Patient Families and Cheese Fries

Nursing is not near as glamorous as those Johnson & Johnson commercials may lead you to believe. Warm meaningful hallmark moments don't happen one right after the other; your lucky if they happen at all.

Working 4 of the past 5 nights has had its advantages. I've had relatively the same group of patients, with the occasional discharge and admission. The patients routines and even family members become familiar so by the 4th night its typically smooth sailing. One patient that I've been taking care of is a post-op patient. He's s very nice man in 60's with a very supportive family. His wife, son, daughter and son-in-law spend every evening with him, and quiet frankly, make my job quite easy. As it turns out, the man is from PA ( I discovered that on the first night while I was changing his dressing) and has visited Lancaster on several occasions.

I've begun looking forward to taking care of him and spending time in his room with his family, because they remind me of mine; always laughing. His wife Sarah celebrated her 61st birthday yesterday and had to celebrate at Denny's with her son and daughter (Matt and Julie- both in their early to mid 30s) after visiting hours were over. Julie comes and see me at the nurses station just to see how my day was going. Matt helps me turn his dad, unplug all the iv's and get his dad up and also stops to see me on his way to his dads room. And tonight they took me out to dinner- well sorta. I was getting report when I saw Matt looking at me through the glass, I waved and he walked over to the door. He said he was going to get food for his family and asked if I wanted anything. I said thank you but no, that I was alright to which he replied "Are you sure? I'm going to Outback." I haven't been to Outback in forever and had no idea what to order. Sorta feeling dumb that I was shouting across the nurses station full of people to a very well dressed guy that's not at all hard the eyes (if you know what I mean:-) with everyone around and not wanting to say no thanks again, I asked for french fries.

What I got in return was a large order of the cheese fries with bacon. (I don't know how he knew... no comments please! ) When I opened the container I thought it was a mistake, and asked if he meant to give me the cheese fries. He just smile and said, "Yeah, they're the best!." Needless to say, all evening I was the envy of the nurses station. Now, happy, with a belly full of potatoes, cheese and bacon (can there be a better combination) I'm left to wonder two things. 1) Why can't all patients families be as fun this one? 2) Is Matt in the market for a girlfriend?


Unfortunately, I know the answer to the first, and won't find out the answer the second. Tonight is my last night for a week so I had to say goodbye to my new friends when they left this evening. Surprisingly, I'm a little sad that I won't get to see them tomorrow..........


ps- if anyone can think of a way to "professionally" slip my number to my patient to give to Matt- I'm all ears:-)