chapter 1

My name is Danielle, I just graduated from nursing school and looking for my first job. Most of the hospitals I applied to, want at least two years of clinical experience. I finally found a job at a nursing home in a small town. The home didn’t have a lot of facilities or activities for the residents, but they made up for it in a different way, which I was going to find out.

I started on the “grave yard” shift, being new. My co-workers, who I noticed were all overweight, said there would be openings soon during the day shifts, as the turn over for the professional staff was pretty high. This was mainly due to young professionals needing to get experience to move into the better playing and more glamorous hospital jobs.

I should tell you a bit more about me. I’m only five foot one inch tall and weigh, at the time only one hundred and ten, well, let’s say one hundred and twenty five. I did have a case of the “freshman fifteen”, so I’m just a little “curvier” than I’d like, but I still think I have a nice figure.

I came in on my first night shift at 11:00PM. I was greeted by the duty LPN, Stacy, who was quite overweight, but really kind of cute. She got me a couple sets of scrubs, size small, I got changed in our break/dressing room. Stacy said, “It’s your turn first.” “What?” I replied. “Oh Dannielle, it’s your turn first for dinner. We serve dinner here at 11:30 to 12:30AM for staff and any of the patients that are up.” “Oh, okay Stacy, I’ll go down and get some dinner.” I went down to the kitchen area and met several other staffers from other wings of the home. I noticed that all of them were either overweight or obese.

The serving was buffet style and I was encouraged to fill my plate, which I did and finished it, and at the insistence of my new co-workers I got another plateful. I then had an ice cream sundae for dessert. When I got back to my station, I had to loosen the draw string on my scrub pants, I was pretty bloated.
I relieved Stacy, so she could go down and eat. When she got back, I noticed she was bloated too.
Stacy took me around to the various patient rooms. We had to check several patients during the night to be sure they were okay. We also had some medications to give and a few blood pressure checks too. We went into one of the patient’s rooms, her name was Marge, she had been at the facility for several years and knew just about everyone on staff. She was very obese, being quite short and weighing over two hundred pounds. She greeted me, “Hello, I’m Marge and you must be Danielle, the new RN.” I smiled, “Yes, I’m Danielle, it’s very nice to meet you Marge.” I replied. Marge kind of looked me over, I must look very petite standing next to Stacy who is five inches taller than me and at least fifty pounds heavier. Marge smiled, “Danielle, you will really have to watch your slim figure here, there always so much good food to eat.” “Marge, please just call me Danny.” “I will do that Danny.” We gave Marge her medication. I noticed that there was a large platter of cookies by her bed and at least one empty platter under that one.

Stacy and I finished our rounds and were sitting at the nurse’s station chatting, when one of the kitchen staff came by with a platter of cookies. “Here’s your late night snack ladies,” leaving the platter on the counter. Stacy reached up and took several cookies, “You should try these Danny, they’re really good.” I took a one, and she said, “Oh Danny come on, I can’t eat all these myself, her have some more.” She handed me six cookies. “Stacy, I can’t eat all of these.” “Oh come on, of course you can, Danny, they’re so good.”

I of course “caved” and ate the cookies, feeling bloated and full. We did our rounds again, checking on patients and meds. We really sat around most of the shift. Stacy told me the day shift really had a lot more work, but there were four nurses assigned to that shift.

Finally it was morning, I thought about getting ready to leave, when Stacy mentioned, “Oh Danny, you can go have breakfast in the kitchen, we get two meals during every shift, so go eat.” I went down to the kitchen and I was served a huge omelet full of bacon and cheese, a couple of pancakes with syrup, coffee and orange juice. I ate everything feeling stuffed again. I thought about what Marge had said during rounds, about watching my figure, now I see what she meant.

I got back to the station, to let Stacy go eat. I sat there rubbing my bulging belly, thinking I really need to either work out or stop eating so much. Stacy come back, patting her round belly, “Oh I love breakfast here, it’s so good.” A few minutes later the day shift nurses came in. I noticed that they were all overweight or obese, just like Stacy, now I was worried about not just about gaining weight, but now how much!

I settled into a nice routine. I arrived ate a big dinner at midnight, then a huge breakfast at six, not to mention snacking on cookies most of the night. I started to eat cookies while I checked on Marge, she always insisted that I eat with her. I usually got home around seven-thirty, I did some errands and had lunch. I slept for a few hours in the afternoon then I had supper, went back to bed until ten, got up showered and started my day again.