I am a young mother and nurse when this event takes place.
The babies are probably about 2 and 6.
I am only working at Lady of the Sea
in the capacity that is called flex.
They call when they need help and you
can say yes or no.
The hospital had been really slow that month
and I was glad because the few times they had
called me I was not able to go in to help
because the kids had been sick.
On this such day the hospital called to see if I
could go in for 4 hours to help.
HOBL was offshore and it would mean finding a sitter
for the babies. Usually I would refuse but for some
reason I just felt like going.
Felt like I wanted some nursing time.
I called Mumsie and she came to keep the babies.
I went in for 3 and was only working for 4 hours.
Usually in this capacity you would be assigned a float
position. Helping the other nurses but not being
assigned patients. However, on this day I was
asked to be responsible for 4 patients until the 7:00pm nurse
came in for a 12 hour shift.
I go with the flow, so of course this was no problem for me.
I was getting report from my cousin, Shana who had
worked the day shift when we began discussing a
man in his 40's who had had surgery that day.
He was scheduled to have his gallbladder removed
but when the surgeon went in to do a simple gall bladder removal
he opened up to find a young man with an abdomen full of cancer.
He and his family were devastated and shocked.
He was put to sleep to have a gallbladder removed
and woke up to be told that his life was about to change.
At this time in my life, I didn't have many medical complications
from my cancer treatments so did not talk much about the miracle of my life,
especially to patients who I did not know well.
My first visit to his room was for assessment and I walked in to
a room full of grief. The patient was laying in his bed,
his wife sitting on the bed with him holding his hand.
They both would begin crying with any mention of what
they had just discovered.
There were also many family members there.
His children, his parents, his in-laws.
Shock was on every face that I saw in that room.
It did not cross my mind at that time to discuss my cancer survival.
The surgeon had given him a grim outlook on what could be
done for him and the oncologist was coming the next day
to discuss treatment options. Yet right then, on that day,
they were trying to absorb what they had just found out.
I left the room after trying to give some comfort to see the
other of my 3 patients.
When I got to the last patient I had an overwhelming feeling to
go back to my cancer patients room.
I did and at that time it was just he and his wife left there.
I asked if I could share something personal with him.
He agreed and words came spilling out.
(Do not think I am coo-coo I tell no lies when it comes to this.)
I do not know exactly what I said, it was not prepared.
I shared how I too had cancer at 5 and my family was given
the same grim news as he had received that day
and yet, through chemotherapy, radiation and more
prayers than one little girl should ever need,
I beat the odds and many, many years later,
I was still here.
His eyes were glued to me, his wife began to cry.
I hugged both of them and left.
My shift was soon over and I returned home to my babies.
I knew I had taken part again in God's work but didn't
really think about it much, I was young.
A few weeks later I am at Wallet-World with the babies in tow.
I see his wife and she comes to me and hugs me.
I ask how things are and she reports that
her husband had began chemotherapy and his prognosis was not good
yet he had something that he received that day from me
that he did not have before I spoke with him, HOPE.
Again, the Big Man had put all the pieces in place for
this man to get what he needed.
This is written about 18 years later,
wonder what ever happened to this patient.
Funny, I can't even remember his name today
but his face, always etched in my mind and heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment