Tony

If had to choose one thing about being in the rehab hospital that I strongly disliked, it would be having to go to the bathroom towards the end of each nurses shift.

Daily physical therapy is exhausting.  By late afternoon I was more than ready to go to sleep.  I'd be sleeping soundly and before I knew it there would be a nurse at my bedside insisting I get up and use the bathroom.  I don't know about you, but 4:30am is not a 'time for bathroom break' routine I was used to.

On one such morning a new nurse named Tony awoke me and said "It's time to go to daclub."  That was his fancy way of saying "Get up and go to the bathroom."

Now at a real club, it's both common knowledge, and common practice for the girls to all go to the bathroom together.  It's just what we do.  However, I felt somewhat vulnerable having to go to the bathroom with a male, even if he was a nurse, but assured Tony that although he was my first male nurse, I was okay with his assistance. 

He said to me, that I must not remember him.  He pointed to the pocket on his scrubs, and asked me what did I see there?  I replied with "I see a pocket full of pens." It was then I noticed the name on his pocket.  St. Dominics Hospital.

 

He then told me he was part of my surgical team.  Those memories were a bit hazy for me, so I asked him to fill in the missing details for me. 

He told me on that on Saturday, the day of my surgery, it was his day off.  He was lounging around his house when the hospital called and told him they had a severe case, and would he mind coming in on his day off and assist in the surgery room.  He told the hospital he'd be right there, and it was me who ended up being the severe case. 

He also told me that on that same day another lady about my age came in to the hospital with the same type of brain bleed, but sadly she did not recover, and did not make it.  That hit home, and I again realized how precious and fragile life is, and that sometimes life is shorter than we want.

 

I was truly thankful that Tony agreed to come to work that day on his day off.  He didn't have to, but there was someone (me) who was in need, and that's what good nurses do.

After that morning, whenever Tony was my assigned nurse and would come get me ready to “go to daclub”, I got up and did so without begrudging the early hours, because that's what good patients do.