Today my stay at the hospital is coming to an end. I am going to get mental help that I need. I am so grateful to Our Lady of the Lake for all the wound care I've been given since I was admitted for the horrendous amount of pain I was in due to my leg. Despite my best efforts, I feel my condition was becoming hopeless and I felt like a lost cause and a burden to my family and friends.
I also hit my head very hard the day my injury happened, and I have felt lost a lot, disoriented, and I can't seem to remember what happened yesterday, or a conversation I had ten minutes ago. I'm still having a hard time remembering what month, day of the month, or day of the week it is. In my head, I feel very upset and frustrated at myself, because I simply can't remember like I could before my accident.
When I was admitted to Our Lady of the Lake, my night nurse was Shelby Fleury. I feel Shelby made me feel better by attending to my wounds, my pain, my mental anguish, and my frustrations at myself for my lack of memory. She offered to sit and talk with me when I felt I was seeing and hearing things, when I felt the TV was talking to me, or when I felt depressed and needed someone to talk to. I feel like she went above and beyond her duties as a nurse, whenever she was my night nurse. I remember the nights she was my nurse when I was terrified to be alone in my room, she'd check up on me and then I'd feel like I was going to be ok that night and that everything was going to be ok for me in general.
I want to thank Shelby Fleury, for not only being the greatest nurse I've ever had care for me but for also soothing my soul in my time of need and I have no more words to fill the ocean of gratitude for this woman. She is a shining example and a beacon.
Her empathy, patience, caring attitude, and willingness to go above and beyond, should be a new standard of nursing all across our nation.
Thank you again, Shelby Fleury, because of you I am learning to love who I am.