Mechelle was the first nurse I came into contact with when I went in for my back surgery. I have anxiety, and this surgery, as you can imagine, had my anxiety really high. My recollection of the story may not be exact, but you will get the idea of the impact she made as I tell what I remember. She entered the room and, while doing some computer work, told me about what would be taking place. One of the things I was to do right away was take a series of medications, which immediately made me more anxious. Anxiety lends one to want to be in control of one's circumstances, and the medications she was asking that I take were things like narcotics, and I was terrified of how they would make me feel. I told her I did not want to take them, and she expressed the importance of taking them. I then started to cry, and my whole body proceeded to start to shake. I truly was unsure if I was even going to be able to go through with the surgery. At that point, Mechelle looked at me and changed her approach completely. She pulled up a chair, sat down beside me, looked me in the eyes, and calmly proceeded to help me understand the importance of everything they were doing for me that day and how everything she was asking of me was to care for me, not to take away any of my control. She recommended a different IV drug to help calm my nerves, and initially, that even made me anxious, but she again took the time and asked that I trust that she and all the others had my best interests at heart and that they would take good care of me.

If you know anxiety, people often succumb to people and allow them to, in a sense, “get their way” because they don’t want to cause the person even more anxiety. That does not work. What I needed was someone who cared, took the time to explain, and then took control of the situation to take the best care of me possible. I only saw Mechelle for a short period of time, but if it weren’t for her, I don’t know if I would have been able to go through with the surgery. This surgery is all about me being able to improve the quality of my life so I can spend years and years enjoying travel, family time, and especially playing with my grandchildren. Sometimes, it is not the over-the-top things people do but the simple yet profound things that make a huge impact on others' lives. I truly can not express enough how much I appreciate what Mechelle did in taking the extra time and showing me that, although I did not have control that day, everyone would take good care of me! She was a phenomenal nurse, and I think she truly deserves to be recognized for the job she is doing, especially during these difficult times of COVID and everything else going on in the world. Thank you to Mechelle for what she did for me. You changed my life for the better!