Why is life like that?
It seems like every time I post now (which is not very often at all) it's about work. And yet again, this one is about work. It definitely gets me thinking and stirs up all sorts of different emotions.
This morning I finished my regular work rotation getting off my night shift at 7am. This rotation wasn't like any other one though. I work on a orthopiedic Trauma unit. I see car accidents patients, gun shot and stab wounds, snowboarders ect. But occasionally I get a patient who is a bit of a different situation. This rotation I had two patients in with pathological fractures. This means that they're bones were weaken by (in this case) Cancer and just break under the person's weight or if they twist their body a little too far. I've had one pathological fracture patient before, but they were 70 years old and had lived a good life. One patient is 60, with metastisized Breast Ca. The other patient was different, the patients was just a year older than me, she is 24. She was just diagnosed in the fall, and already the Cancer has spread through her body and she is considered a palliative care patient. How is it that this can happen to someone so young?! I help her get up out of bed every time she needs to go to the bathroom because her legs are so swollen she can't lift them on her own.
Over the past four shifts I've gotten to know her a bit, she has a great outlook on life, but I can't help but feel like crying every time I go into her room, or every time a family member or friend comes out of her room and smiles at me. Why am I the one who is so upset about this, they all seem like they're doing really well with the situation, as terrible as it is. It's the family and friends visiting that affects me the most. She looks sick, so it's easy to look after sick people, it's what I do, I'm a nurse, but it's seeing her friends all the same age as her, and looking really healthy that reminds me that she was once healthy too. She had hopes and dreams for her future. Now her future (most like only a few months) includes sleeping 75% of the day, always feeling nauseated, barely having he energy to make converstation with loved ones and worst of all, constantly having new nurses, doctors and other health care workers popping in to see how she's doing. Okay, she definately has a better outlook on life than I do, she seems to make the most of it and she tells me that she prays a whole lot. I wish I could be as strong a person as her.
The other day, I was in the room when one of the doctor's was talking to her. I wanted to scream at him, he was talking down to her, like she was a little kid! Just because she's sick and needs help doing regular activities does not mean that she is dumb, or infantile. I'm sure he didn't even realize that he was doing it, but still, if it were me he were talking to like that I would have been really upset and hurt. Sheesh, she's older than me and he was talking to her in the kind of voice you'd use with a 10 year old.
I think that this hits me even more because my boyfriend's friend just passed away from cancer in the summer, and she was the same age. I never met this friend, or haven't even heard that much about her illness. I just know that it was the same sort of situation, amazing person, great outlook on life and tons of friends and family supporting her.
Just the idea that it really does happen to REAL people scares the #%@* out of me!
This morning I finished my regular work rotation getting off my night shift at 7am. This rotation wasn't like any other one though. I work on a orthopiedic Trauma unit. I see car accidents patients, gun shot and stab wounds, snowboarders ect. But occasionally I get a patient who is a bit of a different situation. This rotation I had two patients in with pathological fractures. This means that they're bones were weaken by (in this case) Cancer and just break under the person's weight or if they twist their body a little too far. I've had one pathological fracture patient before, but they were 70 years old and had lived a good life. One patient is 60, with metastisized Breast Ca. The other patient was different, the patients was just a year older than me, she is 24. She was just diagnosed in the fall, and already the Cancer has spread through her body and she is considered a palliative care patient. How is it that this can happen to someone so young?! I help her get up out of bed every time she needs to go to the bathroom because her legs are so swollen she can't lift them on her own.
Over the past four shifts I've gotten to know her a bit, she has a great outlook on life, but I can't help but feel like crying every time I go into her room, or every time a family member or friend comes out of her room and smiles at me. Why am I the one who is so upset about this, they all seem like they're doing really well with the situation, as terrible as it is. It's the family and friends visiting that affects me the most. She looks sick, so it's easy to look after sick people, it's what I do, I'm a nurse, but it's seeing her friends all the same age as her, and looking really healthy that reminds me that she was once healthy too. She had hopes and dreams for her future. Now her future (most like only a few months) includes sleeping 75% of the day, always feeling nauseated, barely having he energy to make converstation with loved ones and worst of all, constantly having new nurses, doctors and other health care workers popping in to see how she's doing. Okay, she definately has a better outlook on life than I do, she seems to make the most of it and she tells me that she prays a whole lot. I wish I could be as strong a person as her.
The other day, I was in the room when one of the doctor's was talking to her. I wanted to scream at him, he was talking down to her, like she was a little kid! Just because she's sick and needs help doing regular activities does not mean that she is dumb, or infantile. I'm sure he didn't even realize that he was doing it, but still, if it were me he were talking to like that I would have been really upset and hurt. Sheesh, she's older than me and he was talking to her in the kind of voice you'd use with a 10 year old.
I think that this hits me even more because my boyfriend's friend just passed away from cancer in the summer, and she was the same age. I never met this friend, or haven't even heard that much about her illness. I just know that it was the same sort of situation, amazing person, great outlook on life and tons of friends and family supporting her.
Just the idea that it really does happen to REAL people scares the #%@* out of me!
posted by The Nurse Lady @ 9:22 AM
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