Every now and then you have an interaction with a patient that affirms you are, indeed, in the right place at the right time. For me it was last Friday evening. The patient is a 94y old still of fairly sound mind watching her body decline in an area nursing facility. Two years ago her husband died and she still tears up about it when she tells me about it today. She confides in me that she's worried about her mind because there are times she swears she sees him watching her or hears his voice telling her where she left the last item she's searching for. I ask her if he's right (about where the item is) and she laughs and tells me " usually.."
Physically she has high blood pressure that has been hard to control, but not a lot else, and I'm actually worried she may not be "sick enough" to stay on hospice for long. The nurses tell me she used to personally "adopt" the sickest of the patients at the facility, cajoling them to eat like a loving grandmother. The staff encouraged family to contact hospice because they really care about her and want her to have a little of the same personal care and she has refused to return to hospital in the future if she declines.
I settle in to hear her story, because I find that this simple act can provide some of the "strongest medicine" I deliver. An hour and a half later we are both amazed at the time gone by. She holds my hand to her damp cheek and tells me she hasn't felt so alive in months and I tell her the same and truly mean it. I promise to stand by her as she battles her depression and hope I can document enough illness to keep her on hospice long enough to achieve my promise.
I can't help but wonder about the many people out there who just need an ear, a heart to hear their struggle. One of the things she said.."we all need to be needed".. keeps coming back to me.
I hope she can feel how much I needed to be that person for her as well.
