In the many weeks since I last put fingers to keyboard, I have written many blogs - in my mind that is. So as my first blog for this outreach I wanted to write about one of my personal experiences with a patient.
Working as a charge nurse, I don't have quite as much interaction and direct contact with the patients. As of late though, I have gotten to have many shifts as a "Real Nurse" as I like to call it; where I am a regular ward nurse and have my own patient assignment.
So one of my first shifts as a "real nurse", I had the privilege to have a young man named Teejay as one of my patients. During hand-over - the previous shift gives information to the on-coming shift - the night nurse told me that Teejay was very quiet, melancholy, didn't want to get out of bed, and kinda depressed acting. He spoke very good English (as opposed to the local language of Krio), so throughout the morning I tried to make a point of talking to and encouraging Teejay.
As I gave him his medicines and feeding (by nasogastric tube) I would ask him questions and just talk to him. But still he would not speak or even smile. He would raise his eyebrows as a 'yes' answer or shake his head 'no'. I wasn't sure what to do about him, so I would say a quick prayer to God now and then to help Teejay; although I wasn't quite sure what kind of help he needed.
So, the morning went on, about 11am I was ready to start doing dressing changes on my patients. I did a couple other dressings that only took a few minutes and then I got the supplies and went over to Teejay. I told him what I would be doing, and that it wouldn't hurt. He raised his eyebrows in understanding. After removing the bandage, I cleaned the incision site and then asked him if he would like to see himself in his mirror (each patient gets their own little hand mirror). It took some convincing, but after I put the mirror in his hand he finally looked at himself.
His eyes lit up, he looked surprised. He looked at me and then back at himself. Then I saw tears forming in his eyes; he put the mirror down, reached for my hand and held it saying 'thank you! thank you! God bless you!' I had not realized that this was the first time the bandage had been removed since his surgery and he had not seen his new face yet! He smiled a small smile - he still wasn't sure how much he should move his mouth - and kept saying 'thank you'. I must say, my smile was huge! I had him take another good look at himself and then applied a new bandage.
I can't put into words how much this encounter touched me. To see first hand how someone's life and body were transformed and to be a part of that is more than I could have ever asked for. After his dressing change there was such a visible change in Teejay, he still was not exactly talkative, but he would respond when spoken too, smiled now and then, and was ready to start walking around to build his strength back up.
He has since been released to go home. I saw him a few weeks ago as he was walking down the corridor after having his post-op appointment. He recognized me and stopped to hold my hand and say 'thank you' one more time. His smile was much bigger now, he no longer had stitches and was healing quite nicely. I asked him how he was doing, he said he was very happy and was going to go back to school to learn a trade.
Teejay's tumor may not have been big compared to some of the other patients we have, but to him it was monumental and had altered his life in very negative ways. And now, his life had been changed yet again, but this time it was positive.
Seeing how tall Teejay is, in Admissions
Time to have vital signs checked.
Being prayed for.
