The Pager

Technology.

It is an amazing accomplishment of modern times.

With the touch of a finger you can find anyone, anything, anywhere in the world in a matter of milliseconds. One of my favorite memories growing up was visiting my great grandmother (Grandma-great) who, born at the turn of the century, had the most amazing stories about things I could only read about. The first dial telephone, the first airplane, the first television. Her stories were fascinating and I could sit and listen to her for hours recount her many years on Earth. I remember when we were first introduced to the computer, I was in sixth grade. My generation never had cell phones in high school. But a select few of the "cool" people had pagers. I am familiar with pagers of varying kinds.  Proudly being in a family with numerous fire fighters and having been on the fire department for 12 years myself, I know how crucial and disruptive they can be. Ringing out at all hours of the day, a cry for help that must be answered. The pager that is a part of my family now is no different.
It goes with us everywhere like another arm or another child. As we go through our routine checks for an outing it is among the list.

Diaper bag...check,
drinks and snacks for everyone...check,
little people...check,
pager...check.

It doesn't discriminate regarding what day it is, what time it is, if there is any family function going on. It rings out as a signal of distress beckoning for services. It never really bothered me because it is all part of the deal. Until we had kids.
It is no secret that our children are not the world's best sleepers. I was a new mother with a colicky 12 week old. I finally got him to sleep after hours of singing, rocking and bouncing. It was just after midnight and he'd been asleep less than an hour. And then it happened. Crying out in the quiet still night, the pager. I laid there holding my breath and two seconds later the piercing cries of our son could be heard. At which time I am pretty sure I cried myself. I picked up our son and began the slow pacing of the room again. And I could hear my husband in the other room ordering a stool softener. I thought at that moment I could strangle the nurse on the other end of that call. I have had a few years of nursing under my belt, with plenty of night shifts, and not once in my years did I ever call a physician in the middle of the night for a stool softener. I guess I just never saw that as an emergency. We had another incident not too long ago of similar caliber with our daughter. However, that time it was much more warranted and therefore I could not be upset about that. Most of the time if it's a night when my husband knows it will be heavy with calls he will sleep in the other room so as to not disturb our light sleepers. There are many reasons to be thankful for modern technology. Albeit being quite disruptive, they are a means by which people can get a quick response in times of emergency. And so we reserve ourselves to the fact that though the pager is not a part of our family pictures it is very much still a part of our family.