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it's been one of those weeks at work... where everything seems to go wrong. our computer charting system went down on both sunday and monday. for hours. and although i HATE charting and not being able to may sound like a good thing, it's actually really bad, more than annoying, and totally unsafe. thankfully, nothing went disasterously wrong. well, nothing that i know of. but it was a rough few days. for one of many reasons.

one of my patients is 22 years old. that's unfair enough; right? listen to the rest of her story (i don't know all of it in detail, because i couldn't get into her chart long enough to find out her entire history). but, what i do know is that this very immature 22 year old is on my unit, suffering from non-hodgkin's lymphoma. she is in the middle of her transplant, waiting for her immune system to come back after the very high doses of chemotherapy and radiation she received. but the real kicker is - she is 12 weeks post-partum. that means, 12 weeks ago, she had a baby. her baby was born at 26 weeks - barely viable - 40 weeks is term. and while she is here in seattle fighting for her life, her premie son is fighting for his in spokane.

i'm not a mother, so i can't quite imagine how traumatizing this situation must feel. but i am empathetic. and loving. and kind. and i feel devastated for this family. my 22 year old patient has no significant other; there is no boyfriend, no husband, no father to her tiny son. thankfully, she has parents. and they are supportive. but imagine their predicament - new grandparents, watching their daughter fight to survive, with the possibility of losing her and gaining an infant "son." my god the world seems unfair sometimes, huh?