I am writing this because I want to say THANK YOU to all of you who are helping people every day, I have personally experienced just how important and what a difference Nurses are to the patients well being. I want to share my experience as a patient and hopefully get some input as well.
I had a very bad pregnancy, was literally deathly ill, and in three different hospitals (kept getting transferred to larger facilities as I got sicker) for over two months due to pre-eclampsia. My son was born at 31 weeks and it was a very long and traumatic 22 hour labor, my blood pressure bottomed out, I was unconscious for an hour and woke up to a hospital room full of Dr.'s and Nurses and a terrified family. When my son was born he had trouble breathing and was put on a ventilator. I was not able to see him for over 24 hours as I was still very ill. I had a downright mean and unprofessional Nurse the first night after his birth; I was alone because my husband had to stay home with our other children. This Nurse made a terrifying situation 10 times worse. She came in my labor room without saying anything she just started wheeling my bed out to the recovery room, my bed was literally slammed into the door on the way out. I asked for pain medicine when we got to the room (after going over 8 hours without any and my DR. had it ordered, both Norco and Stadol), she told me in a very nasty tone that I had just pumped and obviously that was why I was hurting and said it would go away (it didn’t) , then she left without saying anything. She did not check on me again until about 4 am when she again barged in and without saying ANYTHING (I was awake and visibly upset), just started trying to take my blood. She was "digging" around on my arm and hand very roughly and it HURT (I've had a lot of blood taken and have never had an experience like this), I finally spoke up and asked her to get someone else, she pulled the needle out, left the rubber band around my arm and just walked out without saying a word. Thankfully a very nice Nurse came and took my blood; I was too drained to complain to her, like I now wish I would have. I hope this complaining does not offend anyone but, I can assure you I was always a very thankful and easy going patient and the way she treated was truly horrible.
The next morning the new Nurse was shocked at the mess I was in. My bed was covered in blood and I had dried blood all over me. I was crying and still just in shock over the birth of my son. She comforted me and helped me get cleaned up before wheeling me to the NICU. My baby was on a ventilator and had so many tubes and wires that I could barely see him. I broke down. I was absolutely terrified and heartbroken and my husband was still with our other children. It was a living nightmare.
Thankfully, my son had an AMAZING Nurse. If it was not for him I really do not think I would have made it. He told me it was ok to cry, to take my time, explained everything to me and so much more. My son was in the NICU for over 5 weeks, for the first three weeks or so he regularly took care of my son. I gave him a thank you card after about two weeks and wrote him a note to tell him how much he helped me those first days. My son had lots of ups and downs during his stay. The NICU had open visiting hours, but did not allow over night stays and encouraged parents to take frequent breaks. Most of the Nurses were great, although there were a few that just made a hard situation worse. But, whenever our first Nurse was assigned, I could relax and not worry about my son. I KNEW he was going above and beyond to take care of him (and me too). Fastforward a year later, my son is happy, healthy and just perfect.
I will NEVER, EVER, forget the way he helped me and I am sure he just thinks he was doing his job. My husband feels the same way. I know that he had a somewhat special bond with my baby as well, because he contacted me on a social networking site to check on him and I asked him to add me so he could stay updated. I also told him thank you again. We hardly talk but every once in a while he will check out the new pics of my baby and say something and I will again tell him in some sort of way thank you again. He is probably sick of hearing it but I just do not think I can EVER say thank you enough.
Because of him and the bad experiences as well, I have decided to start Nursing school and am in my second semester of pre-requisites. I want to eventually become a Nurse Practitioner but know I have a long way to go. I have never considered a job in the health care field before. I am in the IT field and always considered myself to be very “technical”. I now know that this is the only job I want to do. I know it sounds cliché but if I can help one person the way he helped me, I will be satisfied.
I would like to know if you guys think it would be ok let him know that he is the main reason I am pursuing this career. I have so many questions about becoming Nurse and think he would have a lot of good advice for me. I often think about writing him but, I am afraid that he might be put off by it. I do not want to be a bother or for him to think I am some kind of weirdo or stalker or something.
After, my bad experiences the Nurses who are in the field for the right reasons are so obvious to me. I feel like I can really help people since, I know what a difference one Nurse can make for the patient and the patients family.
I also want to say THANK YOU to all of you who are helping people the way he helped me!
