Earlier this past week I wrote a post that was chalk full of angst and complaints. Before I posted it I decided to save the draft, wait a few days and decide if I still wanted to post it. I’m glad I did that because I just revisited the post and man, what a debbie downer! I have been working quite a bit and also up until this last week (after multiple complaints to the owner) had a very noisy neighbor so I hadn’t really been sleeping. I had a bad day and was emotional so I’m glad I decided to hold off on that one.
I deleted all the complaints and sadness and instead I’ll share an experience I had last week with a patient. It’s not really much different than most nights with my patients but again, I think I was over tired and just VERY in tune with emotions. So, here we go.
I had this patient, an elderly woman (not behind a counter) — points if you know that reference. She was incredibly independent up until the last couple of months when she has had some unfortunate health issues arise. I took care of her for two days and the first day and a half she was pretty angry, rude and occasionally mean towards myself and I’m sure other staff. At some point around 2:30am I went in to give her some medications and was helping her get situated in bed. She started to tell me how she’s having a really hard time accepting the idea of depending on others right now for help and then told me how her current health predicament came to be. I listened and just let her talk as she clearly needed to blow off some steam. One thing lead to another and she started telling me about her two dogs she had had (they passed away a few years ago) and then about how her husband convinced her to quit her job many years ago and open a barber shop with him. The two of them worked together for 11 years before he passed and then she continued to run the shop and cut hair for another 20 years. I was standing there listening to her and looked at her eyes. She was just staring straight up at the ceiling but her eyes were constantly moving back and forth. You could tell that she was reliving all of these memories as she was telling them to me. She continued on to tell me about a few of her clients and then how she got to the point where she couldn’t stand long enough to cut hair anymore so she finally had to retire. Often times when I am in a patient’s room my mind is constantly thinking about the next thing I need to do and even though I’m listening to the patients, I’m not LISTENING. To really listen to someone, so much so that it feels like you are watching a video of their memories is something that does not happen very often. I guess that’s it. It was really cool to actually listen to someone and hear what they have to say. I hope everyone does that occasionally.
Onward. I ventured up to Virginia two weekends ago to visit Andy. I was able to meet his group of friends from Scottsville and check out the town. It’s a cute little town. Sunday we went to a small local brewery called James River Brewery and listened to some live music and then got some coffee and walked down by the James River. There is a huge levee built by the river because apparently it used to flood up through the town to the tops of some of the buildings. Pretty unreal. Sunday night we went to dinner with two of Andy’s friends who I really really enjoyed. They were super chill, solid people. I was glad to be able to spend a bit of time with them.
My travel recruiter started sending my application to places for my next assignment. I’m really hoping to get out west somewhere near some form of mountains. I think it would be really fun to be near mountains for the summer to explore and hike around. So we will see what works out. Stay tuned!
I can’t believe I only have one week left here in North Carolina already. I’m actually really sad to be leaving. I have really enjoyed my time down here so far. This state is really unique and there are so many different climates and environments within such close proximity to each other. Perhaps I will be back in this region some day! In other news, I’ve managed to turn my parent’s house into an Amazon warehouse the last few weeks in preparation for my Vietnam trip. I’m totally going to look like that person who gets new white shoes and wears them for the first time and the whole world knows it’s their first time wearing these new kicks. Oh well. Should be some good stories coming from this trip.
Andy is on his way to my place for the day and then tomorrow A and I are going down to Savannah, GA for a few days!! I’m so excited to check out Savannah and the surrounding area. I’ve heard it’s gorgeous. Plus, I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil a few months ago and I’m low key freaking out about seeing some of the sites from the book. Also, if you haven’t read that book, I HIGHLY recommend it.
I was going to wait to write a post until after Savannah but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have an obnoxious amount of photos and things to say from that venture so, stay tuned!!
Cheers.