Changing Lives

Yesterday was my last day of clincals at the hospital for the semester.  Here is my group in our TERRIBLE nursing scrubs.  Do you see me? I'm sort of in the middle... right in front of McSteamy.  Yep, our whole class really calls him that.

We spent this week on the oncology (cancer) floor and I had one of the sweetest patients ever.

2 years ago he was given 3 months to live.  He was diagnosed with Leukemia and the doctors did not expect him to make it very long.

He had other plans.

Since his diagnosis, he decided he needed a hobby to keep him busy.  He started going to local goodwills, dumpsters, etc to find old bicycles that he could fix up and give away to orphans and other children that needed them.  Before coming to the hospital for a really high fever, he had just finished 56 bicycles which were shipped to New Orleans for needy children in that area for Christmas.

He is an inspiration but also proof that life is not always fair.  He is scared to die - he doesn't want to leave his wife of 60 years alone (she is not in great health).  He has decided to fight for his life with everything he has.  I must admit he is doing a pretty good job at it too.  The chemo takes a large toll on his body but after 86 treatments he is still going strong.  He looks great and looks at least 10-15 years younger than his actual age.

It felt so great to discharge him today and send him home to be with his loved ones.  We should all be able to be with the ones we love this time of the year.  All he wants for Christmas this year is for his white blood cell count to go up.  I have to admit, that is all I want this Christmas too.  I know I'll be praying for him and thinking about him over the holidays.

Sometimes people just touch your life and I know I will remember him forever.  I hope that he has many more years to spend with his wife and plenty of time left for fixing up those bikes for needy children.


**some of the dates/details of this story were altered to protect the identify of my patient and to prevent any sort of HIPPA violations from occurring.