I wanted to share with you all, a very important experience that I had during my hospital stay. Here is my note from Sunday:
Nightingales….
I am sitting here drinking a cup of tea in the hospital where I have spent the last 7 days with another bowel obstruction and hoping to go home today but felt the need to share one particular experience of the stay that has touched me deep within.
I have had very good care since I arrived and I am a repeat customer unfortunately. On my last night, around 9 pm, I received my 3rd roommate in a week. I was told not to worry, that she cannot speak and I will not even know she is there. Well, partially paralyzed and unable to speak from a stroke (from what I heard), she was able to yell out almost all night, the same two words, and moan. At first I rolled my eyes since I just wanted to be home already. As the minutes turned into hours, I witnessed all the nightingales going to work on a completely helpless woman. The kindness, concern, and true caring warmed my heart. It took all night to draw blood, begin an IV, give pain Meds, change her sheets (twice), clean her up, and who knows what else since the curtains were drawn, I could only hear. What I heard were true nightingales speaking to her with kindness and treating her with the dignity she certainly deserved. At that point I felt ashamed I rolled my eyes since, although I have no plans for this, I could be in her shoes some day. She was all of us rolled into one and I saw, or shall I say heard, the true meaning of why these people became nurses and I felt warm inside. Is this the reason all this happened to me? As most of you know I believe everything happens for a reason. I will ponder this while I wait for my soon to be coming discharge.
