The entire ordeal was out of the blue. My mother had a sudden heart attack in January 2017 and had been successfully treated at another hospital close to home. After some abnormal symptoms occurred a week later, we went back to the same hospital, thinking it was related to her heart. By the end of the night, we'd been transferred to TGH and were told she had cervical cancer.
I know I'm not alone in saying that the next several months after this kind of diagnosis were an absolute blur. It's so hard to explain if you haven't gone through it personally. We went from being so happy that the heart issues were treated to dealing with something even bigger. Cancer tries to take everything from you. Everything that's normal and everything you take for granted- your days, nights, everything you love, your modesty and humility, your body, your mind and then it tries to take your family down with the ship too. In the middle of all the crazy was Lorena.
I can't put my finger on why Mom had such affection toward her. We spent over a year there, in and out, and encountered such wonderful doctors and nurses at TGH. But when we met Lorena, she has such a sweet calmness. She was professional while staying upbeat -like a "so you're going through some stuff right now, I'm just here to help while you're getting better" type of way. It was like she was just a member of the family who we could depend on to take care of Mom when we couldn't be there. And as a family, we were so happy to have her around and happy that Mom felt so comfortable with her.
In the absolute worst of times for us, Lorena walked in every day with a smile, which made us all feel like we could put our guard down some and relax a little. With no words, she appropriately integrated herself as one of us, just because she was the nurse in charge of Mom's care didn't mean she didn't know what we were going through, almost as if she was a fly on the wall before she ever walked in. She read the room. If the lights were off, she'd speak softly. If we needed something, she calmly arrived as if walking into Mom's private bedroom, and sweetly joked or talked about anything but our reality while she worked. She was gentle because she knew when Mom was at her most fragile points, and she overly accommodated as a nurse, as a woman and as a human being, when the most brutal of the invasive testing and its aftermath came around.
Lorena knew how to say the things no one wants to hear, like when Mom was feeling stubborn about yet another test or procedure that had to be performed. She was such a part of my every day at that point that I often updated her in the hallway with a hug and sometimes some tears. I was so comfortable with her that I showed her the ultrasound photo when I found out I was pregnant, in the middle of all this chaos, before most of my family even knew. It was that kindness and compassion with the entire family that prompted us to request her care on Mom's return visits to Lorena's unit.
Many families can say the same, we never knew what was right around the corner. Sometimes it was worse than expected, and sometimes we were thankful of how much easier it was than expected. We are so grateful for the incredible care Mom received at TGH by so many intelligent and loving people. And at the happy end of our journey, Lorena stands out like a beacon in the night. When we think back, it is so fondly of her and how much her professional care and personal nature affected all of us. I'm sure we're not the only family that can say this of Nurse Lorena!