Today we went to visit our friend that had a motorcycle accident eleven days ago. We visited him on Saturday, a week after the accident, and his legs looked quite rough. In fact when we first walked in, I had to have Paul stand in front of me by the foot of the bed so that I could only see our friend's head. Just because I have worked in a hospital for years doesn't mean I am cut out for blood and guts! By the end of that visit, I was able to look at his broken, in 3 - 5 places, leg with all the hardware and bloody bandage. I was also able to look at this other leg where they took pieces of skin about 10 inches by 12 inches to do skin graft on broken leg. Gross! All of it!
But patient friend's head and face looked good. He was in good spirits and hopeful of being released home this week. I didn't tell him, but told my husband, "How in the world do they think he can go home in a few days?" Again, I am not a nurse, but I have been part of discharge planning for several years in a hospital, so I do know a little bit about that.
As this week has progressed we have heard his discharge date change to later, then later this week. As we visited him today, I was surprised by how poorly he looked. His spirit is broken and his face shows it....sallow and pained. I felt so bad for him. Also, he suffering from nausea; some pain (3 of 10 pain scale); uncertainty of his future...which now includes a stay at rehab (makes sense to me); and anger over a police report that does not place fault on the car driver who hit him. It seems that reality has hit our patient friend and patience is not one of his strong traits (admitted by him).
You know what? I can't blame him and I bet I would be more impatient than he is! I know that at many times like this, people (including myself) have said, "Pray for patience." But really....do we pray for our own patience? I think not! We want to and will pray to get well; be able to return to our previous daily living; living pain-free; be justified when wronged; etc. Patience means waiting and most humans do not possess that strong trait.
Our patient friend may not pray for his own patience, but we will pray for him. Because, sometimes that's all we can do for our patient friends. If I were in his shoes, that is what I would want...others to pray for my recovery and the patience to do what needs to be done, each step of the way. Steps that will be slow and laborious. Steps requiring a lot of patience.
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