I have had the privilege of knowing many nurses these past ten years as I became the patient of choice, not mine. And without much exception, I found them to be so amazing that I thought they should be commemorated for their love and dedication to their profession.
They make little, they are invaluable, and they push the limits when you would think they would drop from exhaustion. Just this past month I had the opportunity to have ‘back surgery’. What a treat. But I had this one nurse that was so amazing, she stood out like a Daffadil in a rush of thorny roses. Jennifer at Skyridge. One morning prior to surgery, I crashed. My pain level was thru the roof and despite the male nurse trying to liken it to childbirth – I informed him that my 30 hour labors during childbirth were a mere ten compared to my current 15 – on a scale of 1-10. He didn’t get it. But then, how could he?
But she did.
After an accumulation of morphine in my system that had done nothing to even dent the pain, I crashed. I think it must have all gotten blocked somewhere and hit me in one fell swoop. I crashed. And when I finally awoke, my angel nurse was very concerned that I hadn’t talked more with her as I had done the previous day. She stayed by my side past the hour when she could return home to her son. She stayed long past and when I mentioned this, she just brushed it off, she needed to finish some things with me. It was past the 12 hour day she logged, and was quickly moving into the 14th hour.
And weeks later I began to think about Ronald Reagan’s kids. And about my siblings. (it’s a girl thing)
You see, a comment keeps coming back at me, “you can tell a man by his children.”
On the other hand I remember someone else telling me, “if you say you had a perfect childhood chances are you are either in denial – or you are lying.” This is unfortunately the basis for most pharmaceutical sales…
Nobodies perfect. But no one can say they don’t have some wishful thoughts of the love between this husband and his spouse. The children may have felt second place, and rebelled, had issues, succeeded and failed, but Nancy and Ronald had something still. Maybe it takes one to lose the other. I don’t know. And that begs the question – would you exchange the relationship of your children for the adoration of your spouse? I’ve known a few on both sides.
A nurse is someone who gives herself up for the love and compassion of making her/his patient better. And I have to say, a male nurse is different. Sorry. They just are. They have a different DNA. I don’t say they are bad, I simply say, that they have a different level of compassion that is simply more DNA inherent in women. And it’s no more prejudicial than preferring a man with the gun pointed at the enemy. It’s in our DNA. There are exceptions, but they are NOT the rule.
And it would seem to be ‘the exceptions’ to the rule that we have chosen to make our agenda. In all things. I found my Jennifer to be much less judgmental, much more nurturing, much more compassionate in me. She wasn’t thinking of the next room, the next patient, of her weekend adventures, she was focused on me. And that was amazing!
A legacy of the value of a NURSE.
I have had numerous experiences with nurses these past ten years, and I joke that I am on a first name basis. But the value they give is so incredibly immense, I think we take it for granted and owe them an applause!
I did have one nurse who gave me the paranoia itches, I was convinced she was going to suffocate me in the middle of the night with a pillow. I fought the Morphine, too scared to close my eyes. And then there was the nurse-in-waiting, the trainee, who put a bubble in my IV, failed to note that I almost passed because the pain was so great and they had told me how to self administer morphine while I was two sheets under – and so I heard/remember nothing. How smart is that. So, as I turned gray, no one seemed to notice until nearly too late.
But, they were the exceptions. And in looking back, a good story that has a happy ending. Most of my experiences have been phenomenal, not just good, but Great!
I have an absolutely amazing doctor story who I call an ‘Artiste’, and then I have the butcher. I think maybe, after a while, you just take the bad with the good. Enter, Obamacare! Shitake Mushrooms! You can’t imagine until it happens to you. A story is a distant phenomena, a yawn, an ‘oh’. And then wham! I mean I guess I didn’t ‘read the fine print’. I didn’t realize that all insurers now support a co-insurance clause. All of them. Even our esteemed Kaiser. And that little change is WAY good for the Insurer, and WAY bad, bad for you and I. Because it makes your deductible – worthless. It creates a brand new frame of potential bankruptcies, it is too large to imagine. My little two day surgery cost about $120,000 of which I am liable for about 10% in total. Throw away the deductible, the co-insurance destroys you.
So what happens to our esteemed nurses as the healthcare system in the US begins to rupture and implode? In a Socialist agenda, they would actually get paid even less, and their would be no incentive to have an expertise! Let’s not forget the reality – in Europe they measure wait times in increments of annual quarters – 3 – 6 – 9 – 12 months – and greater than a year.
In the US we measure that time in terms of days and weeks.
Are you ready to absorb that change?
I can’t imagine it benefits anyone – except of course the Big Pharma Industry which is putting out all the temporary pain killers and relaxers, and anti-anxiety stuff, to get you through the year long wait before you can actually see a doctor, diagnosis or not your illness, and get a remedy. But to add to the dilemma, we have a business environment where actually curing is a detriment to big pharma which nearly rules the world, I might add, that the band-aid creates a lucrative and endless market. Like the Chiropractor, it is a fix that is temporary, but the actual underlying cause is not treated becaue that would mean a cured patient and loss of revenue.
Enter online self diagnosing and natural remedies. Ta-Da! The new way reminiscent of 100 years ago and 1000 years ago. And there are angels in Cuba. They have the mindset of curing vs money. And that makes them very desirable!
Maybe – an investment worth researching for your portfolio.
In the end, I can’t answer if I would be willing to forgo the amazing relationship I have with my children, for the adoration of a man… I wish they could be inclusive. But it would seem, that is not reality – it is simply a celluloid hero – ~ The Kinks.