A year ago this past September I started treatment for advanced stage 3 breast cancer. It has been the hardest year of my life and even though I'm past chemo, surgery, and radiation I now struggle with other cancer treatment challenges. Over the past several weeks I've been battling a surgical site infection (this included two different oral meds and finally IV) and yesterday I went to the ED thinking I had COVID. Instead, I found out I had pneumonia. I've just been so slammed every week with something that feels unavoidable. I was a mess in that ED room. Then Megan came in and everything changed. Her mood and her personality suddenly made me feel safe, grounded, and just... OK. She didn't treat me like another sad-sack patient. She treated me like a person and genuinely distracted me from my pity party. The real kicker is that I literally barely felt the IV that she put in. I am not exaggerating: I've had so many painful IVs that I feel a good deal of anxiety when I need to get one. I literally could not believe how painless her IV was. I even posted a photo of myself (with the IV in the background) and folks commented on how nicely done it was. I know this sounds silly but it really made a difference in my care. It calmed me and it made me feel like hey maybe I can't catch a break, but I have some great folks helping me through this.