Even when I have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning to go.

Even when I have to clean poop out of an opening it shouldn’t be coming from.

Even when the hospital shuts the water off on our floor without telling us, so that everyone goes to the bathroom and is unable to flush for hours and hours, and the rooms and hallways start to smell.

Even when one of my patients spits up phlegm every five minutes into a cup that he leaves sitting at his bedside, and I have an attack of dry heaves in the bathroom just thinking about it.

Even when another patient vomits all over himself and the floor.

It’s worth it when they all tell me how glad they are that I am their nurse, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to going home at the end of the day, eating burgers, and hanging out with my fiance and my dog. I love my job, but some days I don’t like it very much.