November 29, 2010
This story, written in November 2010, was inspired by the care and treatment I received from Nurse Chelsea and a number of other medical professionals like her. I dedicate it to two special nurses that are very near and dear to me, my sisters Bonnie and Suzie.
For me, the spirit of Christmas has come to transcend purely religious beliefs and has become an annual celebration of humanity – truly “the most wonderful time of the year”. Humankind certainly has its positives and negatives, but for the month or more leading up to Christmas Day and the turning of the year, the positives tend to come to the forefront of our thoughts and actions and greatly overshadow the negatives. The side effects of such an outpouring of positive energy can be quite profound for some, myself included. This year, I had the opportunity to personally experience the highest level of positive human compassion when I underwent an emergency appendectomy and spent nearly 26 hours as a hospital patient.
It all began on the morning of October 13. I awoke with a mild but steady pain in the middle of my stomach. I had been enduring pain in my stomach for a couple of years by this point, so I didn’t think much of it. It was more of a nuisance than a debilitating pain. As the day progressed, however, the pain increased steadily. Nothing I did would bring relief to the growing pain. By early afternoon, I determined I would have to leave work a few hours early. En route home, the pain had become severe enough that I decided to stop at an Urgent Care Center in case it was something serious that needed to be dealt with right away. After waiting in the waiting room for 30 minutes with no hope of treatment in sight, I decided to leave the Urgent Care Center and drive the rest of the way home. Once home, I tried a few more things that were often successful at relieving stomach pain, but in this case, those things had absolutely no effect and the pain continued to grow worse. It didn’t take long for my wife to convince me that it was time to go to a hospital. Not wanting the attention that accompanies a ride in an ambulance, I had her drive me the 30 minutes it would take to get to the Yale New Haven Hospital. Going to that hospital, at that time and on that date brought me to the 26 hours that I will fondly remember for the rest of my life. Yes, I did! I said fondly!
From the moment I entered the Yale New Haven Hospital Emergency Department, I was surrounded by a multitude of medical personnel with varying degrees of experience and responsibilities that each seemed to have one notable thing in common: bedside manners that were far, far above anything I had come to expect based upon 46 years of prior medical care experiences. Through the morphine drip that quickly brought my stomach pain to a quite bearable level, I can clearly remember the faces and the actions of:
- the conscientious and attentive young doctor that began evaluating my condition;
- the two Emergency Department Nurses who tended to my minute-to-minute needs, one of whom shared with me her dream of becoming a Nurse Practitioner in the field of geriatric care;
- the supervising Emergency Department doctor who provided heartfelt medical counsel and served as my medical advocate right up until I was taken to the operating room;
- the five or so members of the surgical team that took the time to ask me how I was doing and to explain in as much detail as I wanted how the laparoscopic appendectomy would occur;
- the anesthesiologist and his team that sat with me while my surgical team was diverted to tend to the victim of a knife fight;
- the staff members who cheerfully drove my bed from the Emergency Department to radiology and, eventually, the operating room;
- the technician who administered the CT scan to confirm that I had an inflamed appendix;
- the pleasant ladies that frequently checked my vital signs to ensure that I remained in a relatively stable condition;
- and the dutiful gentleman who was constantly sweeping up the medical trash that would fall to the floor.
After hours observing and interacting with the Emergency Department staff, I certainly didn’t expect things to get better than they already were. I was so wrong! Upon returning to consciousness following the surgery, it turns out that the best hours of this pleasantly memorable experience were still to come. From around 2:00 am until the shift change at around 7:00 am, I was under the care of a Nurse with a strong but soothing voice. I believe his name was Scott, although those first five hours were a bit fuzzy. Nurse Scott was relieved by Nurse Chelsea at around 7:00 am. Nurse Chelsea cared for me until just before 7:00 pm when she convinced the doctor that I was ready to be discharged even though the plan had been to keep me there for another night.
It was during the nearly 12-hour period of October 14 that I spent with Nurse Chelsea that I realized just what type of hero she and Nurse Scott and those like them truly are. Prior to that realization, I had always thought of a hero as “someone who is at the wrong place at the right time and takes some action to improve the bad situation that exists at that place and time.” Nurse Chelsea made me see that an even greater hero is “someone who chooses on a daily basis to be at the wrong place at the right time and takes some action to improve the bad situation that exists at that place and time.” The extraordinarily positive attitude she maintained throughout the tasks she performed, tasks that most people would find far too objectionable to perform, was above and beyond anything I would have expected of a person in any profession. I also found the manner in which she handled my restless and irritated roommate to be quite admirable, especially after several hours of having to deal with the brunt of an increasing level of frustration with his assigned doctor. Due to her professionalism under stressful circumstances, Nurse Chelsea aptly shielded the doctor from the wrath of his patient.
As Christmas approaches this year, I reflect back on those 26 hours in the middle of October when I had the joy of witnessing humankind at its absolute best. For that, I wish to thank Nurse Chelsea, and all the other heroes just like her, that go to work every day with the intent of making our world a better place to live. For me, people like Nurse Chelsea are the embodiment of the spirit of Christmas each and every day of the year!
May this Christmas fill your hearts with the same joy I have felt since seeing humanity at its best!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!
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