The Kikay in Me

Each day breaks at 4:30, a morning in darkness. I hurry for breakfast and pack for lunch. Oops, it's 5:15! Have to dress for work NOW and make do with crackers and caffeine again. Sigh.

In my white overalls, I'm on the road at 6am. I have to be earlier than my preceptor. By 6:30, I've clocked in. Inside the complex at 6:45. At the dressing room is Peachy, my O.R. alter-ego.

Me, myself and I.

By 7am my suite must be clean, with complete equipment and supplies, and ready. Darn, I'm missing my cautery machine. I have to dash and find one!

Case starts 8am and I turn into Lady Jade. Gory with blood splats on my sleeve and shoe - ahh, the perks of surgical adventures. A fainting spell looms in this 4-hour scrub, but my calluses remind me of my nursing duties AND my oversight of my pamper-my-footsy-day yet again. I miss getting prettified and going to Hairs and Nails Salon.

Lunch is quick, with toileting and primping done. A stat appendectomy awaits. Yearning to snatch a little sit-down as my calves are killing me... No go! I scoot to scrub again, humming Happy Birthday twice in my head, with my best friends the betadine and sterile brush. I'll be scaling like mad post-shift, uh-oh. Read: Exfoliation in progress.

Quick stitch, transfer to PACU, clean-as-you-go, paperworks - check! I'm grabbing a stool to rest while filling forms for tomorrow. The whiteboard announces 4 cases! I really have to break my fast come morn!

A stat C-section held me up before 3pm, but was done in a flash. Great! Now I'm back to my whites sans the green cap and blue mask. Homeward bound!

Picked a few grocery items and I'm home at 6pm. Quickie change, quickie raise-my-legs session while perusing Kinsella’s Shopaholic Abroad and a quickie nap. Dreaming of a massage… Another sigh.

A tasty dinner by 7:30, a bags-and-case-notes-check and some online time over at Shoppingera and Kikay Much. Have to launder and hang Peachy tonight. I sneak glimpses of the soaps on the boob-tube while I press my other Peachy scrubs. Half a movie at HBO, some notes on my Belle de Jour and some chit-chat with family - that's socials for the evening, dear folks! I forgo the movie to snooze more hours and I'm in fluffy heaven by 9:40 post-kikay rituals. And I say a little prayer...

Rrriinnnnggg. Dreaming? I smell breakfast, so I MAY be awake. Four cases to table today and I'm jolted off my bed! Graveyard shifts next week spinning in my head while swiping some lipgloss and hairgloss. Hello undereye shadows, a possible skin break-out, difficult morning sleeps and a general bio-rhythm shift! A pseudo-closet rummage leaves me no fabulous choice but don my perennial whites. Fashion has a limited niche when you're inside the OR. But I'm smiling to what this day holds for me. 'Cause today, my lucky number is 4. Found the kikay in me yet?

An NCP for a Kikay in need of pampering.