We first noticed something was amiss when our beloved mother and wife was beginning to develop cognitive difficulties, simple at first but growing with each passing day. We hoped it was a temporary side effect brought on by her most recent round of chemotherapy to combat the triple negative breast cancer she had been struggling against since early 2016, but we feared the worst. After a long succession of MRIs, CT scans, doctor's visits, consults, and meetings we found ourselves sitting in a pre-op prep room on the first floor of the Crouse Hospital holding hands and waiting for her medical team to come for her; surgery to remove the 3-centimeter mass from her left temporal lobe was our best option. As always, she was all smiles and positivity when she was wheeled out and into surgery.
"I'm just so scared," were the first words, however, we heard from her while lying in the hospital bed in the ICU immediately after surgery. We were ecstatic and in high spirits after hearing from her surgeon about an hour earlier that the surgery was a complete success but seeing her this way now was nearly devastating. Those were the circumstances that brought us into Meghan Pelton's world for the first time. "How are you?" she asked in a happy and soothing voice, before taking her hand, complementing her on how well she was doing, and how good she looked while starting her gamut of medical tests and checks. It only took my father and I a few seconds to realize Meghan wasn't just doing her job, she honestly cared for mom's wellbeing. Most importantly, mom saw and felt it as well, as she was struggling to put things together and make sense of what she had just been through.
We are convinced at that moment she felt safe and relieved that she not only had compassion and care from her family but also from the person whose immediate care she was under. Meghan was a stranger to us all, but we knew she would do everything in her power to make life better for us all, and she did! With each passing hour, Meghan continued to amaze us with her knowledge, professionalism and her command of every situation, all while exuding the same happiness and positivity that we saw in mom every day leading up to her surgery. I can't recall there being even a moment we did not have full confidence that mom could possibly be better off anywhere else than under Meghan's care while she was in the ICU transition immediately after surgery.
In retrospect, mom made a miraculous recovery in the 24 hours she stayed in the ICU. "I'm really scared," literally vanished in 24 hours. We know that Meghan was not the only team member involved in that incredible recovery, but she was the face and heart of that team. She was the embodiment of their collective compassion, and wow was she the right person at the right time in the right place. Meghan was truly our angel in the ICU.
When it was time to leave the ICU, Meghan assured us we would be in excellent hands on the 6th floor, her old stomping grounds, but to not hesitate to reach out to her if we needed anything. We thought that might be the last time we would see Meghan, but in the hour before we were discharged, she came up to see mom off herself. When mom saw her, that extraordinary smile we hadn't seen since we left the ICU came back, and we could see her spirits lift even more. It was like Meghan assured us all once again that everything was going to turn out well. Walking to the elevator after all our hugs and goodbye's, dad turned to me and shared his thought that Meghan was definitely in the right career. I couldn't agree more, not everyone gets to love their job, excel at their job, and make the world a better place daily, but Meghan does.
As we write this, mom is doing better day-by-day, and there is not one iota of doubt in our minds that she would not be doing nearly as well today if Meghan wasn't her angel in the ICU. We owe the whole Crouse team, but especially Meghan, a great debt of gratitude, and we hope we were able to articulate even a fraction of that here. That very difficult but reassuring day we spent with Meghan is seared into our memory. The nomination asks for a "specific situation or story that clearly demonstrates how this nurse made a meaningful difference in your care." We don't know if our humble story of deep gratitude qualifies, however, we are sure every second Meghan spends caring for patients and exuding compassion and skillful care exemplifies to the highest degree an Extraordinary Nurse!