A great team of nurses took care of me recently. Over the course of my sixty-nine day stay, I became very familiar with the personalities and work ethics of the nurses assigned to care for me. After carefully considering each of them, it is Courtney Theilan who stands out. Courtney took care of me with the highest degree of compassionate care and skill that I could have ever hoped for.

One example took place during my first two nights in the hospital while I was under Courtney's care. Because the incision for my Hoehn catheter leaked blood for two days after being inserted into my chest, my dressing had to be replaced every couple hours, day and night, until the bleeding finally stopped. Because the dressings used for catheter sites are intended to stay in place for a week at a time, the adhesive create an extremely strong bond to the skin. After several of these dressing changes, my skin in the area covered by the adhesive was completely raw and it was extremely painful each time it was cleaned and prepped for the new dressing change. Courtney did everything possible to make the process easier for me. From a Clinical standpoint, she did what the other nursed did, but Courtney had an extra special way of handling it. Imagine how it feels to be woken up every couple of hours to have yet another layer of your skin peeled off and then scrubbed with an antiseptic solution that burns like crazy. It was torture. I dreaded those dressing changes and each one was more painful than the one before as more layers of my skin were peeled off with the adhesive. Courtney seemed to really understand what I was going through and she was painstakingly careful to keep from hurting me any more than necessary. There was also something very special about the gentleness of her touch and in her voice as she talked me through the process; and that made the dressing changes easier to tolerate.

Another situation with Courtney occurred one evening while my family was visiting. With my disease, blood test results are a big part of how my progress, or lack of it is measured. We became very familiar with WBC, ANC, HCT, HGB, Blasts, etc., and each day, we hoped that positive numbers would be posted on the chart on my wall. My first round of chemo wasn't effective so when the test results started looking good with the second round, we were thrilled and eagerly looking forward to the next days results. Late on this particular afternoon, following several days of good news about low Blast cells, the day shift nurse posted all the numbers except for the Blasts (we always asked the nurses to write the Blast information in the "notes" column on the chart. She told us the Blast count wasn't back from the lab yet. So when Courtney came in to take my vitals that evening, we asked her to check my labs and tell us what the Blast count was. She could have lied to us by saying the results still weren't in. But instead, with great empathy and composure, she told us exactly what we asked for - the truth. We could see in her eyes that it was difficult for her to tell us the Blasts were up considerably from the previous days. That news was disappointing, but the very compassionate way that she told us made it easier to handle. My daughter, who was visiting us that evening is a nurse and she also was impressed with the way Courtney handled this difficult situation.

Excellent nursing, in my opinion is a combination of skills, expertise and empathy for the patients. Skills can be learned, but I believe that empathy has to come naturally from the heart. Your definition of a DAISY Honoree as shown on the nomination form describes Courtney to a "T". So for the specific instances described above and for the way she cared from me in general, my wife and I nominate Courtney Theilan for the DAISY Award. She truly deserves this honor.