For 2 days he has had Kaitlyn as his day nurse. She has gone above and beyond. He came in with stomach pains from an ER via ambulance. He originally was in TCU then Sunday he was brought up here. On Saturday when he got to TCU a nurse told my sister he had a tumor in his liver. From ER we had been told he had an enlarged liver. Monday I met Kaitlyn and from the first time, I saw her, I could tell she greatly cared about her patients' needs and well being. No doctor had told us anything really. My father had been told from hospitalist it could be anything from issues caused by history of hepatitis c to cancer. He was told an oncologist would come by to see him. That happened but he just told him getting an MRI and talked about when we got results would he be getting treatment here or in Houston where he lives. He said Houston and Oncologist left quickly with my dad wondering if he was saying he has cancer or thinks it’s cancer or what. So we asked Kaitlyn. She looked in notes and said he doesn’t have anything in there yet but she will watch for it and let us know. She then went on to read through stuff because we told her about conflicting reports and understood they are still looking for confirmation answers but we are getting no answers. So she read to me a report saying he had a tumor. She told us he was still waiting to go for MRI. Later she said he was scheduled for noon but some higher priority cases needed to be done first. He couldn’t eat or drink until he got the MRI.

Tuesday morning I came in and he still hadn’t gotten MRI or had any food. I talked to the lead nurse and she was calling to see what was going on and Kaitlyn came in to give us an update and said it should be soon. An hour later it hadn’t happened so Kaitlyn talked to the lead nurse and more calls were made. He hadn’t eaten or drank in 2 days and she understood his pain and need to get this done so he could eat. A few minutes later she came in and said they said it will be 2 hours before transportation can get him but if we can get him there they can do MRI now. So she got him in a wheelchair and took him to radiology. She left him there and when she got back to the area she brought drinks in here to be waiting for when he got back. While he was gone, the hospitalist had come by so he gave Kaitlyn an updated plan.

As my Dad got back, Kaitlyn came in and told us what the hospitalist said. We also talked about waiting to hear from the oncologist about all results. She told us she would watch for him and if he hadn’t come by a certain time she would call and check if he is coming. She also asked him to ring the nurse button if he came in so she could come by and help us get any information that was needed or help us understand anything. My sister and I switched out and later in the evening the oncologist had not come by so Kaitlyn made some calls. She then found out the oncologist wasn’t coming back by and they just recommended he see his PCP in Houston for referral to an oncologist there. This was frustrating because we still didn’t know anything. Why are they saying it’s cancer what type of cancer etc. So Kaitlyn again looked things up and told us the APF number and at that level it tells them it’s cancer. Unfortunately, I have had to spend a lot of time with loved ones in the hospital. I know it isn’t the Nurses job to tell us diagnoses. However, she didn’t make it sound like it was off-putting or anything. She just wanted to answer our questions the best she could. Yes she wore a mask but you could still tell she constantly had a smile on her face.

To me, she went above and beyond and needs to be commended for it. I cannot speak highly enough about this young lady and how she has helped us during this trying time. She gave us what peace she could. She answered questions she shouldn’t have to answer. She made us feel that she 100% had his best care in mind.