I met a cool lady

I have to write about this one because I can't stop thinking about her. I was debating whether I should or not, but maybe writing about it will free my mind a bit.

I met a woman who is practically my age with a young one at home. She has tattoos, loves motorcycles and was about to get married to her significant other of several years, but something happened that allowed me to meet her. She was diagnosed with leukemia and eventually ended up in the ICU. She had been tired at home and started having some weird bruising. What she thought might be nothing turned into an immediate hospitalization and her first round of chemotherapy.

Her white blood cell count was so low that we had to be extra careful with infection control measures. Her platelets were so low, she was bleeding and brusing easily. Overall though, she was stable in ICU, just getting chemotherapy and lots of blood transfusions. She keeps talking about how she wants to go home and take a shower and see her kids. Her and I have had lots of time to talk and she has maintained strong attitude so far.

As her condition started to improve I set her up for walk around the unit. I put a mask on her and hooked her up to our portable monitor. Her S.O. was there so he went with us. I then led her out our double doors to see the outside. In my mind, this was a simple thing and a no-brainer thing to do, considering I had the time and I know mobility does great things for patients. What I didn't realize in my busy day was how important this was for her emotionally.

As she was walking across the unit she made a comment about her thinning hair and two ladies visiting their mother (also on our unit due to complications from cancer) heard her. They gave her beaming smiles and one said, "You look beautiful."

We kept walking. We made it to the double doors to the outside stairwell. As she stood on the back stairwell looking outside, she started to cry. She hadn't seen the outside in about 30 days. It was a beautiful day too. Trees so green. View so clear. Gentle breeze. Warm. Sunny. No clouds. But to her, it was the best view she had probably ever seen. She reached over to hold her husband's hand and said, 'This is the first time we have held hands since I was admitted to the hospital.' They were so afraid of her giving her an infection, he hadn't touched her.

Of course, I later told them they could hold hands and about how to wash hands, etc. But, I almost cried with her in that moment and I have been on the verge of crying every time I think about her situation. She says she wants to get a tattoo on her head once she is totally bald but she isn't sure yet. We joked about one possibility, "If you can see this, my hair has fallen off." It was in reference to the shirts her and her husband wear while riding their motorcycles. "If you can see this, the bitch has fallen off" or "If you can read this, the bastard won't let me drive."

Now you can probably understand why I am always on about not sweating the small stuff and enjoy life and your health while you got it.