My son was a patient recovering from pneumonia and pleural effusion. He's had 2 different chest tubes and was hospitalized for 8 days. I write this as I sit in our room while he sleeps. He is improving and feeling much better after what felt like such a long journey. As he sleeps it is a good time to reflect on this experience. What stands out the most are the people in the hospital who helped him on his road to recovery.
Julia was our nurse on our 1st and 2nd night in the PICU. She was there for some of our most confusing and scary moments. She was an incredibly amazing nurse, attentive, caring, compassionate, empathetic, humble and reassuring. I feel so lucky we had her at such a critical time. I always felt I could ask her any questions and just talk to her without feeling afraid to speak up. By just doing what she does she taught me a lot about how to help care for my son. How to adjust/move him, help him go to the bathroom and just do things that were helpful but also comforting to him to have me do them vs. calling someone in each time.
Something I quickly learned is when you are here for a while you have a lot of nurses and it is rare to see them more than one shift. Having Julia 2 nights in a row made me feel reassured as we had someone who knew our son's specific situation. So tonight as I write this you can imagine my surprise and moment of happiness to see her again as our nurse. This time in general pediatrics. It felt like an old friend walking in. She easily remembered both of us and specifics of his situation. We caught up and shared a common sense of joy that he was doing much better. It's moments like these that really bring a positive light to what otherwise is such an unfortunate situation. I just want to thank Julia and let her know we won't forget her and appreciate everything she did!