This weekend, we saw some great friends of ours down in the Poconos.  As always, it was wonderful to catch up, laugh to tears and hurting belly muscles…and at the same time, so surreal to know they were thinking of all I went through without much mention.  There was such a strong connection in “life happenings” across the bunch and various things, but one thing came up that I had not realized.  There was discussion of how nurses are the real troopers and heart felt connections to patients.  The ones that take the time that a rushed doctor might not have time for, or to lend an ear or give a smile or hand hold out of “protocol”.

I totally agreed and could remember all the lovely nurses I had met after delivering our daughters…but, I sat there with glazed eyes having never realized, I have zero recall of the nurses that took care of me after my mastectomy.  I could remember seeing all my doctors, but not the nurses…I could remember laying in the bed with compression devices on my legs to reduce blood clot risk and signs above my head warning not to take blood pressure in my left arm where a patch of lymph nodes were removed.  I could remember interns coming in…just because I felt they were there to see the “young one” with breast cancer, (probably just in my head)… but didn’t care for them :)

Anyway, the truth is…your mind shuts down and spares you from reality at times.  It allows you to put blinders on without your control. 

I’ve been given a book to read…as it was handed to me I was told by a very sharp woman…it’s a real “life changer” to read.   It’s a story about a man that was struck by a bus in NYC and how we coped…I’m only ten pages in, but I just connected the dots as he recalls nothing of being hit.  Not a bad thing I have to say,  I look back and our minds are a beautiful thing to shield us from terror or ill thoughts.  I remember my hospital stay as resting, and not what I’m sure was vital checking and procedures continually.  The mind is truly a beautiful thing.