I'm always super honest on my blog. (I get this from my mother. Big time. Smile.) Sometimes, these HIV/AIDS patients cause me to pause and face the risks of what I do. It's not often that one faces, daily, people who are inevitably starting at death at some point in their near future. (Yes, I know that not everyone who has HIV has it progress to AIDS, but the majority of these patients are non-compliant, meaning they don't take the medications they need to keep the HIV in check, and they have progressed to full blown AIDS.) Literally, some of the patients are marking time. So this sobers me.
They will not be having happy endings. Around the hospital we like to try and "fix" our patients by the end of the shift so we can send them home. What do you do when really, there's no "fixing" of these patients?
I recently took care of one of these patients for several days, and while I hope my care is excellent, I’m the one who walked away changed.
It's funny the things that happen when you are taking care of the little details in nursing. This patient had particularly dry skin. It was flaking off, tenting (when you pull the skin up and it stays rather than flattening out), and itchy. I had helped the patient up to commode and asked if he/she would like me to rub some lotion on their back.
I don’t know about you, but as a follower of Jesus, I’ve seen Him show me deep things of His heart at what seem like inopportune times. Apparently, this was one of those times because tears started to run as I was rubbing lotion on this patient’s back. In that moment, I think I got a glimpse of what it looks like to Jesus’ hands and feet, and I was humbled.
It was a still, small voice speaking to my heart saying, “Corrie, I have reached down and rubbed lotion on people’s backs because I am about redeeming broken situations.”
All of a sudden compassion overwhelmed me and I saw past a disease to a broken person, and I got a small glimpse of Jesus’ heart for them. And I’m the one who walked out of that room changed.
(Wondering why this is part deux? Here's part one. Also, I feel fancy using French.)
