Elise is always professional, courteous, caring and has a true gift of compassion. While Elise has only been my nurse for a few times, I want to share an event that truly shows her love and compassion for patients. I started off the morning doing some errands and while I was out I stopped by to visit a friend to share ministry. While visiting I was hearing a chirping noise and I thought at that moment it probably was my insulin pump telling me I would need insulin soon. I continued to visit for a short period of time and then when I was leaving I began to check my insulin pump, but that was not where the noise was coming from. And then I thought perhaps it was my neurostimulator, but quickly ruled that out because the sound was coming from in front of me.
Once I get home, I determined that the noise was coming from my pain pump. I then grabbed my PTM and tried to give myself a bolus dose, but I got an error message on the PTM. I tried several times with the same result, so I then called my nurse, Elise, and explained what had happened. Elise said that she would be over shortly, however she told me it was her day off and she was not in uniform and asked if that was okay. I told her I didn't care, but I really needed her to address this issue and she was here within 15 minutes. She then tried to use her device to reboot my pain pump and after several attempts, it said that it had reset. I then tried my PTM again and I got the same result- the error message. Elise then tried multiple times to use her device but to no avail. Elise made calls to the company to let them know was going on and to try to get some answers from them as to what to do and she also contacted my doctor to keep him aware of what was going on and gave him updates as she was getting them. After a couple of conversations with Medtronic, Elise put a call out to my doctor let him know that Medtronic said that not only the pain pump was malfunctioning, the device had locked up. At this point, Elise said that she needed to go to pick up her child, but she would get a hold of me as soon as the doctor returned her call.
Elise left, but called me back within 10 minutes and said that my doctor called her back and said that I should go to the hospital right away as he wanted to do surgery to replace the pump at 5:30 pm and it was currently about 2:40 pm. Elise asked me if I had someone who could take me to the hospital and I told her that my wife was working and could not leave until 4 pm. I told Elise that I could drive myself and she told me "No". She told me she was making arrangements for childcare and that she would be back to my house in about 15 minutes, and she was there within 10 minutes. Elise drove me to Mercy Fairfield. Elise apologized and said that she wished she could stay in the hospital with me, but I told her I would be fine and that my wife and my brother would be over shortly. I told her how much I truly appreciated all that she had done for me and she was truly special.
As it turned out, because of delays I did not have my surgery until 8:30 in the evening and I had started to go through withdrawal. Even though the surgery kept getting delayed, I had gotten to the hospital right away, just like they had told me to, all because of Elise. Elise is truly a special and true gift.