This nomination is months late, however, I still wanted to recognize a nurse who was more than an LPN assigned to oversee a day or two of my stay in the open heart recovery unit. One individual stands out in my memory and I know, they always will. I had been transferred from the ICU the day following open heart surgery and was scheduled to receive a coronary stent. Being fresh from such a traumatic event, I was so nervous to undergo another procedure. Scenarios ran through my mind and I kept asking Krista about each one that I came up with. She was very patient with me and in the nicest way, dismissed all of them with encouragement.
Just before I was taken to the heart cath lab, we were talking as she placed a heating pad in my bed at my request because my lower back is a source of constant pain. As Krista arranged my sheets, she told me I was going to be just fine and that in a few weeks, I would be home decorating my Christmas tree. When the cath team arrived to wheel me to "my fate", she asked if I'd like her to walk with me and make sure I was comfortable before the procedure. She held my hand the entire trip through the long hallways, the elevator ride to another floor, and for a few minutes in triage. Her compassionate company and encouraging personality quieted my fears. I felt like she had, in a way, taken me under her wing. She treated me more like a friend than just a patient with a number on a wrist band. A stranger who would be passing through her charge in just two short days. And I did think of her as a few weeks later, I was helping my family decorate our Christmas tree. As I hung an ornament near a strand of twinkling lights and soft shimmering garland, her words came back to my heart; a prediction come to pass..."You're going to be just fine and in a few weeks, you'll be decorating your Christmas tree."
I will never decorate for the holidays and not think of the kindness of a nurse, a quickly made friend whom she may never see again. I will forever remember an angel in scrubs who made one of the worst experiences on the timeline of my life, more bearable, more hopeful for a positive outcome of what I had been through. The words "Thank You" seem so inadequate, but they are spoken with great sincerity from the bottom of my second chance heart.