My stay started on Tuesday am and did not end until Friday at 4 pm. I was in the hospital over the holiday with an NG tube and the saving grace of orange popsicles. I honestly thought I was dying and without the compassion and knowledge of my friends, physicians, and nurses on W-3, I might have. Tiffany Keen was the shining star. I truly believe that God created her to be a nurse and her compassion was felt by me. Her love for her co-workers was easily seen in the way she responded to them in conversations. She was very busy but I never felt that she rushed me or my care. My illness presented with right-sided pain with soon to follow vomiting which wasn't easy with an NG tube. She would make sure she would come to me as soon as I could get my medicine to see if I needed it. This would keep me from having the above issues. She found out I could have small sips of clear liquids and didn't stop until she found me a ginger ale which I was dying for. It was the best single thing I have had in my whole life. The night I got my NG tube she explained it to me and what I needed to do. As it was going down and I was trying to throw it up she kept saying tuck your chin, swallow, swallow and so I did and it went down. She then "lied" and told me I was a trooper and the easiest NG tube ever. She got me popsicles to help numb the terrible feeling in my throat. She encouraged me when I walked the floor and at one very low moment told me "you are not going to die! we've got you".
To say she was a good nurse is not accurate. She was a nurse, caretaker, friend, angel of mercy, dietician, stalker (the good kind), and teacher. I thought I was dying and she wouldn't let me. How do you thank someone for that? I'm not sure but I will go to my grave trying to be just as good a nurse as she was to me. She is a true DAISY Nurse.