We were recently at St. Luke’s for an overnight stay where I learned of a devastating diagnosis—stage IV pancreatic cancer. All of our nursing care received at St. Luke’s was wonderful, and all the nurses we worked with were compassionate, considerate, and knowledgeable.

I’m writing about Melissa not because she made our experience a wonderful one or overcame some insurmountable obstacle—there was no way for that to happen for us. Rather, she took the extra time to make sure we understood what was going on, had choices about care, and had our wishes respected as much as possible. She patiently waited on procedures when it wasn’t a great time, answered our many, many questions (or found out answers for us).

In one example, she must have spent hours and multiple phone calls trying to track down in-network providers and getting us follow-up contact info. In another example, when I expressed that I was asking for “too much” pain meds, she told me to stop—it was important, and I should NEVER feel bad for asking for pain management. We are grateful for having had her help on this devastating day and wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude.