I started writing this post at 0420 this morning. I had been awake since 0230.... my mind was very active thinking about many things. I stayed up until 11pm last night I wasn't tired but I knew it was going to be a long day today so I thought I should try and get some sleep. I had a bad dream....which partially had to do with a program I had watched on TV last evening.Have any of you ever watched that program Intervention? It's about people who are addicted to drugs, alcohol, food whatever....but it's where the addiction has taken over their lives and the families have requested that an Interventionist steps in and helps the family see how they can help their loved one. The Interventionists points out to the families who their behaviours at times enables the addicts behaviours. The purpose of the program is to get the addict to agree to an intervention by way of getting treatment for their addiction. I watched back to back episodes. The first two shows dealt with people who were addicted to alcohol. The one man was in very bad shape. Being a nurse I have seen patients like him to many times to count. This man was so far along...you could see the tremors, the vomiting, the perspiration as it dripped down his face....his shear sense of anxiety and need to get another drink. It was very sad to watch. In the end these people did take the intervention....some people are successful some are not.
Another episode was giving updates on previous interventions....one was for a gal who was addicted to methamphetamine and the other was killing himself with food. Both of them had underlying issues regarding their sexuality and their families refusal to accept it.
The individual who was addicted to methamphetamine came from a profoundly religious family. She was a top notch athlete in the running for the Olympics. What I found disturbing in this episode was when the mother said that her daughters sexuality was demonic. I truly could not believe I was hearing this woman say this about her daughter. The father wasn't much better...they were making it sound that she was intentionally being gay to hurt them. Although I believe the parents thought they were speaking out of love for their daughter I found both their comments to be terribly hurtful and detrimental towards the daughter's well being. In fact it made me wonder if she possibly sought out the drugs as a way to escape and hide from the pain caused by her parents beliefs. There was a lot more to this episode than I am sharing here, but what stood in my mind was as parents we sometimes don't realize the effects our behaviours, actions and comments have on our children.
The reason I mention this is that last evening my middle daughter called me...I could tell she was upset....and I asked her what was wrong and she immediately broke down in tears.
You see back in September she started off on a new career path in the safety field as a Safety officer for construction sites. Now there is a lot of rules and regulations that govern jobs like these and having to be the enforcer of these regulations can be stressful. The soul purpose of her job is to ensure the employees that she is responsible for stay safe. In order to achieve this it is essential she ensure to the best of her ability that the standards are being met. This can be a daunting tasks especially when it is compounded with the fact that she is female working in a predominately male environment. She is knew to the site and has the responsibilty of telling someone who has been there for 15 years that they are not following protocol...not an easy task. As a result she has had to deal with the jeers and the derogatory comments...not a job for the meek and timid which I might add she is not. I tried to explain to her she is not there to make friends....she is there to make sure the workers are safe and that no one gets injured on her shift. If that makes her unpopular then so be it...chances are that reinforces that fact that she is doing her job. There have been times when she could have shut the site down but she didn't...instead she went the extra mile and did what it took to make it safe and to try to minimize the work stoppage.
So needless to say she is stressed. Yesterday she cut herself on a rusty piece of metal so she went to the First Aid and was going to write up the incident. The Superintendent at the sight didn't want her to write it up...told her to go pour some peroxide on it and put a band aid on it....now you know if I was at home...I most probably would have done that. But this is a job sight...it is the expectation that she follow protocol complete the necessary documents and seek medical aid. Setting standards can sometimes come with a price. You often make enemies and are not popular. Yesterday was no exception. She knew what she had to do. She also knew she had to get a tetanus shot. So when she called me it was around dinner time her work day was complete. She was on the bus on the way to the clinic to go get a tetanus shot. She was telling me that she really hated what she was doing. That she didn't want to do it anymore, that the only reason she was continuing was because she didn't want to let her father or I down. That broke my heart. I told I truly didn't care what it was she did as long as she was happy. I have not only said this to her in the past but I have said it to her siblings, and I stand by what I said. I don't care if she or her sisters bus tables for the rest of their lives as long as they are the best bus person they can be and enjoy what they are doing. You know what she told me, she said "Mom, I want to be a cop.....I am going to a recruitment session on Saturday" All kinds of pictures go flashing throuh my head. My daughter the Police officer, oh alrighty then,now my heart skips a beat.
