I would be remiss if I went to bed tonight without sharing just a tidbit of my day via the world wide web. Besides the fact that housekeeping decided to buff and mop the halls in front of all of my patient's rooms while two separate patients were: 1) not breathing very well ....and 2) having chest pain...thus forcing me to tread water to get to them, I also had the pleasure of answering these two questions at different times during the day:

1. "The patient's blood pressure was 67/66. Is that kind of normal for pediatrics?"

aaannnnnd my favorite.....

2. "You can still see after they put a glass eye in, right?"

(My answers to both these questions were, of course, yes....absolutely.)

So my front lawn kind of looks like a small rainforest right now. The dandelions are turning into trees and I've spotted squirrels making their homes amongst the crabgrass. (Mild exaggeration)

I decided to finally mow my lawn this morning but was (gasp!) reminded of the fact that there's a reason my roommate usually does this part of the chores. Wait for it..........

I don't know how to turn on the lawnmower.

Please don't make fun of me, I also have never dove from a diving board.

The reason is simple,

The appearance of trying to learn these two tasks with the general public looking on, had always appeared more embarrassing than just not doing them. (Okay, it's a little more psychotic-looking now that it's written down rather than in my head, but oh well.)

So I proceeded to mow my lawn today with a rotary mower that I have lovingly called "the hippie mower". Usually when I use the hippie mower, my neighbors try to contain their laughter as they walk by watching me struggle to get this thing to cut any grass. (Just a blade, please!)

But not today!! Today, as my neighbor rode by on his bicycle, I cringed as I looked over expecting to see the usual "don't laugh right now" face. Not today indeed.

No, today, as he rode by, he shouted at me: "Goin' Green! Woohoo!"

And so, what I never thought I would ever say while a resident of God's green earth (no pun intended) came quietly out of my mouth:

"Thanks, Al Gore. Thanks."

In the last week at work I've seen:

  1. A two year old with a black eye, skull fractures and a lacerated spleen. (a type of blunt abdominal trauma  that usually only happens in car accidents or extreme force) This child was not in a car accident.

   2. A four-month old with a skull fracture and old blood on his head CT scan. (related to trauma or shaking) This child will be allowed to go home with his parents because according to CPS, they have too many cases to investigate and will have to investigate this one at a later time.

   3. A brother and sister with substantial weight loss who started gaining weight once they were admitted into the hospital and fed properly.

    4. A 23-month old little girl with a neck fracture, colostomy bag, lacerated spleen and liver. This one was in a car accident, but it was because her mom decided to drive 90mph while doing meth, put her baby in a seat-belt instead of a carseat and then crashed. The seat belt saved her life, but ripped right through her abdomen. According to the nurse in the ER, the mom was so focused on the headaches she was having from her mild concussion that she never asked once about her baby in the gurney next to her that was having CPR done and being put on a ventilator.

I won't elaborate on all the kids I've seen over the years, but sexual trauma in 3yr olds, extreme neglect and abuse in infants are not just things that happen once a year on the news.

   Now, normally I don't share this stuff with friends outside of work. It kind of makes me a "Debbie-Downer" at parties and such. And besides, my specialty is oncology and people really don't want to talk about that. So why now? Why write about it on a public blog?

Because when I got off work this morning, all the usual stuff was running through my head. You know.....disgust, anger, relief that I'm not that kind of a person. I call it the "Jerry Springer" mentality. Where I'm almost morbidly fascinated by these extremes of humanity gone wrong. Because it makes me feel just and self-righteous when I compare myself to people who do stuff like that. Just being honest here.

Because once there was a quiet moment in my thoughts, I clearly heard the Lord ask me: "Do you believe that I died for those parents as well?" "That they are just as deserving of my grace?"

Because I honestly couldn't answer Him.

Because my Bible says that "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)   And that: "All have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God" (Romans 3:23)

Because in the Bible, the hated and scorned were the ones Jesus spent time with.

The tax collectors and prostitutes.

Nowadays, people are irritated by the IRS....but I wouldn't call them hated and scorned. And prostitutes have become almost chic in our culture. Even in the church, their salvation is seen as a badge of honor. To see a woman saved and brought into an understanding of her true value and worth is priceless. I'm not saying it isn't. But it does seem that they're not as hated and scorned as they were when Jesus was alive. They're not as ignored by the church as they once were.

So when I think of who would be the modern day equivalent of tax collectors and prostitues, I can't help but think of child abusers and rapists. And I can't help but ask myself: "How would Jesus treat them?"

And last week, as I walked past the mother of the 2yr old with the black eye as she sat in the hallway at 3am text messaging someone while her child sat unattended in the room next door......I think I heard the answer to that question.

Because as I went to pass her by, I felt the Lord say: "Ask her if she wants a cup of coffee and see how she's doing."