One morning at work I wasn’t felling very well. I had been coughing the past couple of weeks, and was having an extremely hard time breathing that morning. One of the nurses I work with regularly has been working with me a majority of that shift and told me I need to go to the ER after feeling under the weather the few hours prior, and that everyone else on the floor could handle the rest of the shift, since there was only one hour left. After speaking with my supervisor to okay it, I left my shift early and went to the ER. Shortly after I had gotten checked in and my chest x-ray completed, Sharon Upperman walked into my room. She held my hand while they put in my IV and told me about the tests they were going to run. My hands were pretty numb at that point, but not enough to hold back from squeezing her hand when they said they were checking for a clot in my lung. Then after she clocked out, she came back down to the ER and said, “I’m driving you home,” then continued to sit with me for another hour. We just watched the new, and chit chatted, just like we would any other day, until the doctor came in.
The doctor asked who the person was sitting with me. As I started to explain that we were coworkers, Sharon claimed to be family before I could say anything. After they discharged me, she drove me to two pharmacies, on opposite sides of town, because the first pharmacy was not open yet. Sharon drove me home, which was on the opposite side of town from the pharmacy we were at, and even offered to let me stay at her house for the day so I wouldn’t have to be alone. She helped me carry my things inside, and told me to call her if I needed anything. She did all of this after working all night, and was scheduled to work again that night, and had a family event to attend that afternoon.
Sharon Upperman went miles out of her way to assure that I was taken care of that morning, and I am beyond blessed to work with not only a nurse, but a friend who is so concerned about my well-being, and genuinely kindhearted.