A New Perspective

As most of you know, I have been a nurse for almost 11 years. This was my first surgery since becoming a nurse. I have spent untold hours on the phone counseling patients through a plethora of post-surgical symptomology, most of which is more uncomfortable than life-threatening. I have spent countless hours walking the hospital floors caring for the woman who just had major abdominal surgery; helping her turn in bed, washing her face, and what I deem most important after my experience....getting her pain medicine in a quick and efficient manner!



If you have ever been my patient, there are certain lectures that you have heard from high atop the soap box of RN Kingdom. There are many titles to my lectures and several of my patients heard them all in one phone call. They were the "lucky ones". Here are some mini-sermons, just to name a few: 1.You've just had surgery; give yourself time to heal. 2. Advance your activity slowly. This does not include laundry, bending, stooping, lifting. Take a break! 3. You must take stool softeners and maybe laxatives while on pain medicine. Gas pain is no fun! 4. Don't push yourself so hard; this will not last forever. 5.Hydrocodone and Motrin together work similar to Demerol. Alternate for best pain relief. 6. Let your friends and family serve you during this time. It gives them a chance to show you how much they love you.



I love being a nurse. I love helping people. I love serving people. I love being the hands and feet of Jesus. I love seeing hope in a brokenhearted woman's eyes. I love offering that hope in both practical and spiritual ways. All seriousness aside, I love to be the nurse but I HATE to be the patient!!! I don't make a good patient. Tom has flunked me. Ann has flunked me. My mom has flunked me. My doctor is about to flunk me. I think I may flunk myself. I'm one of those patients that makes a nurse pull her hair out and wonder why she became a nurse in the first place! I have discovered this about myself. This dichotomy. Quite interesting.



So, 3 1/2 weeks post op, I am back to the couch and chair. I am religiously taking stool softeners because I can testify on a stack of Hershey candy bars: Gas pain ain't no fun! Laundry is better stacked in the basket if it means I will heal faster. Hydrocodone plus motrin does NOT equal demerol; however, they do work well together. I have the most amazing husband in the world, the greatest family and friends that a woman could ever dream of, and the most wonderful support system of anyone I've ever known. I am truly blessed among women.



This will not last forever. My body will heal. God uses the oddest things to bring us to places of stillness so that we can remember HE ALONE is GOD. To remind us that to SEEK HIM is our primary objective in life. To instill again that purpose in life is CHRIST, going where He says GO, doing what he says DO. To remember again the GOSPEL in SIMPLICITY and POWER. JESUS CHRIST, lover of my soul, healer of my heart.