Like I blogged 4 years ago for my t-shirt blog, I LOVE NURSES. I did then, and I still do now.
Nurses have been important to me since I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at age 14. Yes, the doctors performed the surgery and put me on medication, but it was the nurses who really took care of me and made sure I got better. It was the nurses who were there for me 24 hours a day.
It wasn't until a few years later that I realized how important nurses really are. When I was 18, I was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. Scary stuff for sure, but I was receiving treatment in the same hospital (UMass Medical Center) that helped me with my Crohn's Disease, so I went in confident that they would take care of me again.
And, they did. I had a great team of oncologists who made sure I was getting the best possible treatment for the type of brain cancer that I had (even though it was in my brain, it was the same type of cells as testicular cancer - proving what my brothers and sisters had been telling me all along was true: I was a dickhead).
But, it wasn't the doctors who set up my IVs and made sure my chemotherapy was being infused correctly, it was the nurses. It was the nurses who gave me my chemo, cleaned up my puke, brought in the TV so I could watch a funny movie, and let my family and friends stay past visiting hours. It was the nurses who helped me when my fever was so bad I was shaking, and who answered the call button whenever I pushed it.
Thank you to all the UMass nurses who took care of me, and to all of the nurses working in various settings right now. You are life savers, and you don't get nearly enough credit for the hard, emotionally draining, and very important work that you do.
