Learning from my Patients

It was an interesting shift, to be sure. And I am highly grateful that I decided to take it.

Our first call was a pediatric call -- my first one. I was a bit nervous, but it went quite smoothly, and I learned how to best attach a child's car seat to the gurney in a safe manner, something I'm glad I learned right away instead of later on when I had nobody to help me out. The hardest part of the peds call was probably our arrival at the pediatric ER -- there were so many children in varying stages of distress, and so many broken-hearted parents. It's something I've seen before -- having seen the occasional dead or dying child in the ER when I volunteered at SVH -- but never on this magnitude. It is always sad (it never loses the sting of the first time) and I greatly admire the doctors and nurses who commit their lives to helping these amazing children.

My next call was for a psych patient. From this call, I learned that sometimes, rules have to be broken for the benefit of the patient. I didn't make the particular decision, but I understand why the person in question made the decision that they did. I only hope that when I encounter another questionable situation, I can be wise and brave enough to choose what is best for the patient over the possible consequences to myself, if no compromise can be reached.

My last call was the most powerful. (Please note that here, the patient in question gave me permission to release these specific pieces of personal information. Nothing I have written here is written without her consent.) She has been fighting lymphoma for 18 years now -- the cancer just came back again, for what will probably be the last time. We were responsible for taking her to her first radiation appointment.

I was utterly amazed at her spirit. She knew she was facing what would probably be her last battle with cancer, but she was determined to keep fighting. The last 18 years, she said, had been a blessing from God. In that time, she had watched her son grow up and become a doctor specializing in lymphoma research. He's now working at UCLA, where an old classmate of mine is being treated for lymphoma as well. My patient said that her son is most likely working behind the scenes to treat that classmate, and wished for me to share this story with everyone, because it shows that God's plan is perfect -- it always works out for good. Because of her lymphoma, her son was prompted to develop life-saving treatments that are giving countless people second chances at life. What an inspiration!