Patient at the hospital. Giselle. No nurse likes her because she’s been there for 49 days, she’s a drag to work with, Debbie downer to the max, does not want to get up to use the commode and instead pees in the bed, doesn’t want to get cleaned up, or wash her hair, pees in the bed again, asks for the bed pan all day every day even though she can get up, refuses all care being offered to her, is depressed, seems like she’s given up yet is sucking the life out of all the people (especially nurses that are with her all day) that work with her.
I’ve been seeing her for physical therapy for one month now, 3-4x/week. I went into her room today. Her hair was all tangled, it smelled horrible in her room because of her hygiene, and though it usually takes a LOT of encouragement to work with her, today it was a little easier for her to say yes for some reason. Today she looked a little better. More color in her face. She didn’t want to walk, but I encouraged her to walk and we finally made it to the hallway out of her room for the first time. I was shocked. Everyone at the nurses station was shocked. I was so happy I almost hugged her, but stopped myself… I asked her if she wanted me to brush and fix her hair. She agreed. This was the most we’ve conversed. She sat on the bed, I cleaned up her pee-stained sheets and changed them to fresh ones. All I could find was a tiny comb in her room; I tried to comb through her hair as best as I could. Her hair is a wreck; she should probably shave it when she gets out of the hospital instead of trying to salvage it and get it untangled. But she let me comb through it gently. She’s only been using dry shampoo since she’s been here… wow. I then had an idea to put her hair up into a low messy bun with her hair in a side-part, and she agreed! I fixed her hair, gave her the lipstick from her purse, and for the first time, she saw herself as a person again, not just a rotting body in the hospital. It was the first time I actually had hope that she’d actually get out of here and live a life outside of her hospital room. She looked very pretty, I almost cried in front of her but held it back. It was a really cool moment that God allowed… probably the coolest moment I’ve had since starting to work at Lutheran. Thank you, Lord.
Holding Unswervingly. 