A man who works as a Burn Ward nurse shares his story.
I am a nurse. I am not *JUST* a nurse, mind you; I am a nurse who has a very demanding and oftentimes stressful job; but it is the only job I know, and I find it fascinating and rewarding when things go right.
Such as the time I met my then future wife-to-be, M'buti Moore. She was a patient in the Burn Ward I worked at, and even from the start, it was love at first sight.
I am a nurse who works in the Burn Ward here at Nashville Memorial Hospital; I have worked here for 5 years now, and nothing makes me happier than to be helping people in need and trying to bring comfort and hope to them when they are in such pain. Yes, being a Burn Ward nurse IS stressful enough: you have to put up with people screaming or yelling out in pain, changing bandages or pulling off dead skin when they are already in excruciating pain, and you only end up adding to the pain (that is probably the worst part of my job, especially if little babies or small children are involved), and you have to end up with impatient doctors or veteran nurses who try your patience; but my job is all that I have known since graduating from medical school, and it was here at my job when I met my future wife, M'buti.
M'buti was then 21, and she had been raped and then burned when some kook set her apartment on fire to cover up his "crime", and she had been burned on her back, buttocks, and legs; and one of her legs was severely broken when she tripped and fell while trying to escape the flames. She suffered horribly; and she was in the hospital for about a year total. She then started to get back to a near-normal life after she underwent physical therapy to learn to walk again, but then she contracted flesh-eating disease, and she nearly died from that. It meant more pain and more surgeries for her; and if there was one thing that M'buti did NOT handle well, it was PAIN. All she would do was lie in bed and cry and moan for hours, begging for SOME relief from her pain; and no matter what we did, we couldn't do enough to ease her suffering. It was really bad; and it ended up that she had to have a cordotomy done to end her pain. It got to be so bad she ended up losing weight because the pain made her so nauseated all of the time, and she ended up losing an incredible amount of weight. She looked just like a skeleton, she was so thin, or a person with AIDS, and I thought she was going to die, but somehow, by a miracle, she survived. BARELY, but she survived!
After M'buti was well enough to leave the hospital from her cordotomy surgery, I nursed her back to health (well, my boss, Louisiana, and I did; we both had a hand in her remarkable recovery), and she soon put on needed weight; but her emotions were a wreck. She was always depressed, and it took an awful lot of convincing that she needed help to deal with the painful memories of all she had been through; and today, she still is sometimes not convinced. She still has bad memories from time to time, and it wasn't uncommon for me to be ripped out of a sound sleep by my wife's piercing screams as she emerged from yet another nightmare.
M'buti has been through so much in her young life (she is only one year younger than myself), but she was the one who sealed my fate to remain at the job I am still at 5 years later. I have enjoyed my time with her and my other patients I have cared for, and I have felt such satisfaction in helping them recover from their devastating burns. Burns are NOT easy for anyone to live with; and there is always such a high social stigma attached to those people who have been burned. They oftentimes feel that they are ugly, even though they may have had plastic or other surgery to try to minimize the scars left upon their bodies by burns; and sometimes trying to convince these patients that they are looking good is next to impossible. My wife is certainly no exception, but she is finally starting to learn to like herself and move on with her life.
I have also worked with my boss's son, Jo-El, who was burned himself as an infant; but I didn't meet him until he was three when he was in for skin graft and plastic surgery to try to minimize some of the scarring he suffered as a result of his being burned over a large percentage of his little body. Sometimes Jo-El doesn't understand why we have to keep hurting him or keep causing him pain; but he is a good natured little fellow, and once he is over his tears, he is soon laughing again, and he has such an incredibly upbeat attitude about him. He loves life, and nothing pleases him more than to be outside playing with his family or going to school with his friends. Even though he was badly burned and is still heavily scarred (he will be so for life) and is physically handicapped (he lost his toes and his hands in the fire), he is still a very happy little kid, and his courage is unstoppable and admirable.
It is because of people like Jo-El Sandusky and my wife, M'buti, that I love what I do, even though the hours are long and at times unpredictable. I also have to put up with a lot of stress and deal with people who are hurting severely and sometimes have to cause more pain on top of all the pain they are already experiencing. This is probably the worst aspect of my job, but sometimes this is necessary to help them recover from their burns.
I plan on working here at Nashville Memorial Hospital as long as I possibly can; anything to help people feel better is good enough for me, and besides, if it were NOT for my job, I wouldn't have met my wonderful wife, M'buti! Now M'buti and I have been married for nearly 4 years, and we have three lovely small children, and life for us is finally very good and happy!
Karen you write stories faster than I write poemsssss. Anyway this one shows how true professionalism in job benefits us. All the police and firemen on 9/11 really stepped up to bat even though they knew theeey might not survive. hugs Grady
Congrats on 600 Karen...Oh dear I still have a looooooooooong way to go!!
Oh the smell of a person that burned is so awful...there was a little girl in the same room as me when I broked my arm (at the age of nine....climbing trees like a monkey!!)..and Oh God that really stinks!!
A page-turning novel about a relationship between best friends that is interrupted because of betrayal , deceit, sexual promiscuity and pregnancy happens!
