My angel at the cancer support meeting
I went to our local cancer support group meeting tonight and we always try to have an agenda. This time it was talking about 'green sleeves'. I don't know if this is a Canadian thing, an Alberta thing, a general medical thing, or what. It involves a plastic envelope with green borders that holds a bunch of our medical information. You fill it all out and keep it up to date including drugs you're on and all kinds of relevant information and keep it on top of your fridge. It also includes your desired level of care, which is how extremely you'd want to be resusitated or even not at all. If an ambulance is dispateched to your home for you they will look on top of the fridge for it.
The EMT that brought them in and talked to us about it turned out to be the one that saved my life when I had the pulmonary embolism! She sat down acroos from me and we looked at each other and I said "you saved my life". And she smied and said "yes!" and I started crying a little bit. Later I asked her if it was true that I'd had a total of 7 cardiac arrests that day because that number sounds so high it doesn't seem real. She confirmed that that was correct. So I was in full cardiac arrest when they got to the house, arrested 5 times in the ambulance, and then one last time in emerg. I told her that one of the other EMTs I'd spoek to said that they couldn't stabilize me for over ten minutes and they would usually give up by then. Tonight she said "I was the main EMT that day and I was not about to let you die. I was determined that you were going to live." I am so glad I ran into her. She saved my life. It's very sobering and uplifting to meet the person who took you back from the edge. I'd stopped breathing just before they arrived. My husband watched me take a quick breath and then just stop. They literally saved my life.
I just had to share that, I was so excited to see her again. I was blessed that day with my life and the angels who gave it back to me.
Jan
Comments
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What a beautiful story Jan. I
What a beautiful story Jan. I’m so glad they could do that for you. That’s what I mean by saying “keep the faith!”.
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Wow
Wow, amazing. What a great opportunity to say thank you. What a life affirming event.
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Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing.
I used to do Fire/EMS many many years ago. It's ironic I never set foot into a hospital for anything involving myself until I got cancer. I was so used to taking other people in. I also have a story where I crossed paths with someone where we reponded to his father's cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, there was no happy ending. I remember he was hard on himself at the scene. He was wondering had he not stopped CPR for a few minutes would his father be alive. We told him it wouldn't have made any difference. He said he got over it and thanked us for being so kind and professional. As I type this, I still have glimpses of visions of that night even though it's been what....about 20 years.
On a side note about medical alerting. At least in my area in the US, we push for people with special medical conditions to wear what's called a Medic Alert bracelet. We're trained to look for this bracelet when conducting an initial survey of a patient. And on any extraordinary resuscitation efforts, this is called DNR (Do Not Rescuscitate) Order. This is a legal/official document which memorializes your wishes to not have any resuscitative efforts done on you. If you wish to go down this route, not only should you file the paper work, you need to inform people close to you about this wish, and finally the Medic Alert Bracelet should contain this information.
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My angel nurse
Jan
That is an incredible story and I’m glad you were able to have the experience of meeting face to face with the person who saved your life!!!
On a humorous note I will share that when I had the allergic reaction to oxi and absolutiy could not breath a nurse came to my aid and calmly but quickly pushed meds through my iv line that stopped it. I was so thankful.
The funny part is when I see this nurse now she always takes time to talk to me and see how I am and I find that I just love this nurse. My sister teases be about it because she says I act like I have a girl crush whenever she stops to see me.
It just makes me know that sometimes transference and adoration of medical staff can be real lol
I’m not actually in love with her, it’s just every time I see her I remember she saved me and I’m immediately all happy when I see her and am reminded that during my crisis she made the difference. It might be a daily occurrence for her but for me it was a pretty big deal and she’s my hero.
I imagine EMTs have a crowd of worshippers even if they have no idea.
Kinda embarrassed to share this but I doubt I’m the only one who has experienced this phenomenon
SK0 -
Such a great moment, and
Such a great moment, and story to tell............................................Dave
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We live in a small town soSteelkiwi686 said:My angel nurse
Jan
That is an incredible story and I’m glad you were able to have the experience of meeting face to face with the person who saved your life!!!
On a humorous note I will share that when I had the allergic reaction to oxi and absolutiy could not breath a nurse came to my aid and calmly but quickly pushed meds through my iv line that stopped it. I was so thankful.
The funny part is when I see this nurse now she always takes time to talk to me and see how I am and I find that I just love this nurse. My sister teases be about it because she says I act like I have a girl crush whenever she stops to see me.
It just makes me know that sometimes transference and adoration of medical staff can be real lol
I’m not actually in love with her, it’s just every time I see her I remember she saved me and I’m immediately all happy when I see her and am reminded that during my crisis she made the difference. It might be a daily occurrence for her but for me it was a pretty big deal and she’s my hero.
I imagine EMTs have a crowd of worshippers even if they have no idea.
Kinda embarrassed to share this but I doubt I’m the only one who has experienced this phenomenon
SKWe live in a small town so often the EMTs are part of the community amd get to see people they've saved. It must be an amazing feeling to look at someone you last saw fighting for their life and not knowing if they'de live walking around later.
Jan
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Wow
What an amazing story. You have been through so much. I'm so glad you had some time to chat with her and it had to be a very emotional meeting. So glad that she kept you going because it sounds like you were going through an extremely difficult situation. Sounds like you have a guardian angle right here on earth.
Kim
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