I am nominating a nurse who is very special to my daughter and to me. Her name is Kathy Novak and she has been our nurse many times over the last year that my daughter has been coming to the hospital for monthly overnight visits for her IVIG infusions and sometimes rituximab infusions as well. The very first time she was admitted at CCMC, my daughter S was only about 3 1/2 months old and we had already had quite a bumpy, emotional, and difficult month while searching for answers at another top-rated hospital. When we finally arrived here it was because I had done some research and learned that CT Children's had experience treating children with my daughter's condition, whereas the other hospital did not. I was an emotional wreck after feeling like I was not being heard at the other facility, and I really felt like some of the staff over there had been treating me like an overly paranoid and overreacting parent. It didn't take long after coming here to CCMC through the ER, for my daughter's new doctor here to address my concerns, see what I was seeing, and for my daughter to finally get the correct diagnosis and to finally begin an urgently needed treatment protocol. One thing I will always remember is how Kathy seemed to sense not only my daughter's physical needs but also my own emotional needs. She sat down with me for a long time and let me talk about our experience up until that point, our experience at the other facility, and about my disappointment and frustration and my fears for my daughter's health and future. That will always mean so much to me because I finally felt like my daughter was truly being cared for the way that she needed, but also that I was finally being heard. I felt validated, which is something that I needed at that point more than I could ever have realized.
It was not only then, during our first visit, that Kathy took such special care of my daughter and myself, but also so many other visits since then. Whenever she has been our nurse she has always gone above and beyond to make sure that we are both well cared for during our stay here at CCMC. When she was not our nurse but was working on the floor while we were here she has always taken the time to come stop in and check on us, to say hello, and to ask how we have been, how we are doing. There were also a number of times that my daughter and I had trouble getting here, to the hospital, for her treatments. This is because we did not own a car for a very long time and had to rely on the medcab service. There were many times that there were problems with rides being late, rides being booked incorrectly, etc., which sometimes caused us to be a few hours late getting up here for the infusions. I remember times when Kathy would call me from the hospital to make sure everything was ok and that we were still able to make it up here, even though it was not necessarily something she had to do. She could have passed the task off to the bed manager or whoever, but she took the time to call me and check-in. That made me feel so much better and so much less stressed about being late, being able to talk to one of our favorite nurses, who knows me and who I am familiar with.
Kathy has always been wonderful with my daughter too. S is now 18months old, but even when she was only 5, 6, or 7 months old her face would always light up whenever she saw Kathy. Now that she is older, I tell her when we are on our way to the hospital, that we are going to see her friends, and I list the names of many of our favorite Nurses and Doctors. Kathy is one of the ones who, whenever I mention her name and say, "Maybe we will see Ms. Kathy" S breaks into one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen. Kathy has come in to help put in S's IVs many times, and come back in to help put the IVs back in when my squirmy little toddler has managed to move around so much that they have fallen out, which we have struggled with a lot over the last 5 months. She is at an age where she is all over the place, and also at an age where she is starting to realize things that she likes and things that she does not. Whenever Kathy is one of the ones to come in and help S's nurse to do her IV, S always seems more comfortable and at ease with her.
This overnight visit that we are here for this time, since last night, ended up being one of the hardest ones that we have had. S had a bad night and ended up getting sick with a fever and vomiting during her infusion in the middle of the night. I was so happy that Kathy was our nurse this time. Even though this was one of the most stressful infusions that S has had, I didn't get as stressed out as I might have. I knew that having Kathy looking after us meant that we were in very good hands and I was right. She took such good care of us, just like she always has. I was able to relax and hold and comfort my poor sick baby, knowing that Kathy was handling all the rest, taking care of the mess, getting us new bedding and new clothes for S and everything else that we needed. I couldn't be more grateful for her, for having her as one of our regular nurses, and for having her in our lives.