My doctors took very good care of me and my surgery was successful. the pain is gone! However, I want to acknowledge the nurses. The first night after my spine surgery (on October 17, 2014), my wife and son had left HSS after seeing me in the recovery room. I was moved to room 627, bed 2.
I was was wakeful and uncomfortable—not so much in pain, the painkillers did their job, but immobilized and disoriented. I felt anxiously alone, immobilized and helpless (in a way very much uncharacteristic of me).
The young nurse assigned to me understood my anxiety about being alone and being unable to move. She said she had “charting” to do but would bring her computer and sit at my bedside and do it there. She did that. It was dark in the room except for her computer. I could see her by its light and felt greatly reassured at her presence—and very grateful to her. I thanked her. I asked her name, but in my post-anesthetic haze, it didn’t sink in. I was able to relax and I slept until morning. I don’t even know if I ever saw her again—I don’t think so. But I’ll never forget her kindness.
I wish there was some way of saying thank you to her now. Maybe it can be done by way of this story.
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