Last month I found myself having chest pain and tingling in my left arm. I became a little freaked out, so my first instinct was to go talk to my coworker Tassha who is an RN. She helped talk me through what I should do-go to the ED-having a nurse's opinion just seemed to help. We went to the ED and she stayed with me for hours until my husband could arrive. Mind you, Tassha is a single mom and had to scramble to make arrangements for her son in the meantime, but she still wouldn't leave me. She explained all the tests I was receiving, my EKG results, etc. She kept me calm the whole time and continued to check up on me throughout the evening and the next day. It ended up being muscular and nothing serious.
Fast forward about a month later. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with DCIS and had to have a right side mastectomy. She had several complications that resulted in two ED visits as well as two additional surgeries in a month. The other evening after surgery, she mentioned to me that she had reiki once a long time ago and how she thought it might help her and would love to do it again. The very next morning at work Tassha, who does reiki, asked me how she was doing and out of the blue said ask her if she would like me to do some work on her, meaning reiki. How did she know?! I was headed over to see my mother-in-law at the time, so, Tassha immediately dropped what she was doing and came over to my mother-in-law's hospital room. She gave her the treatment, combed her hair, put lotion on her and just listening and talked. These are just two examples of the compassion and kindness Tassha has shown to me and others. I think this shows that no matter where you may be in your nursing practice, you never lose your nurse's heart and genuine love for helping people. Thank you Tassha, you are the best!