Chapter 10
AS THE DAYS marched on, work was starting to get easier for Hope. She was making friends among her coworkers, and JoAnn had lightened up quite a bit since her first-day foul-up with the blinds.
Hope continued to blog every day. She wrote poems most of the time, but on the rare occasion when the words didn’t come to her, she simply wrote a recap of her day. One day when she logged in to her blog, she noticed a half dozen or so thumbnail pictures of people at the bottom of the screen.
“What are those?” she asked with concern, as Marjorie peered over her shoulder.
“Those are your followers,” said Marjorie.
“How did I get followers?”
“They must have found you on the web somehow, and clicked the ‘follow’ button on your page.”
“Does that mean they like what I write?”
“Of course it does. The ‘follow’ feature allows them to stay on top of your blog, and see whenever you put up a new post.”
“Oh,” Hope said, feeling both amused and flattered.
Within a matter of days, the number of followers doubled. Then tripled. Then the followers started leaving comments and messages.
Hope, your first post about the turtles made me cry! What a beautiful story and poem! I’ve been an Emergency nurse for 22 years and I have yet to meet someone as insightful and articulate as you are about all that we nurses deal with, day in and day out. Keep up the good work, wrote Nora from Seattle, Washington.
Your poetry is beautiful, Hope. I’m not a nurse, but I love your blog. I look forward to reading it every day, said Jennibeth from Tempe, Arizona.
I am nurse too, in China. I work with terminally ill patients. Sometimes it is hard, I cry for them at night when no one hear me. I am still learn English but I like the way you writes, Miss Hope. Beautiful words the way you put them together, said Ji Chen from Beijing.
Hope smiled every time she read the comments, and loved sharing them with Marjorie.
“Sometimes that happens,” Marjorie said one day, with a knowing smile.
“What do you mean?”
“When you keep yourself open, you’ll be amazed at the things that make their way into your life. Like new people. Encouragement and kindness. All kinds of unexpected little surprises. It all comes with the territory, Hope. Expect more of it to come your way. Staying open is hard work, and all of this helps fill you back up when you feel like you have nothing left to give. Know what I mean?”
“I think I do,” Hope said.
She kept Marjorie’s words in mind whenever she went to visit Will on the ICU during her breaks each day at work. While his vital signs were stable, his intracranial pressure still remained higher than normal, and the doctors felt that the medically induced coma should continue for a while longer. He wasn’t out of the woods just yet.
Each time Hope came to visit him, she opened the blinds to his room, still to the dismay of Connie and the other nurses on the unit. In defying their tradition, she endured lots of dirty looks and the occasional verbal snipe from the ICU nurses, but held her ground.
Will needed sunshine, she knew with absolute certainty, if there was any chance that he was going to make it.
• • •
THREE WEEKS TO the day after Hope had started work at Mercy Regional Hospital, she arrived at work early to visit Will. She entered his room in the ICU to find an empty bed. Her heart skipped a beat, and her stomach seemed to drop to her knees. She rushed to the nurse’s station, tears forming in her eyes.
“Connie,” she called out to Will’s nurse, “where is he? What happened?”
When Connie turned around to face her, Hope didn’t know how to read her expression.
“He’s not here anymore,” she said.
“Well where is he?” Hope begged.
Connie broke into a smile. “He’s been moved to the step-down unit. He turned around last night, Hope. The doctors brought him out of his coma early this morning.”
Tears poured from Hope’s eyes as she rushed forward and embraced Connie. “Thank you,” she wept. “Thank you so much for everything you did for him.”
“Thank you,” Connie said. “And I owe you an apology. You were right all along.”
Hope furrowed her brow. “About what?”
“About the sunlight. He did need it. But I’ll let him tell you himself all about that. He’s been asking for you.”
She hugged Connie once more and made a beeline to the step-down unit. She found Will’s room and lingered in the doorway for just a minute, staring at him. His open eyes were fixed on the sunlight streaming through the window. What a beautiful sight it was.
“Hi,” Hope said softly, stepping into the room. “I heard you were asking for me.”
“I sure was.” Will broke into a slight grin. “Wow, it even hurts to smile."
When she neared his bedside, Will reached for her hand. She took it into hers, being careful not to disturb the IV line that was taped to his skin.
“Thank you,” he said when their eyes met.
“What for?”
“For bringing me back,” said Will.
“I can’t take any credit for that. You were on the ICU the whole time, and I work on a totally different unit. The ICU doctors and nurses did all the work –”
“You don’t understand, Hope. Sometimes I would hear you talking to me. And every time it happened, I would see light, and I knew that everything was going to be okay.” Will’s voice was shaky and soft, barely above a whisper. That, Hope knew was because his vocal cords were weakened from not being used for a while, and the nasogastric tube limited his ability to speak.
She also knew that in time, his voice would return, as big and grand as ever.
“Just rest now,” Hope said. “There’ll be plenty of time for us to catch up later, okay?”
“Wait,” Will said, squeezing her hand. “I need to ask you something.”
What’s that?”
“Since I kind of got detoured along the way, can we reschedule dinner? How about just the two of us?”
“That sounds wonderful.”
“The doctor says I could be back home in a few weeks. I have to get my muscles working again. There’ll be lots of PT.”
“Good,” she said. “Just do what the therapists tell you and you’ll be back on your feet before you know it.”
“I will,” he said softly. “I’ve got to get the heck out of here. This country boy needs his sunshine. I’m counting on you to bring me my daily dose until I can come back home. Alright?”
“I think I can handle that,” said Hope.
Her heart was pounding with joy. Pulling together in her mind were random words and phrases, all of which didn’t make sense to her just yet, but would eventually come together into a poem. Hope was patient. She didn’t mind the wait.
Fatigue was forcing Will’s eyelids closed, but a smile remained on his face. “So, how’s your schedule look in a couple of weeks? For dinner, I mean?”
“For you,” said Hope with a warm smile, “it’s wide open.”
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the following individuals for helping to shape the nursing and medical aspects of this story: Hilary Warren, MD, Timothy Jones, MD, FACS, Andrea Novak, PhD, RN-BC, FAEN, and Elaine Scherer, MA, BSN, RN. Thanks also to Marvelyne Engel and Karen Allen for their editorial support. We also greatly appreciate the services of Robin Ludwig for her beautiful cover design and Brett Battles for the excellent e-book formatting. We are sincerely grateful to each of you for your contributions to “Open.”
About the Authors
MARCUS ENGEL is a professional speaker and author who provides insight and strategies for excellent patient care. At 18, Marcus was blinded after being struck by a drunk driver. Through two years of medical recovery, a six-month stint at rehab school and one month training with a new Seeing Eye dog, Marcus remained committed to his goals: return to college and recapture life. Marcus’ stor
y has empowered and enlightened audiences around the nation to overcome personal adversity and make intelligent decisions. His autobiography, “After This… An Inspirational Journey for All the Wrong Reasons” has helped tens of thousands realize their potential and reach for new goals. His latest books “The Other End of the Stethoscope” and “I’m Here: Compassionate Communication In Patient Care” are inspirational tributes to health care professionals, offering insight and strategies for excellent patient care. Marcus’ story is also featured in the movie “The Drop,” which can be viewed online at www.thedropmovie.com. Marcus lives in Orlando, Florida, and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University in the city of New York. He is grateful to be co-authoring stories with Amy Glenn Vega. Marcus can be reached through his website, www.marcusengel.com.
AMY GLENN VEGA, MBA, MHA, RHED, FAHCEP, is not a nurse, nor does she play one on TV. However, she has worked closely with nurses for nearly 20 years in her career as a healthcare educator and a former Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediate. A gifted storyteller, Amy has woven educational content into fiction stories in her series, Nursing Novellas.* The Nursing Novellas* series is in use as required reading in multiple worksites and colleges across the nation. The first title in the series, “Lions and Tigers and Nurses,” has been a #1 bestseller in the Nurse & Patient category on Amazon.com, and was named one of the 25 best fiction books ever written about nursing. Amy is the recipient of a number of national awards for her work on the series, including the Health Care Education Association’s Excellence in Practice – Staff Development award and the National Nursing Staff Development Organization’s Excellence in Humor Award. Amy was also appointed as a Fellow to the Academy of Health Care Education Professionals. She is very grateful for this opportunity to co-author a story with Marcus Engel. You can reach Amy through her website, www.amyglennvega.com.
*Nursing Novellas are published by Pritchett and Hull Associates, Inc., in Atlanta, GA. Readers are eligible for contact hours, CNE, through Southern Regional AHEC in Fayetteville, NC. Southern Regional AHEC is an Approved Provider of continuing nursing education by the North Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. For more information, visit www.nursingnovellas.com
“Open” is not a credit-bearing educational activity.
The authors are available to assist organizations with developing customized educational stories for training and professional development A growing body of evidence* suggests that teaching through stories is one of the most powerful ways for adults to learn and retain information. Please contact Marcus or Amy for a consultation.
*Sources:
• Bergman, P. (1999), “Storytelling as a teaching tool,” Clinical Excellence in Nursing Practice, Vol. 3, No.3, pp.154-7.
• Davidhizar, R., Lonser, G. (2003), “Storytelling as a teaching technique,” Nurse Educator, Vol. 28, No.5, pp.217-21.
• Duffin, W. (1995), “Evoking the moral imagination: using stories to teach ethics and professionalism to nursing, medical and law students,” Journal of Medical Humanities, Vol. 16, No.4, pp.247-63.
• Fairbairn, G. (2002), “Ethics, empathy and storytelling in professional development,” Learning in Health and Social Care, Vol. 1, No.1, pp.22-32.
• Milton, C. (2004), “Stories: implications for nursing ethics and respect for another,” Nursing Science Quarterly, Vol. 17, No.3, pp.208-11.
• Sorrell, J.M. (2000), “Stories in the nursing classroom: writing and learning through stories,” Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol.22, No.3, pp.600-9.
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