Happily Ever After

Happily Ever After really feels like just a fairy tale sometimes; and I’m genuinely not thinking about myself when I say it... 

You see I put aside my job search for a while and started thinking long and hard about what I need to do to improve my skills and knowledge. 

Don’t laugh, but I decided to put myself out there. I know that sounds a bit dodgy. I assure you it has nothing to do with my twerking skills. Nor my ability to complete a Donner kebab marathon after a couple of pints of Old Peculiar! 

So I asked my charming friend/colleague/nemesis Charisma at the Nursing Agency to see if she could book me in for a few shifts outside of my normal haunts. I figured if I was going to improve my skills, I would have to move outside of my comfort zone and challenge myself a bit. Sadly, Charisma thought I was having a go. Which meant she found me the most challenging place to work that she could – but in my cup-half-full kind of way – most rewarding too! 

It started off okay. I hadn’t realised there were any nursing homes close to where I lived, so I was quite chuffed not to have to get the bus to work as I headed off for a leisurely stroll around the corner. 

That’s when I realised I’d been well and truly stitched up. 

The reason I hadn’t realised this nursing home was so close was because it was actually just a house! Sound ominous? I thought so too. 

So there I was outside someone’s home checking the address. I was definitely in the right place, so knocked tentatively on the door. It was answered by a harassed looking woman who clearly hadn’t used a hairbrush in some time. She asked if I was her cover and practically dragged me in. She took me through to a kitchen and flicked the kettle on. I was more confused now than ever and must have stood there with my gob hanging open, because she started on about catching flies (this is getting a bit of a habit).

She made me a brew – apparently everyone drinks builder’s tea with two sugars – and then started telling me all about Anna and her antics during the night. When she left me to read through the notes while she popped out for some ‘fresh air’ I quickly got on the phone to Charisma. 

I might have been imagining it, but I’m sure I heard one of her snorts when I told her there must be some sort of mistake. She said that Anna was one of their special clients. She was someone who needed a one to one nurse all to herself and that nurse was me for the foreseeable future. 

I wasn’t sure about this – why would someone need a nurse full time? I was about to ask Charisma when Wild Wendy returned, so I hurriedly put the phone down. 

Wendy told me she didn’t have much time before she had to get her bus so she would take me to meet Anna before she went. I felt like I was going to the gallows as I trudged up the stairs after her. 

I must have done my fly catching trick again when I finally saw Anna. I honestly thought that this was a wind up as this beautiful, fair skinned, dark haired stunning 40 something lady lay peacefully asleep in her bed. Wild Wendy whispered that she hadn’t slept for most of the night so she wouldn’t wake her to introduce me. 

I just didn’t have a clue what I was doing there. 

I tried to ask Wendy when we went back down the stairs but, for some reason, my words wouldn’t come out properly and Wendy said she was going to be late for the bus. She chucked some keys and a big fat file into my hands as I was reaching out to grab her in a bid to stop her leaving – and then she was gone. 

So much for a handover. I swear you could’ve heard a pin drop in that house. 

I figured I had two options; I could leg it back around the corner and crawl into bed for the rest of my life, or I could read the file and give myself and Anna a fighting chance of surviving the day ahead. 

By the time I’d finished reading the file from cover to cover, my builder’s tea was cold. Not only was it cold, it was diluted from the bucket of tears I’d cried whilst reading. I had learnt a lot about Anna and not even met her properly yet, but I was starting to understand why she needed a nurse all to herself. 

Anna was in the late stages of Huntington’s Disease. She had been diagnosed almost ten years ago and her family had literally abandoned her. She had been a high flyer in the world of marketing and had the perfect life; husband, family, big house in the country. When she was first diagnosed she became really depressed. It was when she had tried to take her own life that her husband had said it was too much for him and the kids, so he divorced her. I couldn’t help but grimace reading that, my eyes by then red and puffy. 

So she had left the family and the area after she was diagnosed and bought this little house. I loved her even more after learning she had managed to get herself back on her feet to an extent. She refused to feel sorry for herself and got busy with charity work and helping the homeless people in the area. 

She had also invested well and her notes (which she had written a lot of herself) included advanced directives. When her time came to die she wanted to make sure that she had enough money put aside to make sure she could afford 24 hour nursing care in her own home; and gave implicit instructions of what to do when the time came. 

She also specified that she should only be cared for by competent, compassionate and caring nurses. No newly trained nurses who were learning their trade (I felt a bit of a fraud at this point), or old ones who would sleep on the job and take her hard-earned money for nothing.  She also wanted someone who could meet her physical needs but who, more than anything, would still see her as a beautiful person. 

I sat back and thought about that for a moment. This was a strong woman who had dealt with an incredible amount of heartache and still managed to rise above it all, to dictate how she should be cared for. This was the definition of person centred care. 

Then I stopped myself for a moment as a penny dropped. I couldn’t help feel heartened. Charisma knew that I had enough skill to meet Anna’s various nursing needs, including dealing with her frequent urinary retention and her increasing risk of choking. But, more than this, Charisma also knew that I would do my best to meet her psychological needs too. 

I was going to make damned sure of it! Which made me realise, I am no longer a newbie in the nursing world and I was proud to think that others saw me like that too. 

Then it was time for me to go and meet Anna properly. 

This is her story and my chance to help give her the most Happily Ever After I can.