the Angels

I did this wrong. For best effect, I think, please read the post about the Bully Mom Nurse. This is the counter or some kind of spring breeze to blow all that nastiness away...

It’s not fair to go on and on about the BMN when there are so many better nurses to write about. I’ve written about them before, and what it means to be so kind. But there’s another angle I haven’t considered and deserves to be expressed. First off, I’m changing the name from the Kind Ones to the Angels. Anyone can be kind, it takes a rare human to be an angel. So as I said before though you don’t have access to it yet, an Angel goes according to your pace, the rhythms of body and your worries. She or he doesn’t hurry to her next assignment, you can’t even see a thought of that on his or her face. They wait until you’re entirely taken care of, and even then if you need something more they’ll provide it, even if you didn’t know you needed it. The difference between that and your average punch clock nurse going about their business is so plain to see. Your punch clocker will do exactly what is required of them and then they’re out the curtain. This one nurse for example, oh man she was one of my original frontliners, but she’s not so much that now, but oh she’s a punch clocker. This morning’s blood test for example, she comes in with her basket bearing its goodies of needles vials and a rubber hose, ready to tie me up and poke me. I tell her to miru dake, just look, which she does reluctantly and quickly, a glance here, a tap there. Soon she’s going for the main vein on me elbow’s underside, fails, and then roams for painful looking spots in my hand. Goes to my right looking for the same, not a second does she spend on any spot, just hurry hurry got to get this job done. This time though, at least she was willing to listen to me. I pointed to a place on my right, near the side of my arm close to the back of my hand, and she tapped it fine. Teamwork for once, it ended up a good deal. But an Angel wouldn’t do that. She will take her time looking, fret over it, show little confidence, get a little nervous, though we’re usually joking about it together, because we’re in it together. And then she gets it on the first try, ipatsu! The difference between an Angel and a Punch Clocker is a gap the behavioral space size of the Grand Canyon. It’s an ontological gap between everything else in a hospital that regiments you, slaps you down on the table and takes over your body. I know medically these are things that need to be done. But an Angel looks upon your body as a temple, approaches it with that respect and for those rare moments in the hospital you feel your body is, wholly and blessedly yours. You can’t beat that, can you?