During my night shift last week, I came into the ward to
find a woman on the ventilator. She had
had quite a large tumour removed from her palate and a tracheostomy put in for
her airway. She wasn’t unstable or
particularly sick post operatively but was a little too lazy to breathe on her
own.
The following night, she was back in the ward, coping well with
her trache and change of airway. She
spoke a language that wasn’t spoken by many of our translators, but she also wasn’t
able to speak with her trache in. We were able to communicate well enough with
her to meet her needs.
Over the following days, she recovered very well and at the beginning
of my shift one day this week, it was time to remove the trache. With a surgeon, ready with a scalpel to cut
the sutures holding it to her skin and several nurses standing around ready,
she sat wide eyed on a stool next to her bed.
With the swift motion, cutting the sutures and a gentle sweep of the
wrist to pull out the trache, it was gone! The small hole in her neck gapped
open as she took more breaths. Eyes still wide, pulse racing, nurses’ hands
reassuringly resting on her, we told the translator to ask her to relax and
just breathe normally. Soon enough her
wide eyes, calmed and she realised all of a sudden, this strange plastic tube
in her neck was really gone! She was back to herself! Her smile spread ear to
ear, almost as though her face would burst open with happiness. She reached for every nurses and doctors hand,
shaking it and murmuring her thanks. We
covered the small hole, letting it close over itself as it heals, and she stood
to her feet. One of our other patient’s
mothers came over, and began to sing a song of praise and we stood around in a
circle clapping along, as our dear patient danced, her arms raised high and her
smile splitting all of our hearts open wide with joy! As she hugged every
person she could reach, my heart danced. This, these moments, are exactly why I
love my job here, where my heart could burst any moment because it just can’t
contain any more joy!
And one more photo just because it makes my heart throb!
"Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy!"
Isaiah 60:5a
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