rejuvenated

i took a six week vacation. and it might have been the best thing i have done for my career. ever. i came back (not wanting to go back to work, but) feeling rejuvenated and ready for the challenges that a nursing career presents. and since i have been back in the country for 2 weeks and back at work for six shifts, i have had a more positive attitude and many positive - dare i say 'special' - moments.

my first week back, i took care of an older bulgarian gentleman who had had a transplant 2 weeks prior. unfortunately, he did not speak english. and hence, caring for him was difficult. so much of assessing our patients come from conversation. an interpreter appeared every morning at 10 am - which was great and helpful. but inevitably, at 10:31, after the interpreter left, i would discover one more thing i needed help translating. can you imagine not fully understanding what was happening to you in a hospital? transplant is one of the most complicated medical phenomenons and this poor gentleman couldn't ask questions whenever he pleased, simply because of a language barrier. anyway, my joy came when, on my second day of caring for this man, i used a phone interpreter for the first time. within 1 or 2 minutes and the touch of a few buttons, i was able to get a bulgarian interpreter on speaker phone. my patient and i could talk whenever we wanted now. we could talk about intractible nausea and persistent diarrhea or we could talk about the weather. the ease and freedom that this phone brought to my patient and his wife was indescribable. after having a long translated conversation, i hung up and was cheered and celebrated as if i was a celebrity. my patient held my hand in the air, like a boxing champ. his wife said, "nurse christa good." we all had tears in our eyes. it was a strangely special moment - to give someone a voice. after three weeks in the hospital, i think my patient finally felt heard.

another funny experience... i had the opportunity to care for a sweet, sweet 29 year old female on our floor. she wasn't the warm and fuzzy kind of sweet. she was the rough and tough, shaved her chemo hair into a mohawk, kind of sweet. her cousins sat at her bedside playing wi-bowling, eating chips and salsa. it was almost a party in her room. but one day, she was alone and sullen. we talked, girl to girl, 29 to 30 year old, heart to heart. i acknowledged how unfair it is for someone our age to be sick, with CANCER. i asked some questions - how long has she had the C word, how was she diagnosed. and she relayed the story. she had gone to her gynecologist with what she thought was herpes. after many tests, all of which came back negative for for HSV, she discovered she had AML (leukemia) instead. her joke was, "i think i'm glad i have leukemia - at least there's a cure." true enough. transplant is a possible cure; herpes has none. let's hope her cure works!

the same gal, after i had cared for her for three days in a row, requested that i be her nurse every time that i worked. what an honor and compliment!