"You have breast cancer." Four words you don't ever want to hear, and four words that turned my life upside down and inside out.
My first interaction with Sheila was on "Patient Education" day - this is where she went through a huge notebook of information about chemotherapy and explained every single thing about the process, which included what to expect from each drug, how much I would get in pre-meds, possible side effects, what to do for side effects, food to eat/not eat, on and on and on. And then she answered a list of 30 questions I had taken with me to the session. Over 2 hours of one-on-one with me to try and alleviate my fears by answering every unknown I had. And then still asked did I have any more questions.
I told her that first day that I was absolutely terrified, more terrified than I had ever been in my life. She told me she would be with me the whole way. She told me to never hesitate to come to her for anything. She said she would be there for me. And she was always there. It was like a shadow.
Sometimes the fear for me was almost paralyzing as I went along with the treatments. A symptom, a medicine, or something negative I'd read on the internet would flip me out. I would call Sheila at the clinic, and she would pull me back off the ledge, every single time.
One day during one of my treatments something happened at the clinic with another patient that scared me half out of my skull (the patient was having a difficult time, it was nothing the clinic or staff did). I couldn't sleep that night because of it. The next day I went to the clinic to talk to Sheila about it. I was ready to quit chemo as I was so upset. She stopped what she was doing and took me into a private room and for an entire hour she talked to me and calmed me down. She pulled me back off the ledge, again.
On days of treatment, she would always walk by my chair and ask how I was doing. Always wanting to know if I needed anything. She is very witty and would always have something to say to make me laugh. She was able to channel into my inner feelings and know when I needed some laughter-medicine.
Sometimes I would just watch the way the team worked. It was an incredibly close-knit team. And guess who was at the center of this? Sheila. Always Sheila. She was the glue that held the staff together. It wasn't just me she was always concerned with. It was ALL the patients. She was always on the move, interacting with the patients, making sure they were comfortable, asking what they needed, laughing with them. Some of the patients would bring family members to treatment, and she would always stop and take the time to chat with them and ask them questions about needs at home. It was a fascinating thing to watch.
All of the pain, agony, sickness, distress, and even death that an oncology nurse faces every day takes a remarkable amount of strength and compassion. But a patient cannot make it through this nightmare successfully without a Sheila-nurse. I thank God I was blessed with this staff at Phoebe-Sumter Oncology. But I especially thank Him for Sheila. I could never have made it through chemotherapy without her at my back during this journey.