A Love Letter to My Patients

Audio Version

Maybe your pregnancy is not going as planned.

Maybe we’ve told you that there is something wrong with your baby.

Maybe you've been pregnant before but your baby never came home.

Maybe your five year old, needs scary testing or is awaiting a big surgery.

Maybe you're parenting a special needs child and coordinating thirty different specialists is unmanageable.

Perhaps you are struggling with a health challenge trying to parent at the same time.

Everything feels so scary and overwhelming right now.

You never expected, one of the most exciting times of your life, to turn out this way.

May be You feel scared,

Sad,

Angry,

Lost,

Maybe all of it in the same day. Multiple times a day.

I see you.

Mosts nights, you cry yourself to sleep.

You hide yourself in the bathroom at work to cry.

Everything feels so raw and confusing.

You want so desperately to follow your instincts and listen to your own voice but on some days, especially when you have medical appointments.

the voice of the doctors and nurse is so loud and scary that you can’t hear your own.

You withhold sharing. 

You pretend it’s not that bad when people ask how you are coping.

You are scared that your grief is too heavy to share, even just little pieces of it. 

You don’t share with your husband, your mom or your best friend because you don’t want to see them suffer but mostly, 

you just can’t handle them potentially sharing their own fears and concerns with you.

You can barely manage your own.

You proudly self proclaim yourself as the strong one, holding all of it together.

You also don’t share the dept of it because you can’t handle more grief, more pain.

Seing the fear you feel in someone else eyes, might just be too much to bare.

It might make it too real.

So, you keep pretending, that everything is just, fine.

Part of you longs, to find someone who could help you carry the load.

Just, for one moment, while you… 

Catch your breath.

That moment has come! 

This is your soft place to fall.

Take a deep breath.

Relax your shoulders.

Exhale.

I am here.

You are not alone.

I am your cradle nurse.

I am here to take care of you. 

To shelter you and your little family. 

To help you hold whatever feels too heavy.

Don’t worry, it’s not as heavy for me as it is for you.  

It’s not that I am stronger than you.

I just hold the information and not all the emotional ties and baggage that you are holding right now. 

Once, everything feels a little lighter, I can assist you in making the medical decisions that are aligned with your unique needs and values. 

You are not alone anymore.

Together we will do what’s best for you and your family so you can get to the other side of this stronger than ever. 

With love

Your nurse,

Sharon xo

PS. This letter is also for Daddies, Grandmothers, Aunties, Opas, Caretakers and everyone concerned about another's wellbeing. 

*Music credit: Soaring Over The Oceans, composed by Music Of Wisdom - Lisenced from https://meditationmusiclibrary.com/