Angels

Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I had not been in the hospital since I was born. Hospitals were scary places to me, things where bad things happened. My journey has changed that misconception completely. Every hospital I have been in - Sequoia, Twin Cities and French - have been positive experiences and this is due to the nurses. Nursing is obviously a calling and the nurses are angels. I loved some of my nurses and liked some, but every single one of them took excellent care of me and was kind. When I went to Sequoia for my second cancer debulking surgery, the nurse I saw first who puts in the IV and does the intake information was the same nurse I had the first time. Two years later and she remembered me. She sees lots of patients every day, yet after all that time she remembered me. I was very impressed by that. After the surgery, for two or three days I had a nurse named Catherine. I liked her immediately because she shares her name with my beloved niece, but she proved to be an exceptional nurse and person. She was funny, she was kind, she was encouraging. She came in often and spent time with Casey and me. She brought a roll away bed in so Casey could sleep in the room with me. She made sure I had Julie as my nurse one night because I had fond memories of her from two years before. She brought me a small pillow to press against my stomach when I painfully got out of bed to walk. She decorated the pillow case with a picture of her cat, and she wrote on both sides. One side says "The nurses think you are awesome" and the other side said "Walk, walk, walk, deep breathe." I brought it home with me. I had one male nurse who was nice but not very warm. After Catherine came in to visit and spent time with him in my room he warmed up and became much more friendly. I don't remember all of their names, but every one of them was wonderful and took excellent care of me and also of Casey. When we got home from the hospital I had not eaten solid food for over a week and I was miserable. I was nauseous and weak. Our friend Linda, who is a nurse at Sierra Vista, came over about a week later. In addition to being an angel, she is superwoman. She is a nurse, a mom, a massage therapist, a Reiki healer, and she sings in a band. She brought me pressure point wrist bands, aloe vera juice for my digestive tract, made me kim chi which was the first food I was able to eat, and she gave me a massage because my back was hurting from being in bed. I felt mothered, which meant a lot to me because my mom had just died. She put me on the road to recovery and made my nausea manageable. I no longer fear hospitals, IVs, or surgery. I know now that hospitals are there to help us, and nurses are earth bound angels.

Namaste, Jill