Things to keep in mind...

...while at work.

I am, as has been previously stated, a physical therapist. Currently, I work in the realm of acute care--that is, the hospital setting. I see many different people for relatively short durations. In the hospital, patients do not tend to stay under my care for weeks at a time. Those who do are generally very sick, but also are the patients that I automatically become closer to, as I experience their struggles, their pain, and hopefully, their eventual recovery with them and with their families. But I usually see most patients only for a very few days, before they move on to a less "acute" level of care. And many times, I will only ever have one encounter with a patient.

I have a quotation from Mother Teresa posted on my desk at work, to remind me to imitate her example to see Jesus in each person she served:

"Let us bring peace into the world by love and compassion,

by respecting life, the most beautiful gift of God. Let us love each person

- the unborn, the young, the old, the sick and the poor -

with the same love with which God loves each one of us,

a tender and personal love."

With the volume of people that I see in a given month--even in a given week, the temptation is there to "check them off" my list and move on without making a personal human connection with them. There is the temptation to get my part of the business of their care complete so that I can move on to the next floor, to the next patient, to the next order of business.

At the same time, part of what I love about my job is the opportunity I have to make connections with many different people. Some of those connections are more easily made than others. Some of the challenging ones energize me to try harder, while others discourage me.

Easier Connection: A mother of six children, whose youngest at 3 years old is lying in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, breathing with the help of a ventilator through an endotracheal tube, barely conscious from all of the sedation meds he's being given so he doesn't "extubate" himself. As I percuss my cupped hands on his chest wall to loosen the patches of pneumonia in his lungs, Mom and I chat. I ask her about her other children and we talk about the happy times of big families. She tells stories about this little one in front of me and I feel the love of this mother toward her entire family.

Challenging Connection: A teenager who last month was a track star, a violin and piano player, the one in the family and at school that "everybody loved." Due to what the physicians think might be viral encephalitis, she is now bed-bound with arms that become stiff, legs that move without her will, and a half-awake expression on her face as her mouth and eyebrows twitch. But we've been working with her, and last week, she definitely made eye contact with me. Definitely tried to raise her hand toward mine when I asked for a "high five." Definitely tried to move those twitching lips into a smile when her mom started teasing her. And it motivates me to work harder, to think creatively, in order to help this person recover her body--her current prison--to its prior role of self-expression and the actuality of her soul.

Discouraging Connection: Another teenager. They don't know what is wrong, but her foot hurts. She is being transferred to the Psych floor to manage her anxiety, her pain, her outbursts of anger. I feel for her, and I want her to know that I'm here to help her. But the pain is so bad, she does not want to try to move. I want her to know I see her pain, but I also want her to know the real dangers of keeping her leg so protected, and in that position in the bed. She hears but does not listen. I remind myself that her foul language is not directed at me, that her mind is as sick as her body. But I'm discouraged as I sit and document in her chart that I did nothing for her today.

That is when more of Mother Teresa's healing words give me encouragement:

"At the hour of death, when we come face to face with God

. . . we will be judged on love . . .

on how much love we have put into our actions . . .

and not how much we have done.

We cannot see Christ to express our love for Him,

but we can see our neighbor

and do for her/him what we would do for Christ."