So, I almost lost it today. Little did I know how emotionally spent I am. I returned to University of Miami's hospital today and again helped out in the adult ward. The children's ward is cute but heart wrenching when they get operated on. I was catching up with all of our PT patients for the first half of the day. The second half of the day I worked with a doctor and a nurse updating patient charts and changing IV's.
It all came to a head when we started working with the patients who have spinal cord injuries. The first patient was great news. He could move his toes and feet and even though he was in an incredible amount of pain he looked extremely hopeful.
The next patient was the heart breaker. The doc started telling this young kid in his early twenties that he had a severe spinal cord injury and only had a 5% chance of walking again after his surgery. He looked at me with this blank stare and then began to tear up. I was taken back because I figured he already knew this since he'd been in the hospital for a week. Then he started begging with me to fix him. He said he had a child and a wife that he needed to care for and he couldn't be handicapped. I turned to the doc and said, “Doc, this is the first time this patient has received this news.” She was surprised too but we had to continue. She explained to him that she would work with him to get him accustomed to the new lifestyle. I had to bite my lip a few times but I told him over and over again that he couldn't lose hope and he had to have faith that he would be okay.
The rest of the day was draining but rewarding, but after that encounter I had to walk outside of the hospital and take a breather for a little bit. I'm so glad we are here but never imagined what this was really going to be like.
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