An old man walked up a shore littered with thousands of starfish, beached and dying after a storm. A young man was picking them up and flinging them back into the ocean. "Why do you bother?" the old man scofted. "You're not saving enough to make a difference." The young man picked up another starfish and sent it spinning back to the water. "Made a difference to that one," he said.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Day 88- and 90-Thank God for Good Nurses

At the end of March I had to have a minor surgery.  I guess anytime one goes under the knife it can be a bit frightening.  I am always nervous that I won’t wake up.  I saw this on an episode of Greys Anatomy once where a girl went in for minor surgery and never woke up.  That show is real....right?
We had to travel to Illinois for the surgery and arrived very early.  My husband was starving so we stopped at the Corner Bakery Café to grab a bite to eat. Well my husband got to eat and I had to sit staring at him since I was not allowed to have any food prior to my surgery.  I was starving. I hadn’t eaten anything since the prior evening and seeing coffee cakes, bagels, eggs and bacon made my mouth water. While we were there I saw this nice cellophane wrapped coffee cake.  I knew after my surgery I would be out of it for the rest of the day so I had to tackle my gift prior to going under the knife.  I bought the coffee cake and had decided to give it to the staff that would be involved in my surgery today.
Fast forward a couple of hours when I am lying in my hospital bed with my gown and shower cap on with an IV sticking out of my arm.  The nurse came in and I handed her the bag with coffee cake. She was so surprised and didn’t really know how to react.  I shared with her about my gift giving journey and today my gift was to her, the other nurses and doctors that would be with me during the day.  I was basically saying, “you are going to feel really bad if you killed me!” Just kidding, but the thought did cross my mind!
Two days later I would mail a gift card for the Corner Bakery Café to Nurse Jodi.  She was the nurse that was with me when I came out of surgery and stayed by my side until I went home.  She was so caring, compassionate and patient and took extremely good care of me.  The gift card was to say thanks and that I appreciated her kindness.
These were both fun gifts to give because they were unexpected, well deserved and probably to two women who often go unappreciated.  Take time in your life to say thank to those that go above and beyond to help you out, make you feel comfortable in your time sickness and pain. Hopefully you will be as lucky as I was to have wonderful nurses taking care of me.

No comments:

Post a Comment