The Great Physician’s Nurse

Whom do you see before seeing the doctor? The nurse, of course.

The nurse assists the doctor by collecting information and specimens from the patient, assessing injuries, administering immunizations (as well as cartoon printed band-aids, lollipops, and giant stickers) and sometimes will even offer general medical advice. While laying in a hospital bed, a patient may have a whole round-the-clock rotation of nurses to care for them while the doctor is busy with other patients, though the doctor is always there immediately when one of his nurses calls.

Just as nurses can be soothing and attentive, there are nasty nurses who contribute to patients leaving a doctor’s care and looking elsewhere.

With a number of small children, we were often at a certain pediatric practice. It became quite a hassle to interact with nurses who made assumptions and volunteered opinions about unrelated personal matters, were rough and aggressive with tender little children in pain, ones who were always grumpy or rolled their eyes when they were asked to help. Or, would stand at the nurses station and would loudly talk about their patients as though they were less than human. Yes, patients notice these things. It was because of the unpleasant nurses that I chose to switch pediatricians.

About a week ago, our children were exposed to a little friend who had Scarlet Fever, which is caused by the same bacteria as Step Throat. A few days later, Thomas, my five-year-old son woke up screaming in the middle of the night. His throat was very red, and his tonsils nearly touching. When I took him to Healthy Steps Pediatrics, the best pediatrician’s office I’ve ever been to, a nurse gently swabbed the back of his throat. Thomas was responsive to the doctor and let her examine him – thanks to the nurse who took care of him and made him feel safe. Five minutes later, the Rapid Strep Test came back glaringly positive. He is still on antibiotics.

Within a few days, my husband’s throat suddenly became very sore just a few hours before bedtime. Tom fell asleep holding onto me tightly. I laid very still, not wanting to wake him, all the while, a little afraid that I would get sick from his breathing on me. I felt much like his Velveteen Rabbit. Through my chemise I could feel his body alternating between the extremes of being cold and sweaty and burning hot with fever.

“And then, one day, the Boy was ill.

His face grew very flushed, and he talked in his sleep, and his little body was so hot that it burned the Rabbit when he held him close. Strange people came and went in the nursery, and a light burned all night and through it all the little Velveteen Rabbit lay there, hidden from sight under the bedclothes, and he never stirred, for he was afraid that if they found him some one might take him away, and he knew that the Boy needed him.” – From The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.

It seemed that just as I finally began to drift to sleep, blood-curdling screams came from the boys’ room.

Aiden, my two year old whose scream is quite shrill even when he is not actually hurt, was clawing at his throat. His forehead was very warm. I could hear that he was unwittingly waking his baby brother, Micah, in the next room. I tried to hush Aiden and to get him to walk into the bathroom so I could get a better look, but trying to move him only made him scream louder. I gave him some liquid ibuprofen. He woke up with the same scream about two hours later, begging for a drink. I fumbled downstairs and fixed him a bottle. He became afraid when I tried to turn out the light and leave. I had to stay with him for a while until he settled down. (Time revealed that he was actually feverish that night because of the onset of Chicken Pox)

By this time, the sun was starting to rise. My bedroom windows were letting in the early, light blue morning light. The birds were all chirping and fighting over the morning buffet of worms. Normally, I would have appreciated these dear sounds of nature, but my eyes were burning from being up all night. My head ached, and my pregnant belly made it very difficult to find a comfortable spot to sleep.

Tom was snoring loudly, and sounded very hoarse. I got back out of bed, filled a glass with cold water, and brought it back up for him. I woke him gently. “No, you don’t have to get me any water, I’ll be okay,” he said. “I already got you some.” “You did? Ooohh!” He drank it, and fell back asleep, sans snoring. I, however, still could not sleep. I was struggling with being frustrated and angry over not getting enough rest.

I knew I needed some encouragement to help to nip my attitude, so I grabbed one of my favorite books, Praise Her in the Gates by Nancy Wilson. In the chapter entitled, “When the Kids are Sick” she writes,

“When the children are ill, it is a wonderful opportunity for teaching. You can model patience and cheerfulness to them when you get up in the night to comfort and minister to them. One of my daughter’s happy memories is when she was sick with a respiratory illness. We sat in the bathroom in the wee hours of the night reading stories (Chatterer the Red Squirrel, in fact) and drinking pop while the shower steam helped her breathing. Mothers do have the capacity to make illness a happy memory. I remember my mother teaching me to braid with fat yarn when I was down with the chicken pox or some other illness. One spring break, all three of our children fell ill the same day and were sick for the whole week. They still laugh about that “vacation” they spent in sleeping bags on the living room floor, watching old movies together and passing the Kleenex box around.

If mothers are worried, it will show. We must teach our children to trust God in their illness. If they are in too much pain to play Sorry or cards, we can give them back rubs, read to them, sing to them, cool their forehead with a washcloth, etc. Sometimes just being there in the room is all that you can do, and yet it is a tremendous comfort to your child. When they see you being calm, they will be too. Sickness is a good time to teach them about compassion and mercy, as well as about the frailty of life. Use all these times for spiritual profit.”

I could definitely relate to Wilson’s experiences.

When I was five, I had a terrible bout with pneumonia. I remember not being able to move, my chest hurt so badly. I laid on the couch in the living room, and my mother’s warmest wool blanket was over me, the one with woven pictures of tigers. Yet I still felt freezing cold. I watched her preparing homemade chicken and egg noodle soup for me in the kitchen until I fell back asleep.

I had spiked a fever that evening. As I lay in my metal sleigh bed, the whole room began to spin and I started to cry. My dad came in, and bundled my ruffled Holly Hobby quilt around me. He then sat with me for what seemed like hours, gently running his large, calloused fingers through my soft curly hair while singing “Jesus Loves Me”, “For God So Loved the World”, “Every Day With Jesus”, “Jesus Loves the Little Children” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” over and over again.

When I finished reading Wilson’s book, I started an email to my mother-in-law explaining why we wouldn’t be in church this morning – for the second week in a row. While I was writing, Tabitha, my three-year-old came in and said her throat hurt “very very bad”. I knew I would exchanging swimming lessons for doctors appointments come Monday morning. I was thankful that my heart was back in the right place before Tabitha woke up. Just a few minutes before, I probably would have greeted her pain with a curt, “GET BACK IN BED!”

There was no chance of getting back to sleep, as the children were waking up for the day – so instead of resting, I showered and had some strong black coffee. Being tired was worth the opportunity I had to reflect on the Great Physician.

How do we represent the Great Physician when our families are sick? When we work the night shift to care for our patients, are we soothing and comforting? Or are our words dismissive and curt, as our sleep is inconvenienced?

Many times in the Bible, Christ was interrupted in order to heal someone or to restore a life. In Matthew 9:18-32, as Jesus was talking to his disciples, a ruler came to him and asked him to revive his dead daughter. He began to go to the ruler’s house, and a woman with a bleeding disorder touched the hem of his garment. After bringing the ruler’s daughter back to life, he went outside and was approached by two blind men who wanted healing, and then a possessed man was brought to Jesus. Never once did Jesus partially heal someone who came to Him. They were always restored instantly. It was never “take two of these and call me in the morning” or “come back in a month to have your stitches removed.”

What can our patients observe about us? Do our actions as nurses to our sick families encourage them to trust in God? Jesus healed for those who had faith in Him, and marveled at those who did not (Mark 6:4-6). Are we praying in faith for and with our family when they are sick?

Or, is our approach to illness more like King Asa’s, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 16:12-13?

“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians. So Asa slept with his fathers, having died in the forty-first year of his reign.”

All of these things, I know.. but I need to do better to remember and diligently apply them when I take care of my sick children. I need to be quicker to give a hug, rather than say things like, “No blood? NO BANDAID!” or talk to the Lord before I talk to the doctor. I need to work joyfully (the joy of the Lord is my strength!) rather than as one who is overwhelmed and weary. I must remember that, by tenderly caring for loved ones who are in pain, I am doing the Lord’s work, and therefore I cannot simply lean on my strength when the going gets tough. I have to humbly trust in God for HIS strength and wisdom, moment by moment.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Galatians 6:8-10