This year, I had to stay in the Cardiac ICU. I had to have emergency surgery, so finding myself in the position of being a patient with extensive trauma was unexpected and more than difficult. One nurse stood out, and his name is Dennis. In addition to his nursing skills, he was personable, of good nature, funny, affable, and most importantly, this young man thought outside of the box to help me. For example, I kept throwing up my pain medications and was having a very hard time with them. Trying to remedy the situation, Dennis created a way that I could take my pain meds. He crushed them up and mixed them in yogurt. His creative thinking not only kept much of the needed meds down, alleviating my pain to a great degree, but the delivery was such that it was enjoyable taking them. We laughingly called it the "Mack truck cocktail". An inside joke that I appreciated and was truly worth its weight in gold.

Dennis' inventiveness didn't stop there. I also suffered from collapsed lungs and was fraught with anxiety and pain. A lung tube had been inserted at my bedside and was beyond painful. I was out of my mind with the pain (before the Mack Truck cocktail). The doctors were pressuring me to have a second lung tube inserted. Rather than echo the doctors, who posited that only a lung tube would restore my lung function, Dennis did not discount the doctors, but he suggested a different route be tried first, non-invasive and painless. He was trying to help me by offering a possible solution before the more invasive procedure of a lung tube implant. After a few days, it was apparent that Dennis's approach was viable and sound, and the doctors were unfounded in their prediction of dire consequences if I did not do it their way. My lung without the tube improved with oxygen and its natural tendency to heal itself. The lung tube fell out of the other lung, and I still have problems with that side of my chest to this day. Without Dennis's interventions, I would have been so much for the worse. So much.

I truly appreciate this man as a nurse and as a person. He made a difference, a huge and positive difference in my time at Chippenham Hospital and my life. Memories stay with us, not the memories of what gets done daily, but what emotions, what pain, what caring and thoughtfulness we experience during illness or times of trauma. Dennis carries all the skills necessary for an excellent nurse; he made a difference.