurse and one Nurses Aide on each shift. You could be in the Obstetrics Dept.helping deliver a new baby or have someone else having a heart attack or diabetic reaction at the same time. Also you had to cover any Emergencies that might come in to the Emergency Dept.

One night our former Bishop came into Emergency, with his wife,he had been in a terrible,snowmobile accident, His wife immediately fainted on me.I had the Aide take care of her. He had driven through a barbwire fence, in the dark,cutting his face from the barbwire,in three places.Across his nose, across his chin and forehead. The Doctor and I worked together stitching him up so his face would not be scarred forever. It took over 200 stitches. He looked really good when it all was healed.

My daughter was born in Lethbridge. She was two years old now. Then we moved to Lethbridge, again I had made full circle and was back where I started.I drove to Raymond Hospital for a few months.One night when I was working there I couldn't drive home to Lethbridge, because there was big blizzard going on and the roads were drifted full. So I spent the night down the basement of the Hospital sleeping on a cot.All night the water heated pipes made such a noise I couldn't get any sleep.

Then my Husband left me,for another woman. I got a job at St. Michael's Hospital, again on the Surgical floor. I worked night shift so I could be home with my family during the day.I worked there for one year, Then I took the Nurses Refresher Course at the Lethbridge Community College.

After that I got a job working as a Nurse at the Lethbridge Correctional Institute{AKA} Jail.There were four Nurses working there. We had our own Health Office. The Dentist came three times a week and I worked as a Dental assistant.The other four days the Doctors took turns visiting the Inmates.We had a lot of drunks, there they would be put in the drunk tank, as it was called, until they were sober. Which was a room with a cement floor with nothing else in the room.Several would be in there at once, they would be lying all over each other in order to keep warm.

This was a great experience for me, one day I got called down to the cell block to give injection of 10 cc.s of Paraldehyde to a drunk who was having Delirium Tremors or D.T.s. He was seeing pink elephants walking on the ceiling. Four Guards held him down while gave my injection in his but.

Another experience, I had while working there was when a inmate set his mattress on fire and the whole cell block was filled with smoke. He was put in solitary confinement.This was a small room with no bed or anything in it.

Another time a inmate had a convulsion or seizure when he was carrying a hot cup of coffee. Which he spilled all over him, I took his vitals and watched him come out of the seizure. He recovered and was okay.

Another incident was when one of the inmates broke his light bulb in his cell and slashed his wrists with several cuts on both arms. Two guards came and held him down so I could clean and bandage his cuts. He was put on 24 hr. watch,and moved to a cell across from the guards.I worked there for about six months.

When you gave out medicines to the Inmates, you sat the small med cup on the cell bars, if you handed it to them, they could grab your arm and pull it in through the bars and break it.The Guards were the ones you had to watch out for then because you had a pitcher of water in one hand and tray of pills in the other. They would escort you across the cell block when you gave medicines, they would try to put their arm around you. At night the Guards would escort you to your car for your protection.If you were taken hostage they told us to swallow our med keys ,they were the keys to drugs.I never had to do this thank goodness.

Then I did Home Care Nursing at Coaldale,ALberta,Canada.I took care of a blind 80 year old man in his home. Then I took Sarinah with me on a day job to care for twin baby girls in a small rural home near Taber,Alberta. I took care of a blind three month old baby, which was very challenging.I couldn't give him his bottle when he lost it in his crib.He had to find it himself, but I so wanted to help him.

I also promoted a Read - A-Thon for School Children in Southern Alberta for the Multiple Sclerosis Society ,where I went to several public Schools with a young girl about 23 years old, who had Multiple Sclerosis and was walking with a cane.I explained what Multiple Sclerosis was and how the kids could help make money for this Organization by reading lots of books during the summer. It was a fun job for a few days.
I went to Beaverton,Oregon, met my Husband, he came to Canada after he finished his work there, We were married soon after in Calgary and proceeded immigration papers.In two months we moved to Beaverton, Oregon. I worked doing Home Care only making $ 4.00 a hour, A big drop from my Canadian wages of @11.00 a hr.My husband was out of work for two years from his construction job.

I did Home care in Lake Oswego, Oregon taking care of a Paralyzed boy about 22 years old. He was put into a vegetative state, when his car he was riding in the back seat was hit by a train. I worked the night shift. I turned him every two hours, keep his oxygen going.His Mother had become an alcoholic, his Dad was in charge of everything, including taking care of his wife.

Then we moved to Gilbert, Arizona, when I worked in Home Care again I took care of a Quadriplegic boy in his 30's for 15 years. He had been hurt in a car accident too. He was the passenger in the front seat.The driver didn't have scratch on him. The car was totaled when they hit a brick wall after drinking all night.His neck was broken at C3. He was seventeen when this happened. I worked for him until my back developed arthritis so bad, I had to quit. For I couldn't lift him any more.
I retired from Nursing to do other things.