A tee shirt given to a pediatric related-donor transplant patient
For the lay people who are NOT in Medicine, a Train Wreck is a complex patient with multiple, serious medical issues going on at the same time. They are delicate, easily upset, and dangerous to give anesthesia to. That is why I love them. I enjoy challenge, anesthesia-wise, and I enjoy as Reiki Doc going past 'appearances' and delving in to the 'person beneath'. On a Soul-level, this is hand-to-hand healing combat, and I get some powerful Negativity going on in that patient who has probably had this Negative Outlook for quite some time before they end up in the O.R. with me.
I had the opportunity of seeing the most depressed and burnt out patient I have ever seen. The only one before was a man who was grumpy beyond belief, who went in for heart surgery while on dialysis in order to qualify for the kidney transplant list. He hated life in a big way, and bit the head off of everyone who was near him, emotionally. As you can imagine, things did not go well for him, and he met an early end due to his multiple comorbidities.
This one I met after the nurses intercepted me in Pre-Op holding. Both the circulators AND the Pre-Op Nurse told me to brace myself for 'this lady'. She was mean, nasty, and had been on the transplant list for some time, with no luck.
According to the surgeons, this was a 'fifteen minute' procedure, I could not give blood because of the transplant list (as if this ditzel case would require it anyway!), and I should 'brace myself for this patient because she was really unhappy in a big way.'
I love it when I get a case like this. Again, I enjoy working with Fibromyalgia patients, too, which is rare in the medical community.
I paused outside the curtain by bed 7, took a deep breath, did CKR, and stepped into the Unknown.
I saw a thin woman, the age I was when I finished training, sitting straight up in bed, with a full emesis basin. It was not bile in the basin, but spit. The eyes were dead. The energy was low. And the eyes were downcast and did not meet mine. Her concern was that 'it takes her a really long time to wake up' from anesthesia. Like, 'days', and wanted as little as possible.
Okay, no problem! We can do that! I said.
She looked startled. I had validated her. Then I felt guided to be more personal:
My mother was on the transplant list like you. She threw up all the time. She could only eat Ritz crackers, the kind with no salt...
I had her rapt attention
Where are you on the Transplant list?
UCLA and San Diego
My mother went to UCLA. You will be fine. You've got to make friends with the Transplant Pharmacist. Many of your regular docs have no clue about interaction with your transplant medicines. Be sure to run everything past them when anyone prescribes anything for you to take. Okay?
She nodded yes.
You know, dad got tired of waking up early in the morning and taking her to dialysis. She used to drive in the fog at three a.m. to get there in time. She used to cry all the way there. It was miserable. But she got her transplant and I am so thankful to have her here today. I couldn't live without her.
Are you in the support group?
Nods head no.
Mom didn't want to go either. But dad made her go. It was the only thing that helped. The doctors didn't help. The nurses didn't. Now she still goes back to encourage people after her transplant.
You know, one day, she accepted her fate as forever with God. Then something changed. She got her kidney right away. She had an unusual antibody, that matched a donor exactly, and she moved right up the list. It can be that way for you.
Still looking at me, and hanging on my every word
Would you mind if I added you to my prayer list, and prayed for you?
'That would be welcome'
Okay. I hope you didn't mind my sharing with you today. By the way, my niece had a transplant at 13. She had e coli as a little girl, and ended up getting one from her father. You are going to do okay. Are you ready to go in now?
And the nasty energy, although behaving in Pre Op, came out swinging once we hit the OR.
'I should have had the anxiety medicine before I got here!'
I gave it and it burned the vein. The blood pressure cuff made her frenzy. And the propofol made her writhe and scream, much to the dismay of everyone in the room but me. Why? I have seen that one before, and I was locked in on getting her sedated.
She went in Pediatric Mode. You have to get a child apneic (not breathing) before they can let someone work on them, but when that someone touches them, they start moving around and fighting.
I kept her head up (for her GERD), unconscious and obstructed-airway-deep (I held chin lift the entire case, and did not chart), for the entire fifteen minutes the surgeon 'did their thing'. She did not move.
As I held on, I started the energy work. I did Diksha. I did Reiki. I did Karuna. I did chakra/energy balancing. And then something happened that has never happened before in my entire career of Reiki: Jesus popped in at the foot of the bed. (He is one of my Guides). He said, 'I will take this one from here, don't mess with it.' So I did.
At some point, I could hear the patient say in thought, incredulously, 'I have found God!....'
I smiled inwardly, kept everything under control anesthesia-wise, and finished the case.
I said to the PACU nurse while giving report, 'Brace yourself...'
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
