The patient that changed my life

[A. Lawrence]

Im sure I am not the only one who has a patient that changed their life and solidified their decision to become a nurse in the first place. This is the story of Amy, my angel. I would love to hear others stories ?

It takes a special person to be a nurse, I just don’t know how you do it.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that from a patient, their family or people I know outside of work, and even after years of working in a hospital, I still have no clue how to respond. I have only been working at Inova Fairfax since May of 2016 but helping people has always come easy for me. My mom used to get so angry because I would always try to help people, whether it was in my best interest or not, sharing everything from toys to money. So naturally when I first started thinking about what drove me to work in a hospital I thought of all those stories, but none of them seemed right, I moved on from my childhood memories to those from my hospital career and immediately thought of Amy. Thinking of her always brings tears to my eyes and happiness to my heart. So, I would like to share the story of Amy.

Flashback to Tuesday May 9, 2017; the day started just like any day would on the Cardiovascular Stepdown unit, bright and early. I arrived at Inova for my six am shift and received report from the night shifters. The first couple hours were routine, introducing myself to patients, changing beds that were empty and showering patients that were awake. I happened to be sitting at the desk documenting in Epic, our charting system, when my manager, Jenn, came out of a room and told me the patient in there was getting married today. All kinds of ideas popped into my head and I got so excited, I started thinking of all the things I have seen on TV of patients getting married in the hospital. I immediately took charge, out of sheer excitement. Jenn and I began to go over what we did and didn’t have for the last-minute wedding. We had all the essentials but what we didn’t have was what makes the bride feel extra special; the veil, the dress, the garter, etc. I ran down to the gift shop and asked if they had any white tissue paper and ribbon I could use to make a veil. Now this whole time the patient had no idea what was going on, she knew she was getting married, but she didn’t know how far we were all willing to go to make it special for her. Originally, she wanted no special treatment at all. Her plan was to just have someone come to the room and marry them there, but Jenn convinced her to let us at least get a photographer and take her to the chapel.

Between caring for the other patients and getting things together, it took a few hours to get it all set up and we were about an hour till wedding time, I was ready to surprise the bride with the veil. When I walked into her room and showed it to her she instantly began tearing up and telling me how beautiful it was. My co-worker, Juliet, and I spent the next hour by her side helping her get ready. That whole time we never stopped talking. We found out the real reason for her shotgun wedding and it just about broke my heart. The cancer she had been in remission from for 20 years was back and worse than ever, it had spread and become untreatable. She was a government employee and wanted to make sure her “boyfriend” of 32 years got her benefits when she passed away. Knowing all this and getting to know this beautiful woman more just gave me an even greater desire to make this day as perfect as possible. By this time everyone on the floor was aware of what was going on and waiting outside the room for the big reveal. I will never forget the look on her face when we wheeled her out and everyone started clapping, she was in disbelief. It didn’t take long for the tears to hit and at this point we were all crying. She was about to head down to the chapel when she turned to Juliet and I and asked if we could be her bridesmaids, of course we said yes! (Luckily there were other staff members willing to cover us while went downstairs to the chapel) Since she didn’t have any other family in town Juliet and I walked her down the aisle. I held her phone which had her best friend on speaker, so she could be a part of the big day and Juliet held her bouquet, so she could use her walker. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful, there wasn’t a dry eye in the chapel. After it was over we made our way outside to take some pictures in the healing garden. All this excitement really had her worn out and she was ready to head back to her room, so up we went. Although I heard thank you from her and her husband a hundred times that day what meant the most to me was when she told me that she never knew she wanted this much attention put on her until it happened. She told Juliet and I that she had never felt so beautiful or so special in her entire life.

That amazing day has never left the back of my mind. Amy has since passed away, but I continue to carry her with me and I know she is looking down on me, guiding me through my career. Nursing is by far one of the hardest things I have ever done, but it is also the most rewarding. Amy was the first person to show me that its OK to bond with a patient and feel strong emotions with them. She solidified the choice I made to become a nurse and I would not change it for the world.

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

That is a lovely story, and I don't mean to rain on your parade but you have many identifiers in there (including your full name). It could pretty easily be considered a HIPAA violation because that patient could easily be identified from what you wrote. You might consider rewriting in a post with less details.

That being said, I'm glad that you were able to put together such a meaningful celebration for your patient and her husband. 

[A. Lawrence]

I appreciate your concern! I will edit to add a disclaimer, while my name is my actual name other first names were changed to protect identities ? I also have permission from the family to share this story, along with pictures (that I obviously did not post here). Thanks again for the concern ?

[Davey Do]

5 hours ago, JBMmom said:

That is a lovely story...

I will second that emotion!

Thank you for sharing, A. Lawrence- that was one good read!

22 hours ago, A. Lawrence said:

I would love to hear others stories

Well, since you asked, I wrote about a patient situation that changed my life when I first joined allnurses. And it's a fitting time of the year to dust off this old article:

 

[A. Lawrence]

 

On 12/7/2020 at 2:32 PM, Davey Do said:

Well, since you asked, I wrote about a patient situation that changed my life when I first joined allnurses. And it's a fitting time of the year to dust off this old article

Thank you so much for sharing! I love hearing others experiences ? It was a great read as well! While of course working holidays is not ideal, I don't mind it. I absolutely love being able to be there with a patient on a major holiday and attempt to make it a little better for them! Im sure that family will never forget what you did for them! Happy holidays!!