Good and Bad

Today I had a little girl I just want to remember. She came in because mom had noticed an abnormal eye movement. She's in the early elementary school age range. So PCP sent her for an MRI and today they received a call that it was abnormal.

When I first signed up for her as a patient I had heard mom was upset. I took her instead of my orientee. Went in, introduced myself to them and sat on the bed with the girl. I told her that my job was to do two things: one was to take care of her and the other was to help her and answer all her questions. The first thing she wanted to know was, duh, "am I going to get a shot?" I told her that I didn't know, but if I did we would talk about it first.

Of course the orders I got for her included a lot of blood work and an IV. I called Child Life to come and they did IV teaching with her. She was so brave, sat up on the bed and held still for me. I was so proud of her!

I explained to the parents every step that we would take, giving them all the time and attention I could. See, the thing is that this kid has something serious. This thing is probably not going to go well, and I wanted their first encounter with us to be positive, because it won't be their last.

It sucks because I want them all to walk out okay. Or at least if it's going to suck to be to loser parents and their ferrel kids. Not to these parents, not to this kid. So instead of being admitted over the holiday weekend, they are going to see the grandparents. Wise parents. Thank you to the doc that explained it to them in a way that they had a choice in what they did.

Today I'm proud of what I do. I really do have a ministry to the "least of these." And I'm very humbled by the bravery of a little girl who has parents that will walk her through the next part.