Seven East

There is a form available to patients here at St. Vincent's. The form is called, "You Touched My Heart," and is for reporting an employee's extra efforts, good work above and beyond the call of duty, etc., etc. As a rule, I do not like forms of this nature and the reason for that may be that whenever an employee of any business impresses me to the extent that comment is called for, I generally find their boss right away and let them know in person what a good employee they have on their hands. I remember when Mary was here for one of her frequent visits to the Oncology Unit, she was as always given unstintingly excellent treatment by one and all, from the housekeeping people to the oncology nurses. It seemed as though there was not enough anyone could do for her. That treatment was not reserved for Mary; it was consistent throughout the unit. I went and spoke to the nurse manager and told her what a great staff she had. She was gratified to hear it and I like to think she passed my comments on to those who needed to hear them.

My experience of the care here comes from both sides; I have seen it as a husband watching his wife waste away from cancer and now I am experiencing that care first hand as a patient undergoing treatment for skin cancer. When I first arrived here as a patient on October 31, 2009, I was immediately greeted by several nurses who had treated Mary. The last they saw of me was the day of Mary's funeral, April 5, 2006. It was like I had never left the place. Two of my brothers and a sister-in-law helped me bring flowers over to the unit from the funeral parlor. There were too many to keep (they would not all fit in an eight-foot pickup bed and the extended cab) and this seemed the appropriate place for them. I asked that they be distributed among the patients, but should have given them to the nurses. Clear thinking, never my forté, especially did not come in to play that day, however, and the nurses went home flowerless.

As for specifics there are a couple of areas; performance and personal names. Since this covers every person working on this unit, I will not use personal names. These people know who they are; if they work on this unit, they are the ones I am talking about. That leaves performance.

Difficult patients are no match for the personnel here. I have witnessed a particularly recalcitrant patient hurl his pills across the room while calling the nurse every name in the book. The response was measured, calm and professional. Except for the patient, voices were kept to a low whisper and very soon the incident was over. Personally, I would have used an axe handle, but have been told that sort of treatment is not therapeutically indicated. There seems to be a certain unreasoned prejudice against my methods.

The nurses here also must contend with patients such as myself whose humor has been described as very dark. Jokes about death, the pleasantries attendant on various chemo side effects and disease in general just sort of come pouring out of my mouth whenever an audience appears. This is the direct result of what Mary told me about once. She said that there are all these words in my head and that there is my mouth. She further informed me that most people have a filter between the two locations that saves them from embarrassment, but that I seem to have been congenitally deprived of any such filter. This is what the nurses have to put up with on a daily basis from me. They humor me, but never seem to lose their professionalism.

There does not seem to be a typical day here and the fact that none of the nurses ever seems ruffled is a testament to their adaptability and resourcefulness. They respond to daily, sometimes hourly, emergencies with equanimity, without a flutter. It is pretty amazing to see people perform life-saving actions under stress as if it were all just in a day's work. The truth of the matter is that it is all in a day's work for these special nurses. They do it daily and come back for more the next day.

Gratitude for the actions they perform is not in sufficient supply to go around fairly to one and all, which is why this is being written. Although the words are less than is called for, the address is to the nurse manager, every nurse, graduate nurse, nurse assistant, housekeeper and food service worker who works on 7-East. Thanks to one and all for all you do.