I believe I have talked about a certain patient that I have taken care of numerous times. This man is in his fifties and expected to be in the hospital for a surgery for 5 days, but it has now been over 6 months since he has been able to leave. They've had to reconstruct his stomach, gallbaldder, and intestines (pretty much everything in his abdomen). Even though he has had days where he is too weak to get out of bed and accidently soils the bed, he has never shown sadness, ungratefulness, or depression. He also hasn't been able to eat for 6 months, and his favorite past time was cooking. Instead, he watches the food channel, which seems like torture but he just still loves studying cooking.
A few weeks ago I wrote him a long thank you letter for the person he is. I told him how much I admired his spirit, integrity, and his hope he always kept alive. I went on for about two pages and I won't go into the specifics, but I left it for him just hoping that I wouldn't creep him out and he would at least realize how much the whole staff liked him.
Yesterday, I walked into his room to fix some things in his room and he asked me to talk to him for a bit. We chatted for a little bit and he told me, "You have no idea how much that letter has meant to me. That letter is the best letter I have gotten in my entire life...I can't thank you enough for telling me what you told me." I may not be the most religious person in the world, but I definitely believe in a higher power that guides you to do different things, whether it is a guardian angel, a spirit, or just your subconscious. I sat down to write that letter only because I felt this HUGE urge to do so, and I'm glad I did. I think it is interesting that a couple days after I wrote that, I got a call informing me I had gotten into the nursing school. Good things go around, I guess?
Class is freaking fantastic. I feel like I am playing in our labs where we are listening to each other's lungs and counting pulses. Today in class I was told me had to do a service learning project for at least 2 hours every week. Crap...more work?? Aghh...we are already in class 30 hours a week!! But after listening to the options we got to choose from, I am very excited to get involved with the projects. I need help figuring out which choice I should choose. Should I choose:
A) Go to these special apartments that house refugees (mainly from Iraq) and teach them how to adjust to American life and teach them health practices with the help of an interpreter.
B) Go to Family Support Center-a place where parents can drop off their kids at anytime of the day when they feel overwhelmed and can't handle their kids anymore. Many of these kids come from broken homes and are abused, and it would mainly be babysitting them and letting them have fun. I just don't know how I would do with kids who are misbehaving.
C) Go to a Hospice Care Center-instead of dying at home, many patients will live there until they die and I could go in whenever I wanted and just sit with them and talk. Essentially, no one wants to die alone so even if they weren't speaking back, I would just talk about myself and the news so they still had some human interaction. It may seem really sad, but I do have a fascination with the transition from the end of life and the after life. It would be a life changing experience that many people don't get to have until it is their own loved one in the bed.
D) Be assigned to be a friend to a special needs client. Ex: cerebral palsy, MS, old age, etc. These people don't have a lot of friends because friends tend to go when you are suffering for so long. I would take them to the park, go grocery shopping, watching TV or movies, or just hang out and talk with them. The coordinator for this program said that several nursing students continue to visit these clients even after they graduate nursing school because they love it so much.
E) Work for Body Worlds Exhibit. (Dave W, Dad, and I went to this over Christmas. Bodies w/o skin are displayed and you get to learn a lot about the human body) I would either work at the information desk, answer questions about the body for people, or even do showings of dissections for people. This would be cool, but I am afraid I would end up just at the info desk and it would be more like a job than a cool life experience.
All of these projects are only for this semester and I can only choose one. Even if you don't know me personally, I would appreciate anyone's insight into which one I should choose!!
5 comments:
Great post. I'd go with the hospice, but I've never been with someone at the time of their death (I envy, and am grateful to, Allison for being there when Grandpa O died). The babysitter and Body Worlds things would be my last choices, but even those would be interesting, so I don't think you can go wrong here.
In other news, Dave and I have started home teaching a 64 year-old RN who works 32 hours a week at the local hospital. She said she earned about $120K last year. Not that that should be your primary motivation, of course....
Dad
What a wonderful post, Becca! Most uplifting. How great that following through on your inspiration produced such a nice result. I agree with your dad on the service choices. I worked as a hospice volunteer (I'm thinking of resuming it in the near future) for a year before Grandpa died. The training was really interesting. It was hard in some ways being with people close to death, but it's important work and can give you a deeper experience of being alive. I also like the idea of helping Iraqis. They've been through a hell of a lot and deserve some help.
Yeah, I'd say Body Worlds would probably be my last choice for you, because while it would be cool to share your knowledge with people, that seems the least "you" out of all of them (sitting at a desk, I mean).
I agree that the hospice thing would probably be a really life-changing experience, though I'm sure it might be difficult (but then, it's service, right?). I also think that both the special needs and Iraqi options would provide a lot of really interesting learning experiences.
So basically, I'm no help.
Your post almost made me cry. I got real emotional about you writing the patient a letter. So thoughtful. I love stories like that. You inspire me.
I agree with the others, hospice would be my choice. When my Grandpa Gardner was in hospice, I went to sit with him. It was hard, to see death so closely, but I will never forget the experience. I was able to offer support to my dad, who rarely left his side. Dad told me stories of G-pa, and it was nice to get know him just a little better before he died. In short, I think you could gain a lot from volunteering at a hospice.
Is it too late to weigh in?
Honestly, I'd probably choose the Iraqi thing. Do I need to explain myself? I think you'd meet some fascinating people and be able to learn so much from another culture. But I'm a nerd when it comes to the Middle East, so I fully understand that others may not share that interest.
Hospice would also be interesting, and you already know my feelings on that. The hospice workers were so great with Grandpa, and they left some really interesting reading for us. It was amazing to learn about the "stages" of death. Spiritual, amazing, stunning, but also just quiet. It could be emotionally draining, though.
Those are my thoughts--have you already picked?
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