Max was a 27-year-old patient who had a stroke (yep, extremely young). He lost his ability to talk and he lost control of the right side of his body.
Good thing that whenever his restraints came loose on his left hand, he ripped out his drip, ripped off his nappy and tried to rip out his catheter. I actually found it extremely amusing to see a half-paralysed man showing three (big) nurses at a time who was boss. You know how you speak to animals, and babies? Not because you think they'll answer you or understand what you're saying, but just because it's what you tend to do? I did that with Max. I used to have fat conversations with him (or should I say, myself) about whatever was going on, whatever was annoying me, what was happening with my love life - it was my own personal therapy. That poor, poor man - I never know when to shut up.
One day, I was rubbing his back when he turned to me and very softly whispered, "Where's my wife?". My heart broke. After three months of not speaking, he chooses me to be the one to say his 'first' words to, and he misses his wife. I phoned her straight away and she came to see him immediately. I stood by and watched tears of happiness running down their cheeks.
Yep, the cynical nurse can be touched by simple things.
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That's awesome. By the way, loving the blatant honesty in these entries.
ReplyDeletehaha, thanks, honesty is the best policy and all that :P
ReplyDeleteNot cool when you wanna cry in the office... I need to work with these people
ReplyDeletehah my bad ;) but yeah, you do need to. life-changing and all that jazz. :P
ReplyDelete