Son Matthew is getting reacquainted with life on planet earth after his emergency re-admission to St. Joseph’s Hospital one week after his stay a week earlier. He’s home now, getting better, and glad to be alive. Deo gratias!
During the first days of both of the sieges at the hospital, he lost his ability to communicate, only able to make deep guttural sounds. He later told us that he believed the sounds he was making were completely intelligible. It must have been terrifying to have all communication shut off with his sister Susy and me, and with the medical teams surrounding him during both of the crises.
Knowing how fearful his communication predicament was, Susy and I tried to stay at his side in the hospital for nine hours a day so he wouldn’t be alone. We wouldn’t have needed to though.
During that time, we watched with amazement how the nurses and their aides still managed the impossible – somehow able to have a kind of communion with him. No matter how difficult or messy or tedious, his care was, it was administered with kindness, remarkable patience and good humor. It became increasingly clear to us and to Matthew that he had become a favored patient on each nursing unit he was in. They liked him and he understood that and appreciated it. I think it helped him recover.
Nurses are an impressive category of human beings. They know a lot of science; have mastered the techniques of caring for all kind of vulnerable patients; they soothe, tolerate and encourage the ones who are cranky, depressed, or seemingly unmanageable. They’re even able to lift or move the patients who far outweigh them. And some nurses are downright gifted in being able to coax a smile out of somebody who is very sick. That kind of medicine isn’t found in the pharmacy but it’s freely dispensed by good nurses.
A ways back, I posted the following in one of these blobs, and the story kept echoing in my head during Matt’s ordeal. A family friend posted it on his Facebook and it’s been echoing in my head ever since. This is it:
“Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed.
Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.
When watching all those “civilized” caregivers at St. Joseph’s Hospital, I was thinking about the professional nurses in our family. I could only think of the following list but please help me out with a comment if there’s others.
When I posted this blob last night, I had forgotten the most currently prominent nurse in our household today. How could I forget (but I did) – my little granddaughter-in-law Kristen – wife of grandson Ford – who, like Katie – is more than a nurse. Since I tend to forget stuff that’s the most obvious, she wasn’t in last night’s post. Kristin earned Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology, History and Nursing. Then she earned a doctorate in nursing and commenced her amazing career as a Midwife. Since then, she has introduced a few hundred babies into their brave new world. Please read what her mother-in-law Gretchen has to say about her in the comments below, and join me in standing in awe of this amazing young woman!
When I posted this blob last night, I had forgotten the most currently prominent nurse in our immediate family today. How could I forget (but I did) – my little granddaughter-in-law Kristen Covey- wife of grandson Ford – is more than a nurse. Since I tend to forget stuff that’s the most obvious, she wasn’t in last night’s post. Kristin earned Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology, History and Nursing. Then she earned a doctorate in nursing and commenced her amazing career as a Midwife. Since then, she has introduced a few hundred babies into their brave new world. Please read what her mother-in-law Gretchen has to say about her in the comments below, and join me in standing in awe of this amazing young woman!
Next that comes to mind is my own remarkable sister-in-law, Arlis Ford. She graduated from Mercy School of Nursing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when I worked as a teenager at the hospital where she was in training. Her nursing career was put on hold during the years she was raising her family, but she later served as a volunteer nurse at a rehabilitation center in Cedar Rapids. When my husband Gene and I were raising our family, I never missed a chance to pick her brain for childcare nursing tips, or to observe how she was caring for her own six kids. You can read more about her in this earlier blob: https://goingon80.com/2011/07/23/320-arlis-and-andrew/
My grandniece Katie Fitzpatrick is a nurse in Cedar Rapids, but in a category that isn’t just “vanilla-flavored”. She’s a nurse practitioner who can serve many of the same responsibilities as a medical physician. Who would have guessed that that irresistible little urchin would turn to such a demanding and heroic career for her life’s work. Maybe her grandma Joan’s peanut butter toast helped! I wrote an earlier blob about Katie here: https://goingon80.com/2010/11/13/68-katie-fitzpatrick/
I never met the following three medically trained people on Katie’s side of the family but I learned about them when we produced the blob about our family’s military veterans.
I don’t have a photo of her, but Barbara Ann “Bonnie” Mieswinkel Fitzpatrick (wife of Michael Fitzpatrick) served as a general duty staff nurse for the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. She attained the rank of Captain and served in California, Japan and Thailand.
Bonnie’s husband Michael Edward Fitzpatrick (son of Ed Fitzpatrick) also served in the U.S. Air Force during the Viet Nam War. A staff sergeant, he wasn’t a nurse but served as a highly trained professional medical service specialist.
Another of the family veterans we learned about: James Brennan Fitzpatrick (Leo Fitzpatrick’s son) served in the U.S. Army during the Viet Nam War as a combat medic. According to Wikipedia the medical work he was trained to do paralleled and may have surpassed that of a paramedic. Such trained specialists are considered valuable assets on medical teams in civilian hospitals, too. For years, my husband Gene was treated at our Group Health medical facility in Seattle by a combat medic – turned physician’s assistant – who also served in Viet Nam.
Of course, there’s lots of caregivers among us who don’t have degrees or nursing credentials but who know all there is to know about dedicated nursing care. The caregivers at home. Such as my niece Denise who cares for her little daughter Josie at home, or my daughter Susy who faithfully nurses my son Matthew. Margaret Mead would be proud of them and I am, too!
“To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through: that is to be a nurse.” Rawsi Williams
I have to agree about the staff at St. Joseph’s, they are heroes in my book. Shout out to my bestie Patty Paterson who has devoted her life to helping others with kindness and intelligence. I’m so glad Matt is back home and things are getting back to normal.
Mom, thank you for this wonderful post about Matt’s crisis and medical journey! Matt experienced a village of people assisting in his healing and recovery! Thanks also for sharing about some of the medical caregivers in our family. I give a “shout out” to my amazing, compassionate, skilled, smart, daughter-in-law, Kristin Covey, married to my son, Ford. She first trained and worked as a nurse. Then while working, Kristin, worked toward her midwifery degree. Kristin excelled through all of her schooling and is a sought after midwife. She has been the top pick in midwifery jobs that she has applied for. I am so proud of her. I have had the joy and privilege of working with Kristin at Swedish Medical Center, First Hill, for a couple of years! I work as a chaplain on all of our maternal/baby units, including labor and delivery and post-partum units where Kristin works as well. I round on Labor and Delivery every day to inquire if there are any patients that may desire spiritual care support. It is so wonderful when I see, “Covey”, on the white board next to patient’s name identifying Covey as their Medical Provider! Also, I experienced some surprise pages during Kristin’s first months at Swedish Medical Center. Sometimes I got a messages on my pager saying things like, “Come please come to Triage to evaluate pregnant mother”, Or please come ASAP to OR 2 to assist with a delivery”. To contact people through our pager system one needs to type the last name of the caregiver on a computer app. Next, one types the caregivers first name. Since G for Gretchen comes first as a first name, some caregivers quickly insert my name/pager #, and send the request to ME instead of Kristin! I quickly page the caregiver back telling them that the page needs to go to my daughter-in-law Kristin Covey, not Gretchen Covey! Kristin began to educate the staff to click on Covey, Kristin, instead of Covey, Gretchen! When Kristin had brief openings in her schedule we were occasionally able to eat lunch together and walk around the block! I will miss working with Kristin at Swedish. She applied for and was accepted, (as first choice), as a Midwife for Evergreen Hospital! Kristin, THANK YOU, for caring so compassionately and skillfully toward your patients and their families!
Gwenie this recent ‘Blob’ is a wonderful testament to all the people who medically care for people in many situations: emergency rooms, doctor’s offices, hospitals ,etc.
We’re very happy to hear that Matthew is on the mend and at home!
I too am so appreciative of the outstanding nurses and doctors at St Elizabeth and St Joesph’s hospitals. Matt received wonderful care and he is finally improving a little bit every day. Now, he will be able to enjoy springtime which is just around the corner. He likes to come out for chore times when the weather improves!