During my next-to-last case, I got a call into the room from Pre Op Holding. The nurse, an experienced nurse, could not place an i.v. This patient was scheduled for dialysis access. I know a lot of nurses don't really try as hard as they could, and give up to let me take the hassle for them. But this one had never complained, and I was not sure  why, but I agreed to do my best after this case to place the i.v.

According to the R.N., this was a geriatric Helen Keller. Many organ systems were not functioning, including the mind, and the patient was on tube feeds, and diapers. And after being bed-bound for some time, contracted up like a pretzel.

When I came at the bedside, after I had carefully reviewed the problem list and wondered what was NOT wrong with this patient? The lungs? I saw plenty of veins. And the nurse, bless her, had placed a preemie size i.v. (24 gauge) in the right thumb. Since the site of surgery changed from the left to the right due to infection, "Helen" needed a new i.v. I started trying. The patient withdrew to painful stimulus. The i.v. got flash but would not thread. I blew three sticks on the left foot, two on the right, and three on the left arm. I went smaller and smaller on the i.v., from 20 GA to 22 GA to 24 GA. The last one was on the distal joint of the left index finger. I took a picture of the splint I had to use to keep it in position and running.

The whole thing took one hour. I prayed. I started Reiki. And I wondered WHY there was so much trouble. I asked myself WHY the family would put their loved one through all this--Ow! Sorry. That didn't work. Here's another poke. OW!--when there was a perfectly good permacath access in place (a tube in through the chest) and the operation on the left side had failed due to the bending of the arms blocking the blood flow. "Helen was eighty-three!" What I picked up, as I worked, was 'Learn! Learn! I incarnated in this body to help others learn!'. I also picked up that this patient got some kind of money from the state, and the family did not want that supply to dwindle.

Everything went fine in the O.R. But I tried to do my Reiki, and it felt very different. Kind of fluffy energy, not strong, all over. It was like fog when you are trying to drive. I looked at the chakras, and they were all very weak. But at the Crown chakra, it was a wide open vortex in (we all have them, like a hollow tube of energy in the middle) and the Light was blasting down into it. It is curious how the light is always flowing IN on all of my patients. No matter what type of life they lead. But this one was the most extreme example of 'what comes in does not match what comes out'.

Was it Negative Entities? Dark Entities sucking the Light out of the patient? Was it a pattern of existence--no, it could not have been, for the problems were congenital. Then I thought about the parents, and their testament of love to not only raise this malformed child to adulthood, but for the family to continue to care for her today. Perhaps that was an example of the 'Learn' the patient's spirit tried to communicate?

I was sure to give her the Transition Symbol, as the next organ system compromised would surely lead to her death. Everything else was all worn out.

You know what, though? After all the frustration with the i.v., it was like, Wow! I got it! Even the nurse was glad we got it in. It took two of us to tape it so it would still run.

Maybe that is how it is in this Life--we go through the struggle to gain the benefit of having learned something useful...

Namaste,

Reiki Doc