Three Nurses

Blogging from: Barnes & Noble on Highway 6

Three Nurses
This past Friday I had a pretty interesting experience while volunteering at MD Anderson. Instead of doing my usual Clinic Aide rounds, Margaret moved me to run the Cyber Center (computer lab/fax machine/printer/call center for patients).

I was getting a run down on how to use all the equipment and take calls when a lady walks in. As she was signing in, I glanced over and saw that she was lugging around a huge textbook with the word "NURSE" written across its cover. I thought to myself, "oh she must be a nursing student. I need to remember to spark some conversation with her if she's not too busy." Later, two more ladies walk in, one in a wheel chair and the other one pushing her. It was obvious the lady in the wheel chair was receiving her chemotherapy, as her head was covered by the caps we give out and she looked quite fatigued. They signed in and went to a computer.

30 minutes later and the lady who was pushing around her friend/relative got up and left the room. The scene is now the nursing student at her computer putting together a power point, the patient blogging at her computer, and me behind the check-in counter reading an article on uveal melanomas (which, by the way, was actually very interesting), all quiet, all entrenched in our own business.

After finishing the article I finally asked the nursing student,
"Excuse me, ma'am, are you a nursing student?"

"Actually, I'm a nurse, how did you know?"

"Oh, I saw your textbook."

It turned out that her husband was diagnosed with cancer and they moved to Houston for treatment, she's unemployed at the moment. The patient in the wheel chair then looks at us and says that she's also a nurse from which I reply, "Awesome, I'm applying to nursing school."

Exchanging smiles, they share their experiences as nursing students and work experience with me. As our conversations dig deeper, we come to learn that the three of us are also Christians. We all laugh realizing how the Hands of God brought 3 people in the same field of study with the same love for God together, alone in one room.

I was touched and amazed as they recounted their struggles battling cancer and how through it all God remained as the foundation of their comfort. The lady whose husband has cancer told us how 4 years ago the doctors said that her husband would only have 6 months to live. Obviously, God's plan for him was different.

The outpouring of love for God from these two ladies, even in their unfortunate situations, reminded me of how Christ is the strongest foundation and true beacon of healing. The night ended with each of us offering prayers to each other: me to them for their respective fights against cancer, and they to me for nursing school.

St. Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 1,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God."

Christ wipes away our tears when we weep, He picks us up when we fall, He carries us when we cannot walk, He is compassionate and empathetic to our sufferings, He embraces us with His warmth when we feel the shivering coldness of the world. He is not a band-aid that superficially covers up our cuts, but rather the clotting factors that heal our wounds from the inside out. Just as He does for us so, too, must we do for our fellow brothers and sisters.

P90X
A little more than 1/3 of the way through P90X and I dropped from pant size 32 to 30. I bought a cheap pair of jeans because it was getting too annoying to keep pulling up my pants. I told myself that I would go jeans shopping once I'm at the end of the 90 day program. It would, after all, be a waste of money to buy new jeans every time I went down a size. Who would want to waste money in this economy (or at all for that matter)?

I also feel much healthier after starting the program. My body is naturally starting to eat much less and is even rejecting foods that it knows are bad for me (i.e., oily, greasy, MCDONALDS). Seriously, just the sight of such food makes me want to hurl now a days. My vertical is also slightly higher (which isn't saying much since I have the leaping ability of a sumo wrestler). I feel more energetic/lively and my sleeping pattern has even started to look like that of a typical human being. Seriously, people, avoid the caffeine and just go outside and play if you want more energy. Exercise rules!