"Nurses - one of the few blessings of being ill." -- Sara Moss-Wolfe
My stay at Our Lady Of Lourdes was pleasant all due to the nurses.
One woman, G, was a single mother working hard to make ends meet. She was very religious, but the kind who wasn’t pushy and made it very endearing. Comforting my mother every other night, G also sat with me in my room to watch television – her favorite, Dancing With the Stars. In the midst of my stay, G gave me a bracelet. The bracelet has wooden squares each connected on a band. The squares are beautifully painted with religious icons.
“Someone needs to watch over you while we aren’t here, honey.”
The woman who ran the nurse department in rehab was very close with me. Instead of taking breaks in the cafeteria, she would sit in my room with a tray, prop up a chair and watch American Idol. We would talk about my friends, about life, about everything and anything that didn’t have to do with Multiple Sclerosis. She told me that I was such a great patient to have; all of the nurses would try to schedule their shifts to be on my part of the floor.
Though, my favorite was K. She was a free agent from the south, lending a hand at the hospital for a few weeks. The second time into my rehab, it was my darkest and hopeless stay. One night, I wheeled my chair out into the hallway to get “air” and she asked me how I was. Breaking down into tears, I told her God was punishing me, which this was my entire fault for things I’ve done. My family was suffering because of me. My future was up in the air; all I wanted to do was go back to college.
“You prove those doctors wrong, ya hear? I know you got the strength of 10 men in there,” she said as she comforted me at the nurse’s station.
“I want you to go to bed tonight with a dry eye, wake up in the mornin’ and think of all the wonderful things you can do with your life.”
Even though I left the hospital still in a wheelchair, I began planning my future – chair or no chair. I would help others, go back to college, respect my family and stop with the self-loathing.
Happy (belated) nurse appreciation.
UPDATE
This post is now printed out and hanging at the nurses' station. Thanks gals!
