Touched by a Patient

A little bit of kindness can go a long way.

Yesterday was the last day of our duty rotation at the ICU/Rehab with Dr. Jun.. how sad :( i love having him as our CI, he's my ultimate fave! naks! haha

anyway, since I had already been assigned at the ICU the previous day, I was stationed at the rehab yesterday, where we had nothing to do so carlann and i just ended up doing some exercises (haha... i just had to mention that, didn't I? :P)

as we were fooling around, someone suddenly passed by and called out "FEM!" i turned around to get a better look (yes, all those mirrors weren't enough for me to have a good look at the face value of that person). unfortunately, i only caught a glimpse of the said person. I was so shocked and kept asking carlann if she knew who that was but unfortunately she didn't... she was telling me it might be someone from church (cos some people i know in that hospital happen to be some friends of mine from church) but it seemed pretty unlikely... if she was from the church, i would have recognized the face immediately... then i was trying to think of people from the lecs (which might be possible cos im only a newbie there, so im not really well acquainted with people yet)... but no, it's highly unlikely... i don't know why i thought such but i just had a gut feeling.

I tried to wait for that girl to pass by again and she did.... i was staring at her trying hard to recognize the face... sat down, SQUEEZED what's left of my brain (WHICH was already pureed thanks to all of Doc Jun's questioning during the ICU stay - I couldn't remember all the meds he asked... hahaha!) then i remembered one particular patient of mine....

of the years I've been having hospital rotations, only 3 patients have managed to stick unto my mind (and it's shocking to find out now they were my clients in one common station):

1. my patient from the graveyard shift with Sir Val: a former police... so sweeet and charming, both her and her son... they were both sooo kind and pleasing to attend to...
2. a patient I encountered under Ms. Delia: stuck to me cos she loved me toooo much. always wanted me there at the bedside, asked me to do tons of stuff... TOXIC! made even more so because (i reiterate the fact) Ms. Delia was our CI then... amazing how toxic i could be even when we weren't allowed to give meds and do charting...ask my RLE groupmates and they'll probably remember how i barely was seen at the nurses' station during those days due to my patient and Ms Delia as well, who always stayed with my patient as well, chatting... turns out this patient of mine was the wife of a very famous Philippine artist accdg to Ms. Delia... but as for me, i never heard of him... don't get me wrong, i didn't hate this patient totally tho, her being extra appreciative made things much better for me...
3. the patient i referred to in the previous paragraphs, the one i bumped into at the rehab.. she was my patient during summer with Dr. Jun (amazing it's also with the same CI that I bumped into her, ain't it?!) ... on the very first day, she was quite a terror patient to me, along with her guardians (demanding, namamahiya, quite rude in fact)... even the nurses didn't really like them, they were telling me of how hard it was to please this client and the company. the next day, I managed to tell all the incidents that happened to me from the previous day to Doc Jun... i didn't want her na nga sana as my patient again eh...but who would want to take her... so fine. surprisingly, everything was much better the second time around and on the days that followed... they turned out to be unusually nice to me all of a sudden. it was so weird. and, not only that... on our last day of duty, the client's mother kept trying to get our contact numbers (that of Doc Jun's and mine)... which we refused to give out (discreetly)... i just got their contacts instead but never did dare to actually contact them...so that brings me to the here and now...

OH, NAKAKAHIYA!!!! hahahaha now that i bumped into her again. i was thinking i'd never see them again any longer eh... hahaha shish! they were really nice, and the patient herself was really such a sweetie to me... her mom (and tita) as well, came to be friends in my opinion during those days, gave me advices... and they were even pairing me up with someone... hmmmm... i don't want to say who it is na, i don't want him to know about it... haha

anyway, nice as they were, i don't wanna give my number to them, to these people i don't know.

although, it was really nice to have bumped into this former patient of mine and have her call out my name... i was so touched that she actually still remembered me, my name! i'm so amazed and really touched... although she did show me how grateful she was during the time that i had been her student nurse, her actions yesterday showed me much more... it showed me that she was genuine of those expressions of long ago and i felt like i really did manage to give her good care somehow... :)